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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
Blegvad titled the character Leviathan because of the juxtaposition of bringing home a baby. Such a tiny helpless creature that's survival becomes the focus of its parents entire world: the leviathan in the cot. Similarly the strip confronts the word through Levi's eyes, and attempts to deal with a leviathan of topics and puns. Sometimes this works.
I borrowed this from a friend because it looked just my thing with its interesting art and weird concepts (weird is, in general, right up my alley). It's a collection of strips that ran in the Independent on Sunday (an English 'broadsheet') in the early 90's, shortly after the paper was founded. In the early 90's I was much too young to be reading the paper and I don't recall seeing it around the house so this book is entirely new material for me.
It's.. ok. The foreword is absolutely glowing, praising Blegvad's mix of humour and metaphysics but I think I didn't get some of the references and the ones that I did get didn't particularly impress me. There's a scene in which Hegel, 'father of dialectics', breaks down what the antithesis of Levi's stuffed bunny toy is. And, ok, it's some what absurd to see his ideas applied to a kid's toy but is that it? Is that the joke? I'm not convinced it's all that funny.
Some of the panels on word-play, such as the one below, did make me chuckle.
But it's a 'heh' rather than a full-out laugh. The strips I think worked the best were the ones that showed some whimsy and didn't take themselves too seriously.
I didn't dislike this but didn't love it either. I actually prefer Blegvad's original concept with the Stewey-style baby and his mean older sister. The weird stuff was nice but lacked a coherent theme tying everything together.
Art was simple and varied. Short-format comics meant that Blegvad tried to make use of interesting drawing styles and paneling, which is always appreciated.
Overall it's fine, not the best, not the worst.
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Below I include some of my favourite strips so you can get an idea of the variation in his style and tone.
Word play
Fill in the blanks?
Ghost ship
Tunnel vision (cringe)
I borrowed this from a friend because it looked just my thing with its interesting art and weird concepts (weird is, in general, right up my alley). It's a collection of strips that ran in the Independent on Sunday (an English 'broadsheet') in the early 90's, shortly after the paper was founded. In the early 90's I was much too young to be reading the paper and I don't recall seeing it around the house so this book is entirely new material for me.
It's.. ok. The foreword is absolutely glowing, praising Blegvad's mix of humour and metaphysics but I think I didn't get some of the references and the ones that I did get didn't particularly impress me. There's a scene in which Hegel, 'father of dialectics', breaks down what the antithesis of Levi's stuffed bunny toy is. And, ok, it's some what absurd to see his ideas applied to a kid's toy but is that it? Is that the joke? I'm not convinced it's all that funny.
Some of the panels on word-play, such as the one below, did make me chuckle.
But it's a 'heh' rather than a full-out laugh. The strips I think worked the best were the ones that showed some whimsy and didn't take themselves too seriously.
I didn't dislike this but didn't love it either. I actually prefer Blegvad's original concept with the Stewey-style baby and his mean older sister. The weird stuff was nice but lacked a coherent theme tying everything together.
Art was simple and varied. Short-format comics meant that Blegvad tried to make use of interesting drawing styles and paneling, which is always appreciated.
Overall it's fine, not the best, not the worst.
--------------------
Below I include some of my favourite strips so you can get an idea of the variation in his style and tone.
Word play
Fill in the blanks?
Ghost ship
Tunnel vision (cringe)
This was... strange. So strange that after I finished reading it, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. But after flipping through the pages a second time, I decided I liked it.
I first heard about this book here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cw171 where Neil Gaiman discusses the myth of Orpheus and the impact it has on artists. This book came up and I was pretty interested, so I picked it for my 2017 reading challenge as a book recommended by an author I love.
I'm not sure if I can recommend The Book of Leviathan. Again, it's strange. But maybe you're a fan of strange things.
I first heard about this book here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cw171 where Neil Gaiman discusses the myth of Orpheus and the impact it has on artists. This book came up and I was pretty interested, so I picked it for my 2017 reading challenge as a book recommended by an author I love.
I'm not sure if I can recommend The Book of Leviathan. Again, it's strange. But maybe you're a fan of strange things.
This was a very strange comic strip in book form. Sort of like Calvin and Hobbes with less funny and more weird philosophical stuff. Not to say it wasn't funny, but that wasn't the main point. It was sort of a metaphysical exploration of our world from the innocent and unbiased view of a child. Or something. To be honest, I feel like a decent amount of it went over my head, but it was still an enjoyable read. There were lots of philosophical and literary references, which I got just enough to realize what they were.
It was really fun at times, but it felt a bit like it was trying to be too smart. There were some strips that had obscure references that I only half got, but then there were others that were based around a pun.
So for the time investment, it was good. Some really cool ideas and good strips, but somewhat hit or miss.
It was really fun at times, but it felt a bit like it was trying to be too smart. There were some strips that had obscure references that I only half got, but then there were others that were based around a pun.
So for the time investment, it was good. Some really cool ideas and good strips, but somewhat hit or miss.
Probably the strangest comic to ever be printed in a newspaper. And yes, I am aware of "Little Nemo", "Zippy the Pinhead" and "Cathy".
The art style varies between episodes, but is always very well done. The story is all over the place, in the best way.
Recommended for advanced students of Pataphysics.
Read it while listening to "Free Salamander Exhibit".
The art style varies between episodes, but is always very well done. The story is all over the place, in the best way.
Recommended for advanced students of Pataphysics.
Read it while listening to "Free Salamander Exhibit".
I read this in The Independent when I still lived in England.
I loved it SO DAMN HARD. It was xkcd before XKCD, before Calvin and Hobbes, it was a baby experiencing life as a complete newcomer wondering what on Earth people were doing with themselves. Imagine if Kurt Vonnegut crossed Martin Gardner.
There is no way I can not recommend this book.
I loved it SO DAMN HARD. It was xkcd before XKCD, before Calvin and Hobbes, it was a baby experiencing life as a complete newcomer wondering what on Earth people were doing with themselves. Imagine if Kurt Vonnegut crossed Martin Gardner.
There is no way I can not recommend this book.