Recommended Reading

The latest issue of Comic Art features extensive articles on three different artists, Richard McGuire, Drew Freidman and Jim Starlin, but the coverage retains the same quality for all three: enriching. Chris Ware praises McGuire, who is later interviewed, but the real draw is that his comic "Here," which first ran in one of the digest-sized issues of RAW, gets a nice big presentation. It's one of the best strips I have ever read, telling a story you can only tell in comics. McGuire's work is scarce so I'm thankful Comic Art provides so much information and insight into a rare talent.

The Freidman article is basically a mini-biography on the greatest carciturist alive. It goes over everything from the artist's obsession with obscure film stars like Rondo Hatton, being a student of Harvey Kurtzman and Will Eisner, what New York City was like in the late-'70s/early-'80s and how to raise the ire of Woody Allen. Freidman's sense of pop culture permeates today in way it never did when he was starting out but that just makes books like Warts and All more of a revelation.

Finally, I really enjoyed my Publishers Weekly Comics Week colleague Douglas Wolk's article on Jim Starlin's Warlock run. These are some the strangest and greatest comic a mainstream company released in the 1970s and deserved the examination Wolk gives them. Anyone who is fan of the weird world of 70s Marvel (which seems to be no small group when you consider the latest "Essential" volumes) would do themselves a favor checking out this article.

All that and a little book of Seth's work. It's great stuff, buy this damn magazine.