Hello!
New week, new Crimson pages.
Scroll ahead for the pages, figure I’d write a little update first though:
I’ve been plugging away at my new graphic novel, House on Fire, I’m a little past the 50-page mark now, so I’m hoping to get the inks done by the end of April, but we’ll see. If you haven’t - sign up for my publisher Living the Line’s newsletter so you can keep up on the other books they’re putting out and for any official news on House on Fire’s release.
This weekend I went up to NYC for my friend’s bar opening, Gadfly Bar, if you’re in NYC go have a few drinks there!
While I was in NYC I took the opportunity to wander The Strand Bookstore, I found a relatively beat up copy of Hugo Pratt & Milo Manara’s Indian Summer, which is just a bit too perverse for my tastes, but I’ve become a Pratt completionist so I grabbed it. Manara’s art has some hints of Moebius too - I’m not sure which direction the influence went. But there’s a similarity of line there. The most off putting part of the book is just everyone’s in a constant state of ecstasy, whether they’re being murdered or abused - they’re always into it. And that’s weird. Pratt has done quite a bit of work on the American frontier see Wheeling for a more accessible less perverse take on similar subject matter. Pratt’s The Man from the Great North also tackles the similar frontier adventure subject - it’s more off putting than Wheeler but not as rough as Indian Summer. Manara’s art is superb though - and he’s worth looking at for that, some of the storytelling things he does work really nicely, particularly the blocking of action or figures with foreground elements, he obscures the whole inciting incident of the action - which I think works well to add ambiguity to the story. At some point I’ll write up something investigating what I enjoy about Pratt. But I’d be hard pressed to recommend Indian Summer to anyone, the art’s fantastic - but the subject matter is off-putting to say the least and the paired with the art it creates some very disturbing moments which makes the intent confusing.
Here are this week’s Crimson pages:
Ok tune in next week to see what happens!