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jekutree's review
5.0
So Rubber Blanket number 1 is great, especially as a die hard Mazz fan. But I wanted to use this review as a place to talk about why this book is so important in his bibliography.
David Mazzuchelli is a guy that got his start at Marvel comics. His first ever published issue was a Shang Chi book, a series known for its highly kinetic art. But he didn’t really achieve greatness until his collaborations with Frank Miller. Frank Miller’s most acclaimed not drawn by himself work is with Mazzuchelli. Both Batman Year One and Daredevil Born Again are highly successful works, both critically and financially. They continue to be talked about reprinted to this day 30 years later. So what did he do after this? He did one more story for Marvel (Marvel Fanfare #40) and then disappeared altogether.
Inspired by the works of cartoonists like Art Spiegelman, he decided to dive down into the underground. With the colorist from Batman Year One, Mazzuchelli launched Rubber Blanket in 1991 after not putting anything out for quite some time. It was a sharp turn from his superhero work and was way more intimate, personal and abstract. This is the start of the second half of his career. Rubber Blanket marks the turn of this creator into very creatively fulfilling work. From this point, David Mazzuchelli experiments and pushes the comics medium to its breaking point with works like “City of Glass” and later “Asterios Polyp”. But he also did plenty of comics anthologies throughout the 90’s, publishing killer short story after killer short story. Highlights from this point in his career include “Phobia” from Snake Eyes issue 3 (published by Fantagraphics) and “Rates it Exchange” from Drawn And Quarterly Monthly volume 2 issue 2. Both of these stories are fantastic meditations on society as a whole, “Phobia” touches on the sexist tropes of noir and “Rates of Exchange” is just a deeply human story at its heart. It features a man staying in a hotel in France and documents the people he sees and the memories he has of other countries.
David Mazzuchelli’s career path is admirable. He could’ve stayed in the limelight and continued to pump out stellar superhero work. His stylized and kinetic style likely would’ve made him an all time great in the eyes of mainstream comics audiences. I mean, his style is already massively influential to modern greats like David Aja and Jorge Fornes. But Mazzuchelli rejected fame and prestige and decided to forge his own path in the medium. He created what he wanted to create and bowed to nobody. Part of me wishes he would get mainstream recognition. I think he’s a genius and he deserves it. But if he went that path, I don’t think we would’ve had the intelligent boundary pushing artist we have today.
David Mazzuchelli is a guy that got his start at Marvel comics. His first ever published issue was a Shang Chi book, a series known for its highly kinetic art. But he didn’t really achieve greatness until his collaborations with Frank Miller. Frank Miller’s most acclaimed not drawn by himself work is with Mazzuchelli. Both Batman Year One and Daredevil Born Again are highly successful works, both critically and financially. They continue to be talked about reprinted to this day 30 years later. So what did he do after this? He did one more story for Marvel (Marvel Fanfare #40) and then disappeared altogether.
Inspired by the works of cartoonists like Art Spiegelman, he decided to dive down into the underground. With the colorist from Batman Year One, Mazzuchelli launched Rubber Blanket in 1991 after not putting anything out for quite some time. It was a sharp turn from his superhero work and was way more intimate, personal and abstract. This is the start of the second half of his career. Rubber Blanket marks the turn of this creator into very creatively fulfilling work. From this point, David Mazzuchelli experiments and pushes the comics medium to its breaking point with works like “City of Glass” and later “Asterios Polyp”. But he also did plenty of comics anthologies throughout the 90’s, publishing killer short story after killer short story. Highlights from this point in his career include “Phobia” from Snake Eyes issue 3 (published by Fantagraphics) and “Rates it Exchange” from Drawn And Quarterly Monthly volume 2 issue 2. Both of these stories are fantastic meditations on society as a whole, “Phobia” touches on the sexist tropes of noir and “Rates of Exchange” is just a deeply human story at its heart. It features a man staying in a hotel in France and documents the people he sees and the memories he has of other countries.
David Mazzuchelli’s career path is admirable. He could’ve stayed in the limelight and continued to pump out stellar superhero work. His stylized and kinetic style likely would’ve made him an all time great in the eyes of mainstream comics audiences. I mean, his style is already massively influential to modern greats like David Aja and Jorge Fornes. But Mazzuchelli rejected fame and prestige and decided to forge his own path in the medium. He created what he wanted to create and bowed to nobody. Part of me wishes he would get mainstream recognition. I think he’s a genius and he deserves it. But if he went that path, I don’t think we would’ve had the intelligent boundary pushing artist we have today.
jekutree's review against another edition
5.0
I waited so long to read this, worth the wait. Now reading these and City of Glass, everything in Asterios Polyp makes sense. His whole career was him building up his tools to make that book.
GOAT
GOAT
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