I Like Comics

Kim Deitch; Pantheon, 2002. Hardcover, 160 pages.
Special texture on the spine, really sturdy binding, super-thick white paper, color endpapers, glossy color cover, B&W interiors. Nice design inside and out by Chip Kidd and Deitch.
At press time, you can get this on Amazon for $2. List price $21.
This is a revised version of a review that was posted on the Copacetic Comics Company.

Working in underground comics since the 1960’s, Kim Deitch has created a body of work that places him, as Art Spiegelman says, among the “all-time greats.” Every story, drawing, and illustrated text in Deitch’s oevure weaves itself into an overarching narrative of incredible scope. Although Deitch’s world includes midgets, circus freaks, extraterrestrials, and demons, and strange occurrences of all kinds, the characters are always real and they always drive the story. Jim Woodring writes (in the intro to A Shroud For Waldo), “The more he draws, the more we see of previously unsuspected relationships between characters and events, relationships that go forward and backward in time and which cross the borders of many different realms which are gradually revealed to be different aspects of the same reality.” This happens as much between panels on a page and pages in a story as it does between separate books and story arcs.

Waldo is a blue cartoon cat, patterned after character designs from 1920’s cartoons. Waldo’s relationship to reality is complex. Like Mr. O’Malley from the 40’s strip Barnaby, he exists “kind of on the edge of things” and is only visible to certain people. He is, according to a model sheet, “a bad ass… smart, lazy… thoroughly corrupt… occasionally guilty of an act of kindness,” like an urban Bugs Bunny. Ted Mishkin, a visionary animator at the Fontaine Fables with alcohol problems, is the only person who sees Waldo. He has a crush on his coworker, Lillian Freer, who is secretly sleeping with his brother, Al Mishkin. Fred Fontaine and Al run the studio. Other characters are Winsor Newton, a Winsor McCay- esque character, who instructs and inspires Ted and Lillian; Jack Shick, the new executive in charge of “changing the look” to a corny, profitable Disney color style; and Nate Mishkin, Al’s estranged son. Waldo the cat is present throughout the narrative in a complex relationship with the Mishkins.

Because of many recent works by such artists as R. Crumb, Seth, Julie Doucet, Chester Brown and Joe Matt to name a few, many readers have stereotyped alternative comics as a field dominated by self-absorbed, confessional autobiographers who have nothing to talk about besides their relationships, crappy jobs, and private fantasies. Kim Deitch, however, does not come close to fitting into that category. His wholly fictional story runs from the 1910s until 1994, and it includes, as Waldo World #1’s cover states, “Comedy! Romance! Adventure!” in the style of 1920’s serials. Jim Woodring calls the title story a “masterpiece” that contains “one of the most frighteningly effective emotional climaxes ever achieved in the medium.”

Kim Deitch’s art deserves an essay in itself. His use of parallel lines for shading may take a little effort for the reader, but once you are in, you will wonder how you ever thought it was hard to read or unclear. Thoughts are made clear by the facial expressions. His style is strongly influenced by old Fleisher cartoons; panels can include up to fifteen individual faces, all belonging to characters with their own evident personalities. And his layouts are some of the most innovative that have ever been seen in comics, but his innovations always exist to tell the story.

The stories collected in this book are “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (in Raw v2n3 and a FBI one-shot), “The Mishkin File” (FBI one-shot), and “Waldo World” (three-issue miniseries), all originally printed in the early 90’s.
The book design on Boulevard was a little disappointing. I think it would have flowed better as a book if Deitch had created a table of contents, cover page for each section, page numbering, etc. However, the extensive redraws (compare the final scene with the last pages of Waldo World #3), the hand-drawn title page and dedication, the pleasure that come from holding the whole saga in one’s hands, the gorgeous paper and binding, all these things make the book worthwhile.

-Yakov Chodosh.

Other articles (R=review, I=interview, A=other type of article):
(R) Chris Lanier / Animation World Network
(I) Jeffrey Ford / Fantastic Metropolis
(A) L. Smith / Outcault and Buster Brown and Kim Deitch
(R) Andrew Arnold / Time.com