These Things Happen volume 3

By Sam Carbaugh

www.samcarbaugh.com

This is a flip comic, with two different stories that are, in part, inspired by The Yellow Wallpaper. (Just reading that wikipedia article kind of depressed me.) One half of the comic (the one with the blue cover) features a story about an old man thinking about his dead wife. The other half features a cover that has nothing to do with the contents. Instead the story is about a woman who is confined to her bed by her husband for some unnamed malady. She attempts to hide the fact that she is writing, but according to him even that is too much strain upon her.

The story isn't that long and I wasn't sure if the woman actually was physically sick, if it was somehow psychological, or if it was being induced by her husband. It's not clearly spelled out, and I think that's part of Carbaugh's plan. It made me kind of uncomfortable as I wasn't sure what to think of the characters in here. So, um, I guess it succeeded on that front.

The art in both stories features people becoming totally overcome by their own negative thoughts. It's a cool way to show how isolated people can become inside of their own minds. It's also a visual effect that wouldn't be possible to do in prose, and so is a sign of how comics can do awesome things that other mediums can't!

Sorry Sheets

By Eroyn Franklin

eroynfranklin.com

This comic makes me sad. It seems to be about the end of a relationship. A relationship that has actually been over for a long time, but the people involved in it are still living together (at least at the beginning).

The comic is mostly silent, and deals with really minor things. There's no big argument or major event or anything like that, but the absolute lack of positive emotions between the two characters is kind of distressing. I could almost feel the contempt and helplessness of the characters dripping off the page. It makes me sad that people stay in unhealthy relationships like this!

Of course I guess it's possible that I have completely misinterpreted this entire comic.

Alas Fair Sailor All is Lost

By Lee McClure

This is, oh gosh, this is an incredibly depressing comic. It’s well drawn for sure, but I really cannot recommend you read it as it just seems to be existential despair.

The story follows a sailor, and his pet monkey, as they sail through a seemingly unending sea. Though, I guess if you’re in a small boat the sea is going to seem unending because it’ll take you ages and ages to get across it. Storywise not much really happens (unless I spoil the ending), but it’s all about setting a mood. A mood of terrible depression.

Artistically this comic is much more inspiring. Each “panel” is actually a circle without any distinct border. McClure has filled the panels with cross hatching and lines so as to create the idea of a circle without actually drawing one. The art is really detailed (it must have taken ages!), though isn’t in a photorealistic style or anything like that. It also manages to accomplish a lot with a very limited setting. Plus there are some really good drawings of monkeys.

Um, so yeah, if you really like the art below, or enjoy being depressed by the futility of existence, then check out this comic. If not, well, I don’t really blame you.

i live in a fukt up! society three

It’s things photocopied out of newspapers! Headlines, articles, some photos, infographics and stuff.

Some of the pictures are good (there’s clearly a reason why they were cut out and photocopied), but the articles generally fall into the category of “depressing”. Hmm, I guess that’s why this zine is called what it’s called.

I generally “read” the paper every day. This usually means I ignore pretty much anything about politics or politicians because I find them incredibly boring and disheartening. They’re either saying stuff I violently disagree with, or proposing ideas I like but that I don’t think have any chance in hell of actually happening.

The rest of the paper is much the same, horrible things happening to people. Except that they don’t even mention places where real horrible things are happening (ie. Africa) unless it’s super major important, but even that will probably get bumped if there is some sort of local scandal.

Perhaps I am just too cynical and jaded, but I’m honestly not sure if the world can even get better at this point. What do you think?

So what do I read? Headlines, opening paragraphs to stories, “interesting” stories, some of the arts coverage, letters in the sports section that complain every week that there is no coverage of female athletes. I’m honestly sort of drawing a blank on what I do read, which indicates that most of it doesn't leave any sort of mark in my brain at all. Blah.