GO HOME PADDY

Two – Three Sentence Book Reviews!

Super Spy by Matt Kindt from Top Shelf Productions: A very cool collection of inter-connecting short stories dealing with World War II spies. Kindt is a great storyteller and his artwork perfectly suits the tales he tells. More to do with Kindt below…

In the Flesh: Stories by Koren Shadmi from Villard: Described as “Israel’s enfant terrible”, Shadmi is a real talent. This collection of short stories is weird, funky and beautifully done. An excellent draftsman and storyteller; I would love to see Shadmi work on an expanded graphic novel.

Aya: The Secrets Come Out: Volume Three by Marguerite Abouet  and Clement Oubrerie from Drawn and Quarterly: Having read the first two volumes of the Aya books, I was very happy to see Volume Three at the library. My review for Volume Two can be found here, and my feelings for this new book are the same: GREAT story and art, and the overall tone of the book is uplifting and funny.

Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression by Morris Dickstein from W. W. Norton & Company: This one was a REAL disappointment for me. The book is very academic and so it reads slowly and dryly. A better book for research than for an engaging read.

I’m currently reading Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by the renowned Malcolm Gladwell.

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I’ve been listening to several Word Balloon podcasts lately. Created By Chicago Talk Radio Host John Siuntres, Word Ballon offers short and long interviews with various writers and artists involved in graphic novels, comics, web-comics and pop-culture. Recently, Siuntres interviewed Matt Kindt (see, I told you there would be more to do with Kindt below) concerning his new book Revolver. Check out the podcast HERE and enjoy!

Readers can keep tabs on GO HOME PADDY (and me) at both Twitter and Facebook. If you’re into either of those, follow the links and get in touch!

I got a chance to see the Albrecht Dürer: Virtuoso Printmaker show (AGAIN) at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts just before the show closed. It was an exceptional show that highlighted Dürer’s growth as a Printmaker and Artist over his lifetime. I’ve always had a thing for Dürer’s line-work as well as his Medieval subject matters. I’m not sure if the show is traveling or not, but if so, go see it. Hopefully you’ll be as impressed as I was by the work shown.

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Quick reminder that you can keep tabs on GO HOME PADDY (and me) at bothTwitterand Facebook. If you’re into either of those, go check the links out. C’mon…go do it!

*************** UPDATE **************

GO HOME PADDY will be back to it’s regular schedule on Thursday 7/8.
See you all then!

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A comment on the previous page by Patrick Brown (who is also creating web-comics) brought up some interesting points. Patrick commented:

Interesting that you’ve chosen to use the “simian” stereotype, and I think, from your comments about prejudiced Irish people, I understand why you’re doing it. An unusual choice. I did some research into pre-20th century Irish cartooning recently (for this article) and it depressed me that nearly all the books available focused on the English simian stereotype of the Irish at the expense of the rich cartooning tradition Ireland itself had. John Fergus O’Hea in particular deserves a reputation in Ireland to rival Tenniel’s in England – his colour chromolithographs from the Weekly Freeman are very impressive, and surprisingly modern – but we’re more interested in how nasty Tenniel was to us than in our own artists!

Please follow the link to Patrick’s site and read his excellent article on the History of Irish Comic Art! He’s done an exemplary job of examining this historical aspect of Irish cartooning!

For those readers that are coming over from across the Atlantic, the seminal figure for Irish-Americans in regards to bigoted anti-Irish cartoons is Thomas Nast. In America, Nast was a rather influential proponent of Anti-Irish racism with his cartoons of drunken and violent Irish Catholic monkey-men. In fact the first time that I ever saw the “simian” stereotype in an illustration, it was in one of Nast’s cartoons: The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things.

That’s probably enough links for one day, hunh?

UPDATE

This afternoon the British Government FINALLY declared that the killing of unarmed civilians by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday in 1972 was “UNJUSTIFIED”.
Prime Minister Cameron said, “What happened should never, ever have happened.”

Only took them over 30 years to admit what EVERYONE else KNEW.

Here’s some links to the story:

New York Times

BBC

RTE News

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Thanks to both The Daily Cross Hatch and Robot6 for linking to GO HOME PADDY last week; it’s much appreciated.

Giving GO HOME PADDY it’s own site has increased readership tremendously. One of the interesting things that I’m noticing is that traffic spikes significantly the day after I post a new page, instead of on Tuesdays & Thursdays. Any idea why?

Also, it’s clear that I’m gaining new readers each day, as many people are coming and reading the whole story at once. All of this is very uplifting as creating in a vacuum can be depressing! Thanks to all of you who are reading, sending emails and leaving comments.

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TWO — THREE SENTENCE BOOK REVIEWS!

That Salty Air by Tim Sievert from Top Shelf Productions: This being Sievert’s first graphic novel, he comes out swinging with a first-rate tale of a struggle between man and the Sea. Really well done! I think Sievert is going to produce some great work in the future.

Silverfish by David Lapham from Vertigo: I was a HUGE fan of Lapham’s Stray Bullets, but this one just didn’t gel for me. And in my opinion, the ending came up terribly short. I really wish Lapham would return to Stray Bullets and finish that story.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories 1920-1922: This Side of Paradise / Flappers and Philosophers / The Beautiful and the Damned / Tales of the Jazz Age from the Library of America: This Side of Paradise didn’t do too much for me; in fact, it seemed pretty damned pretentious. I guess that I just can’t relate to tales of snooty rich kids coming of age and that I had best just stick with O’Hara. Included in this collection is the short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button“ and it’s a really entertaining tale.

The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschemeier from Fantagraphics Books: A graphic novel memoir that succeeds due to using stylistic change-ups for different sections of the book. Hornschemeier is good, but I don’t think that this is his best.

James Sturm’s America: God, Gold and Golems from Drawn & Quarterly: A collection of three different stories, this graphic novel is EXCELLENT! Sturm is a master of the form and seems to be spreading it like the Gospel with his Center for Cartoon Studies up in Vermont. This collection features revivals, miners and mystical Hebrew baseball players; sounds nuts, but the stories are fantastic.

See you all on Thursday.