Here are some books and comics that I’ve recently enjoyed. I’m not writing reviews anymore–just vainly posting about stuff I like.
Two East Bay Area comics stalwarts here! A true joy to see Andy Hartzell’s Monday completed. He started this story a couple decades ago with a few minicomics, set it aside, and then came back to complete it during pandemic lockdown. And any new comic from Eric Haven is an unexpected gift of hilarity. Both brilliant artists who a better world would elevate.
I look forward to every new issue of Thomas Campbell’s Comics Blogger. This one has a thoughtful interview with Michael Deforge and tons of reviews of avant garde publications that I hadn’t heard of and will now seek out. Before After by Tana Oshima defies my ability to describe but checks the crucial boxes of interesting, unique, and challenging. She’s not an artist I’ve seen much from, but between this book and an entertaining interview on Miami Review of Comics podcast I’m determined to seek out more of her work.
I’m 66% through my leisurely re-read of the first 50 issues of Love & Rockets. Smack in the middle of Wigwam Bam and Poison River. Just as mind-blowing as ever.
Maybe it is old age that I am now doing all this re-reading? Anyway, le Carré’s Karla trilogy is a real comfort re-read, done under a heavy blanket with a cup of tea, to restore life after long day enduring our contemporary horrors.
Not a cover-to-cover read but I love a good field guide and this one is intensely thorough, packed with detailed photos, and encouraging me to get out there and poke around in the dirt.
That’s all I got for now. Not sure how often I’ll do this, if ever again. Just keeping the blog machinery going.
I’m old enough to recognize repeating cycles in my creative process. I just whipped up this helpful diagram:
Anyway, I’m somewhere between 9 o’clock and midnight right now. Upward!
Did a couple more of these watercolor and color pencil monsters. This is comfort drawing for me.
I also recently completed a 4-page comic for the next issue of Calling In Sick magazine. It’s not in print yet but I’ll post here when it is. Meanwhile, here are some details from that comic:
Last week I made my final post to Instagram with the following two screenshots. I’m reposting it here not to put myself forth as some example of how to behave in our digital dystopia but rather as an update and opportunity to discuss how I’m hoping to communicate going forward. The full text of these screenshots appears at the bottom of this blog entry:
This move was necessary for me, but I don’t begrudge someone making different choices based on their own personal calculus. My basic issues are:
Instagram, the product, is an enshittified A.I.-ridden slop bucket that favors clout-chasers, carnival barkers, and trolls.
Big social media platforms, even at their best, encourage compulsive, isolating behavior.
It’s not all bad, of course. I found lots of interesting new art and artists on Instagram, and it allowed me to show my art to a much bigger audience than I would have by rubbing two sticks together in my cave. But I reached my disgust limit. It’s a relief to be out of there, but now what?
Instagram’s loss is this humble blog’s gain! Posting here will be much more regular, varied, and beholden to no one!
I mentioned RSS feed readers in my adios. If you’re not familiar, these are apps that accept all of the URLs of all of the various blogs you want to follow and compile all of those blog posts into a single feed for you. The two I’ve tried recently are Inoreader and Feedly … and they’re both fine? They do the job of keeping track of the blogs I like and have a slew of other features that I turn off or ignore. RSS harkens back to a previous era of internet, a golden age of blogging, when everyone excitedly wrote on all sorts of independent outlets, before we all swirled down the toilet of social media. I love shaking my wimpy fist at big tech media consolidation. Do you have an independent blog for me to follow? Let me know!
Another option for keeping up with me is Patreon. Here’s what that looks like:
The Patreon will mostly just be mirroring this blog, available as an option for people who’d rather use that platform. Just click that big “join for free” button. The paid tiers confer no special bonuses at this time. They are merely a way to drop a couple bucks in the tip jar, which I will then spend on someone else’s Patreon. It reminds me of the old joke we cartoonists would make at sparsely-attended small press shows: buying each others’ comics we were all just passing around the same grimy fiver.
Sorry to ramble on this tedious shit but sometimes you gotta appraise the situation and cut out the rot. I’m trying to get away from exploitative systems and anti-human techie culture. I’m pro-human. Hope to see you out in the world.
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The text of my final Instagram post, for the record:
I’m outta here because Meta is the worst. Do we really need these evil assholes? I say no. ANYWAY, if you’ve ever liked what I post here I sure would appreciate it if you followed me at any of:
1. refreshingrectangles.com – my own personal blog! I mostly post art here, similar to what you’ve seen on IG, but I can actually post ANYTHING I WANT! Even a butt or a wiener! Goodness gracious! Fully compatible with RSS feed readers. Remember those? They actually still exist and work!
2. jffrankel.bsky.social – it’s social media too, but less Nazis, algorithms, and creep-ass oligarchs!
3. patreon.com/jfhimself – firing this up again as another art blog. All new posts will be available to anyone for free. And if you feel like tipping me a buck or two I’ll pass that along to other makers on Patreon.
If not, hey, no hard feelings … mostly. Be good to each other and yourselves.
