Dave Eggers would kick Ziggy’s ass
Posted on 16. Apr, 2010 by jessekg in Pop Culture, Uncategorized, comics, media
For some reason I’ve always had this hate on for Dave Eggers. Well, I guess there is a reason, just as much as their is a reason to hate Bono’s face – it’s everywhere, or at least was for the most part of the aughts (for the record, that is the first time I have used that word, as well as the last). But unlike my hate for Bono, which is based on a combination of him and his music being annoying, I have read, listened to and watched very little of Egger’s vast multitude of projects – and the few that I have, I’ve liked. The San Francisco Panorama, the 300-some odd page one time newspaper put out by Egger’s publishing factory, McSweeney’s, is one of those.
Released in December with a limited initial run of 20,000 copies (which was also limited to the San Fran area), people are still writing things about Panorama for a few reasons: It’s taken them this long to find it, and it’s taken them this long to read it. I found mine about a month ago and have yet to crack the inner sections.
Generally I liked the newspaper but really didn’t see how it was reflecting the unused potential of the medium, except for the fact that the lay out was closer to a magazine’s. The content was really good (good enough that they had to print another 20,000 copies to meet demand), but they also had a few months to put this together; comparing it to a daily or weekly seems hardly fair. But then I got the comics section and all of Egger’s ubiquitous pretensions just disappeared. Here was 14 full-colour broadsheet pages of ink, speech bubbles and words like SPUK! spelled out in funny bubble letters. I don’t know a lot about comics, but even I recognized some of the artists: Seth, Chris Ware (who does the monthly cartoon in Maissonueve mag, which I subscribe to but can never spell the first time), and none other than the pulitzer prize winning New Yorker cartoonist Art Spiegelman.
I wish I wasn’t so lazy because I would gladly scan some of these great comics, like Adrian Tomine‘s Optic Nerve, which is hilarious and mature and sort of like the Watchmen if it didn’t take itself so seriously. But like I said, lazy. That is probably for the best though because Panorama isn’t online for a reason – you actually have to buy it and read it like an old school newspaper. At $20 in most independent bookstores, it’s some expensive newsprint too, but the well worth it for those interested (no I did not get reimbursed my $20 for saying that either). The first thing that struck me about the comics is that they were original, although that might be the wrong word. Ziggy, that depressed, introverted little weenie, was original, but he’s been syndicated so far and wide that the only face more annoying than his is, well, Bono’s (as mentioned before). Actually, if Bono, in between his philanthroping, counting to four in Spanish and singing cheese ball rock songs, started ruminating out loud on the funny little things in life, he could possibly be the most annoying individual in the history of Earth. Oh wait, he does do that too.
Anyways, enough about Ziggy and Bono, and more about good comics. The only actual real newspaper I have seen attempt to do this has been the National Post, and that was very short lived. A full page of original comics was in every weekend edition, and it seemed to last for a couple of months before being cutback significantly and spread out. Actually, the only regular comic from the short lived section seems to be Steve Murray’s Posties. Alongside his equally as funny Extremely Bad Advice weekly column, he could be the only Canadian cartoonist who is actually publishing fresh, original comics on a weekly basis. Kudos to the Post for doing this, as well as to the Panorama for trying to point out that if newspapers would just allow the space, there are a lot of talented local cartoonists out there whose characters haven’t been telling the same jokes for the last 40 years.
photo of Panorama via
UPDATE: In terms of working cartoonists, I somehow forgot about Gary Clement, also at the Post. I’m sure I’m missing more though.
