I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ARCHER PREWITT-“O, KY” (2005).

Archer Prewitt formed The Coctails (a kitschy lounge act) in the early 90s, several years before the lounge revival.  Then he joined The Sea and Cake and has been making amazing music with them.  And he has also released several solo albums.

He has also published some comics (Sof’ Boy) with Drawn & Quarterly.

This song comes from his album Wilderness.  The title of the song is clever, too.

It’s upbeat and folky with a little psychedlia and rock thrown in.  I like Prewitt’s voice quite a bit–it’s simple but really strong.  But the selling point on this song (and others from this album that I have listened to) is the composition and arrangement of these songs.

I like the way this one goes from simple guitar to orchestration (although presumably not a real orchestra) for the chorus.  And how post chorus there are flutes and other instruments to pick up the momentum which adds a vaguely psychedelic feel to it.

At four minutes (the song is five) it changes direction entirely and turns into a nearly new song with big guitars and drums. And it rather rocks.

And just to make Archer the all around dude that he is.  He also drew the cover art.  Jeez.  He’s probably super nice and friendly, too.

[READ: January 3, 2016] Drawn and Quarterly: Twenty Five Years 

I have liked a lot of D+Q books for a long time, although I never really considered a comprehensive look at their publishing house.  This book–about 775 pages long–is about as comprehensive as it gets.

This book contains a few previously published cartoons and excerpts as well as a whole slew of previously unpublished pieces.  There are essays and histories and reminiscences and love love love for the little Montreal graphic novel publisher.

I didn’t know much about the history of D+Q–that Chris Oliveros started the publisher in 1989 out of his house.  That he was the only employee for years.  And that he was essential in getting the term “graphic novel” used by everyone–including the library of congress!

He weathered distribution problems, he weathered the rise and fall of indie comics in the late 90s and he has come through with some of the most beautiful books published.  D+Q has also brought attention to foreign artists as well as out of print artists.

Really, if you have any respect for graphic novels (that aren’t superhero-based) you owe thanks to D+Q.

The house more or less started as an autobiographical publisher–artists with something to say about themselves.  And it almost became pigeonholed as such.  But it soon broke free of that and even published a best seller or two.   And then it opened a D+Q storefront (Librairie D+Q)!

This book includes many many essays about the publishing house (in Chris’ apartment) and how encouraging he was to new artists.  And also how some of the first wave of D&Q artists–Seth, Chester Brown, Julie Doucet, Joe Matt, Peter Bagge & Adrian Tomine stayed with them for so long.

There’s a timeline of major events that runs along the bottom of several pages.  The back has a list of every book every published by D+Q.  And of course there are artist (and contributor) biographies.

After the introductions, there are pieces by and about some great D+Q artists.

Some of my favorites include Jillian Tamaki, Pascal Girard, Diane Obomsawin, Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware–including pencil sketches by Ware that show that he is human after all.

There’s some work by Joe Sacco (whose name I recognized but had never put to his art–which I love)  There’s some clips from Archer Prewitt’s Sof’ Boy.

I have recently read some books from Marc Bell, Pascal Girard and Brecht Vandenbroucke (who would have imagined that one publishing house could have two artists named Brecht (Brecht Evens being the other one).  And the amazing works of Tom Gauld and Anouk Ricard

There’s even an interview with translator extraordinaire Helge Dascher.  I’ve admired her works for years and it was really interesting to read how she does it, and just how smart she is (and why she chooses to translate comics above all other media).  She talks about her appreciation for Guy Delisle whose art is fantastic and which I need to read more of.

I am also very excited to read Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant series,

And of course there’s lots of photos of Seth (who is never out of character).

In terms of old comics that they have brought back into print, they have published Frank King’s Gasoline Alley, John Stanley’s old school comics and Canadian mainstay Doug Wright whose work was part of everyone’s daily life but who was basically unremembered until recently.  And of course Tove Jansson’s beloved Moomin

Recently D+Q has been printing a lot of Japanese artists who are new to me.  And it has really opened up a new style of not-exactly manga.  There’s Yoshihiro Ratsumi, Seiichi Hayashi and Shigeru Mizuki whose Showa book is sitting on my desk and which I was planning to read until I realized it was vol 3 of the series–must get vol 1 and 2 first!

This book was so enjoyable, I really plowed through it.  And, it has also inspired me to want to read, yes, all of the D+Q books!  Now, I have counted up all the ones listed on their back pages and tallied about 500 books, which is absurd.  But I see that some of the releases are collections of previous books or reprintings of earlier books or what have you.  So I will certainly read some of them–the easily found ones anyhow.  But maybe some day I can say I’m a D+Q completist too.