We felt so bad about skipping out on our round-ups of where everyone is writing that we decided to double up this week. So without further ado…
Daniel Elkin went down south. As in New Zealand. Or at least on the interwebs he did. Joining up with the crew at Faction Comics for their Factional section, Elkin examined Jillian Tamaki’s Sex Coven, a curiously named comic about an even more curious bit of internet history. Take it away, Daniel:
Sex Coven gets its name from an untitled music file that was uploaded anonymously in the mid 1990’s, which was then found by a user on a music-sharing site who renamed it Sex Coven and continued to share it. It gained traction, went viral, spawned a cult following, spawned intense public outcry, and there the story begins.”
Tamaki’s art is, as usual, absolutely gorgeous:
But Elkin is especially intrigued with the themes she’s exploring in the work:
Authentic emotions are precious in a world where we are so often sold how to think about things, where outrage is manufactured, enjoyment is a science, and attention an algorithm. And nobody latches on to this more than young people, especially when their peer group embraces it, especially when they see that their parents don’t understand it, even more especially when their parents fear it or hate it.
Tamaki captures all of this in her book. The intensity of the reaction to the music and the ritual it inspires are all laid out with fervor and excitement. Tamaki knows the proper moment to abstract her art to convey this ardor, and when to focus on minutia in order to set context and further her story.”
Meanwhile, at his regular gig at the AV Club, Jake Muncy is playing 404Sight a free, Mirror’s Edge-like game devoted to educating players on net neutrality. It sounds heady, but Jake says it “is good fun and a smart experiment in the form some have taken to calling “newsgames,” a game made to teach us about real-world problems.”
If you’re familiar with “newsgames,” then you might be wary. Don’t worry, Jake hears you and says 404Sight is a break from the drugery:
But many newsgames are serious and aim to simulate events in a way that 404Sight doesn’t. It sits at an intersection of mainstream games and newsgames, relaying its message with allegory and a more traditional video game structure. There’s something to that intersection. I’d like to see more developers take on issues this way, to think through contemporary political problems in ways more nuanced than, “Well, how upsetting is violence against digital grandmas?”
Over at Paste, Shea Hennum checked in on two of comics’ most important releases this work, beginning with Adrian Tomine’s newest Optic Nerve installment. Like all Optic Nerve issues, it’s a “one man anthology” that has Tomine continuing some stories and playing with structure and formula in others. Shea argues that the appeal of these works isn’t strictly Tomine’s beautiful art, it’s his characters:
His characters’ lives are only seen through these quick vignettes, and everything we learn about them is gleaned entirely from obscured facial expressions. They move through the world like their shoes are made of lead, and the mesmerizing power of Tomine’s stories is that each character’s struggle to take each heavy, hard-fought step is given the weight and time it deserves. Their struggles and emotions are universal, and they serve as a mirror to the audience. His work may make some readers cringe, and that’s not why everyone reads comics. But pushing past that, there may be a rewarding experience that’s different for you than it was for me.”
Shea also reviewed Ales Kot and Will Tempest’s Material, which he claims “appears to be, the most honestly deconstructionist work in Kot’s oeuvre.” I also found it to be a strikingly honest work, and I agree with Shea’s sentiment that it’s an exceptional debut:
As far as first issues go, Material delivers something rich and challenging, something that may make some readers uncomfortable. Thankfully, it emphasizes intonation and milieu, and it doesn’t fall into the trap of more recent Image #1s, where the first issue is only ever a pitch for the second issue.”
That discomfort Shea speaks of is a big part of its value, so let’s end it with this panel, where discomfort is the punchline:
Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Loser City as well as Ovrld, where he contributes music reviews and writes a column on undiscovered Austin bands. You can also flip through his archives at Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with friends and enemies on twitter: @Nick_Hanover
