RIP

Studs Terkel died today.

He was 96, but that doesn't make my heart hurt less. His autobiography Talking to Myself changed my life. Everything I know about listening I learned from him, the original rockstar with a tape recorder.

Here's a long obit.

Safe travels, friend.


(Tribune photo by Charles Osgood / May 16, 2007)

Newsy

As you can see by on the widget to the left one of the projects I'm supporting over at Donors Choose has been funded! All you cool kids that helped out please pat yourself on the back and await your tax deduction.

Everybody else, please drop a few bucks for some microscopes for these awesome middle schoolers. When donating, please click through the link at the top of this post so I can see whose donating through try harder.

From the teacher whose classroom we helped:

Dear Carrie Tryharder [and all of you--ed.],

All I can say is WOW! I am so excited about the new materials our class will be getting. You just don't know how much I appreciate your generosity and I know when I tell the students about our new materials they will be overjoyed. You have my promise that the materials will be used to build curiosity and excitement about science. So many inner city children don't get an opportunity to explore science in depth and these materials are a step in that direction. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Sincerely, Kim

***

Hop on over and check out my new reviewing gig at Inkstuds. The dilemma about reviewing single issues has be solved!

Though my first post has already been seen here, please check back for new reviews soon.

***

Dag, Frankenstein is good.

***
Write me some letters!
Send me some review copies!

Carrie Try Harder
TTS PO BOX 113
New York, NY
10108

RoadStrips: A Graphic Journey Across America Edited by Pete Friedrich

This anthology by Chronicle Books had been peering out at me from the Strand’s shelves for a few years. Mostly I was drawn to seeing new work (work made for the anthology) from Mary Fleener, Jessica Abel, Carol Tyler, Phoebe Gloeckner and Roberta Gregory. I also hoped the promise of anthologies, to see great work by artists you’ve never picked up before, would be fulfilled by this book on such a juicy subject--American identity.

The book is divided into five sections: Pacific Northwest, East Coast, West Coast, Midwest and The South. The East Coast, West Coast and The South sections are opened by essays that supposedly say something about the region and comics, separately or combined. All three feel misplaced. “New York: Newsprint City” by Dan Nadel is on an interesting enough subject, 19-century media and its place in making comics popular, but it doesn’t address either the theme of the anthology or the comics that follow. “Oh Ye Sovereign Organism” by Jack Boulware is a rather straightforward introduction to the comics that follow with some annoying commentary about being a Californian thrown in. Chris Offut’s essay, “Why I Love Comic Books,” is about exactly that- theme be damned.

But, ok, ok, to the comics. Though a few were fun to read and great examples of the artist’s talent, the collection did not do the theme justice. The best were meditations on place, like John Porcellino’s quiet meditation on cities “Chicagoan,” the dust n’ sleaze of “Nevada” by Phoebe Gloeckner and “The Landed Immigrant Song,” on the complexities of California, by Mary Fleener. The other winners contained depictions of a certain time that said something very specific about being an American, like the very personal “The Day After” by Martin Cendreda, a story of a Cold War childhood that reflects today’s American’s everyday fear and easy forgetting and “Kid Games” by Pete Friedrich which shows America’s unique relationship with good guys, bad guys, and the price of war. Like “The Landed Immigrant Song” many of the stories featured tales of going somewhere else and coming back to the U.S. (or having a foreigner visit), all of which were pretty standard omg-fish-out-of-water things. Post-9-11 pondering of the U.S.’s place in the world and/or hating on Bush is another commonality between a few of the stories, both of which can be fertile (but unsurprising) topics, which made the collection feel dated and mired in angry reaction. (Which may go a long way toward creating the “time capsule of alternative perspectives that define us in this moment” that the editor was looking for, but doesn’t do much to make a good anthology).

Overall the anthology presents two sides of American identity: feelings of anger, frustration and self-deprecation and “just be yourself and anybody who doesn’t like it can go fuck themselves” (Gilbert Hernandez’s “I’m Proud to Be an American Where At Least I Know I’m Free”) sentiment. With these contributors, I expected something a little more unexpected.

Next time I’ll just read some Studs Terkel.

not dead!

Just busy.

Sorry to leave you all staring at my disapproving face, but my head is stuffed with math and html code and spreadsheet columns and other pressing, but unbooky, stuff.

Some things I have been doing:
1) Studying for the GRE
2) Trying to launch a website at work
3) Getting a PO Box
4) Writing some stuff for [redacted] which will be up soon. When everything is ready for my newest venture, I'll send you [redacted]'s way.
5) Discovering that scientists that study the medical sphere are, on the whole, freaky looking. However, immunologists are the exception to the rule.
6) Reading Frankenstein. Well, that is book-related, but a lady must have a respite, no?

try harder to try harder

"F-"

Donor's Choose update:

After a strong first day (see my introductory post here), tryharderland's denizens seemed to have given up giving to the projects I'm supporting over at Donors Choose.

Boo.

We have only a few months left to get those kids their bugs and microscopes! Please head over to try harder's "giving page" (gag) and drop a few bucks for the Philly kids. No amount is too small and your donations are tax deductible.

We may be no Tomato Nation, but we can still drop the science, right?

Snake Oil 1 & 2 by Chuck McBuck [Forsman]

Last year I met Chuck McBuck at SPX. He was such a nice guy, and when he said he made comics and had some inside, I got a little nervous. What if his work was really bad or embarrassing? What if his work had giant balloon tits or ninjas in it? He led me over to the CCS table he was helming with Alex Kim and handed me a stack of comics made with creamy papers and stinky inks. I needn’t have been worried.

In April of this year Snake Oil 1 appeared in my mailbox. SO1 is number one of the two parts that make up McBuck’s CCS thesis. It begins with two trash men in a diner. Tim is heartbroken (and looks familiar…) and Bob is hungry. Soon Tim will feel much worse.

Later, we meet nice-guy Bob’s goth son Darryl and Darryl’s angry, lustful friend Kim. They are bored and decide to smoke some weed out of a pipe Darryl finds in his house. Kim starts without him and will soon feel much worse.

All the story threads end up as cliffhangers in SO1. Normally this would be incredibly annoying, but the differing landscapes that Mc Buck creates keep the plot from being an overwhelming element and keep your eyes on the pages exploring the art. The black and white pen drawings render policemen and buffalo thugs equally well.

The little touches in SO1 (endpapers that include elements from the stories strewn in a mysterious weed-filled lot, beautifully done title panels, the melancholy back-up story and the cover’s graphic eye-tease) made me excited for number 2 and called for a reread in between the issues, a must for a series where issues come out sporadically.

Both cover colors of SO2 are striking, but the blue called out to me. The plot pushes the characters further into distress and one of the mysterious characters is revealed. My favorite chapter (?) is a one-pager called simply “Darryl” that, in four panels, shows us more about the character than pages of dialogue could. Besides a few standout panels, such as the chorus of meows in “Pretty Kitty” and Bob and his wife waiting at the door in “Slow Down,” the art in this issue was less innovative. While I liked the writing in the back up story, I didn’t really enjoy looking at it.

Overall, Snake Oil reflects McBuck’s keen eye for creepy detail and a knack for pacing that much older artists should be envious of. I am really looking forward to see what he does next.

Happy Ignatz(s) Chuck!

what I am doing (when I should be studying)

Pages: 937
Person: 1st

The Pitts

Couch-sleeping weekend with the Prog Lady.


Sunny nature (not mine of course). Look at the gigantic web! It was somehow spared annihilation by roving cats. My sinuses were not.


Dang, Steve.


No trip to anywhere is complete without checking out the anarchist bookstore. the big idea's zine collection made me miss the bus. I enjoyed each of these:
Class Project, edited by Susan Ledgerwood: Found pictures with captions by various folks. this is always something I enjoy. Too bad the content can only be as good as the submissions the editor gets.
Skeleton Balls by Nils Balls: psychedelic comics, bitching about the state of things. Nothing really new here, but the art was compelling. I especially liked the anthropomorphic utensils.
Sugar Needle #32 by Phlox Icona & Corina Fastwolf: Candies from all over the world are tasted and teased by the above ladies and their friends. I got it for the interview with Dishwasher Pete, my zine crush forever. I wonder if I still have those notes from him somewhere.
Ker-Bloom! 66 by Artnoose: One of many issues of this pretty little handset zine. I wanted to see if my experience with all Aarons being assholes was upheld by "The Aaron Issue." Too bad the stories about him were so vague. I wanted to see this Aaron not read one sentence anecdotes about him! Oh well.


I miss you already, Prog Lady.

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville

Well, well, well, classics, we meet again. Luckily, this time it’s on my terms!

My edition of Bartleby the Scrivener is by Melville Publishing, published as part of their “Art of the Novella” series to bring this in-between form some recognition. As you may have surmised from my Brooklyn Book Fest entry, each book has a different color cover—arranged just so they look like modern art objects and the feel of the covers is as creamy and pleasing as the toteable size.

I’ve had an interest in reading Melville for a while now but plunging into Moby Dick just seemed unwise. This handsome volume was my chance to sample more than a short story, perhaps dashed off in financially dire times, and less than an epic. Bartleby delivers.

The story is told by the last employer of the titular character, “a rather elderly man.” Bartelby, a scrivener (a copier of legal documents) appears on his doorstep “pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn.” The boss decides that he fits in well with the other three in the office, Turkey and Nipper, two dipsos with complementary alcho-clocks and Ginger Nut, a gopher. Melville uses these characters to add humor to the book in a predicable but delightful way. If you are a fan of Dickensian fools, you’ll love these guys.

Bartelby makes little impression on the mind’s eye, but this story is really less about him than about the effect of one man’s curious attitudes on another. He’s a ghost, perhaps of the boss’s lost rebelliousness—an old man; he is comfortable with the rhythms of law, industry and respectability. For, you see, Bartleby’s great distinction from the masses of pale, sickly dudes is that he “prefers not to” do most things. Melville’s choice of this phrase for Bartleby’s character is genius. Fear not, you will be flashed by that genius many times in this short work.

I was hoping to get a larger picture of 19th century New York City from the book, but though a few names, Broadway, Canal and Wall Sts. are bandied about, you really don’t get a feeling of the geography or character of the city.

I predict more Melville in the near future.

Simple

1) I went to public school in Philadelphia.
2) Even at my "good" public schools, supplies were scarce.
3) I can't imagine what it was like elsewhere.
4) People like Miss Alison (hello, lady) shouldn't have to spend a significant portion of their already shitty salary making a classroom hospitable for kids.
5) Science has been the delight of my recent years and taught me to be inquisitive about, surprised by and respectful of this mysterious world, even during awful and painful times.
6) Kids should get the chance to feel that too, if even they aren't lucky enough to go to a "good" school.
7) I want to give something to my hometown, because, hey, I turned out ok.


Here are the projects I am sponsoring through DonorsChoose. You tryharderlanders have been so generous with your time, praise, thoughts and links. If you could extend that to your wallets, I would be ever so grateful.

Edited to Add: Please leave a comment here if you donate!

A dinner for 28

1) sangria with oranges, grapes and apples
2) Moxie
3) Bacon-wrapped prunes
4) Robbiola, goat gouda and tallegio
5) Bread, bread, bread
6) Bratwurst
7) Grilled cauliflower
8) Red beets, yellow beets
9) Potatoes n’ garlic
10) Grilled fennel
11) Grilled onion
12) Grilled mushrooms
13) Cherry pie
14) Fruit
15) Delicious sleep

Maybe we'll see you next year?

toad lily time!

Moody Fruit

From the CSA:



Gift fruit:

Interview: Alex Kim

Alex Kim is a Xeric award-winning cartoonist and an all around good guy. He submitted to my email questions with grace and fleet typing fingers.

C: How old are you?
A: 29

C: Where are you from?
A: I grew up around New York and New Jersey. Right now I'm living in Brooklyn, NY.

C: What's your first memory of comics? How did the form strike you?
A: The first time I can really remember being totally comics was when I was in the 7th or 8th grade (I think). My friend and I discovered Jim Lee's new X-Men at the local bodega (which had a comics rack). I thought it was the most awesome thing I had ever seen. Alternate covers! Cyclops! Wolverine! Omega Red! Rogue! Though my investment in that run was relatively short lived. I think my mom couldn't give me a ride to my friends house for a couple of weeks and I missed an issue. I guess I gave up after that.

C: Did you draw comics when you were a kid?
A: I didn't. I drew a lot, but not comics. I may or may not have drawn some super heroes but there was never any story involved.

C: You tackle a superhero story of sorts in The Bird and the Bear. What about the genre did you think worked well for a story of a worn-out relationship?
A: I thought it would be interesting to contrast the closeness, communication, dependence, intensity (and all that other good stuff) needed in a superhero duo with how much of that can be lost in a worn-out, dying relationship. I find it interesting how people can be on completely differently ends of the emotional scale with each other depending on what they're doing, especially when they're in a relationship. It was all about the immensity of emotion people can feel when together and I thought somehow that being in a life/death situation would be a good match. That and the whole 'team' idea in fighting crime seemed similar to being a 'team' in living life together. I also wanted to draw some fight scenes.



C: Wall City also features a freezer-burnt hull of a romance. What about that state of affairs attracts you?
A: I'm not sure so much that I'm attracted to it (though I guess I am... in fact, you're right, I am). I think it might be more that I feel like it's a very painful experience to go through and that there's a lot of emotional... I don't know... emotional 'ore' that can be 'mined'. There's just a lot there and a lot of stories to tell about it. It also interests me to see what characters will do when they're pushed to their emotional / psychological limits - some people freak out, some cave in, some shut off and I bet almost everyone has done all of those things.

C: The first thing I ever read by you was a split mini with Chuck McBuck called Hey, Guy. It was a great way to be introduced to each of your writing skills and art, since, as I remember, you swapped duties. I imagine that kind of experiment and interest in your peers' work is encouraged at the school you just graduated from. Am I right? What was the best and worst thing about going to CCS?
A: Totally encouraged. One of our assignments the first year in James Sturm's class was to do that almost that exact thing. The only thing difference being the person who received your script wasn't the person who gave you their's. It was a classwide swap and a lot of fun. Some really fantastic comics came out of it. Really fantastic stuff. Also, an interest in classmates' work was encouraged and came very easily. It was a rare opportunity to be in an environment where comics could be talked about seriously and critiqued/deconstucted. I mean, seriously, it's not something you can find just anywhere. There's such an extraordinary sense of community at the school. I think that might be the best thing about CCS - the people, the community - from the students to the faculty to the staff. It really was an amazing place and an amazing two years and I can't say enough about it. I made some life long friends with some of the most inspiring people whose work I admire a lot and who I admire great deal as people in general. The worst thing about it would be the lack of sunlight. It's great to be able to draw all day (really - so great), but it's hard to step outside into the bitter, bitter cold at 4PM and see the sun going down.


C: Hey, Guy is also where I first saw the rumply-sweatshirt style that you use in Wall City. How did you develop that? Was it a conscious effort to visually separate yourself from your classmates?
A: Well, one of the critiques I received (and took to heart) for The Bird and The Bear was that the human characters weren't interesting enough to look at (this was after it was done and I agree - I have grand plans to redraw and maybe expand the whole damn thing). The thing I worked on right after was album art for a friend's band, which I think I still like but was never printed, where I tried to make the people look more interesting by making their clothes textured... and they were underwater so I thought it made sense. From there it just sort of took off and I found myself drawing characters like that in Medusa, a poetry comic with poet (and CCS office whiz and all around lovely person) Jess Abston and with Mr. Mcbuck (classmate and studio mate (who, along with our other classmate Sean Ford, had to listen to me talk more than any person should ever have to our last year - they have the patience of a saints, I swear... or maybe they just got really good at tuning me out)) in Hey Guy.

Once I started drawing Wall City, I sort of couldn't help myself. I also thought it made sense as a sign of all the characters', like, inner struggle. I'm not sure it'll continue, and even though I have my own personal issues with it, I still like it in Wall City. So, errr, no, it wasn't really a conscious effort to visually separate myself from others, but a mostly misguided effort to make my characters more interesting to look at that I ended up liking maybe more than I should have - but hey, what the heck, you only live once. I got into it and went with it and didn't look back until after it was finished.

Am I rambling? Are these answers too long? I sometimes tend to ramble.

C: Ha, ha. Don't worry! The thing about a book blog is that my readers have surprisingly long attention spans.
A: Thank GOD for book blogs. Seriously.

C: All the folks in your work look white. Are they?
A: Ha! Um, well, no. They're not. I really try and draw people as simply as possible (their clothes being another story) and try to stay away from drawing a particular ethnicity. I'd like to think people are more easily able to engage the characters if they can decide things like that for themselves.

It's funny, for a while I thought I would color all of Wall City. I only got half way before I decided not too - but while coloring I would make all the characters a different shade of blue. Their face, hands, clothes, all the same color. I like to do this, I like to color characters with a non-skin tone. And if I were really pushed I would say that, since I like to (and since it's unavoidable) put a little of myself in all my characters, that, if anything, they're all a little of me... and I'm not white. But, again, I want people to decide that for themselves.


C: In an earlier email, you told me that you are having a hard time finding time to draw. What's your day job? How are you trying to work drawing in?
A: I work at an architecture firm... I'm not registered or anything, so I can't legally call myself an architect. I think I'm called an architectural designer. But the short answer is I'm an architect. That's what I studied in undergrad and what I worked in for several years before heading off to CCS. I love architecture and think it's a very meaningful and important profession and endeavor... but working and trying to draw on my free time is something I have a very difficult time with... I haven't found a balance yet. I try and draw after work and on the weekends, but that hasn't been going all to well. I believe, though, that, with the end of summer, I'll be able to draw much more. Also, there was that period after school where I was just trying to deal with moving back to New York and working full time again. It was a tremendous shock to go from CCS, where I was able to draw everyday, to being a working stiff. It's getting better and I've been much more motivated to get back to comics. I'm surprisingly optimistic about this. Or maybe I'm in denial. But I'm okay with that.

C: Do you think your work in architecture affects your comics at all?
A: I think it does. I guess the most visible way is how I'm comfortable perceiving (and so drawing) space. A lot of the angled overhead shots I like to draw are from architecture. Also, less visibly, the way I think of a comics page comes from it. It's sort of hard to explain, but the space / depth / composition of how I like to draw (and maybe I should say how I would like to draw) has to do with architecture. It's a hard thing to get away from, not that I would really want to... I think I'll always, in one way or another, think of myself as an architect over anything else. Going to school for it and working in it has just ingrained certain things in my mind that will always be there. I know that's pretty vague - you should know that it's not entirely clear for me either. It's something that I'm still trying to figure out and understand.

C: What are you working on now? What would you like to be working on?
A: Well, I was awarded the Xeric grant (THANK YOU XERIC FOUNDATION!) for Wall City this past summer so have been working on getting that together for printing. Or I just finished getting it together this week and sent it off to the printer. The next big thing I want to work on is a story about addiction... not so much being addicted to substances... but about being addicted to people and having to realize what we want from certain people isn't what we're going to get... and about giving that up. I know that's not very clear and I know it sounds like it can be really bad, but I'm excited about it. It's also not very clear cause I'm still writing it and it's changing as I go. I don't know how long it'll be - I had wanted to work on something smaller, like 8 pages, after Wall City, but this story keeps growing. I have to stop adding things and just really get to the important stuff. And I think the main characters are going to be wearing ponchos. I like ponchos.

I also have the opportunity to work on a poster for a craft fair in Brooklyn this winter. I love silk screening posters but haven't had a chance to do one in a while so am totally excited about this. If it goes well, I'd like to try and see if I can find more poster work. Who knows what will happen, though. Not with the poster, but with after that.

C: What would be your perfect project?
A: Oh man, that's a tough one. I don't know. I'm excited about that next story I want to work on... and being excited counts for a lot, but I don't know if that's the perfect project. I don't know if I could choose just one, Carrie! How do I choose?

Okay, well I don't know if this would be perfect, but there is something I've been wanting to do for a while now. I'd love to work on an entire comic and work with big (and I don't mean to say unsubtle... subtle is big) visual aspects of poster design and with the narrative time aspects of comics and silkscreen the entire damn thing. I mean, I would LOVE that. Not being able to print anything is really getting to me. I need to find a way to work on it. Anyhow, I keep toying with this idea, but I don't know if I've come up with the right story yet. Hopefully it'll happen someday. One day.

C: And, finally, is there anyone you want to give a shout out to?
A: I owe a lot to a lot of people. I tend to run my mouth sometimes about nothing and, to my surprise, there are friends out there who are totally willing to listen. I appreciate that a lot. So: THANKS Y'ALL. You know who you are. Also, I need to give a huge thank you to mama (MAMA!) for not getting me the oven mitts. I would have been disappointed come Christmas time.

Brooklyn Book Fest '08

At the fest I met some people I know only from the internets. Now they know that my skin glistens pink like a piglet on a spit, my hand shake is wet and desultory and that I may be a little slow. Thanks 90% humidity! Even SEC, my stalwart companion on this excursion, who looked unaffected by the heat, had to go home and lie down after a few hours.

As you can see from above, I didn't get much. The three copies of Mothers & Other Monsters are parts of an evil plan, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories was given a thumbs up from Joel, a man who knows his sci-fi stuff, the Monstrosities booklet caught my eye, Ugly Duckling Presse gets me all hot with their design but I am afraid of poetry and the Melville House novellas were irresistible. Look at those paint chip colors! Not pictured are an issue of One Story by Katherine Karlin, a trial subscription to the same and a tote bag from Word books. It was the sturdiest tote for the price, my friends. Also, after sweatily bugging Goodloe Byron for a good hour, I picked up a copy of the new edition of his free book The Abstract.

The best of the evening was after the fest--an Austrian meet and great complete with comics talk, delicious food and cool folk courtesy of looka and eva. Thanks guys!

If you are in need of a little non-fiction magic, please check out grrlscientist's series on visiting Charles Darwin's house. The photographs are beautiful. I wish I had a greenhouse appended to the back of my apartment.


above:A bumblebee, Bombus spp., on a flower in the gardens behind Darwin's Down House, near Bromley, England. Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008

newsy

Yesterday, on my short but emotionally stultifying walk home from work I saw two teenage girls walking and reading real novels. I smiled at them and they were properly dismissive.

***
I just finished a great book. I hope to be writing about it for somewhere else. I'll give you a clue: It is a novel by a Canadian author about Cambodia by one of my favorite publishers.

***

Around the same time I started the first volume of the Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) diaries. After the many, many introductory notes, most of which I actually read, Pepys journal begins with an account of his wife's period going missing for several weeks, Royal Navy news and the perplexing complaint of a nose swollen by the cold. He kept the diaries for 9 years.

B gave me the first three volumes of the newest translation (and supposedly best) for my birthday last year. I am glad I finally started it.

I became interested in the diaries after reading the first book of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, Quicksilver. In the novel Pepys is a kindly and compelling character, already established as a man of knowledge by the time the main character, Daniel Waterhouse, encounters him. He also eventually cuts Waterhouse's nuts open. Because he was a prolific writer, and, by all accounts a man who liked to have a good time, I am hoping that the diaries include some gossip about other (still existing) Royal Society, its members (such as Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Issac Newton, Christopher Wren, etc.) and their wacky experiments. So far, it is mostly about the Navy.

***
Have you seen the Thunder Lodge Guestbook? It's a must-read for those stuck at home.

Something I didn't mention about my last trip to Rocketship:

They had one copy of Rebecca Kraatz's excellent collection of strips House of Sugar. I wrote about it here, but the actual review has gone the way of many start-up web magazines. You can read some of it here for free, but if you do buy the Rocketship copy, send me a picture!

the party I wish I were having

I love those ScienceBlogs and especially the Bleiman brothers.

Morning Glory

I feel blurry, but pretty good.



The garden isn't too glorious right now. A summer full of work and traveling can do that.