Blog Archives
Jacks, Joey – Calloway June
Calloway June
What a sweet little story. Everybody as a kid probably wanted to be the kid without rules, without parents (at least for a little while), the one who made his/her own rules. This is the story of Calloway June, a young boy who lives in a treehouse by himself, as told from the perspective of another young boy who lived close by and could hear Calloway playing his banjo through the night. Calloway was able to fool to school principal for a while into letting him attend classes (he always said his parents were away on parent/teacher night), but eventually another young boy learns the truth. This young boy complained about this amazing life to his mother, who told somebody else, who told somebody else, and Calloway’s secret got out. The rest of the book is the mad dash of society to catch Calloway and put him in an orphanage and no, I’m not going to tell you how it ends. The art is all simple linework, with giant expressive eyeballs all over the place. It’s just a pretty thing to look at, no trouble at all to linger on panels here and there. Joey has the art and the concept of telling an engaging story down already, and this is the first thing I’ve seen from the guy. I think maybe he should make a habit out of this comics thing, if he hasn’t already. $3
Jacks, Joey – Art Tatum: Meeting the Kings
Art Tatum – Meeting the Kings
For those of you out there who don’t know your jazz masters as well as you should, this is an excellent introduction to Art Tatum. His name hasn’t survived as well as some (like Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk), but he was an acknowledged master at the time. This mini recounts the first time some legends of Harlem heard Art, and how they were able to recognize the prescence of greatness almost at once. Granted, some of this might be creative license, but it’s hard to imagine the greats hearing this guy and NOT thinking that they were hearing something completely different. Joey breaks down the specifics far better than I could, and does an excellent job of transforming music into images. If you’re at all curious about this kind of music Art Tatum wouldn’t be a bad place to start, and this comic wouldn’t be a bad intro to all of it. No price, so let’s say $2.
