2005-10-30 - 1:06 a.m.
SPIRAL BOUND
by Aaron Renier
Top Shelf Press. 184 pages. $14.95
I don't know if it's new or I just hadn't noticed it before - I'm guessing it has to be the former because this is the kind of thing I notice - but Top Shelf Press appears to have a logo now and I totally hate it. It's just the letters 'tsp' in stylyized lowercase and sort of merging into this rounded off square.
What garbage.
I say this in love, as Top Shelf is still my favorite underground comic book publisher, but come on. This logo is pure corporate spinelessness. I mean, don't even fucking bother if this is the sort of crap you are going to come up with. I feel like they used to have a fun, cool logo too that you could relate to as a comix fan. Something that, you know, made you think of a TOP SHELF maybe!?
If you're going to go around selling a visual medium like comics, then you damn well better come up with something decent designwise for your logo. Something a little better than your goddamn initials in a box. Oh, wait, the box has rounded corners. That makes it better.
I know, I know. You're all thinking, "Why is Brady spazzing so much about a logo, for God's sake?" Why? I don't know. I like logos a lot. It's always been a giant pet peeve for me when folks turn out really lame logos that are basically just the name or the initials. I actually like logos best when they don't have any letters in them, when they are just purely evocative. My all time favorite logo is probably the Infiniti logo. The car? The road disappearing into the infinite horizon? I effing love that logo.
Fortunately, though, Top Shelf's latest big offering really is quite good. Spiral Bound by Aaron Renier is worth a visit to your local comics store. It's a children's story, but one that I think adults will enjoy (not because it has subtle adult content or anything, but because it's a smart story). This is the kind of story that will stand up to repeated readings, one in which you will notice new things about the characters as you go through it again and again.
It's a story about art, mostly, and the different kinds of art people get into and how far one can go to pursue the highest heights of artistic achievement. But don't get me wrong... this isn't highbrow stuff that will lose the kiddies. On no. There's innocent characters who are scared about doing well and fitting in that they will identify with and big scary monsters that they will think cool. There are also big freaking monsters. And a rhino who dj's.
It's also the kind of story where some stuff just doesn't make a lick of sense and you think that's just a quirk of the artist as you go through it, but in fact there's a reason that it doesn't make sense and you'll figure it out if you go further. Like, Ms. Skrimshaw for example. Her situation definitely does not make sense.
You should check it out and see what I mean. Top Shelf has gotten big enough that bookstores can probably order it for you, but, then, of course, there is always the web-site (link above).
And as long as I started this baby off with a little tirade about visual art, one has to wonder if the book's little sculptor, Turnip, isn't a stand-in for Renier himself. As far as I know, this is pretty much the guy's first comic, and the mofo has kicked it off with a 184 page square-bound book on quality paper with such a consistent quality to his work that I just want to kick him in the nuts. He's consistent in all things. His line. The look of his characters. The lighting levels. The amount of background he shows. Even the proportions of the characters (who come in all sorts of sizes because they are all sorts of animals). Everything is well thought out and rendered with nothing but skill, skill, skill.
I feel like Renier must have come out of the box with an enormous aptitude that he's running wild with, starting now. This is a solid talent in the land of picture stories and "one to watch." (it's late, pardon my reviewer cliche)
This book is a lot of fun but it's also more than that. It's worth the read and it's worth thinking about.
I have to say, the "message" at the end is a little trite and it comes out a little on the pat side... but endings are hard and what sort of asshole is going to make a kids book that doesn't end a little upliftingly, right? Okay. That said, the stuff in the middle is thoughtful and thought-provoking. The characters are consistent but also surprising. They move emotionally and they give you questions to ask yourself and other people at the end.
And that's good.
So let's hear it for Aaron Renier and lets hope he keeps at it.
Maybe he can design Top Shelf a better logo? It's the worst thing about his new book.
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