Website
Cankor! A creation like this has never been before, and most likely never will be again, unless Matthew has more like this in his system. It’s a singular vision, that’s for sure, even if the influences are clear (and clearly called out) by the artist at times. I read this a few days ago and have been puzzling over how to summarize this book ever since. I’ve failed! There’s just no way. First off, this is a collection of four comics (or at least four parts), covering a decade of Cankor. There’s no introduction, no afterward, no clue what you’re getting outside of what’s in the comic itself. The very first page might give you the idea that you’re about to read a superhero comic, sort of, although you can instantly tell that it’ll be different from that predictable norm. It’s titled “Van Halen Versus The Clash” (for seemingly no reason), and has a Cankor with a cape and one without a cape talking about the futility of trying to go back and change the past. Then the one with the cape forcibly transforms the other one, which is the one we follow for the rest of the book. Sometimes. Unless he’s killed by another Cankor. Ugh, this really isn’t conveying how transfixed I was by this whole book. There are fights, but no real beefs that seem to be driving them, or at least not consistent ones. There’s disfigurement and mauling, but none that seem to stick, and even when they do there’s always another Cankor around the corner. Why are they fighting? Who’s winning? And now we’re taking a break to see the artist explain that he has no excuse for not starting to make comics until he was almost in his 40’s. Or the brief scene at a convention, or the nicely done King Cat parody, or sweet Jesus the body horror. So much body horror. And the language! This man seemingly puts poetry into the rage and mayhem, but also in the quiet moments; this was absolutely a book where I’d have preferred to put up about 40 sample images. It feels like a book where you could open it up anywhere and read a few pages, then go somewhere else and repeat the process, until you’ve read the whole book. Would it be a greater or lesser experience? Or just different? Look, I hadn’t heard of this book at all, and at $35 (although it’s on sale for $30 as of this writing), it was my riskiest pick from the latest haul from Spit and a Half. It’s also one of the best things I’ve read this year, even if my words are a poor vehicle to convey why exactly that’s the case. Cankor! $35
Posted by Kevin 
