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ERIC REYNOLDS: MAKING MOME
by Jennifer Contino (Pulse)
With the first two issues just being named to TIME magazine's "Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2005," the second issue just hitting stores, and the third issue at the printer, Jen Contino suggested to me that this might be a good time to introduce MOME to PULSE readers and talk a bit about the first three issues.
I'm grateful for the opportunity, because this "preview" is a great opportunity to explain what MOME is, and what will hopefully set it apart from other anthologies. I'd been wanting to start a new anthology for a few years now, focusing on artists who were still somewhat up-and-coming and didn't have a regular venue to publish their work. Also, the last few years we've had some success selling our books outside the traditional comic book stores and I wanted to take advantage of that by publishing an anthology of short fiction, in comics form, that could sit alongside something like McSweeney's or Granta or the Virginia Quarterly Review, things like that. It was important to me that such an anthology be rather accessible, and not overly abstract or experimental, like some of my favorite anthologies of recent years, notably Kramer's Ergot and NON. Those anthologies are perfect, and I know I couldn't compete with them. I wanted to do something, if anything, that could serve as a bridge between those books and the folks who have read breakthroughs like Jimmy Corrigan, Ghost World, Palestine and Maus, but haven't yet branched into the wider comics landscape. I think Fantagraphics has the resources to bridge that gap, via our excellent book trade distribution.
Anyway, this loose idea had been percolating for awhile and one day Gary Groth and I were talking in his office and one of us brought up the idea of starting a new anthology. Gary had been immersing himself in the small press a bit more thoroughly than he had in awhile, and discovered a number of artists he liked. As we compared notes, we realized that we had been contemplating something almost identical and were thinking about several of the same cartoonists. It was at that point we realized, well, shoot, we have to do this.
It was pretty much that simple. We wanted an anthology that people who read contemporary literature could enjoy, like people who read the short fiction in the New Yorker, or regular McSweeney's readers who got their first exposure to literary comics via Chris Ware's masterful guest issue. It was just as important that we produce something on a more regular schedule than most alternative comics anthologies, which often come out once a year at best, believing that a regular deadline could help nurture both the contributors -- by getting them to produce a bit more work than they otherwise might and thereby developing as artists a bit more quickly -- and the readership. There is a huge audience of readers out there who have bought a graphic novel or two but don't regularly follow the comics landscape, per se, and by starting a quarterly series we're hoping to cultivate that base on a more regular basis.
Alright, so what's going to be in upcoming issues of MOME? We've got some pretty great surprises lined up, so keep reading. The second issue (FALL 2005) just hit stores. I think it's a stronger issue than the first. The lineup remains the same from the first issue: ANDRICE ARP, GABRIELLE BELL, JONATHAN BENNETT, JEFFREY BROWN, MARTIN CENDREDA, SOPHIE CRUMB, DAVID HEATLEY, PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER, ANDERS NILSEN, JOHN PHAM and KURT WOLFGANG. The issue also features an interview with Gabrielle Bell by my esteemed co-editor, Mr. Gary Groth. (Each issue includes an interview with a MOME contributor, by the way. Hornschemeier is the featured interview in the first, while Kurt Wolfgang is the subject of the third.)
The one difference in the line-up for the second volume from the first is the addition of TIM HENSLEY, one of the most underrated cartoonists of the last decade. Tim's gorgeous linework and brilliant wordplay is always fascinating, and he makes a cameo this time around with two hilarious parody pages.
I'm proud to announce that these pages are just a primer for more Hensley to come: beginning in the fifth volume, due late next year, MOME will feature Hensley's longest story he's ever done, a 40 or so - page opus that Hensley is currently hard at work on.
MOME contains three ongoing serials at the moment: Hornschemeier's "Life with Mr. Dangerous," John Pham's "221 Sycamore," and David Heatley's "Overpeck."
Everyone else is contributing stand-alone short pieces. For the third volume (cover dated WINTER 2006), "221 Sycamore" and "Life with Mr. Dangerous" take a one-issue hiatus (both will return in the fourth volume). "Overpeck" wraps up in the fourth issue while the other two serials will continue throughout MOME year two.
We hope we've found an adequate substitute for Messers Pham and Hornschemeier in the third issue. This cartoonist is not exactly an up-and-comer, but I trust most folks won't mind that we've bended our own rules a bit. His name is DAVID B; perhaps you've heard of his first book, EPILEPTIC.
The story in question is a 35-page (!) mini-masterpiece, "The Armed Garden," which was originally serialized in the French anthology Lapin, and has never been published in English. "The Armed Garden" is the story of an ancient mad prophet, Rohan of the Adamites. The story, presented in a beautiful two-color format, originally ran as four chapters in the French anthology LAPIN but will appear in its entirety in the third MOME.
The fourth issue of MOME, coming in the Spring, will also feature a new David B. story, "The Veiled Prophet." It tells the story of Hakim ben Allah, surnamed the Veiled Prophet, founder of an Arabic sect in the eighth century. Having lost an eye, and being otherwise disfigured in battle, he wore a veil to conceal his face, but his followers said it was done to screen his dazzling brightness.
The third issue bring another newcomer to the MOME fold: R. KIKUO JOHNSON, author of the amazing graphic novel, NIGHT FISHER (which you may not have heard much about but you will when it debuts next
month). Kikuo has created a short series of comics strips about a young girl named Cher Shimura that could easily be mistaken as a forgotten classic from a 1940s-era newspaper page.
I've only had the chance here to focus on a small portion of MOME's contents, despite many other excellent contributions from ANDRICE ARP, GABRIELLE BELL, JONATHAN BENNETT, JEFFREY BROWN, MARTIN
CENDREDA, SOPHIE CRUMB, ANDERS NILSEN and KURT WOLFGANG. Here's a few sample pages from each.
So there you go. That's MOME. But what about that name, you ask? Like a bunch of kids starting a band, we floated about 800 different names back and forth, including but not limited to: WATERLOO, WINDOW(S),
MOOT, HARPOON, VROOM, FIREWORKS, TENFOLD, ORPHAN, SAFELESS, ELEPHANT, DAEDAL and STROPPY. MOME was a suggestion from my co-worker Greg Zura, and while I didn't think much of it at first, it slowly gained resonance (there's something fitting in having an anthology of contemporary talent named after an archaic word meaning "blockhead" that is published by the same press that brings you The Complete
Peanuts). Just please don't pronounce it "MOMMY" (it rhymes with "HOME").
MOME Summer 2005 (Vol. 1) - NOW AVAILABLE
MOME Fall 2005 (Vol. 2) - NOW AVAILABLE
MOME Winter 2006 (Vol. 3) - COMING IN MARCH
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