The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist is among the recent comics-related books to get prominently featured on NPR.
It’s always a good thing to see comics get positive ink in the mainstream media. The proof is National Public Radio’s recent article by Oliver Sava providing capsule reviews of five books exploding with comics art including the new monograph The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist.
Fans of Clowes’ best-known graphic novel Ghost World and his absurdist comic-book series Eightball will find plenty of rare gems in this tome edited by Alvin Buenaventura. The 224-page book chronicles the comic creator’s life and evolving art in a series of critical essays by fellow artists Chris Ware and Chip Kidd. The book’s compendium of critical voices offering commentary on Clowes’ influence and impact includes an insightful piece on the artist’s take on caricature by writer Susan Miller, one of the curators of the artist’s excellent traveling retrospective that launched at the Oakland Museum of California and will travel to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC and the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus Ohio. .
Sava’s short article also looks at Alison Bechdel’s recent book Are You My Mother?, which is a follow-up to her critically acclaimed graphic memoir Fun Home. Other titles falling under the glare of NPR’s media lens include Brandon Graham’s King City, Leela Corman’s Unterczakhn, and Ramon K. Perez’s Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand.
Not bad company for cartoonists who have carved out heir own distinct niches in the ever expanding realm of comics and graphic novels that have earned their own section at a bookstore near you.
"Love and Rockets" co-creator Jaime Hernandez celebrates super-hero myths in his new book "God and Science: The Return of the Ti-Girls."
In another NPR article, comics creator Jaime Hernandez gets the star treatment from writer Glen Weldon who delves into the artist’s book God and Science: The Return of the Ti-Girls. In his short and lively prose, Weldon taps into why Hernandez is one of the best cartoonists working today and what makes God and Science such an unexpected departure into super-hero territory while maintaining the roots and gritty, authentic streetwise wisdom and honesty that are major elements in the many pleasures found in the pages of Love and Rockets comics.
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/02/157301000/jaime-hernandez-bridges-the-indie-vs-cape-divide
Of course, both Clowes and Hernandez are among the numerous talented comics creators and pop-savvy artists featured in the documentary-in-progress, Comics Are Everywhere.
Comics culture is moving up in the world and NPR and Comics Are Everywhere are there to keep you in the loop!
- Neil Kendricks
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