| King Cat: John Porcellino |
Links: ZUM!: |
"This afternoon I read a King-Cat comic by John Porcellino. I liked the cover. I thought the first story Like a Dream was pretty nice. Kind of poetic, like a little haiku with pictures or something*."
*actual thoughts.
And then I read the next story. It was called Haircutting Time or something. It's like a true story of when John's eighteen or whatever. All his friends were called John too, which was pretty funny. Though sometimes it would be a bummer too, I guess.
There's some kind of anecdotal memories and stuff. Like when they go to this gig and Chuck Berry plays on stage, but he's like, totally wasted. It was amusing in a depressing kind of way*.
*actual words.
At first I thought, like, this is really simple and pretty nice. Even though nothing really happens anyway. But it's kind of poignant in a confused kind of way. I guess.
And it's been this way for, like, ever and ever and stuff. Or 52 comics I guess*."
*actual inertia.
Well it seems that everyone likes King-Cat comics, which is fair enough. It's pretty good!
John Porcellino is better at this comics business than he'd like to admit. There's some good 'cinematography' going on in his panels, but because it's drawn in his ridiculously dumbed-down style, I'm afraid it doesn't hit the mark for me at all.
The problem is I just don't care enough about King-Cat Comics. There's no alchemy in at work; John P may be hitting his mid-thirties, but he's still peddling these naively drawn 'coming of age' stories. After 50 comics or so, maybe it's time to move on.
The best thing about this issue, is the aforementioned 'Haiku' style comics.
Still simple but John P's trying harder here and showing what a damn fine cartoonist
he really is. It's got that genuine magic that the rest of the comic hints at
but stifles in the long-winded, retarded seeming yawn that Porcellino, sadly,
settles for.
Mardou
King Cat #56© John Porcellino
The first thing that caught me about this title is the number of issues it seems to have had. This issue is number 56, which if you're a self published comic book collector or you do a title yourself, you will know is a pretty good accomplishment. I would like to have had a look at past issues as it may have made this title more coherent to read. The art is a little James Kochalka-esq, which is not a bad thing, but the lack of detail in the backgrounds makes it hard to see where the characters are and what they are doing.The story seems to follow a group of high school friends in some suburb of America and the things that happen to them over a couple of days. One couple listens to the Beatles White Album and then they go on to a local fair. Then a couple gets dressed up for Halloween and two other people get into a fight. All these little events are broken up by spontaneous games of American Football in the street, but to be honest it was a little hard to tell which characters were which.
To me the most important part of any comic book is the ability to tell a story: to move the characters from A to B to C. Yet with this issue the characters and situations just jump around way too much and it left me feeling more than a little confused. There are 22 pages of the main story then after that a letters column called Catcalls. From reading the letters they seem to be more about what the writer of the letter did the other day, for example "I went for a walk" and "I listened to that album." Nothing really to do with past issues, or anything for that matter. Which leads me to think they were probably written by a friend of John Porcellino rather than by an actual fan of the comic. The real treat of this comic however is a one page strip on the inside back cover about a bee called Busy Bee which is also written by John Porcellino. I thought this was great, really sweet and really simple, and the art was a lot better than in the main story. It's a shame that the main story isn't has good as the simple little bee story in the back.
King-Cat and Other Stories is worth checking out if only for the bee story.
Dave Golding
King Cat #57 © John Porcellino
Yes, Yes, I was most excited when I realised I was going
to get to review King Cat! As you can maybe tell, it is one of my very favourite
things, so this review is going to be in no way objective, but then very little
is in this world.
There's always something really touching about John Porcellino's drawing.
The child like simplicity of it passes over you and wraps you up in half forgotten
innocence. In the first story this sense of wonderment I'm rambling about appears
as John sees a clear sky on a warm spring evening, watches his cat through the
window, then the rain falls and it brings out tiny insects that go "zha". It's
all quite lovely really.
He follows up the insect thing later with a four page
bit about Pillbugs (i think I'd call them Woodlice) which is kind of fascinating
in the way that its good to see people putting time and effort into thinking
about things that I'd never even consider,
Another story illustrates those simple moments of human connection
when giving away a table becomes an act of real kindness.
What else?
Lists, (as always in King Cat: informative of the writers life,
whereabouts, and habits, as well as being amusing...), arty passages of frozen
rivers and fog with text like, "I spend far too much of my time drawing",
right towards the end a Herman Hesse poem illustrated, there are also various
drawings of fine young cats in various poses (always good!).
Definitely recommended.
David Birchall
King Cat #58 © John Porcellino
I wonder what revelations were in issues #1~57...? I say this because this issue deals with the intimate thoughts and emotions of childhood in the main story and (apparently) those of young adulthood in the rest of the 'zine. Drawn in a minimalist style which may well be the one most suited to the text as it tends to make the reader concentrate on the words. It leaves echoes in the mind, is gently atmospheric.
This is what the Small Press is all about.
Bib Edwards
*Editor's note: there have been 57 other King Cat Comics, & various collections
I was immediately intrigued on opening this book and noticing it was by an American, as most of the small press stuff I see is English or European, so was hoping for something a little different; well, I got that.
Reading King Cat comics is exactly like reading someone's diary and maybe I was in a good mood on the lazy, hazy morning I got it, but it fitted my mood perfectly. Normally I'd loathe it for its self indulgence, and in fact, I was gob smacked when I saw I was looking at issue 59; does this guy put this thing out weekly? In fact that's probably exactly what he does. Now that I'm back in my usual bad mood, it's still interesting. The more prose pieces that suggest different moods (on different days) and strips that drift along at their own pace, this really is art created solely for the artist, with no thought of an audience (which is a pretty good definition of art, come to think of it).
The illustrations are functional, with no depth in the line, and no blacks at all, even in the night time scenes, and although John is good at layout and camera angles, his actual style seems amateurish and childlike, tho' this may be by design. On the letters page, there are a couple of notes from readers detailing how Zen poet Rykokan and worthless USA rocker Bruce Springsteen made their lives enriched. I suspect these letters are not genuine*.
You'll need to be in the right mood for this one, it's wistful, pretentious, and even a little twee. But it does have something; maybe the meaning of life.
Pete Doree
*Editor's note: It was requested that it be pointed out that all letters printed in King Cat are genuine
King Cat #60© John Porcellino
Issue sixty? Where have I been? How does Porcellino find the
time to knock out sixty of these little treats? I think it's a front for a zine
sweat shop scandal.
Anyway, yeah; this is a collection of sweet little moments that make getting out
of bed bearable. It has a rustic and rural charm, a Top 40 (I like lists) and
a neat little story about finding a tree.
Overall a fragmented collection of quietly significant and personal moments. It
made me smile warmly for a good hour afterwards.
Lucy
| King Cat |
Price: $2 each (P+P) Address: John Pocellino, Spit and a Half, P.O. Box 170535, San Francisco, CA, 94117, U.S.A. Buy online from usscatastrophe |
Received at ZUM! HQ: #52 no info #56: April 02 #57: April 02 #58: April 02 #59: April 02 #59: April 02 Review Posted: #52: 08xii03 #57: 07iv04 #57: 04i04 #58: 30vii03 #59: 14vii03 #60: 07iv04 |
