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Jon McNaught




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Pebble Island Jon McNaught NoBrow $18.00
($18.00 list)
Pebbleisland
Read more and comment... 		Here it is:  another precise yet elegiac evocation of the quotidian in comics form from the surprising Jon McNaught.  This quiet controlled volume  follows his masterful Birchfield Close (as well as what is, in our opinion, his most singularly impressive work, his seven-page contribution to Graphic Cosmogony, "Pilgrims."), also published by the London-based NoBrow Publications.  Pebble Island, as its title suggests, presents us with the quiet rhythms of Island life. First off is a simple childhood memory, the presentation of which says so much more than just, "this is what happened."  Next up is a small series of single images that form a guided tour of island sites that combines the whimsy of early Rick Geary with the melancholy of Seth.  The volume closes with a dense, rhythmic meditation on the intersection of artificial and natural spectacle.  McNaught is a master of employing the page layout grid to weight each image with its proper proportion of time and space, as well as its proper location within the series, to create the ideal balance between the elements of each piece and so create the sense of a natural unfolding.
Birchfield Close Jon McNaught NoBrow $18.00
($18.00 list)
Birchfieldclose
Read more and comment... 		McNaught's contribution to the aforementioned A Graphic Cosmogony, "Pilgrims," was one of the real standouts, and his Birchfield Close is a masterpiece in miniature. There is a lot going on in this slim, 5" x 7" hardcover.  First and foremost, there is a wholly successful evocation of the modern condition that reveals a heretofore unrecognized potential for visual poetry in suburban tract housing. This is no small achievement.  It is accomplished through a highly disciplined use of the two-color palette in combination with a real tour de force in layout.  Connoisseurs of the comics grid will find themselves returning to this work over and over again simply to marvel at its majestic overall form, as well as the subtle rhythms that are delicately woven throughout.  Birchfield Close is a veritable definition of "deceptively simple."  What at first glance appears a bunch of squares and rectangles filled with rudimentary drawing, will, when given the attention it is due, come alive and fill the reader with wonder.  Check it out at Mr. McNaught's page devoted to it. 
A Graphic Cosmogony Brecht Vandenbroucke, Luke Best, Rob Hunter, Jon McNaught and more ... NoBrow $29.95
($29.95 list)
Graphiccosmogony
Read more and comment... 		<<•>> edited by Alex Spiro; introduction by Paul Gravett <<•>> art by Stuart Kolakovic, Mikkel Sommers, Brecht Vandenbroucke, Luke Best, Rob Hunter, Jon McNaught, Ben Newman, Andrew Rae, Luke Pearson, Jack Teagle, Jon Boam, Jakob Hindrichs, Clayton Junior, Daniel Locke, Isabel Greenberg, Mike Bertino, Nick White, Rui Tenreiro, Sean Hudson, Luc Melanson, Katia Fouquet, Yeji Yun, Matthew Lyons & Liesbeth De Stercke  <<•>>  The fine folks at the London-based NoBrow Ltd. have produced their first anthology, and it's a doozy!  Editor, Alex Spiro has assembled twenty-four artists and, with a nod to The Book of Genesis, asked each of them to "take on seven pages to tell their tales of the creation of everything."  As those who are familiar with the NoBrow works on display here at Copacetic already know, their publications are finely crafted and produced in an engaged, hands-on manner, in keeping with the company's stated aim "to place a renewed focus on quality in print."  The company maintains a special focus on hand-separated planes of flat color that gives their entire catalogue a wholly unique feel, and now, with A Graphic Cosmogony, they have produced an amazing 176 page hardcover volume – by a large margin the most ambitious assemblage they have yet to produce – that will pop your eyes out and knock your socks off!  It's hot off the press and it's here.  Check it out.  NOW AT A NEW LOWER PRICE! (courtesy NoBrow's new US distributor).