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Mark Newgarden




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
The Ganzfeld #4 C. F., Paper Rad, David Sandlin, Frank Santoro and more ... PictureBox The Ganzfeld $25.00
($29.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		The Ganzfeld No. 4: Art History? Two years in the making, the latest issue of the Ganzfeld is finally on our shelves!  It starts out with a wraparound cover and end papers by the high priestess of Canadian comics, Julie Doucet, and doesn't let up .  After the lead off introductions by editor, Dan Nadel and artist extraordinaire, Peter Blegvad, the book is divided up into four sections of approximately equal length.  In the first, Art History, you'll discover a lot that you hadn't know that you needed to know but will be glad to learn, including the secret history of the enigmatic cover art for Led Zeppelin's Presence that's always been a nagging question mark lurking in a back alley of your consciousness ever since you first saw it back in 1976.  Next up is Drawings, by the recognized hepsters Gary Panter and Mark Newgarden, as well as others whose art you are far less likely to have previously come into contact with; but now will!  Artists on Art is an intriguing, highly engaging and fairly unique feature which presents artists on art in art:  David Sandlin's 18-page, lushly colored piece on H.C. Westermann is a tour de force of admiration, while Marc Bell's Ph.D.-thesis-in-comics-form provides a fresh, delightful and direct access to the work of Philip Guston that will be much appreciated by many.  And then, finally, there's the Comics.  This section starts off,  semi-miraculously, with a six-page walking tour of Pittsburgh, both real and dreamed -- as a place on the map and as a state of mind -- by peripatetic former resident, Frank Santoro, and continues with fine work by Paper Rad, Leif Goldberg, Ted Stearn, Matthew Thurber, Jim Drain, Mark Newgarden, and a wild and wooly journey to the center of the mind by "C.F."  The centerpiece is the amazing 22-page, "Ganmodoki," a piece from the late, surrealist period of Japanese manga legend, Shigeru Sugiura.  And there you have it.
We All Die Alone Mark Newgarden $25.00
($28.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Well, we're not quite sure if we could get away with saying this one's a joy to read, but it is funny... in a brutal, dark, depressing sort of way.  And -- with all due credit to designer Helene Silverman and editor Dan Nadel (of The Ganzfeld fame) -- it is a finely crafted work as well. We All Die Alone is humor for the thinking man.  Well, it's probably more accurate to say that We All Die Alone is humor for the man who thinks too much for his own good.   Selections from  nearly three decades of work are herein collected.  The highlights include Newgarden's amazing tribute to the art of Ernie Bushmiller, "Love's Savage Fury", a meditation on the nature and meaning of branding (the commercial variety) -- "Em" -- and a selection of Newgarden's greatest creation, "The Little Nun."
McSweeney's #13 Mark Beyer, Ivan Brunetti, Kaz, Art Spiegelman and more ... McSweeney's McSweeney's $20.00
($24.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Finally, it's here:  the most anticipated release of 2004 (so far).  Striving for objet d'art status, McSweeney's 13 comes as close as any comics release to attaining it.  Starting with a dust jacket that folds out into a two sided comics poster: the outer side featuring a dense full color, 360º narrative by editor and comics fiend, Chris Ware; the inner side featuring a vaguely ceremonial (think Mayan) worshipping of the idols of comics by Gary Panter.  But there's more:  tucked into the folds of this dust-jacket-cum-suitable-for-framing-wall-art are two mini-comics commissioned especially for this issue; one -- in full color -- by Ron Rege, Jr., and the other in B & W (as it should be) by long time mini-master, John Porcellino.  And that's just the dust jacket!  Moving on to the front and back binding plates (the hard covers beneath the dust jacket), we have a hundred or so images culled from a 1936 guide to cartooning separated by a lavishly embossed spine. The end papers are by Ivan Brunetti, and feature a wallpaper of minimalistic renditions of his personal comics and cartoon hall of fame.  And, finally, there is the contents of the book itself.  The subject of much speculation as to whether it would be reprints or newly commissioned work, the answer is... Both!  About half and half, depending on how you look at it.  Here's how it breaks down:  Some of the work has appeared in non-comics periodicals, but is collected herein for the first time.  Under this category are Mark Beyer, Ivan Brunetti, Kaz, Art Spiegelman (although his pieces are being reprinted everywhere at this point) and some of the pieces by Chris Ware.  Straight out reprints are the inclusions by Charles Burns (although the frontispiece is new), Chester Brown, Debbie Drechsler, Jaime and Gilberto Hernandez, Mark Newgarden, Archer Prewitt, Joe Sacco, Richard Sala (newly colored, however), Seth, and Adrian Tomine.  New to us -- and therefore, we imagine, new to you as well --  are the works by Lynda Barry, Jeffrey Brown, Dan Clowes, David Collier, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch, Julie Doucet, David Heatley, Ben Katchor, Joe Matt, Richard McGuire, Gary Panter, some of the Chris Ware, and of course the aforementioned dust-jacket and minis.  In addition to all this contemporary work, there are selections of classic and archival work sprinkled throughout: First and foremost among these is a 15-page spread on "the inventor of comics," Rodolphe Töpfler, and his first appearance in America, introduced by Chris Ware; an 80% reproduction of an original 1922 Mutt and Jeff daily strip by Bud Fisher that takes four pages to display (which gives you an idea of how big they drew comics back then!); and a nine page spread on George Herriman, introduced by Tim Samuelson and featuring Herriman's last Krazy Kat dailies, also reproduced from the originals.  And, as if this weren't enough, there are two appreciations by Chris Ware, one of the abstract-expressionist-turned-representational-painter-with-a-personal-affinity-for-comics-iconography, Philip Guston, and the other of Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz.  In addition there is a critical appreciation of comics from John Updike, and nostalgiac/elegiac remembrances of comics related experiences by Glen David Gold, Malachi Cohen, and Chip Kidd.  The volume opens with a preface from Ira Glass, followed by an introduction by Chris Ware, who, when all is said and done, is clearly more than simply the editor of this work.  This is a great piece, especially when you consider it's primary purpose:  preaching to the unconverted, those countless, teeming millions out there in America and beyond who don't locate the foundation of their identity in comics.  With this volume, McSweeney's begins a new ambitious distribution arrangement with Publisher's Group West in the USA and Penguin Books in the UK; thereby bringing their publications before a great many more potential readers.  They couldn't have chosen a better volume to initiate this venture.  Let's wish them luck.