Cool Strip Art Anthology

Posted: Tuesday, December 3, 2002
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Cool Strip Art Anthology Creator(s): Zlatko Krstevski (ed)
Publishers: Centre for Visual Arts, "Byzant" - Prilep
From: Dimo Naradnikot 58, 97500, Prilep,Macedonia.<
Price: ?

At 128 pages this collection of comics from around the world lives up to the description on the cover: "Extreme Value" It is pretty much all that you could want from an anthology. There are funny comics, comics in a foreign language that look fantastic and make you wish you could read the text, good looking strips you can read, surreal weirdness that need no words to make their point. The variety of styles and subject matter make it ideal as a reminder of just where the possibilities of the comic medium can lead.

Some of the contributions that made an impression were:

u Veneciji Panda Snijeg by Armin Osmancevic from Sweden provides a beautifully illustrated bit of magic realism as an embracing couple float into the air above the canals.

The Primate by Robin Thompson from Canada muses on the true nature of man.

Terminus Cuba Mattias Lehmann from France gives us a hilarious and weird tale of a group of hijackers who didn't realize the tram could take them all the way from Paris to Cuba. As there plan goes wrong it proves to be to the benefit of one of the passengers who collects roaches. The woodcut style of the artwork is especially eye catching.

Bad Trip by Mladen Oljaca from Yugoslavia present a freak out tale of a superhero who seems to need drugs to get through the day. As I can't read Yugoslavian (Is that the write name for the language?) so can't get the whole story, but it sure looks spaced out.

Total Orgasm Meltdown, Krapreles, Belgium. A very weird cartoon that looks freaky.

Plus lots more of interest.

In a Word: Variety.



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