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: Indie rec: Brendan McCarthy
I met Brendan McCarthy the other day and was thus persuaded to read his recent issue of Solo. My immediate question was: why don’t I know Brendan McCarthy? He’s highly influential, and everything in Solo is right up my alley, but apparently he’s not known outside of the U.K. The deadpan technojargon that characterizes much of Grant Morrison’s and Warren Ellis’s work comes from him. So… get to know Brendan McCarthy. Here is his site: http://www.swiminipurpose.co.uk.
Solo is an ongoing title which focuses on one creator, who gets to do his thing for 24 pages. It’s ideal for jaded readers looking to find out about artists they’re unfamiliar with, or to find out more about artists they are familiar with. It’s a title to keep your eye out for. The best part about it is that it won’t rouse the collection monster in you. The issues aren’t consecutive, so you can pick it up at any time.
McCarthy’s issue opens up with a sweet transvestite Swarzeneggar (that’s after the jelly poem-- don't ask, read), shopping at his local supermarket. He picks up a comic with a sort of goth bum emo protagonist(which McCarthy says was inspired by the bums of Santa Monica) and starts to read it, which takes us into that story for a while, only to be interrupted by Swarzeneggar’s criticism of it. A string of stories, ruminations, and indefinable beeps and bops follow, including a radically revised Flash, a Legion of Superheroes-referencing collage, the fairly psychedelic adventures of a man with no soul, a dream of a story about Batman, the death of Brendan McCarthey, and constant references to a mysterious being known only as Ditranko (Ditko and Steranko, duh). That’s as much as you’re going to get for a synopsis.
This is not for the fanboy faint of heart, and honestly, that’s a compliment. McCarthy’s work is detailed beyond the norm, with little glyphs and bits that you don’t notice right away, making it the rare comic you can read more than once. It’s self-referencing, making it a complicated Moebius strip pastiche of Golden Age Comics, Hein Eidelman, and personal quirks. It is aware of its textual form and plays with everything about the comic book form—the idea of sequentialism, paneling, and even word balloons. It also does things most comics don’t dare to do. It’s challenging, and the art is fantastical and unique, certainly not the same old boring pen and ink superhero shit that I get tired of.
Read it. Read it now. If it seems a bit beyond your horizons, expand them. If you live in L.A., go to http://www.hideho.com.
Tags: brendan mccarthy, indie rec, solo
I met Brendan McCarthy the other day and was thus persuaded to read his recent issue of Solo. My immediate question was: why don’t I know Brendan McCarthy? He’s highly influential, and everything in Solo is right up my alley, but apparently he’s not known outside of the U.K. The deadpan technojargon that characterizes much of Grant Morrison’s and Warren Ellis’s work comes from him. So… get to know Brendan McCarthy. Here is his site: http://www.swiminipurpose.co.uk.
Solo is an ongoing title which focuses on one creator, who gets to do his thing for 24 pages. It’s ideal for jaded readers looking to find out about artists they’re unfamiliar with, or to find out more about artists they are familiar with. It’s a title to keep your eye out for. The best part about it is that it won’t rouse the collection monster in you. The issues aren’t consecutive, so you can pick it up at any time.
McCarthy’s issue opens up with a sweet transvestite Swarzeneggar (that’s after the jelly poem-- don't ask, read), shopping at his local supermarket. He picks up a comic with a sort of goth bum emo protagonist(which McCarthy says was inspired by the bums of Santa Monica) and starts to read it, which takes us into that story for a while, only to be interrupted by Swarzeneggar’s criticism of it. A string of stories, ruminations, and indefinable beeps and bops follow, including a radically revised Flash, a Legion of Superheroes-referencing collage, the fairly psychedelic adventures of a man with no soul, a dream of a story about Batman, the death of Brendan McCarthey, and constant references to a mysterious being known only as Ditranko (Ditko and Steranko, duh). That’s as much as you’re going to get for a synopsis.
This is not for the fanboy faint of heart, and honestly, that’s a compliment. McCarthy’s work is detailed beyond the norm, with little glyphs and bits that you don’t notice right away, making it the rare comic you can read more than once. It’s self-referencing, making it a complicated Moebius strip pastiche of Golden Age Comics, Hein Eidelman, and personal quirks. It is aware of its textual form and plays with everything about the comic book form—the idea of sequentialism, paneling, and even word balloons. It also does things most comics don’t dare to do. It’s challenging, and the art is fantastical and unique, certainly not the same old boring pen and ink superhero shit that I get tired of.
Read it. Read it now. If it seems a bit beyond your horizons, expand them. If you live in L.A., go to http://www.hideho.com.
Tags: brendan mccarthy, indie rec, solo