Graphic novels

Stand-up comics

Grown-up graphic novels addressing issues of loneliness, alienation and heart-breaking human failure. And not a caped crusader in sight

I don't know about you, but when the critics say something is a 'five-star classic', I'm on my guard. There's certainly a lot going for the new McSweeney's, Dave Eggers's quarterly literary magazine, which in its current incarnation is a 'comics only' special edited and designed by the great Chris Ware (No 13, Hamish Hamilton, £16.99). There's the roster of more than a dozen top alternative cartoonists for starters (no superhero strips allowed); the vintage material by George Herriman ('Krazy Kat') and Charles Schulz ('Peanuts'); plus the text contributions by writers including John Updike just to underline the book's literariness and bookshop orientation.

Individual strips are fantastic. Robert Crumb's meditation on the insecurities of two would-be lovers (cheekily introduced as 'another unfunny modern "comic" for discriminating adult intellectuals') takes him into wordier territory than he is commonly associated with and shows that at the age of 60 he has lost none of his powers of observation. Meanwhile, there's the design of the book itself, which makes the most of unusually high production values, to the point where the wrap-around cover acts as a comic in its own right.

But it doesn't quite work. The mix is too rich, and a large proportion of the strips have been seen elsewhere before (most disappointingly in the cases of Art Spiegelman, Chester Brown and Joe Sacco). A good anthology is about more than its contents. It has to have a mood (check out existing periodicals Blab! and Drawn & Quarterly). Ware must have been aware of this, and also that the mood most likely to be generated by the wedding of his own reputation with that of McSweeney's would be an ostentatiously cool one. Alas for him, true cool is never ostentatious, which is why the book is 'good' rather than 'five stars'.

Le Gun (No 1, Le Gun Publishing, £8) is an anthology of a different kind, and consists of 'narrative illustration' rather than comic strips per se. It's put together by students at the Royal College of Art, and is where, allegedly: 'Imaginative people spill their minds.' Meaning, in this case, other students plus a few famous friends (Peter Blegvad and Les Coleman).

It's refreshing to see a book taking inspiration from fine art rather than the world of cartooning - Jean Michel Basquiat and David Shrigley seem to be favourites. And there's plenty of terrific material. Richard Galloway's lino-cuts of seedy Paris bars are so atmospheric you can smell the Gauloise smoke. However, unfortunate bouts of art college smartarsery mean that Le Gun is more of a spattering Uzi than a precision weapon.

Seth's Clyde Fans (Book 1, Drawn & Quarterly, £13.99) is a graphic novel telling the story of two brothers who set out to sell electric fans to homes and businesses in North America at a time when air conditioning is taking over. This tragi-comic premise forms the background to the efforts of one of the brothers, Simon, to clinch a deal. At stake is his self-esteem, the approval of his brother, and the future of the business.

What is so affecting about the book is its unhurried nature. For example, there are a large number of silent panels, making Simon's sales pitches seem even more excruciating ('Of course, I-I understand your loyalty to a b-brand...') It's the achievement of Clyde Fans that it becomes a metaphor for anybody who has failed to 'close' in life.

Carol Swain's graphic novella Foodboy (Fantagraphics, £7.99) is a disturbing yarn about a youth who brings scraps of food to his friend who is living a feral existence in the wildest terrains of mid-Wales. Both young men are alienated from their homeland, which is pictured as a desolate landscape of glacial valleys and dense woodland punctuated by tourist villages and hippie communes. In the end Foodboy can't tempt his pal back to civilisation, and you're left wondering who is better off.

Swain's charcoal artwork is perfect for the sheer overcast-ness of the story, and her penchant for 'camera angles', somewhat distracting in her previous comics, is used to eerie effect. They add to the visual echoes - a pattern in the veins of a piece of meat becomes the outline of a mountain becomes a peace symbol - which evoke the echoing sounds of the valleys. A chilly, satisfying piece of work.

Auschwitz (Harry N. Abrams Inc, £11.95) by Pascal Croci, is one of those hardback glossies that give Eurocomics a bad name. A well-meaning fictionalisation of the memoirs of Jewish survivors, it is drawn in a black and white 'realistic' style that is clearly meant to be a riposte to the controversial anthropomorphics of Maus. However, the characters end up looking like extras from the musical Les Miserables and the most shocking thing about it is the editing ('Mendele' for 'Mengele'? Per-lease...) The references to other genocides - notably in the former Yugoslavia - are interesting but clunkily made, and, again, can be interpreted as a comment on Maus. But by comparison, that book looks all the more impressive.

Finally, an excellent study about manga that seeks to explode the dictionary definition of 'comics with a science fiction or fantasy theme'. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics (Laurence King, £19.95) by Paul Gravett is beautifully illustrated with 360 examples taking in everything from early hits such as Astro Boy, through diverse indie manga, to more recent 'tits and tentacles' fodder.

It's not terribly critical (you won't hear much about sweatshop conditions in the Tokyo studios), but then illustrated books can rarely afford to be these days, bearing in mind copyright clearances. As a celebration of an often misunderstood aspect of modern comics, it does an admirable job of squashing racist myths and of only mentioning the dreaded Pokémon twice.

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