Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Past HEADSTATIC Reviews,
By headstatic "headstatic" (Athens, TN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Headstatic (Paperback)
"A comics CAT-scan of a deeply introspective mind"
James Jean The first notable aspect about HEADSTATIC is its sheer scale, a 256-page collection of Mr. Hacker's comics (the printing of such a daunting tome was accomplished with the help of a Xeric grant). Once I recovered from the intimidating thump that HEADSTATIC made when I slid it from the envelope and onto my coffee table, the next striking trait had to be its impressive variety of style and subject, all flowing from the same creator. Hacker employs all sorts of techniques: traditional pen and ink, collage, modifying photographs, loose cartooning, realism, tracing found images... he's very experimental and not content to settle into a style that is comfortable for him. Moreover, the backgrounds and layouts display an incredible diversity as well; it's almost hard to believe that one man did them all. As to the content, it doesn't take long for Hacker to establish a fairly consistent voice, a quirky and meditative attitude toward his subjects. Much of the humor derives from juxtaposition and non-sequitur (witness titles like "Hybrid Baby vs. Ghost Mouse" and "The Caped Crustacean and the Supermodel"; or the comic "Goosebumps", which relates the tale of Fabio being hit in the head by a migrating goose while riding a roller coaster. Fabio's hands are telling the story with shadow-puppets on the wall - and they seem to argue a lot.) Not all of Hacker's comics are as silly as these though; many of them deal with weightier issues of love, mortality, or general existential ennui, and no genre remains untouched. The most appropriate one-word summary for HEADSTATIC would be "wow". Impressiveness of size aside, this collection really runs the gamut, and I've rarely seen a single artist put his hand to such a variety of subjects with so much success. The price tag may be unusually high, but this is a handsomely-produced comic with a nice, professional appearance. And really, this book is his life so far! Twelve dollars is not an unreasonable amount to pay when you get such a high return. My one complaint is that HEADSTATIC could really use a comprehensive foreword by Hacker himself, only to place some of his work in context. I'd love to have known how old he is, how long he's been making comics, where and how he has brought his work to people in the past, and what span of time is represented in the book. A brief afterword by one of his friends indicates that one of the series reprinted in HEADSTATIC originally appeared in their college paper, but I want more! It's just such a lot of creative output that it seems to demand a little history lesson. Maybe it's just me. Matt Fagan Perusing the pages of Headstatic immediately gives the impression that this anthology is comprised of a variety of authors and artists, all providing unique material. But readers will doubletake when they discover that Jay A. Hacker III is the sole author of this collection, which includes over two hundred pages of short pieces that vary drastically in content and artistic style. Beyond stating that he focuses on a grayscale, using more black and white than anything else, few definitive statements can be made about his work, which defies categories and stereotypes. It shifts from text-laden panels to text-free stories in which the picture tells all. Some pieces make absolute sense while others feel more surreal than an Andre Breton film. The title, Headstatic, perfectly defines the resulting effect of this graphic novel. Inundated with dozens of short pieces, readers of this anthology will often simultaneously be ecstatic and feel like they have static in their heads. Numerous stories force the reader to think and engage in the story. The static comes from a sense of overload. Short pieces though they may be, this graphic novel is best processed in small chunks. Reading from beginning to end will only send the brain into a frenzy akin to the static white screen of a television. But that's only because there is so much to contend with in terms of themes, style, narrative, and genre, that to read it in one sitting is to guarantee missing something. Of course, Hacker's work can be overwhelming and at times feel more erratic than anything else. Chaos is probably the one definitive attribute in most of his pieces whether it be in the art, dialogue, action, or theme. While some can easily appreciate this, others will be disaffected, even disturbed by it. If this graphic novel is a snapshot into the Hacker's mind, one cannot help but be amazed by the onslaught of emotion and energy he puts into his art. Not all readers will be so vehement and awestruck by his work, but none would disagree about Hacker's sheer effort. Lance Victor Eaton Jay Hacker's Headstatic from Fool's Child Comix is a massive, massive slab of comics. A Xeric Award winner, Hacker has compiled five years worth of his comic strips into a big graphic novel for a measly twelve bucks. Some strips are more successful than others, but he does a mean homage to a number of different cartoonists and is definitely reaching out to see what the boundaries of his talent are. Headstatic is the type of thing I'd love to see more of from more starting cartoonists, because it gives you such a great feel for what they're capable of and what they're thinking about their art. Alan David Doane
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
