It took a minute, but Fielder #4, the latest from Kevin Huizenga, is now in stock at Copacetic!  This is a comics magazine with artistic and intellectual heft to it;  as well as physical – the cover and paper stocks are both sturdier and stonger than the norm, which is a good call, as this is a work that is likely to be subjected to repeated reads.

This issue is primarily focused on – and is particularly strong in –  observational cartooning.  No one turns the mind inside out and shows the mechanics of its inner workings in comics form better than Huizenga.  The ongoing chatter and endless micro-decisions that make up our day-to-day inner lives are depicted in situ as our hero, Glenn Ganges ponders the nature of reality, debates various routes and shortcuts, remembers choices made and the processes employed, all while he strolls, meanders, and otherwise directs his feet along the pathways and byways of the mythical midwestern pen & ink locale of Fielder, Michiana. 

In the climactic central sequence, Huizenga proves once again the unique expressive and communicative power of comics by pithily conveying how truly apt the thought cloud symbol is, revealing the parallels in structure and dynamics between the meanderings of thought in the mind and the meanderings and condensations of moisture in the atmosphere.  Something that is well worth pondering – and in so doing, creating thought clouds of one's own.

The issue concludes with an affectionate homage to the (somewhat esoteric) world of fast pitch softball and the continuing saga of... Bona!

Fielder #4 is a work worth savoring, and to return to again and again...