waiting on the Soul Train
I just finished up David B.'s "Epileptic" - a journey through the cartoonist's
experiences growing up with an epileptic older brother. For 400-some-odd pages
he weaves through his childhood of immersion in the history of war and
literature. Genghis Khan becomes his personal friend/weapon for dealing with his
daily traumas. The way he introduces and creates symbolic characters that he
surrounds himself with is an interesting example of how to create meaning in a
story. The birdlike corpse of his grandfather becomes a carrion bird that hovers
over David, emanating gloom.
It's a masterful work, the kind that I'm surprised has actually reached an
English translation in hardcover. It's got meaning, it's got ideas, it's got
soul, it's got warmth. I think the only reason Chris Ware is so popular here in
the US is the emotional disconnect between the style and the work. The
clipart-style drawing and inking keep you on the emotional surface, able to
laugh passingly then put the work down, instead of really delving into his
trauma. It's a Powerpoint presentation of his pain. It may mean something to the
presenter, but not really to the audience, especially in an emotionally vacuous
town like LA. So many people are
so incredibly friendly out here, it's easy to see how a culture of non-meaning
is created. When a cartoonist/artist/visual professional has to meet, gladhand
and schmooze just to keep himself afloat, on top of jumping from studio to
studio for a paycheck, the opportunity to establish long relationships is lost.
Everyone has a car - there's little panhandling, close to nil on the
street-vendor front, and most everyone is eager to get back to their little 12'
x 12' corner of the world. The kind of sexual-cultural re/devolution that
occurred in Crumb's area probobably never reached Los Angeles or the insular
world of Hollywood. It couldn't happen here. There's no local street to soapbox
upon. The revolution has to be
televised. As opposed to New
York, where the "if it didn't happen in New York, we don't care" mentality
reigns free. After all, who would want to leave New York?
.
Posted: Saturday - January 14, 2006 at
at 02:05 PM
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