Everything's Archie

If you grew up reading about the Archie gang hanging out in Riverdale, USA you'll appreciate the library's collection of ARCHIE comics. A best of series encompassing the 40's,50's, 60's, , 70's, 80's, and 90's awaits you. Rediscover your childhood, or at least a part of it, by having a soda with Jughead and the rest of the gang at Pop's. And if you haven't yet, end your suspense over which lovely lady, Betty or Veronica, Archie finally decides upon when you check out ARCHIE WILL YOU MARRY ME? THE ARCHIE WEDDING.



Also available the Archies Christmas Album, the complete television series on DVD, and a VHS of their 1990 motion picture Return to Riverdale.

Bizarro Noir: Ben Templesmith

I just finished reading Feral City, the first installment in the graphic series Fell, written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. Feral City compiles issues #1 through #8 of the original comic book run.

Comics Worth Reading writes:

Richard Fell, a cop with a mysterious past, has just moved over the bridge to the worst city ever. Each chapter, he investigates a crime, doing his job, even when he’s off the clock. Many of these cases are inspired by real-life, dementedly weird news clippings the author has seen ... [including] domestic murder, stranger murder, a vengeful suicide bomber, the interrogation of a disturbed killer, and a really disturbed child abusing parent. The book’s about the trade-offs that humans make to keep going in the face of an uncaring world that will do horrible things to its inhabitants.

Templesmith is the artist responsible for the cold and gory illustrations in the new-school vampire tale 30 Days of Night, penned by Steve Niles and translated (rather ineffectively) to the big screen by director David Slade.

After you've sat a spell with homicide detective Richard Fell, explore some of Templesmith's other projects, including Wormwood and other tales in the 30 Days of Night franchise.

Barging Past the Limits of Good Taste

The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia is currently hosting an exhibit of more than 100 works by comic artist R(obert) Crumb.

The show's curators describe his style as "a brilliant combination of classical storytelling and crass commercialism, expressed in a vibrant symbolic language harking back to 'old time' cartooning."

Ken Johnson of The New York Times observes in his profile:

The influence of LSD, which Mr. Crumb has called his "road to Damascus," is evident in works of funky surrealism from the '60s and '70s. The classic "Meatball" (1967), in which ordinary people from all walks of life are hit from out of the blue by consciousness-altering meatballs, is mysteriously trippy.

But what is also appealing in Mr. Crumb's work is how often it is grounded in mundane reality. "Lap o' Luxury" (1977), at 10 pages one of his longer productions, tells in detail all the events in one afternoon in the life of a little boy at home with his mom and his pesky younger brother. At one point he becomes sexually aroused by the cowboy boots on a woman who comes for a brief visit, but otherwise it is all good, clean fun ...

Whatever the aesthetic and formal attractions of his work, Mr. Crumb’s penchant for barging past the limits of good taste and political correctness into psychologically juicy and dangerously complicated territory is still the main draw.

TUFL maintains a sizable collection of R. Crumb titles, including The Complete Crumb and the biographical documentary titled simply, Crumb.