Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing's The Zaucer Of Zilk is the first strip from 2012 that I've discussed in The Year In Comics series over at Sequart. (You can, if you choose, find it here.) I've been in two minds about whether to write about anything that's currently being published in The Year In Comics, but The Zaucer Of Zilk's both a richly rewarding read and a particularly challenging experience to attempt to discuss. An unavoidable if intimidating prospect then. A great many of its pleasures are as much to do with the strip's aesthetics as anything else, which makes it a stretch for a literal-minded know-nothing such as myself to talk about. Truthfully, it's a great, sensuous pop-art beast of a strip, and that goes for the Al Ewing's dense, knowing script every bit as much as Brendan McCarthy's defiantly witty, lysergic artwork. I really do think that it's one of the most pleasurable and smart comics of the year so far, although it's not without its own particular problems. Trying to find a way of talking about it was anything but straight-forward, and I'm sure that the Splendid Wife would testify to a certain degree of frustration and weariness being expressed by her two-fingered typing husband at certain moments over the weekend. I hope that you might consider hitting the link to Sequart in order to investigate where all that teeth-grinding and keyboard-bashing led. Far more importantly, I'd like to suggest that anyone who's not already enjoying The Zaucer Of Zilk in its weekly instalments in 2000AD might consider doing so. It's a fascinating hybrid of fairy-tale and super-book, playful social comment and wonderfully idiosyncratic artistic ambition. In short, it's a must-read, and, for all the impertinence of the gesture, a must-write-about too. Whatever problems I might in my chin-stroking, pseudo-critiquing raise really shouldn't obscure the fact that The Zaucer Of Zirk is a delight.
Previous posts in The Year In Comics series, from discussions of "It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken" to "The Brave And The Bold", from Crumb's "The Book Of Genesis" to Lee & Wood's "Daredevil", can be found here.
Well I'm sold. From what you've written here Zaucer of Zilk looks like all the excuse I need to get back into 2000AD. Now, time for me to look into getting those back issues...
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how pop culture can appear to move in cycles. The "thin characterisation and unfortunate plot shortcomings" that were more than made up for with "hypnotically beguiling, endlessly imaginative" artwork and stories (as you described ZoZ on Sequart) which once typified the medium have virtually become a radical statement against the orthodoxy of contemporary comic books; and while ZoZ is not a return to the ‘paternalistic’ style of yesteryear (even with the colourful narration) it perhaps indicates, alongside other seemingly isolated comics, a growing distaste amongst creators and consumers for the ‘grim n gritty’ angst endemic in the Big Two’s output.
I noticed you were asking for suggestions for your reading material in another post on here, so – if I may – I would like to offer up ‘I Will Destroy All The Civilized Planets (the collected work of Fletcher Hanks)’ which is a veritable treasure trove of psychedelic golden-age comics which I can only describe as being childishly brutal. Even if you don't write about it I think you'll enjoy having it in your collection.
http://www.amazon.com/Shall-Destroy-All-Civilized-Planets/dp/1560978392
Hello Ed:- Ah, well, I think you'll find that 2000AD is well worth a visit. It's not quite as splendid a prospect as it was a few months ago, although TZOZ would have fitted in excellently then too. From Low-Life to Nikolai Dante, Strontium Dog to TZOZ to Absalom Dark, it's been well worth the price of a ticket.
DeleteYou're quite right to say - and hurrah for you for doing so - that the balance between wonder and plot has swung far too far in the wrong direction. There's space for the literal-minded super-book, but surely not as 99% of the Big Two's output.
When I mentioned "thin characterisation", I do hope I managed in my cack-handed way to emphasise that that was only relevant in terms of the "redemption" plot and how it work as an arc of the story as a whole. Even if I'm right- and I've no faith in that - it's still about the fine-tuning of the story's spine and nothing else. I do hope that my enjoyment of the tale came through, and I'm glad to think I see a reflection of that in your very welcome comment.
A childishly brutal psychedelic golden-age comics? I Will Destroy ... is going right to the top of the list. It's always been something I've wanted to read, and I even checked it out of the library once. I won't complain that there's too much that's interesting to read, because I can recall times when that wasn't true. But there is too much that's good to read to be able to ever get through!
One of the best bits of Zaucer for me is that it keeps coming after Day Of Chaos. There's few better ways to show the strength of an anthology format than following a taut, tactically brutal, slow-burning strip like Day Of Chaos with the fantastical, rule-breaking psychedelica of Zaucer. It's like nothing else in comics and it's coming where it shouldn't.
ReplyDeleteThe other best bit is that Zaucer makes sense, what the characters can and can't do fits together, and it does all feel like part of the same working world. And that is the mark of skilled creators, when a guy powered by tabloid-style fame can hide behind a curtain to gain dimension-jumping sentient trousers and then go to a universe of bored internet fan teeth in his quest to save a text-speaking fangirl from social deprivity. In the hands of lesser creators, Zaucer would still look great but be a bit of a mess. Instead, it all hangs together - Errol Raine turning out to be a has-been Zaucer being the case in point, it's a great idea that prompts a re-think of the Zaucer and his world (and furthers the parallel with the real world continuity), and it all fits with everything we've seen. It's a grand achievement.
- Charles RB
Hello Charles:- I quite agree with the contrast between the current JD epic and TZOZ. TZOZ can be quite dark in its own way, of course, and I personally find some of the scenes of despair and abandonment in the Not-Worlds more dark and challenging than perhaps TZOZ is always given credit for. Of course, you're not suggesting anything of the sort, and your point about the sheer wonderful contrast between one strip and the other is a good one. Of course, when such a contrast is established through work that's so strong, the experience is all the more striking.
DeleteAnd I absolutely agree with you that there's rules in place in TZOZ which mean that all that out-thereness is grounded in a storytelling logic. I've never been a fan of wacky-for-wacky's-sake when its presented without any attention to internal consistency, anymore than I enjoy grim'n'gritty for the macho indulgence of it all. I shall most certainly be buying the collected edition, and that's a sign that there's a story there as well as some wonderful spectacle too.
Huzzah for TZOZ. I'm keenly, awkwardly aware that I quibbled about certain aspects of the strip, but I do hope I also succeeded in accentuating how much of an admirer of it I am too
This sounds like a pretty great comic- part Phantom Tollbooth, part Zot!, with elements of Orc Stain's visual inventiveness and detailed world building.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate about the character's seeming lack of needing development- I was contemplating this regarding another comic I read regularly, Dumbing of Age, a web comic by David Willis. One of the main characters consistently makes horrible decisions, refuses to accept that now that she's not in high school people don't take it for granted that she's cool because she's a cheerleader, drinks way too much, and generally makes an ass out of herself.
But she remains endearing because we can see her trying to break out of it, just as the world itself seems to be doing the same thing, confronting her with evidence that the world doesn't work like she thinks it does. The tension between is wanting her to improve herself and her inability to do so, or even want to sometimes, creates for a compelling narrative (it also helps that she's not the only protagonist, and others are more positive people).
Guess I got sidetracked, but it seemed relevant to the Zaucer discussion.
Hello Historyman:- It IS a great comic, and knowing that just a few folks, particularly over your side of the Pond, hear about it makes me feel just a touch better about the whole business of blogging. Thanks for dropping in and being up for engaging in less-familiar material.
DeleteI've obviously, and to my regret, not explained my point about Zaucer's character development. It's not that the character's arc doesn't exist, it's just that - in my own entirely unimportant point-of-view - it needed to be fine tuned so that changes occurred in ways which seemed less arbitrary. Yet your point about the tension which exists when characters have several directions in which to go, and choices to be made between options which appear to be more or less ethical, is an absolutely relevant one. TZOZ lacks something of that, and its a shame. But please don't let that appear to be a problem which undermines TZOZ's overall worth. I assure you, it doesn't. It just means that, for me, its a great rather than a classic strip. We get so few Great strips that I don't mean to suggest that TZOZ is anything other than a very welcome addition to their number.
I know what you mean, I didn't mean to imply you were saying the story is fundamentally flawed or anything. Do you think it's possible it was a deliberate choice? After all, many protagonists of adventure stories can tend to be ciphers, to allow the reader to identify more strongly. For example, Tintin, or even One-Eye from Orc Stain don't have much personality besides cleverness.
DeleteOf course, if you're gonna build the overarching arc about character development, and there isn't a huge amount of character to develop in the first place, then that could be a bit problematic. But this seems like a relatively young series, and I'd imagine that they'll get better at drawing the protagonist's emotions (figuratively as well as literally) over time.
Hello Historyman:- An interesting question which I fear I can't answer. It seems to me - and this is nothing but my opinion - that TZOZ would be weighed down and spoilt by too much of what passes as characterisation in comcss. In essence, avoiding melodramatic excess doesn't leave alot of wiggle-room as to where to place the markers of character. It's only a 10 chapter tale and it's full of incident, so I'd imagine it'd be a real challenge to allocate where the major plot-points go without descending into story-clogging oh-woe-is-me exposition. That may be as much an illusion of my own creation as the original problems I thought I saw, but there we go. As with certain other features, everyone has an opinion :)
DeleteI like The Zaucer of Zilk a great deal. I haven't seen much of McCarthy's work, but a pal has told me to seek out his 80s work, like Rogan Gosh, an Indian 'Bollywood Bladerunner', as he describes it. I like the nonchalant style of the storytelling in The Zaucer, as if someone you know down the pub is telling the yarn, rather than an important Comic Book Author.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely a departure from the usual 2000AD Dredd sci-fi adventure stuff. It kind of reminds me of Jamie Hewlett as written by Grant Morrison. I haven't seen many detailed comments on this strip online. The regular fans of Dredd seem to hate it as far as I can tell, as it's probably a bit too 'arch' for them. It's very smart and assured - the creative team know how to ramp up the melodrama, but then deflate it all with an aside from the narrator, who seems only half-interested in the standard action set pieces and much more in the telling of the tale itself.
It's very unique really - its 'Britishness' makes it seem more peculiar, since most comics these days are American in tone, or aspire to 'literariness' (Sandman, LOEG etc). I'd like to see more of both of these creators' work. I have read some of Zombo by Al Ewing, but that is more traditional sci fi genre fare.
The Zaucer wraps up soon and I look forward to another series.
Thanks for the article on TZOZ.
Hello Terry:- Thanks for the generous words. I'm tremendously grateful to the folks I've had the chance to chat about this piece TZOZ, for no-one's jumped to conclusions and seen the criticisms I've made as a sign that I don't thoroughly enjoy and admire the strip.
DeleteRogan Gosh was indeed a highly enjoyable strip. Well worth the tracking down if you've not had the chance to enjoy it.
I've been heartened by the generally favourable response to the strip, because that must add to the prospects of our seeing a second series for TZOZ. I have seen in a few places, however, the kind of negative response you've described, and I have been surprised to see a few examples of "apples & pears" comparisons between TZOZ and Dredd, which strikes me as an odd business. I'm certainly a little surprised that some folks haven't noticed that there are challenging and dark aspects to TZOZ too. Of course, everyone has their own opinion and more power to them. But to see TZOZ as little-hearted and silly, or to think that a different approach to the Sturm und Drang of the recent Dredd doesn't add a welcome variety to the prog is odd. Luckily, most folks seem to have very much welcomed both the variety and the quality which the strip offers.
I agree with you entirely that the difference which TZOZ expresses is welcome not just in the context of 2000AD, but in the marketplace as a whole. I'm not aware of what Mr McCarthy's next assignments are beyond the next Mad Max movie - or perhaps he's already finished his work for that. I believe that Mr Ewing has another series of the splendid Damnation Station in the wings for 2000ad, and when I last looked, which was about 3 weeks ago, he was still scripting Jennifer Blood too. I can't think of a contemporary comics writer who's developing the same range as he is.