FLASHBACK! The Wachowski Brothers’ Doc Frankenstein #2 and further discussion of burning questions such as: Can single-panel cartoons be considered “comics”? Are comics “drawn” or “illustrated”? How does society — American and Japanese — perceive comics creators or comics readers? Tim and Brandon ponder. Originally published October 23, 2006.
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Written by Neil Gaiman
Art by Dave McKean
Dark Horse Comics, 2007 (New Edition)
Originally serialized in a magazine called The Face (United Kingdom) and collected into a single volume in 1992, this book represents some early usage of digital manipulation, photographic collage and highly expressionistic Dave McKean artwork. Dave McKean has an ability to use a Canon laser photocopier the way many traditional illustrators use pen and ink.
The narrative is essentially about millenarianism. Being written a decade before the year 2000, this book was also accurate in its predictions about how the millennium would result in the changing of more or less nothing. The presaged view of the ten years in the future may not be the most exciting depiction of pre-millennium tension that I have ever read, but after the fact and with the element of hindsight it is probably one of the most accurate. Unlike other works which tie into the Y2K cultural experience, this book manages to transcend such a time-dependent experience to capture the feeling of impending futurism mixed with dread and presents the more rational, grounded view which we experience with our mundane memories of that millennium event. Continue reading REVIEW: Signal To Noise
