Nick Gazin's Comic Book Love-in #52

Hello Young Lovers of Graphic Media,

How are you? I am fine. I went to SXSW but I'm back now and I am very excited to discuss comic books with you.

Moebius died. Fuck everything. Moebius wasn't young but he was only 72 and he was still making great things. I was going to interview Ralph McQuarrie and Moebius for an upcoming issue of VICE and then they both died within weeks of each other. The importance of Moebius cannot be overstated. He was one of the best drawers alive and his ideas seeped into and changed the aesthetics of all visual culture the world over. I'm not going to try to rattle off a list of the famous things he did. If you don't know Moebius then fuck you, you should know Moebius. I'm going to post drawings done by Moebius in this column each week until I forget to.

Here are some great drawings done after his passing.

If you have $78,000 you can buy the original art for this complete Wally Wood comic.

Or you can buy the entire original art for the Gookum story from Mad #2. It's worth checkin' out these Ebay auctions just so you can see the original uncolored pages.

This awesome Joker statue.

George Harrison: Living in the Material World 
Olivia Harrison
Abrams

I'm a George guy. I like the way he is and the way he did things. He made some electronic weirdness, produced two amazing triple albums back-to-back and lived in a giant manor where he gardened. John was a fucked up pit of anger I can relate to, but don't admire. Paul's relationship with Linda is heartbreakingly beautiful and McCartney II is one of the best things to be produced by any Beatle. Ringo's good too. So I guess I like all the Beatles, but George is my FBF.

George was always awesome within and without the Beatles, as a musician, and as a guy. Did you know that he produced Holy Mountain and was set to star in it but he objected to the scene where they wash the guy's asshole? Jodorowsky probably should have compromised on that one. Also he produced great movies and was pally with Terry Gilliam.

This giant math book of a tome is something I wanted so bad and then I got it and now I have it. A four-hundred page book assembled by his widow, Olivia, containing anecdotes and giant reproductions of things that have never been publicly displayed before. There is no maybe about whether or not you should have this if you're a George. Looking through this book gives me something else to do besides cry when I listen to All Things Must Pass.

The Complete Peanuts 
Charles Schulz
Fantagraphics

This isn't the best Peanuts collection but it's not bad either. There's a comic in here where Franklin is scared of ghosts. I don't think Schulz was racist but I keep trying to find evidence of Franklin having a personality and coming up empty-handed. Here are some of my favorite comics in this book.

There's this one where Schroeder actually tries to communicate his understanding of beauty to Lucy. Of course Lucy doesn't really care about his inner world, she's just a groupie and wants the idea of Schroeder. It answers the question of what would happen if Schroeder actually gave Lucy the time of day. This is a moment where it seems like Sparky is really opening up to us about his own personal ways of relating to women, falling in love with distant princesses. It also harkens back to that scene in Citizen Kane when a guy mentions that he never forgot a beautiful girl he saw crossing the street decades earlier.

There's this one where Charlie Brown finally punches Lucy in the mouth but it's by accident.

Charlie Brown becomes a costumed sports mascot for a period.

Peppermint Patty and Snoopy go to a hospital and receive tests to figure out what's behind their sleep disorders.

The biggest story is probably Peppermint Patty flunking and having to repeat the school year. So her dad takes her around Europe and she sends back postcards to let Marcie and Charlie Brown know what she's doing.

And this is my favorite comic, where Snoopy is a forgetful surgeon. Imagine having a dog operate on you. That would be hilarious.

The Great Pretenders And Other Stories
Julia Wertz

Before being handed this mini-comic Julia Wertz mentioned that she'd heard from Austin English that I hated her. She then corrected herself and said that he'd actually said that I hated her comics. I told her that I didn't hate her comics, I just didn't care about them. I also told her that I hated Austin English's comics and that he sure has a big fucking mouth. That guy should stick to drawing on those pads where it's a sheet of plastic on top of a sticky black surface and when you lift up the plastic the drawing goes away so that he stops wasting paper with whatever it is he's trying to do.

This comic is a collection of stories based on when Julia Wertz was a little girl and trying to understand the world. The first story concerns Julia as an imaginative little fake detective and not totally comprehending that her parents had a miscarriage. Meanwhile her brother kinda freaks out and starts pretending to be his long-lost twin brother who lives in Portland and teleports through the hamper and closet and eventually dies a death that young Julia seems to understand and mourn.  The story about a child's trying to understand death is followed by her trying to understand sex at an early age through dirty jokes and schoolyard chatter. It's pretty funny.

The final one involves young Julia believing that she has accidentally killed Jesus Christ. So there we go. Sex, death, religion. Three solid themes. I do not hate Julia or her comics.

Troop 142
Mike Dawson
Secret Acres

This graphic novel tells a story about a bunch of boy scouts and counselors on a weeklong camping trip. The kids misbehave a lot and sometimes people lose their tempers. I didn't find it difficult to read but I wasn't too sure who I was supposed to care about or why or what the characters inner worlds were. There's a gay dad counselor who I wish we spent more time with. The kids all seem kind of similar to me and I'm left not feeling like there's enough story to merit 268 pages.

See you guys next time! Gonna go eat some snacks now!

Previously - Nick Gazin's Comic Book Love-In #51