chelseamartinez's review against another edition
4.0
Melancholy and incredibly cumbersome (reading this on the bus made me feel like one of the technologically doomed people in the comics), this compendium of Katchor stories still manages to feel more modern than all the others I have read. I have a bunch of photos of the ones I liked best that I'll add here at some point.
areaxbiologist's review against another edition
5.0
Katchor is the curator of the petty grotesqueries of urban life and capitalism (The Brotherhood of Immaculate Consumption). Almost awkward, his trembly lines encase a sedate wash of darker colors. Nothing is truly bright and shadow is king. I'm impressed by his diction (mallow-pink) and his background tongue-in-cheek smart-assery. But his artifice, and modern pretense, is stripped down via his over-the-top jokery to the downright lie. Each gambit in his metaphors is built on real emotion - a curmudgeon's hate of uselessness, a nail-biter's fear of betrayal, and the lazy lackadaisical adventure seeking dreams of those in white collars - or receiving retirement checks. Throughout the book, the power of architecture is held up, ridiculed and worshipped - even as he mocks it, the syntactical translation of artistic an historic beauty cannot be denied.
My favorite strips (or vignettes?) are: The Miniature Trash Can, The Body Heat Snatcher, The Tragic History of the Oversized Magazine, Fayoum's Finger, Peabald's Field Guide to Air-Conditioners of North America and Forbidden Rooms.
My favorite strips (or vignettes?) are: The Miniature Trash Can, The Body Heat Snatcher, The Tragic History of the Oversized Magazine, Fayoum's Finger, Peabald's Field Guide to Air-Conditioners of North America and Forbidden Rooms.
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