Blog Archives
Thompson, Craig – Conversation #1 (with James Kochalka)
Conversation #1 (with James Kochalka)
Blech. Sorry, did I give away my reaction too quickly? Let me set the stage for you: this is a comic with James and Craig, both drawing and lettering their own parts, talking about why they make art, the universe, and the necessity of restraining your imagination in art. That all sounds well and good, if full of the possibility of being deadly dull. But it’s not like the point of this book is to see how many things they can get to explode, so that’s OK. My problem with this was all the little cute characters, birds and turtles and whatnot, that they had littered throughout this book, I guess as a way to liven up the conversation. The problem with that, to me, is that they were incredibly annoying all the way through and most anybody who bought this already knew that this was going to be a conversation between these two and they didn’t really need the annoying sidekicks. I like both of these guys quite a bit, and this isn’t a bad concept at all, but they didn’t pull it off very well here. $4.95, it’s on the Top Shelf website if you want to see for yourself.
Thompson, Craig – Bible Doodles
had no idea what to expect with this one. Sure, Chunky Rice looked like it would be a happy, funny comic (just going by the art, that is), but it was a lot more serious than I had anticipated. This one is Bible stories and it’s… funny. Go figure. It’s a funny, informative book. Honestly, I can’t wait to see anything else this guy does. He’s at the top of my list for cartoonists at the moment even if he hasn’t put out anything new in quite a while. Hey, I just read this one, it’s new to me. Here’s a website!
Thompson, Craig – Good-Bye, Chunky Rice
This guy has to put out another book soon. This was the best thing I read last year and, judging from some of the “best of” lists that I saw, I wasn’t alone. It’s the story of Chunky Rice leaving his best friend to go on a journey that he can’t explain. Every character is wonderfully realized: the “girlfriend” he leaves behind who puts messages in bottles in the hope that they’ll reach him at sea, the man who befriends an injured bird to make up for his dog Chomper, even the sea captain who gave up on people long ago. I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s the kind of book that you can give to people who don’t read comics and have them accept it readily.
