Andrea Gibson: Powerful poetry of love and politics

It's a bit late, so for my first post as co-author of the blog, I'm not actually going to be saying much!  Just hello, I'm Luai, and here is a very moving poem you all should listen to.  By Andrea Gibson, I Do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoWNnt4Fdh4

(sorry, I can't figure out how to embed it)

nagi noda's magical world of hair-giraffes and stop-motion doppelgangers

I've only recently discovered Japanese pop artist Nagi Noda, but I'm really, really digging her work.

Particularly these animal-shaped "hair hats", which I would swear were clever photo-manipulations if I didn't know otherwise. Makes me wish I had long hair that I could sculpt into a giraffe head.

You can watch some music videos directed by Ms. Noda at this address. I especially like "Sentimental Journey". The song's not fantastic, but the video's concept and execution are like visual free-verse poetry, lyrical and surprising. I'm not going to try to explain it here; it really has to be watched.

Sadly, Ms. Noda died at the tragically young age of 35 back in September. It's truly a loss.

shope and jackalope

Ah, the jackalope! A jackrabbit with the antlers of an antelope, bounding through the wild west like the portmanteau of speedy beasts it is.

And, of course, completely made up. A story told by cowboys to dupe gullible newcomers.

...Or is it?

Some people now postulate that the jackalope tales stem from sightings of real rabbits infected with the Shope papillomavirus, which causes really disturbing-looking horny warts (which can become cancerous tumors) to grow all over a rabbit's face, and sometimes on its body as well.

Personally, I'm skeptical. Shope tumors bear only a slight resemblance to antlers, and that's only if one turns one's head to the side and squints really hard. Then again, manatees don't look much like mermaids, either.

creepy-cute comics and an obligatory introduction

pictures © foo swee chin



Hey there! Welcome!

I started this blog because I’m something of a connoisseur of strange and obscure things. Outsider art, weird diseases, indie music and comics, interesting historical events that most people don’t remember or know that much about…I’ve had odd fascinations since I was a kid and tonight (this morning?), bored, unsleepy, and lacking anything more pressing to occupy my time with, I decided to launch a blog with a funny name, devoted to sharing some of the ephemera I clog my head, bookshelves and desktop with.

So to start with, here’s a post about one of my favorite comic book artists, the luminous Foo Swee Chin (FSc).



I remember that my first encounter with Singaporean comic book artist FSc’s unique style of illustration was in the Nightmares & Fairytales series. What I don’t recall is how I found Nightmares & Fairytales in the first place. It’s likely that I was simply browsing the local comic book store to kill time, a favorite pastime of mine since middle school. Anyway, I idly flipped open the first issue and…WOMPH. The art almost literally jumped out at me. The skinny, big-eyed, androgynous-looking characters resembled Japanese cartoons, but they were more angular, more detailed, less smooth. Unusual angles and dramatic body language abounded, so that the whole thing seemed kinetic, constantly in motion. There were cute kittens and dolls and twentysomething women in pretty dresses, but everything had a vaguely, unplaceably spooky aura about it. I liked it.

And then came the fountains of blood, and the knife-stuck corpse in a bathtub.

And then I didn’t like it anymore—I loved it.

How often do you come across a cartoonist who can manage creepy-but-whimsical playfulness and graphic, over-the-top violence with equal ease and sincerity? Who can switch from one to the other within two panels? Not very. I bought the issue of NM&F, and subsequently discovered FSc’s website (from which the images accompanying this article have been shamelessly yanked), as well as her extremely short write up on Wikipedia, which currently reads:

“Foo Swee Chin (often abbreviated FSc) (born July 27, 1977) is a Singaporean comic book artist.

She is the creator of several alternative comic books, including "A Lost Stock of Children" and "Mince," published by Neko Press, as well as "Chimney 25" and "Zeet", published by Slave Labor Graphics. FSc is also the co-creator of Slave Labor Graphics title, "Nightmares & Fairy Tales," alongside writer Serena Valentino, illustrating issues 1-12, before stepping down in 2005. On June 4, 2008, Slave Labor Graphics released the first "MuZz" graphic novel, containing issues 01-08.

Chin has also collaborated with video game developer WayForward Technologies. She provided creature designs for their upcoming horror game LIT.”

...And now you know. Edifying, eh?


I recently got ahold of the print version of the first volume of muZz . It does not disappoint. The artwork is even more detailed, strange and beautiful than before, and the plot, while bizarre and labyrinthine, makes sense and isn’t too hard to follow (which had been a problem, for me at least, in some of FSc’s earlier solo endeavors). A proofreader helping to correct some of the author’s unconventional spelling and grammar may be partially responsible for this shift.

The story concerns a young, amnesiac teenager who finds herself stuck in a hallucinogenic parallel world populated by strange creatures and not-quite-human magical beings. Things get progressively weirder from there, as bits and pieces of the girl’s backstory and importance to the land of muZz are revealed. It’s definitely not just a Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland knockoff, although it may well have been influenced by either, or both.

And, of course, there’s both cuteness and horror aplenty.

I highly recommend it.



Links!

FSc’s website (muZz can be read for free here, albeit in its unedited form)

An interview with FSc on sequentialtart.com