Its time again for another Weekly Comics Hype. Im doing these alphabetically, but skipping around a bit, and we open December by taking a break from the superheroes and fantasies which have dominated this column for some time by talking about Dylan Horrocks engaging 1998 work, Hicksville.
Hicksville is an original graphic novel about comics, expanded from an earlier work by Horrocks from his self-published zine Pickle. Its set in a small New Zealand town where almost all the locals write and draw their own comics in isolation from the business. Some of them have made inroads into the superhero industry and some of them have found work with humor magazines, but principally, the locals are happy to do their own thing.
One fellow from Hicksville hit the bigtime some years ago and this prompts Leonard Batts, an American journalist, to visit his hometown to discover his roots. He finds the locals very unwilling to talk about his success. What did Dick Burger do to warrant such hostility, and what bad secrets are the townfolk hiding?
Horrocks isnt quite as interested in the plot of his story as he is telling it in an engaging way. He deftly shifts from style to style, aping the appearance of an early 90s superhero blockbuster on one page before filling the next with dozens of gag panels and stick figures. Memories and flashbacks break up the narrative as the action shifts backwards in time and characters use their own minicomics to explain events in the past. The plot itself is not that remarkable (through no fault of his own, Horrocks finds a resolution which is the mirror of Batya Gurs obscure, but remarkable novel Literary Murder, which, sadly for me, Id finished about three weeks before buying this), rather, it is the way Horrocks tells his story that makes this tale genuinely moving and very imaginative.
Theres a very interesting subtext behind Horrocks plot. He seems to suggest that there should be so much more to the medium than the superhero books, and that Burgers sell-out is the most awful kind of artistic betrayal. As comics, Horrocks suggests, have lost their way, and become a genre rather than a medium, Burger has lost his own way, and betrayed his art. Incidentally, Burgers depiction as a larger-than-life megacelebrity is more than a bit hard to swallow, as no comic artist has ever enjoyed the spectacular success shown here, but it is exaggerated for effect, and allows Horrocks the chance to make a more scathing indictment of those who value celebrity over art.
Its a pretty strange irony that despite all the non-superhero books I own, few have made their way into the hype lately, and now the alphabetizing brings us to this. Well, perhaps the next few weeks will give us some more off-the-beaten-path pieces to consider.
Hicksville is available from your local comic shop, who would enjoy your custom; new books ship each Wednesday, so why not stop in to your local shop after work tonight?
Hicksville is an original graphic novel about comics, expanded from an earlier work by Horrocks from his self-published zine Pickle. Its set in a small New Zealand town where almost all the locals write and draw their own comics in isolation from the business. Some of them have made inroads into the superhero industry and some of them have found work with humor magazines, but principally, the locals are happy to do their own thing.
One fellow from Hicksville hit the bigtime some years ago and this prompts Leonard Batts, an American journalist, to visit his hometown to discover his roots. He finds the locals very unwilling to talk about his success. What did Dick Burger do to warrant such hostility, and what bad secrets are the townfolk hiding?
Horrocks isnt quite as interested in the plot of his story as he is telling it in an engaging way. He deftly shifts from style to style, aping the appearance of an early 90s superhero blockbuster on one page before filling the next with dozens of gag panels and stick figures. Memories and flashbacks break up the narrative as the action shifts backwards in time and characters use their own minicomics to explain events in the past. The plot itself is not that remarkable (through no fault of his own, Horrocks finds a resolution which is the mirror of Batya Gurs obscure, but remarkable novel Literary Murder, which, sadly for me, Id finished about three weeks before buying this), rather, it is the way Horrocks tells his story that makes this tale genuinely moving and very imaginative.
Theres a very interesting subtext behind Horrocks plot. He seems to suggest that there should be so much more to the medium than the superhero books, and that Burgers sell-out is the most awful kind of artistic betrayal. As comics, Horrocks suggests, have lost their way, and become a genre rather than a medium, Burger has lost his own way, and betrayed his art. Incidentally, Burgers depiction as a larger-than-life megacelebrity is more than a bit hard to swallow, as no comic artist has ever enjoyed the spectacular success shown here, but it is exaggerated for effect, and allows Horrocks the chance to make a more scathing indictment of those who value celebrity over art.
Its a pretty strange irony that despite all the non-superhero books I own, few have made their way into the hype lately, and now the alphabetizing brings us to this. Well, perhaps the next few weeks will give us some more off-the-beaten-path pieces to consider.
Hicksville is available from your local comic shop, who would enjoy your custom; new books ship each Wednesday, so why not stop in to your local shop after work tonight?