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PLEASE SUPPORT COMIC BOOK GALAXY BY VISITING OUR SPONSORS The Ganzfeld Presents: Carrot for Girls Writing and Art by Matthew Thurber (and) The Ganzfeld Presents: The Hobbit Writing and Art by Marc Bell and Peter Thompson Published by PictureBox Inc./The Ganzfeld; $5.00 USD each, limited editions also available for $15.00 USD each As the alert reader might have gleaned from the above-supplied titles, these publications are actually special editions of editor/publisher Dan Nadel’s mostly-annual “book of pictures and prose,” The Ganzfeld. They’re 16 pages each, 11” x 17” both, and printed in b&w on newsprint. Each of them are capped in production to only 500 copies apiece (that’s the regular editions; the limited editions, of which more will be said below, are set at 50 per title), which perhaps helps explain the tall price tags. There’s also a third entry in this series, The Ganzfeld Presents: Chimera, by Frank Santoro, printed at the same dimensions in three colors with an according price bump to $7, and a fourth, by Paper Rad/C.F., title and dimensions unknown, which is apparently only obtainable (albeit for free) by making a purchase directly from The Ganzfeld. Produced in part through grants supplied by the National Endowment for the Arts, these are interesting little art objects, each unique in their scope and theme, and fans of any of the artists involved will doubtless want to snap them up. For the less-acclimated potential peruser, however, it’s still worth taking a chance on Thurber’s material, which derives genuine energy from its ephemeral environs, and sports an oddly cohesive narrative chaos drive. The Bell/Thompson material is perhaps best left to established supporters. Carrot for Girls is apparently Thurber’s “first publication,” in the words of PictureBox’s description, though he’s also been making minicomics for a while, as evidenced by his site. Still, this will likely prove to be many readers’ first prolonged exposure to Thurber’s style, and it’s a fairly auspicious debut. Thurber draws in an occasionally messy, but disarmingly certain style, with a pronounced tendency toward loopy monster designs seemingly having leapt directly out of his sketchbooks. But the storytelling is sure when it needs to be, as evidenced by the opening two-page anecdote, told by aged Glucose Toreadore, who long ago purchased a publication titled ‘Carrot for Girls,’ which opened his mind to the infinite mysteries of the astral plane, and its powerful mutated hero travelers known as Peace Punks. Their calling card is a checkerboard pattern in the air, and their mission is to travel through time attending classic punk shows and locating fellow travelers who’ve yet to unlock the secret gland in themselves that produces the wondrous DOMINO-1 enzyme, the catalyst for astral travel. The rest of the publication does not adhere strictly to the story set out in this opening segment; indeed, the remaining pages act as more of a simulation of time-fractured astral travel, with the Peace Punks acting as constant interrupters and occasional stars. Some pages are little more than crowded drawings of strange happenings, like a parade of creatures attempting to appease the goddess Bastet by drawing pictures of their genitals (visible is a scroll reading “How to draw erect Penises the Marvel Way”). Others are stand-alone one-page tales, like that of an ex-snake turned Peace Punk working in a supermarket. And some are simply composed of story fragments, the adventures of a pair of fellows trying to sell t-shirts at a show constantly interrupted by the saga of a boy named Elton Squirrel being told to run away from his family doctor. It’s all funny stuff, and in possession of a curious sense of mythology, just enough of it explicitly rendered to whet our imaginations for what else might be going on. Did I mention the Dignified Subplot featuring a character named Vagina Tsunami? There’s also a signed and numbered limited edition of this thing available at The Ganfeld’s online store, purportedly housed in a cardboard portfolio painted with fluorescent acrylics, and accompanied by an exclusive print and a CD soundtrack with tunes by Oki Dogs (featuring Thurber himself). I have to say, I didn’t feel quite confident enough to dive in that far with my purchase, as five bucks for the standard edition seemed quite enough. But I’ll assure you that this is worthy work, and a good chance to get familiar with a promising talent. You’re probably already familiar with Marc Bell by now, as his books Shrimpy and Paul and Friends (from Highwater) and Worn Tuff Elbow (from Fantagraphics) have garnered him an enthusiastic following. You might also be familiar with Peter Thompson, whose art book, The Chronicles of Lucky Ello, was released in 2004 by Drawn and Quarterly. And it’s based on your appreciation of their prior works that you’ll decide whether or not to drop your five on The Hobbit, which is simply a series of 15 full-page character drawings (with an concluding info page), all inspired by Tolkien’s book (which one member of the creative team has not actually read). Apparently, the publication is actually a sequel to a series of three minicomics also created by Bell and Thompson, all of them based on The Lord of the Rings. The two artists’ individual styles are fairly reminiscent of one another, and they mix well into detailed, often creepily wrinkled and lumpy fleshscapes. Human figures emerge from architecture, organic and synthetic masses melt into one another, text often dots the copious textures, and it’s amusing and grotesque in roughly equal measure. But it’s probably not the best place to start with either artist, though established fans are probably already interested, perhaps in the limited edition, signed and numbered, with a text collage assembled from someone’s copy of Tolkien’s The Hobbit pasted to the back. These are interesting projects both, but I must confess my interest in the latter stemmed mostly from my preexisting fascination with Marc Bell, and I suspect such feelings will provide the lion’s share of purchases for his and Thompson’s project. Matthew Thurber, though, is new to me, and probably new to you too, and he’s an interesting talent to watch. If anything here is to purchased by the neophyte, it should be his publication, a wry and ready example of powerful potential. -- Jog Send review copies to: Jog 102 S. West St. Apt. 9 Carlisle, PA 17013 Discuss this review on the Comic Book Galaxy Forum! Search WWW Search Comic Book Galaxy