The only set schedule most of us keep is, work on your comics when you’re not at work. Helping hyperactive kids make pottery all day must infuse Colleen Frakes with the energy of all the kids in the Upper Valley.
Colleen has more finished comics after two years here than — I don’t even care to guess — the rest of us combined probably, if you did the math. She had three issues of Tragic Relief (#2 seller at iknowjoekimpel.com) out in the same number of months. Thick comic filled books. She tells a damn good story in them, with drawings a lot more calculated and complicated than they look. Her effort for Sunday’s is in her preferred vein — mythological, folkloric stories about loss, life’s unfair bent, and larger than life characters.
It’s happened three times. I’ve come into CCS’s lab, late at night, and seen originals that someone left laying around. I don’t always look at them, but these three times, something about their exacting smoothness was apparent from far away. Soon, I was just standing over, staring. The first time, Sean or Chuck came down, saw me staring, and said, “Oh, wow, who’s are those?”
“They must be Rich’s.”
Those were pages he was scanning for the Satchel Paige book. The second was some doodle of Santa Claus or something, for a school benefit, on a scrap of paper. Both — one finished art for Hyperion, one dashed off probably for some kid — had the same quality, the same perfect line — like Chris Ware reduced to get the bumps and shakes out. The third time was a print out of his Sunday’s page for us.
It’s about Norse Mythology. Striking, because it’s about the creation of the world, but told on one page, with drawings so tiny and delicate that the force they contain is off putting. The drawings remind of a story by Steven Millhauser about a miniaturist, in the court of the emperor, some dynasties ago, who keeps constructing smaller and smaller miniatures until even he, through the most powerful lenses, can’t see what he’s working on. Only, he perceives the lines he’s carving, and the pieces he’s gluing together, and he knows that it’s his best work yet.
Rich has published many of his books through Fantagraphics, and has done work for all the other top alternative comics publishers. His books include, Clover Honey, The Horror of Collier County, Perverso, 8 1/2 Ghosts, and the upcoming Miriam, through Alternative Comics. Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, the book he just completed with James Sturm, will be out through Hyperion in December. You can find most of his books over at I Know Joe Kimpel and, of course, Amazon.com.
Before I get into the meat of this post I just want to mention that the latest episode of Indie Spinner Rack just went live that features interviews with students from The Center for Cartoon Studies. I believe Sundays is discussed on the episode so maybe that’s how you wound up here anyway. Also mentioned are our friends at IKJK where Sundays will be available to buy after the MoCCA Festival.
This is the first of many posts you will find here profiling the various contributors to Sundays. First up, is Sam Gaskin. A recent graduate of the first class at CCS and winner of a Xeric Grant to publish his book, Pizza Wizard. Sam also has self published 4 issues of his comic Faux-Pas, of which #4 is still available on IKJK. It was quite a pleasure to see Sam’s Pizza Wizard comics come into form throughout the last year at CCS. I can’t wait to read the final book when it is printed. I believe that he will have it in time for MoCCA. Mr. Gaskin has generously given one of his Pizza Wizard pages to Sundays and we are damned happy to have it in our book. Pizza Wizard fits in so perfectly with the theme of Sundays that it was only right and natural to invite him along. Sam is super talented and definitely one to keep your eye on in the coming years. Here’s to Sam!!
Stay tuned for more posts from the Sundays editorial staff…
