Matter #1
Posted on July 21, 2002
Prolific cartoonist Philip Barrett escapes through A Crack In The Shell to produce this new title, Matter; and in doing so, breaks from the confines of his usual newspaper-style strip and finds breathing space in the featured twenty-six pager, A Stagnant Pool.
A mundane tale this, about going through the motions in a kind of detached shock; that sense one gets of merely observing the life-on-automatic dealt you, little realising that increased emotional involvement (with the aid of Prozac) is the yearned-for panacea.
Owing much to the influence of Eddie Campbell and Adrian Tomine, A Stagnant Pool takes us through one night/morning in the life of a protagonist struggling to shake that 'left behind' feeling provided by a best friend now 'moved on'. Told with intimacy in first-person narrative and crafted with an informed judgement throughout, we are treated to a thoroughly engrossing, irresistible read that succeeds with deceptively casual ease in utilising those mechanisms of the strip-form required for affected response.
Expertly paced, modestly ambitious, and drawn-almost-as-an-after-thought with such uncluttered confidence as to make me wince, Matter is nothing you've not seen before (wha'?), but never-the-less is another flawlessly realised patch in the funny/sad, understated and poignant patchwork of resonant material with which we forlorn folk like to wipe the red stuff from our opened wrists.
Prolific cartoonist Philip Barrett escapes through A Crack In The Shell to produce this new title, Matter; and in doing so, breaks from the confines of his usual newspaper-style strip and finds breathing space in the featured twenty-six pager, A Stagnant Pool.
A mundane tale this, about going through the motions in a kind of detached shock; that sense one gets of merely observing the life-on-automatic dealt you, little realising that increased emotional involvement (with the aid of Prozac) is the yearned-for panacea.
Owing much to the influence of Eddie Campbell and Adrian Tomine, A Stagnant Pool takes us through one night/morning in the life of a protagonist struggling to shake that 'left behind' feeling provided by a best friend now 'moved on'. Told with intimacy in first-person narrative and crafted with an informed judgement throughout, we are treated to a thoroughly engrossing, irresistible read that succeeds with deceptively casual ease in utilising those mechanisms of the strip-form required for affected response.
Expertly paced, modestly ambitious, and drawn-almost-as-an-after-thought with such uncluttered confidence as to make me wince, Matter is nothing you've not seen before (wha'?), but never-the-less is another flawlessly realised patch in the funny/sad, understated and poignant patchwork of resonant material with which we forlorn folk like to wipe the red stuff from our opened wrists.
32 A5 pages, €2 / £1.60 / $3.00 (postage included) - available from www.blackshapes.com