Favorites: The Book of Leviathan by Peter Blegvad, with bonus links

In an earlier post I talked about FAVORITES, the new review zine by editor Craig Fischer and Team Cul de Sac, which is a benefit for research into a cure for Parkinson's disease. Here's my humble contribution to this great book.

The Book of Leviathan - Peter Blegvad
reviewed by Gene Kannenberg, Jr.


I don’t think that I could name one, single “favorite” comic of mine - my criteria (if I could articulate them) change as I do, sometimes daily. So when I was invited to contribute an essay to this zine, my brain’s first action was to freeze. What to choose? Who? But soon came the realization that there was one book I tended to show people whenever they asked me to name a great comic they might not have heard of before: The Book of Leviathan by Peter Blegvad.


Originally published in London’s The Independent on Sunday newspaper, “Leviathan” concerns Levi, a faceless, bald baby (descendant of Henry, cousin of Charlie Brown) who, toy rabbit in hand, encounters the world (or is it worlds?) with his cat companion. To call the strip “the adventures” of young Levi and Cat might stretch the term “adventure” a bit, even though they do take some fantastic journeys--including, in one memorable sequence, to Hell. Their travels are just as often linguistic or philosophical as they are ambulatory. Sometimes, they’re even all three (see “So, it’s finally come to this”). Blegvad’s artwork varies in style depending upon the subject matter and needs of the joke (and “Leviathan” is full of jokes). From watercolor to collage to lush linework, the art is always clever in its own right. Themes run the gamut from the fears of new parents to “what is the opposite of bunny?” In short, it’s a comic strip about synesthesia, ontology, and milk.


From high philosophy to the lowest puns, the book is a sheer delight all around. Levi himself would more succinctly sum up his cartoon life with the single word “Dep.” After reading The Book of Leviathan, I’m confident that you would agree with him.

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Note: Here are some other contributions to FAVORITES, as posted by their authors. As I find more, I'll add them to this list. However, this is still just a taste of the full glory that is FAVORITES. Order your copy today!

• “Psalm” by John Porcellino - by Derik A. Badman
• On Jaime Hernandez's The Death Of Speedy - by Tom Spurgeon
• Walt Simonson and Archie Goodwin’s Manhunter - by Ben Towle

Interview with Me at The Gatekeepers Post

I was recently contacted by The Gatekeepers Post ("the leading social media book publishing community on the web") to do an author interview, and I happily obliged. You can read my thoughts on writing, ebooks, social media, and more here. Thanks to editor Jeff Rivera for the invite!

"Favorites: A Benefit Zine for Team Cul de Sac" Now Available for Mail-Order!

Here's the low-down on FAVORITES, a new review 'zine from Team Cul de Sac and editor Craig Fischer. I'm honored to have been invited to contribute an essay to it:

FAVORITES [is] a home-grown zine where notable comics critics, artists and bloggers write their individual answers to a single question: “What is my favorite comic, and why?”

The contributors are an all-star line-up: Derik Badman, Noah Berlatsky, Alex Boney, David Bordwell, Matthew J. Brady, Scott Bukatman, Johanna Draper Carlson, Isaac Cates, Rob Clough, Corey Creekmur, Andrew Farago, Shaenon Garrity, Dustin Harbin, Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Abhay Khosla, Susan Kirtley, Sean Kleefeld, Costa Koutsoutis, Andrew Mansell, Robert Stanley Martin, Chris Mautner, Joe McCulloch, Ana Merino, Mike Rhode, Jim Rugg, Frank Santoro, Chris Schweizer, Caroline Small, Tom Spurgeon, Ben Towle and Matthias Wivel.

FAVORITES is 40 pages long[.] The cost is $5.00 plus $1.25 shipping and handling. (All the money that isn’t spent on envelopes and postage will go to Team Cul de Sac, and research into a cure for Parkinson’s disease.) Thank you for your support!

I've got my copy, and it's a beauty. There's a real range of comics represented, from proper graphic novels to obscure single-issue mainstream comic books. (My contribution concerns the great LEVIATHAN by Peter Blegvad.) Order your copy of FAVORITES here, learn about some great comics, and help support research into a cure for Parkinson's disease.

Image Credit: Cover illustration for FAVORITES, by Cul de Sac's own Richard Thompson.

CFP: The Comics Get Medieval at PCA (Dec. 1; April 11-14)

UPDATED CFP
THE COMICS GET MEDIEVAL 2012:
A CELEBRATION OF MEDIEVAL-THEMED COMICS IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRINCE VALIANT
CALL FOR PAPERS (PCA: BOSTON, MA 4/11-14/12)
SPECIAL SESSIONS OF THE COMICS & COMIC ART AREA
ORGANIZED BY MICHAEL A. TORREGROSSA AND JASON TONDRO
PROPOSALS DUE TO ORGANIZERS BY 1 DECEMBER 2011

Celebrating our sixth year in 2012, proposals are now being considered for inclusion at “The Comics Get Medieval 2012,” a series of panels and roundtables sponsored by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages and to be hosted by the Comics & Comic Art Area of the Popular Culture Association (PCA) for the 2012 Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations to be held from 11-14 April 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The goal of these sessions is to foster communication between medievalists, comics scholars, and specialists in popular culture studies in general.  The organizers define “medieval comics” as any aspect of the comics medium (panel cartoons, comic strips, comics books, comics albums, band dessinée, graphic novels, manga, webcomics, comics to film/film to comics, etc.) that feature medieval themes either in stories set during the Middle Ages or in stories presenting some element of the medieval in the post-medieval era.  We are also interested in papers looking at medieval comics from a pedagogical perspective.

Completed papers should be delivered in 15-20 minutes (depending on the number of presenters). All proposals will also be considered for inclusion in an essay collection to be edited by the panel organizers in the summer of 2012.  (Individuals only interested in submitting for the collection should also send proposals by 1 December 2011 deadline and indicate their preference in the email.)

In addition, a select list of potential topics and a bibliographic guide to medieval comics will appear as part of THE MEDIEVAL COMICS PROJECT web site available at http://MedievalComicsProject.org and THE ARTHUR OF THE COMICS website available at http://Arthur-of-the-Comics.org, both organized by the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages.

No later that 1 December 2011, interested individuals  (who must be members of PCA or ACA or join for 2012) should submit full contact information (name, address, phone/cell, and email), titles, and abstracts of 300-500 words to the sessions’ organizers, who will then forward them to area chair. Address all inquiries and proposals to the organizers at the following address: Medieval.Comics.Project@gmail.com and include “Comics Get Medieval 2012” in the subject line.

CFP: "The Decorated Page" of Medieval Images and Graphic Novels

Ooooh, this is very much up my alley! I'd love to be able to attend this...

"The Decorated Page" of Medieval Images and Graphic Novels:

"Sequential Theory" in dialogue with medieval art 

International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan

10-13 May 2012

We can follow the history of the “Decorated Page” from illuminated medieval manuscripts to the graphic novel, but what if we skip the pesky intervening years from one to the other? That is, what can the theories and analysis of medieval manuscripts, wall paintings or other medieval visual mediums tell us about how we read the graphic novel, and how might the theories behind contemporary graphic novel analysis help us read medieval illustrations and art?

Standing on the shoulders of traditional analysis of medieval images, the use of the visual theories that support analysis of the graphic novel is a way of engaging the images in a postmodern (post medieval) way.  Interpreting a manuscript image is probably the most common use, but we can see the potential of “sequential imagery” analysis being used on wall paintings, sculpture, frescoes, friezes and icons.

We invite papers on a wide range of issues and fields, but the dialogue must be between graphic novel theory/practice and medieval art.  Proposals should be 300+ words and must clearly indicate the significance, line of argument, principal texts and relation to existing scholarship (if possible).  Email the proposal in the body of the message, a 50 word bio note, and a completed Participant Information form (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF) to Dominique Hoche at dominique.hoche@westliberty.edu or dominique.hoche@gmail.com . Due September 15, 2011.

For general information about the 2012 Medieval Congress, visit: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

CFP: The Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo (Sept. 1; May 10-13)

CALL FOR PAPERS

THE COMICS GET MEDIEVAL AT KALAMAZOO: NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR INCORPORATING COMICS INTO MEDIEVAL STUDIES TEACHING AND RESEARCH
A ROUNDTABLE FOR THE 47TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES
(WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, KALAMAZOO, MI) FROM 10-13 MAY 2012

SPONSORED BY THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES

PROPOSALS BY 1 SEPTEMBER 2011

(EARLY SUBMISSION RECOMMENDED)

This session has been proposed in an effort to continue and expand upon the conversations initiated in our previous sessions at the Congress (in 2004 and 2008) on the potential uses of the comics in Medieval Studies teaching and research. In prior sessions, we have touched upon both the variety and vitality of the corpus of medieval-themed comics, medievalisms that have been in existence since at least the early part of the twentieth century and that continue to flourish in both the comics (in all its varied forms) and comics-related media, like adaptations into film and television, to this day. A number of characters and series celebrate significant anniversaries in 2012 (for example, Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant will be 75; Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby’s Thor 50; Roy Thomas and John Buscema’s Dane Whitman, the modern-day Black Knight, 45; Dik Browne’s Hägar the Horrible and Kirby’s Etrigan 40; and Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland’s CAMELOT 3000 30), and we believe this is an ideal time to revisit this material at the Congress, a venue that has long been amiable to the furtherance of discussion of and debate on—goals we have adopted—representations of the medieval in popular culture.

Unlike other forms of medievalism, like film and Tolkieniana, that receive multiple sessions at conferences, like the Congress, each year, medieval-themed comics remain neglected and in need of much further research. Despite the vitality of these long-running series and other comics with medieval themes, the corpus of medieval comics as a whole has largely been ignored (though with a few notable exceptions) by medievalists except as curiosities, a pattern replicated largely in other academic disciplines. However, due to the interdisciplinary nature of Medieval Studies, our field (especially given the welcomeness many medievalists have for medievalisms) is ideally suited to tap into the high potentiality of the corpus for both teaching about the medieval to audiences of all ages, from children to adults, and, like other forms of medievalism, for understanding, through the processes of adaptation and appropriation, the contemporary reception of the medieval in popular culture. The general neglect of the corpus suggests that most medievalists are wary of studying these types of texts, and, in an effort to combat this apparent distrust, we endeavor in this session to create an environment where medievalists, perhaps familiar with some of more celebrated texts, can learn more about these works of popular medievalism. It is our intent that the papers presented at this roundtable will offer new possibilities to access this corpus so we may all come to a greater appreciation of its contents and contexts.

PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSALS OF 500 WORDS OR LESS, PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM (AVAILABLE AT http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html), AND A COPY OF YOUR CV TO THE ORGANIZERS AT Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com
PLEASE INCLUDE “KALAMAZOO COMICS PROPOSAL” IN THE SUBJECT LINE

FOR FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT MEDIEVAL-THEMED COMICS, WE INVITE YOU TO VISIT OUR WEBSITES AT Arthur-of-the-Comics.org AND MedievalComicsProject.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES, PLEASE ACCESS OUR BLOG AT http://PopularCultureandtheMiddleAges.blogspot.com/

iPad App Review - Johnny Cash: I (Can Almost) See a Darkness

JOHNNY CASH: I SEE A DARKNESS (SOUNDTRACK EDITION) - HD
by Reinhard Kleist
Ave!Comics
$5.99

Full Disclosure: The music of Johnny Cash is in my blood. His songs were my lullabies - and I don't mean that figuratively. When I was little, my parents kept a turntable in my room and a stack of their Cash 45s on the spindle. I'd go to sleep listening to the hits and, if I stayed up late enough, the b-sides. In my memory, these songs still have the vinyl pops and hisses in them, and I know them all note for note.

Needless to say, when I learned about Reinhard Kleist's graphic novel JOHNNY CASH: I SEE A DARKNESS, I was excited. And when I discovered that it was available for the iPad, I jumped on it. I'd been reading and enjoying some free comics (like those from comiXology, and Throwaway Horse's Ulysses "Seen") on my iPad, so I figured that my first actual digital comics purchase was only a matter of time. The fact that DARKNESS for the iPad was a "soundtrack edition" (it plays portions of relevant songs as you read the graphic novel, if they're in your iTunes library) just seemed too cool to pass up.

Story-wise, I SEE A DARKNESS follows the young Johnny Cash up through the concert at Folsom Prison, with a brief coda from the end of his life, at a recording session with producer Rick Rubin. It'll all be a bit familiar to anyone who's seen the WALK THE LINE biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon; much of the plot emphases in both tellings are identical. But DARKNESS focuses almost exclusively on Cash himself - June Carter's role, while pivotal and important, remains rather small. This is definitely a "warts-and-all" presentation of Cash, with his pill-popping and stubbornness central to his portrayal. (I admit, there were times in reading DARKNESS where I did not much like my hero.)

Cash's life story is balanced by two other narrative strands. First is that of Glen Sherley, a Folsom inmate who's obsessed with Cash and who has written a song that he hopes Cash will sing. The second strand is actually a series of occasional song adaptations, all starring variations on Johnny Cash as the various protagonists. These adaptations help to build the mythology behind Cash, just as the main narrative helps to ground his life in reality, and that balance helps make the book sing.

A final word about the story-telling: Kleist's renderings are beautiful. His Johnny Cash is particularly impressive, always recognizable no matter what age he is supposed to be. More than just photographically realistic, the images live and breathe. This is fine cartooning.

While overall I was impressed with the book as a graphic novel, as an iPad app it leaves much to be desired. First, the "soundtrack" option simply doesn't work very well. The song snippets don't always play when they're supposed to - they usually only played a while after the relevant portion of the narrative had already passed. This problem was accentuated when re-entering the app after using another app (I did not manage to read the entire book in one sitting) - not only did the songs seem to get progressively later, but once the app even lost my place entirely, and I had to re-find my page (there is no bookmark feature that I could find).

But music is only an add-on, one that's peripheral to the reading experience. More importantly, the book itself has a serious display problem. You really only can read it in the "animated frame," or panel-by-panel view. The "full page" view, bizarrely, uses only a portion of the screen, not its entirety, as you can see below:

The lettering in the book is on the small side to begin with, so when the page is presented at this miniscule size, the lettering is pretty much indecipherable. You can pinch the image to make it fill the screen, but (1) you'd need to pinch and hold on every single page, since as soon as you stop pinching, the image reverts to its original size, and (2) the resolution is such that, when you enlarge the images, they get blurry and hard to read. I cannot understand why an app designed for the iPad fails to make use of the entire screen. And even in the panel-by-panel view, there's lots of wasted screen real estate.

The app also seems generally unstable. Occasionally during the animated frame presentation, usually when it was showing a full-page panel, the display would get stuck in a loop, zooming in and out and back again. And several times the app simply crashed for no apparent reason.

If I had it to do over again, I would have spent the extra money and purchased the printed book instead of the iPad app. The innovation of having relevant music play as you read doesn't work as well as it should, and the lack of a real full-screen reading experience is a definite disappointment. JOHNNY CASH: I SEE A DARKNESS is a book that deserves a better presentation.