Johanna's Anthology Reviews: Project Telstar, New Thing 2: Secrets, Top Shelf

Project Telstar
Top Shelf Asks the Big Questions
New Thing Volume 2: Secrets

















Project Telstar
AdHouse Books, 192 pages, $16.95
http://www.adhousebooks.com

This anthology is themed around robots and space. It's beautifully 
formatted, with rounded corners and a metallic steel-grey ink used 
throughout. Along with page numbers (too often missing from 
anthologies), each page includes the author's name and the story title, 
which makes it great for sampling. 

Unfortunately, the two best stories here are by creators whose work I 
already follow, Joel Priddy (PULPATOON PILGRIMAGE) and Rob Ullman (FROM 
THE CURVE). Joel's "Long Slow Flight of the Ashbot" is the most 
thoughtfully scientific of the fictions here and shows his usual 
philosophical leaps of fancy that are so involving. I did find a typo, 
and a different arrangement of the captions on the first page would be 
more readable, but if I remember any of these stories, this will be the 
one. 

Rob illustrated "Meltdown", a goofy romance between a robot and an 
engineer. (It's written by Bill Burg and Galen Showman with colors by 
Eric Gordon.) The story includes clever twists on the obsessive 
ex-girlfriend, the blind date, and the idea of a guy melting down after 
a hot encounter. The cartoony style is perfect for this modern romantic 
comedy. 

In addition to those, Bernie Mireault's story about job boredom and the 
desire to explore was an interesting approach to an idea I'd seen 
before. The simplified language his characters use suggests an 
international space station crew speaking a kind of futuristic pigin. 

After these three, that leaves over three-quarters of the book to go, 
and it was a letdown. Nothing really stood out or lived up to the beauty 
of the packaging. The wrapping is much more attractive than most of the 
contents. 

Top Shelf Asks the Big Questions
Top Shelf, 334 pages, $24.95
http://www.topshelfcomix.com

I bought this chunky volume for two inclusions: the Cobweb story that DC 
wouldn't publish, and a cartoonists' tribute to PEANUTS. The former is 
about what I expected -- a profile of a wizard that mentions L. Ron 
Hubbard in ways DC found disturbing, interesting to me only for 
historical reasons -- while the latter was a touching surprise that 
helped me understand why Charles Schulz's passing was such a tragedy. 

Also included is a long interview with David Chelsea that touches more 
on his recent illustration work, leaving me with questions about his 
comics. The interviewer is obviously familiar with them, but since one 
of the major pieces came out from Eclipse in the 80s, I would have liked 
more information on them, having never seen one. That I'm curious enough 
to want to track them down -- especially his book on PERSPECTIVE that's 
favorably compared to UNDERSTANDING COMICS -- shows that the interview 
accomplished at least one of its purposes. 

The rest of the book... there were a few pieces that stood out. I liked 
the monkey and crocodile folktale by Rob Goodin, done in delicate 
linework. Jesse Reklaw's short piece about toilets and "Democracy" is 
both thought-provoking and artistically involving, with its repetition 
and varied characters. The rest of the book is mostly people I'm 
unfamiliar with, many from outside the US, working in the expected artsy 
styles. 

An acquaintance called this anthology Top Shelf Cleans Out Its Slush 
Pile, and there is a junky closet feel to the book, especially since it 
includes two different previous covers. It's a very mixed bag, and I 
found the price high, given how little of it I really liked. I don't 
think it's overpriced, given the color sections and sheer width, but my 
value for money wasn't as high as I would have hoped for. No wonder I'm 
burnt out on anthologies! 

New Thing Volume 2: Secrets
New Suit, 100 pages, $9.95

This new anthology series may be just the tonic I needed to redeem the 
format. It's edited by Jim Higgins, who did wonderful work on DC's Big 
Book series. It's a reasonable price for a sampler book, and the 
production and presentation are professional, although there's nothing 
unusual about that -- it seems that all the new collections are lovely 
to look at, regardless of content. 

What sets this book apart is the introduction from the editor, where he 
lays out what he's trying to do with this volume. My attitude switched 
from jaded to eager when he began discussing the problem of alternative 
comic creators who get better as artists but not as writers, and the 
need for good storytelling in all comics. I agree with him that there's 
a problem with stories that lack satisfying climaxes or any real ending 
at all, or stories that don't seem to be about anything. 

It's refreshing to see someone defending the role of, and the need for, 
the editor to address this problem. The nicest formats and prettiest (or 
most involving) art won't make up for a lack of content. Anyway, on to 
the content here. Each story is introduced by a brief biography of the 
artist, complete with website if available, which helps in placing the 
familiar and preparing the reader for the unfamiliar. 

The first piece, by June K., has two friends walking around the city as 
one prepares to leave for Paris. It's full of realistic conversation, 
bits and pieces of meaningless topics that fill the space of what they 
can't or won't say. It's comfortable, between the two of them, yet 
uncertain. The art's lovely, using the medium to achieve effects that 
couldn't be done in any other. It's a collection of well-selected 
moments that adds up to much more. I wanted to close the book after 
reading it, just because it was so well-done that in itself it was 
satisfactory. 

There was more, though. Shannon Brady adapts a Middle Eastern version of 
Bluebeard in an ornate, flatly exotic style. Jim Campbell illustrates a 
story written by Jim Higgins with rich grey tones and thick lines. It's 
about a couple on a stormy night who both have a kind of amnesia. I knew 
where it was going long before it got there, but it was a pleasure 
seeing it work itself out, and the message of loving ones partner beyond 
all is one I appreciate. 

I didn't care for the panels of Katja Tukiainen, but it was short enough 
to skip. Following that, it was a pleasure to see the confident lines of 
Jeff LeVine again. He plumbs familiar areas -- depression, anxiety, 
rootlessness -- but he does it well. The last story is by Dash Shaw, 
about him and Winona Ryder. 

It surprised me that this little unassuming book was the best of these 
three, but that feeling of pleasant discovery is why I keep trying new 
comics.

-- 
Johanna Draper Carlson             
Reviews of Comics Worth Reading -- http://www.comicsworthreading.com
Newly updated: Rover, Little White Mouse, Image Reviews - Capes, 
   Noble Causes, Rex Mundi, Sword of Dracula, Wildguard