Spoils of New York

Yesterday, I went down to New York with Anita to visit the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art (MOCCA) and waste some money down at Midtown Comics. While the museum was way tinier than expected, it was still worth the trip and I recommend that anyone with an interest in Bat Man and/or Bat Manga checks out the current exhibit before it closes in late April.

Anyway I came back to PVD with three things.

Left: Acme Novelty Library No. 20 by Chris Ware. Anything Ware makes just destroys me. After I finished Jimmy Corrigan I just laid around for a day in despair. So buying this was dangerous. But, like everything by Chris Ware, ANL20 is depressing in the most beautiful and intricate ways...definitely worth picking it up if you get the chance (I won't ruin the story).


Center: The Aliens by some woman named Helen Olian. I have no idea who she is, but this early 90's book is the best one dollar I ever spent (bought this at Strand). This book is amazing. It’s full of all these really bizarre early 90s paint program cartoons, all about the same stereotypical little-green-men type aliens. From the foreward: “Helen Olian is a published cartoonist whose work has appeared in UFO mazgaine for the past several years […] Helen has exhibited a long-term commitment to the UFO mystery and an unswerving devotion to the human effort to solve this mystery and discover its cosmic core.”

My favorite pages. On the left it says "Why the aliens wear coveralls." What?!

Right: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Brian Lee O'Malley. I've always wanted to read Scott Pilgrim, but for some reason the RISD library doesn't have it. I almost expected to not like it, based on the amount of hype surrounding both the series itself and the movie adaptation (which I have in fact seen). But I really enjoyed this comic, despite of myself. Pretty harmless and fun reading, with a tolerable level of kitsch and self-consciousness. I'll be looking to read the rest of the series whenever I can...


So, despite all the down time Anita and I ended up having (we thought the museum'd take longer) I'd call the trip a resounding success. Oh, and it definitely helped that I got to eat two falafel+hummus sandwiches in one day. Can't go wrong there.