
Ninja
by
Brian Chippendale
OK
kids, the wait is over. This mega-blast of comics and more by
Fort Thunder co-founder Brian Chippendale is now on our shelves, and
it's most definititely a book that stands out in a crowd.
Five years in the making, it's Chippendale's first book publication,
and he's gone all out to make it a debut to remember. It's
a giant oversize (11" x 17") 144 page hardcover volume printed in black
and white and full
color where it counts. 80 pages are devoted to the titular
graphic novel that
is both an epic -- and deranged -- fantasy and an urban allegory.
The remaining 64 pages are chock-a-block with drawings, collages,
posters and more. While much is simply pen and ink and/or pencil, this
is reproduced with full attention to all details and subtleties. Ninja is a sensual onslaught
that staggers the reader's brain as it tries
to take it all in. We found ourselves going back again and again
to
soak up the richness of its imagery while simultaneously working to
crack the riddles of its narratives.
This book is bursting with energy. A frantic childlike mania
inhabits many of its crowded, dense pages. A big factor in this
is, in all probablity, the fact that Ninja was actually begun
by Chippendale when he was eleven years old and then picked up and
continued roughly eighteen years later, after having matured as an
artist.
Chippendale maintains the same
crowded, gutterless panel structure that he inititated a child, while
filling it with a fully developed, unified artistic vision.
While the initial per-page panel count of the work he produced as a
child varied, the bulk of the adult pages adhere to a 25 panel per page
grid, with two drawn pages printed one above the other, making for
brain-frying double page spreads containing exactly 100 panels;
although this
begins to vary and change quite a bit towards the last third of the
piece.
There is so much crammed into each double-page spread -- in the
drawings as well as the narrative -- that its difficult not to feel
overwhelmed each time the page is turned; but the underlying propulsive
energy of the artwork powers the reader onward. The first thing
the reader registers upon
turning each page is texture. Only upon focusing the eyes and
beginning the reading process -- following Chippendale's unique back
and forth snaking drawing directions -- do the details begin to emerge
and the story take shape. And then there's the characters
themselves. Taking the catalogue of types that he developed as a
child, Chippendale morphs them into a rag tag assemblage of truly
strange ideograms representing the shocked sense of outrage at the
experiences his innocence has suffered. Only the ninja
him(it?)self remains essentially the same enigmatic icon of
justice.
A visual and reading experience like none other, Ninja is a
work that cannot be ignored. Published by the design
wizards at Picture Box.
retail
price - $34.95
copacetic price - sold out!
ordering
info
Also, NOW IN
STOCK:
Maggots
by Brian Chippendale
Perhaps the
most eagerly (not to mention patiently!) awaited book to
come out of Fort Thunder, Brian Chippendale's Maggots was originally
slated to be published several years ago by the now defunct Highwater
Books. Copacetic Comics fielded numerous queries over the
years
as to the fate of this particular work, and it was frustrating to not
be able to offer a definitve reply. We are quite pleased
therefore to be able at last to look over and see this little gem
sitting pertly on our table of new arrivals; we are confident that we
will not be alone in this regard. Published by PictureBox, who
are, evidently, on a mission to deliver the comics we need to read,
This edition of Maggots has
painstakingly reproduced the look and feel
of the original sketchbook in which Chippendale drew it. This
little book packs a real punch; its pages pulse with an infectious
manic energy that will have anyone who reads it compusivley reaching
for pencil and paper, raring to go and testify in pen and ink to the
glory of living.
retail
price - $21.95
copacetic
price - $18.88
You may be
interested to know that we also had:
Teratoid Heights
by
Matt Brinkman

retail price - $12.95
copaceticprice
- SOLD OUT!
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current as of 15 April 2011