Just got IN A GLASS GROTESQUELY and read it today. This might be your best work yet. Story-wise, you are really improving on the writing end in the past few years or so in telling a more coherent narrative (although there's a kind of charm to those early, sort of meandering, anything-goes stream of consciousness stories that's hard to define, exactly, so... it's good to have that once and a while, too). Wow, you even managed to work some superheroes in there (...such as they are...) for a little vicarious bloodbath. I'm sure this will be the breakout title that gets your work noticed by the mainstream Marvel and DC comics afficionados -- NOT! : )
But mainly, I found it cool because you are plainly inspired by the old-time supervillains. I was particularly reminded of pulp supervillain Dr. Rance Mandarin, known to the world as DOCTOR DEATH... he was also motivated to kill off most of humanity and plunge civilization back to medieval times, for the best of motives, of course... he was saving the planet (like the later Ra's al Ghul) and did so through a combination of the mastery of both science and the forbidden black arts (just like the later Dr. Doom).
But Super-Enigmatix is an instant classic supervillain, to be sure,
I've noticed in your more recent works, more and more of a tendency to draw a lot of cute girls -- which is perfectly understandable when one of the them is the star of the story, like Peculia, Judy Drood, Delphine, or Cat Burglar Black (wow, I don't think I realized just how many there had been). But there were more of them in this story than ever; it was almost like you binged out on watching those James Coburn FLINT movies or something. Don't get me wrong... I'm kind of torn here, between your newer, more rounded "soft" style work (mostly the color stuff) and the earlier, gnarly and angular stuff from the black and white days...
I even managed to find the Audio CD adaptation of Jack Kerouac's screenplay for DR. SAX, with your illustrations. I really wish they'd have let you just go whole hog and adapt the thing as a straight graphic story, without the kind-of distracting script directions, just the straight fiction version. Any interest in doing a longer, more detailed version in the future, sometime?
I just ordered a bunch of your older out-of-print stuff from Amazon. I really wish you could make some arrangement with Fantagraphics (or anybody, really) to reprint all of your obscure, out-of-print work (including covers and spot illustrations) from the 1980s and 1990s; all that stuff (except maybe Dark Horse's THIRTEEN O'CLOCK one-shot) is really hard to track down these days for any kind of reasonable price. Even some of the stuff from just 10 years ago or so is commanding ridiculous collector's prices on Amazon.
Please, help your fans out here, Richard! I'm begging you. ?Surely Fantagraphics, at least, much have an appreciation of this situation...?
Thanks, Dennis! I really appreciate your thoughtful and insightful words. I'm glad you like Super-Enigmatix. And yes -- old pulps like Doctor Death were an influence (I read the 1960s era paperback reprints of DD when I was a kid). I love all the crazy villains from the Shadow and Spider pulps. Thanks for mentioning my older books, too, I wish some of the older work was more available. We do have some of the Fantagraphics books that are out of print available digitally on the Comixology website. But I know that's not much help if you prefer the books or don't have a digital reader (I don't have one myself). All I can say, is I'm always working, planning new things, so I appreciate your support and patience! I hope to have another book from Fantagraphics next fall that will collect more older pieces, though I haven't chosen them all yet, as well as the more recent digital comic Violenzia. Thank you again for taking the time to write. I really appreciate it! -- Richard S.
Just got IN A GLASS GROTESQUELY and read it today. This might be your best work yet. Story-wise, you are really improving on the writing end in the past few years or so in telling a more coherent narrative (although there's a kind of charm to those early, sort of meandering, anything-goes stream of consciousness stories that's hard to define, exactly, so... it's good to have that once and a while, too). Wow, you even managed to work some superheroes in there (...such as they are...) for a little vicarious bloodbath. I'm sure this will be the breakout title that gets your work noticed by the mainstream Marvel and DC comics afficionados -- NOT! : )
ReplyDeleteBut mainly, I found it cool because you are plainly inspired by the old-time supervillains. I was particularly reminded of pulp supervillain Dr. Rance Mandarin, known to the world as DOCTOR DEATH... he was also motivated to kill off most of humanity and plunge civilization back to medieval times, for the best of motives, of course... he was saving the planet (like the later Ra's al Ghul) and did so through a combination of the mastery of both science and the forbidden black arts (just like the later Dr. Doom).
But Super-Enigmatix is an instant classic supervillain, to be sure,
I've noticed in your more recent works, more and more of a tendency to draw a lot of cute girls -- which is perfectly understandable when one of the them is the star of the story, like Peculia, Judy Drood, Delphine, or Cat Burglar Black (wow, I don't think I realized just how many there had been). But there were more of them in this story than ever; it was almost like you binged out on watching those James Coburn FLINT movies or something. Don't get me wrong... I'm kind of torn here, between your newer, more rounded "soft" style work (mostly the color stuff) and the earlier, gnarly and angular stuff from the black and white days...
I even managed to find the Audio CD adaptation of Jack Kerouac's screenplay for DR. SAX, with your illustrations. I really wish they'd have let you just go whole hog and adapt the thing as a straight graphic story, without the kind-of distracting script directions, just the straight fiction version. Any interest in doing a longer, more detailed version in the future, sometime?
I just ordered a bunch of your older out-of-print stuff from Amazon. I really wish you could make some arrangement with Fantagraphics (or anybody, really) to reprint all of your obscure, out-of-print work (including covers and spot illustrations) from the 1980s and 1990s; all that stuff (except maybe Dark Horse's THIRTEEN O'CLOCK one-shot) is really hard to track down these days for any kind of reasonable price. Even some of the stuff from just 10 years ago or so is commanding ridiculous collector's prices on Amazon.
Please, help your fans out here, Richard! I'm begging you. ?Surely Fantagraphics, at least, much have an appreciation of this situation...?
Here Lies Richard Sala: In A Glass Grotesquely ~ October 2014 >>>>> Download Now
Delete>>>>> Download Full
Here Lies Richard Sala: In A Glass Grotesquely ~ October 2014 >>>>> Download LINK
>>>>> Download Now
Here Lies Richard Sala: In A Glass Grotesquely ~ October 2014 >>>>> Download Full
>>>>> Download LINK tr
PS -- You should really do a comic adaptation of DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dennis! I really appreciate your thoughtful and insightful words. I'm glad you like Super-Enigmatix. And yes -- old pulps like Doctor Death were an influence (I read the 1960s era paperback reprints of DD when I was a kid). I love all the crazy villains from the Shadow and Spider pulps. Thanks for mentioning my older books, too, I wish some of the older work was more available. We do have some of the Fantagraphics books that are out of print available digitally on the Comixology website. But I know that's not much help if you prefer the books or don't have a digital reader (I don't have one myself). All I can say, is I'm always working, planning new things, so I appreciate your support and patience! I hope to have another book from Fantagraphics next fall that will collect more older pieces, though I haven't chosen them all yet, as well as the more recent digital comic Violenzia. Thank you again for taking the time to write. I really appreciate it! -- Richard S.
ReplyDelete