LITERARYBook Reviews - The Design Issue
 LOCAS—The Maggie & Hopey Stories
Jamie Hernandez
Love & Rockets Publishing
The Hernandez brothers' Love & Rockets project was one of the top 10 heaviest comics events in history. And if it wasn't for the other brothers dragging Jamie down, it would have been in the top five. That's what's so great about this book. It's 700 pages of Jamie's best work without any of the other Hernandez garbage weighing it down. If you missed the boat on Love & Rockets here's everything you ever need to see, polished and shit-free.
MARTY KNOBLETT
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 HANDWRITTEN—Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age
Steven Heller & Mirko Ilic
Thames & Hudson
Besides the unavoidable proliferation of bad design, the ubiquitous computer has caused another major eyesore. The perpetual coldness endless right angles bring. Everything from want ads to record sleeves have become so automated it looks like we are policed by a nation of Zilons. That's why Handwritten is so inspiring. It shows the merit of introducing an element of hand-drawn design and it reminds you of a time when you needed artists to make art. I know I sound fucking boring in this review but trust me. It's a really inspiring book.
MIKA HIROKO
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 Funny Pages
Johnny Ryan
Limited Edition, covers by Buenaventura Press
In our own utopia, all daily comics would be like the parodies in this genius book. Vice comics page contributor Johnny Ryan uses this small run zine to rip to shreds every canonical comic, from Popeye and Nancy to The Boondocks and Garfield. All of them are treated with the same Johnny R. humor: retarded and scatological to such an extreme that the piles of shit and explosions of jizz eventually become as rote as the tired punch lines in the dailies that inspired them. You get to see Dagwood replace his legs with two huge severed penises, Garfield fuck his owner up the ass, and Alley Oop get shaved only to discover that he has a vagina. It is the most repulsive and hilarious book we've seen in years. Look at johnnyr.com for proof of his genius.
ROALD DULL
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 Blankets
Craig Thompson
Top Shelf
I haven't been this excited about a comic in years. This 600-page illustrated novel took Thompson years to make and it shows. It's a flawless combination of North American Chester Brown honesty and European Stephan Blanquet passion. I must have said, "Holy shit, this guy can draw," aloud every five pages.
MARTY KNOBLETT |
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