Let Us Be Perfectly Clear [Hardcover]

Paul Hornschemeier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2006

A cornucopia of existentialism, formal innovation and stylistic experimentation.

Let Us Be Perfectly Clear is a collection of Paul Hornschemeier's full-color short stories and shows off his playful experimental side and his protean stylistic verve. Perfectly Clear brings back into print stories that Hornschemeier published prior to his Three Paradoxes Fantagraphics debut from a variety of sources—his own self-published Forlorn Funnies, as well as strips that originally appeared in independent magazines and papers—none of which has been available to the book trade.

The book is designed as a "flip book" in the tradition of the old Ace paperbacks, with one side featuring comedic work (or as comedic as Hornschemeier's mind allows), and the other decidedly more morose. With almost every page, we see a new style, a new direction; with the resultant effect being that of an anthology by creators of vastly contrasting sensibilities.

On the "funny" menu, we are treated to Dr. Rodentia (an unfortunate-looking fellow with only apathy as his weapon), a detailed artist's catalogue exploring such modern masterpieces as "Accidental Late-Night Sex With a Radiator," musings on the cancerous nature of civilization as observed by a deceased cat and a cotton-based airbus, the scatological "Feelings Check," the ever pathetic Vanderbilt Millions and his fantasies of self-worth, and the multi-narrative story that started the Forlorn Funnies comics series: "The Men and Women of the Television."

Clearly, there is a fine line in the Hornschemeier lexicon between funny and morose.

On our "forlorn" plate we are served the cold examination of the dyslexic narcoleptic and his bungled plans of murder, a sea creature's balancing of morality and sustenance, the Western romance "Wanted," a metal man's self-destructive search for meaning, and the story the alternative website Ain't It Cool News describes as delivering "a complicated mixture of disgust and pity."

Let Us Be Perfectly Clear demonstrates Paul Hornschemeier's versatility and breadth in an elegantly produced book that will appeal to connoisseurs of contemporary, cutting-edge cartoons and graphic novels. Full-color comics throughout

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of Hornschemeier's short comics pieces displays the artist's enormous visual range—'60s-style gag cartooning, gritty caricature, spacey surrealism and a marvelous command of muted, flat-tone colors—as well as his consistently bitter, deadpan writing. He plays with forms and storytelling devices from the days when comics meant light entertainment, many of them filtered through his enormous stylistic debt to Chris Ware. (Even the book's flipbook design recalls Ware.) The best stories are the most surreal, like "Underneath," a wordless battle between two imaginary polar creatures, and "Everyone Felt It," a brief series of reactions without a context. But the overall tone is forced irony: in one typical sequence, a series of immaculate-looking pastiches (an old comic book, daily strips, a Sunday "Peanuts" setup) each end with a shaggy-haired hipster saying "Whatever dude." The book culminates in a suite of linked, flatly disaffected stories about television and escapism that never develop a point. Rarely has so much craft been applied in the service of so much unfocused nihilism, and the fact that Hornschemeier makes a gag out of it—a dumb cartoon called "Stupid Art Comics Are Stupid," followed by a harsh faux-academic critique—doesn't let him off the hook. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Those who know Hornschemeier only from the moving orphan's tragedy, Mother Come Home (2004), may be taken aback by this collection of shorter pieces first published in comics and general periodicals and his self--published Forlorn Funnies. They're wickedly funny, not in the bathroom-humorous, over-the-top manner of bad-boy cartoonists Johnny Ryan (Angry Youth Comix), Rick Altergott (Doofus), and Peter Bagge (Neat Stuff, Hate), but closer to the art-jokey, crushingly ironic mode of Roger Langridge (Fred the Clown). The six-page "Artist's Catalogue" is one art joke after another, including a page of ostensible sketches for the next page, capped by a critique written in undergrad-ish prose. The two-pager "Which Way Is Up?" features two characters on different sides of cubes trying to determine their orientation to one another; it's Escher--scruciating (sorry). The longest, best stories unfold either in sparse and subdued ("Return of the Elephant") or complicated and hyperactive ("Men and Women of the Television") scenarios the implications of which turn grim in the end. Head-scratching, throaty-chuckle stuff in as many as five flat animated-cartoon colors at once! Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; 1 edition (November 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560977523
• ISBN-13: 978-1560977520
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,565,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Especially recommended for its appeal to devotees of the avant garde graphic novel, January 5, 2007

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let Us Be Perfectly Clear (Hardcover)

"Let Us Be Perfectly Clear" is an anthology of Paul Hornschemeier's short stories illustrated in full color and demonstrating his distinctive artistic approach to the graphic novel techniques of story-telling. "Let Us Be Perfectly Clear" is designed as a 'flip book' with one side (Perfectly Clear) featuring comedic work while the reverse side (Let Us Be) offers stories which are decidedly morose. A product of the underground comix movement, Hornschemeir's storytelling talents are thoroughly documented. Long out of print, these stories are derived from a variety of sources which include his own self-published 'Forlorn Funnies', as well as independent magazines and papers. "Let us Be Perfectly Clear" is especially recommended for its appeal to devotees of the avant garde graphic novel and the counter-culture underground comic.