I try to keep this comic fun, but this hasn’t been a very fun day, to say the least.  By now, you probably know about the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and I would really like to encourage you to give your support to the organizations that have rushed in to this horrible situation and are doing their best to provide aid as we speak.

One of the truly great things about modern technology is the ease with which we can now communicate, and that includes donations.  What is needed now is that, and there are many easy ways to donate as little as $5 by pushing a few buttons on your phone.

MercyCorps,  the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders are all great organizations that are on the scene as I type.  I know that texting “haiti” to 90999 will automatically donate $10 to the Red Cross’ efforts there, and that is just one way.

Again, please donate some money if you can!  It will help out some people in a rough situation, and there are very few things that are better than that.

Happy New Decade Guys!  I hope you all had some great holidays.

I’m reading R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis, Illustrated, which is awesome and kind of fascinating, as someone who grew up atheist and hasn’t read the Bible before or since we read Genesis back in ninth grade English class, and I have to say that Crumb does excellent work. I’m not usually that into his work, but this is a really great project, especially since the illustrations help illuminate some of the really dense, archaic language (which, by the by, is left unabridged and unedited).

It really brings out some of the truly bizarre things in the Bible, as well as some of the awesome things as well. I feel that I am coming to this book with a similar attitude that Crumb took, as he states in the introduction, does not believe that the Bible is the word of God, but an extraordinarily powerful and significant story written by men (in the human sense as well as the male sense).  An additionally ironic thing about this book is Crumb’s attempt to depict the text in image as literally as possible, which makes for some interesting comparisons to some other folks that take the Bible as a literal work.

What this does altogether, for myself at least, is bring this creation myth to life in a way that is difficult to identify with or get a bearing on (again, at least for me).  I mean, Crumb managed to make all those “begats” and “begots” interesting to read!  Not to mention readable.  It allowed me to take a look at one of our most popular myths and take it as I have read other myths – as a story.  A story that is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes scary, and sometimes thought provoking.  Because that is the biggest point that I believe Crumb is trying to make here, that the Bible is just another story of ours, and it was compiled as part of a cultural agenda way back when.   And the best stories are those that can make you think, even if it’s about the weirdness of that story’s own effect on people.  (For more on the nature of stories, go check out Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends, if only for his brilliant essay on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series)

Not to mention that Crumb refuses to dumb it down or edit it for content.  I feel like there’s a lot of effort put towards making the Bible palatable and easy on the eyes and mind, i.e. dumbed down, while there’s actually a lot of titillating stuff in there.  Sex, violence, LOTS of nudity, and just plain old weird behavior on the parts of the founders of the three most conflicting religions today.  Like the part where Abraham tells his wife, Sarah, to pretend to be his sister and lets her be taken by not just one, but TWO local kings to sleep with.  With no real explanation why.  It’s a little strange.  Crumb gives a very good interpretation in the end notes, but I don’t want to spoil it here.  Let’s just say that the book earns the warning for adult supervision that Crumb placed on the cover.

Anyhoo, whatever you may think of Crumb’s work or the man himself (and boy has he been digging himself into a hole lately with his good old fashioned weirdo misogyny), I think that it is really worth it to take a look at Genesis: Illustrated.  The Bible is, like it or not, a book that continues to affect our world in uncountable ways ranging from quiet inspiration to justifying horrible acts, and I for one think that it is important to be constantly re-evalutating and re-interpreting anything that has this kind of power.  Crumb’s is a great interpretation.

Edit: In retrospect, I think it’s kinda funny that I mentioned His Dark Materials in the same review as anything involving the Bible.  Nothing like talkin’ about Abraham at the same time as a series about a couple of kids trying to Kill God.

I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2010! Welcome to the future!

Clearly, I am winning the internet.  New addition to the cast page!  Blob-Guy finally gets his dues.  Also, you might have noticed that the comic is big now.  It’s because I figured out how to make them display bigger, and I’ve gone back and modified the archives to fit this.  Which means that if it was too small before, now it’s Just Right!  Hooray!

In other news, here is a t-shirt design I’m working on.  No, it’s not Turkey Cannibalism.  That will have to wait.  Clearly, the world is not ready for that kind of awesome yet.

Hello!

I would first like to welcome all the new readers that showed up the other day.  Welcome!

Second, I would like to direct your attention towards “Daytripper.”  A really great comic that I picked up today by the brothers of comics wonder, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon.  After seeing their really quite astounding work on such little projects as Casanova (written by Matt Fraction) and The Umbrella Academy (written by Gerard Way), as well as Moon’s fantastic little piece in the fourth installment of Flight, I was looking forwards to this book a lot.

And then I forgot about it.  Things happen, okay?

Until today, when I went into the store and at the last minute saw it peeking out from the bottom shelf.  And boy, am I glad I saw it.  Daytripper, judging from it’s first issue alone, is something to really pay attention to.  I don’t want to get into the story much, because I wouldn’t want to really say anything, as I only had the vaguest idea of what it was about before opening the book, and I think that’s one of the best ways to approach this series’ first issue, to be honest.  Let it be said that the writing and the art is incredible, top of the line in every way…from pacing to storytelling, to suspense and sheer empathy with a living character.

What this comic really did for me, though, is bring a realization of how important colorists are to comics.  As someone who is terrified of putting even the smallest bit of color into his comic because it Wouldn’t Be Good Enough Yet, this was kind of a shock.  What I could say about Moon and Bá’s art, you can find anywhere on the internet.  But from this comic alone, my first thoughts were to this unsung hero of the comics biz.  Dave Stewart is perhaps one of the best colorists in comics right now, having worked on The Umbrella Academy in addition to such great things as Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier and Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III’s first arc on Detective Comics (starting with along with Batwoman), and the depth that he brings to Daytripper is really amazing.  From the first page, the first panel that the reader is introduced to Brás de Oliva Domingos, through the rest of the issue, Stewarts coloring plays a subtle yet inescapable role in the development of the story through flashbacks to the present.  Take a look at the comic, and think about the colors as you read it.

The flashbacks take on a subdued tone and tend towards browns and pastels, but the closer that they get to the present, the more vivid colors begin to sneak in, the more alive it begins to become.  Until it hits the last page, with reds, oranges, and blacks the most predominant colors.  It’s  a really shocking transition, and one that really can only be appreciated the most by GOING AND LOOKING AT IT YOURSELF.  Honestly, I can write about it forever, but really, it’s a visual medium.  Go take a look at it.  You won’t forget it.  Or Dave Stewart, for that matter.  I can only hope that one day I can draw something that he might enjoy coloring.   See y’all Tuesday!

(Beer – Reel Big Fish)

(Shut up.  It’s a fun song.)

*Edit: Ugh, so many typos and dumb mistakes.  This is why I shouldn’t write things late at night.  All fixed now, though.

*Edit 2:  Images!  The first one is courtesy of www.comicbookresources.com, and the second is borrowed from www.thecomicforums.com.  Hope these really show off what I’m talking about.