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Neufeld, Josh – A Few Perfect Hours
In the introduction to this book Sari (Josh’s partner for the past ten years and the person who went on these travels with him) says that the threat of 9/11 and terrorism in general make these stories look like “a letter from the past”, as they all take place in the 90’s. That’s true. I know people are still traveling the world and living out of their backpacks, but I can’t imagine that many of them are doing it as innocently as Josh and Sari did. Still, my problem with a lot of auto-bio (even some of the stuff that I like) is that some of these people just don’t have much to talk about. Yes, it’s important to examine their lives, but it adds a whole bunch to have stories from people who have traveled all over the world and did as much as they could to escape the beaten path at every opportunity. They start of in Bangkok, where they visit a Buddhist temple and Josh lets his hair down a bit (metaphysically speaking), while Sari deals internally with some of the local cuisine. Then it’s on to The Cave of Fear, an underground cave with tiny crawlspaces that are necessary to traverse the length of the tunnel. Next they travel to Nakhon Phanom, a city in Thailand, where they have to stay with some American fundamentalists so that they can stay in town to see a local festival. They also work at an organic farm in the hopes of meeting some locals, get cameos in a Singapore soap opera, drink with The Serbian Bear, talk with a traveling Ice Cream Man, and deal with the death of Josh’s grandmother, which brings back memories of a cremation in Bali. There are also travel tips for people who might be leaving the country, and pretty much everything there was essential reading. While I’m glad that the Xerix Foundation gave Josh money to print this, I find it a little hard to believe that the independent publishers weren’t fighting over this one. It’s a fantastic, gripping group of stories that really does feel like it’s from the past, and it’s important to read them in the context of today. Even in these countries, which are mostly not currently at war with us, would it be safe to wander around as they did and basically hope for the best at times? Regardless, there’s plenty to be learned here and there’s not a boring story in the bunch. A few of these were from some other sources, like a SPX anthology or Skeleton Key, but I hadn’t seen the vast majority of everything in here. It’s only $12.95, there’s a website up there in case the link to Amazon doesn’t work…
Neufeld, Josh – Keyhole #2
It’s funny how some series can fly right by me while they’re going on. I don’t remember ever seeing this as it was being published (this issue is from 1996 but is still available here, along with a few of the other issues of this six issue series) but it’s exactly the sort of thing that I would have bought whenever I saw it. It’s a hodge-podge of the works of Dean Haspiel and Josh Neufeld. Sometimes they write and draw their own stories, sometimes one writes while the other draws, and sometimes guest writers are used. Anyway, this is a great issue and it makes me wonder why, if there were six issues of this series, this hasn’t been collected into a graphic novel of some kind. I guess a lot of the Dean Haspiel stuff has already been collected into Billy Dogma books or something, but Josh deserves a little bit of love too. All kinds of stories in here, including Josh and his wife (or girlfriend) traveling through Southeast Asia, Billy Dogma vs. The Human Bar Code, and a story of Dean’s from when he was a child listening to his parents fighting. Throw in a few one or two page strips scattered throughout and you have a solid comic. The more I see of Dean the more I wonder how I could have missed him for all these years, and Josh looks pretty great too. I know I’ve seen his artwork here and there, maybe in anthologies or those Big Books, but his autobio stuff is well worth reading. Check out a few issues of this series or go fill in the holes in your collection if you already have a few. Unless the other issues got a whole lot worse it looks like those of us who missed these really missed out. I just checked his website and he has all kinds of comics out there. That’s it, I have to quit all future jobs just so I can keep up with the artists who are worth following out there…
