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John Pham




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Sublife #2 John Pham Fantagraphics Sublife $7.00
($7.95 list)
Sublife2
Read more and comment... 		The creator of the Procrastonauts™ clearly knows whereof he speaks, as he takes his time getting things done; but when he finally gets around to delivering, it's always worth the wait.  This has never been more true than with this, the second issue of Sublife.  If there's another work currently on the shelves that's more jam-packed with the wholesome goodness of fine comics, then we don't know about it.  With the exception of two blank pages that are required to properly demarcate the respective narrative spaces of discrete stories, and which, serving as such, can be considered as aesthetically necessary, this fine objet d'art is brimming over with comics to savor.  Starting off with the literally groovy front and back covers, all content contained in this horizontally fomatted, squarebound, 52-page, two-color work of comics art is presented in a formally integrated fashion.  Pham uses his format to great advantage, exploiting its ability to emphasize both the vertical and the horizontal axes.  As soon as the reader opens the book, it needs to be rotated 90º, which presents a strongly vertical space, in which is first encountered a series of horizontal "daily" strips, folllowed by a truly cosmic saga that makes very good use of this vertical orientation.  We are then taken back down to earth by rotating back to the horizontal for a sedately paced tale, then rotate once more to a single vertical spread relating saints and school days, before again going back to the horizontal for a lengthy, rough-and-tumble Mad Max-esque tale that is reproduced from commensurately tough-and-tumble pencils, before everything is wrapped up on the inside back cover, back in the vertical, with a single, full page "Sunday" strip.  Don't leave 2009 behind you without reading this!
MOME #2 John Pham, Paul Hornschemeier, Jeffrey Brown, David Heatley and more ... Fantagraphics MOME $13.50
($14.95 list)
Mome2
Read more and comment... 		It's finally here, after a regrettable delay:  the second issue of the most engaging regularly published comics anthology currently on the market.  This issue continues to meet the high standards set by the first issue and includes the entire roster of contributors.  Highlight:  Jeffrey Brown redeems his shallow submission to the first issue by turning in one of his best pieces to date.  Recommended!  To learn more about MOME, please visit our MOME 1 page. 
Sublife #1 John Pham Fantagraphics $8.00
($8.99 list)
Sublifebig
Read more and comment... 		The elusive John Pham has re-emerged at last, with his first solo outing in quite a while.  Years in the making, this first volume of Sublife presents "221 Sycamore St."  While approximately half of these strips -- by our reckoning -- originally appeared in MOME a couple years back, they only now receive their proper context in the contrapuntal arrangement they receive here.  The 64-page piece is structured as an interlinked series of vignettes, each focusing on one of the occupants residing at the titular address, which, taken together, provide a compelling -- if dismal -- portrait of urban life.  As an added bonus, the inside front and back covers provide an episode of "Deep Space," featuring Caption Joe Ho and Commander Dave Wallach, that serves as an ironic bracket for "221."  Pham is a singular talent whose work clearly demonstrates that he is on top of current developments in the art and science of comics. He has produced precious little work, but that which he has produced puts him comfortably in the company of his contemporaries such as Jordan Crane, Sammy Harkham, Paul Hornschemeier, Kevin Huizenga and  Anders Nilson, at the same time as showing ample evidence of his having absorbed lessons to be found in the work of Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware.  Sublife is carefully planned, deliberately composed, beautifully drawn and delicately colored in a palette of teal and peach. Pham has marshaled his energies here to show lives of quiet desperation:  lost, drifting, misinformed, deluded or in denial, the characters that populate this southern Californian address are hounded by a reality over which they have no control, but Pham's artistry makes it clear that they serve as reflections of our own lives in this difficult time.
MOME #4 Gary Groth, Paul Hornschemeier, Sophie Crumb, R. Kikuo Johnson and more ... Fantagraphics MOME $12.75
($14.95 list)
Mome4
Read more and comment... 		Another great issue of the comics anthology you can't afford to miss is now on our shelves.  The highlight of this issue is another wonderful mythical/historical comics novella by David B., "The Veiled Prophet."  Also on offer are a great new story by Martin Cendreda, "La Brea Woman" that shows him moving in a new direction.  And the gang's all here:  John Pham returns to 221 Sycamore Avenue to provide the cover along with the dream landscape of a high school teacher and his family; Sophie Crumb returns with more tales of street urchins on drugs, Jonathan Bennet and Gabrielle Bell take deft turns at depicting urban melancholy; Jeffrey Brown steps out of his comfort zone and turns in an atypical (and metaphorical) tale of existential angst; and David Heatley, Paul Hornschemeier, Anders Nilsen, Kurt Wolfgang and R. Kikuo Johnson each do their thing and do it well, rounding out another issue where everything is good!