Stephanie Kay
Oct 11, 2007, 05:32 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5914" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5913" hspace=10 align=left alt="The Lump TPB"></a>Reviewer: Robin Lewis, lucillerobin@aol.com
Story Title: The Lump: The Complete Sordid Story
Death, amputation and science gone mad! Also, tips on self-publishing!
Created, Written, Illustrated, Lettered and Edited by: Chris Wisnia
Covers by : Damon Thompson
Wise Sage and Editor Emeritus: Wayne Jones
Editor In Chief: Rob Oder
Publisher: Salt Peter Press (http://www.tabloia.com)
A love-letter to both film noir and the old horror movies of the black and white era, The Lump has mood and menace to spare. A mishapen hunk of matter is found in the middle of the freeway, and eventually it's plain that it used to be a person. Maybe more than one. The trail to the identity of the body intertwines with a man who's taken a powder with $85,000 dollars, a world-famous surgeon who claims to be able to replace limbs and a simpleton whose barn is no place for the faint-hearted. The Lump originally appeared in Chris Wisnias's 6 issue series Tabloia, and is collected here for the first time in one place. It follows his earlier large format Doris Danger Seeks..., which was all kinds of Kirbyesque fun, and provides welcome evidence that Chris Wisnias is still plugging away at the thankless coalface that is self-publishing.
It's probably unlike anything you're currently reading, and will leave you intrigued, confused, impressed and frustrated. As well as the central mystery there are a horde of sub-themes running through the book, occasionally to the detriment of the narrative flow. Subsidiary characters talk about body-piercing, old sci-fi movies and the social repercussions of limb donation, expanding on the ideas in the story. It stalls the action somewhat, but the writer isn't just giving us a straight story. He's playing with several different themes, one of which is the fact that this is all just a comic-book. There are deliberate glitches in the continuity (one of the character's has a dog that changes every episode) and conversations about how stories like this always end. It's interesting, but it's undeniably at the expense of the story. Which is a shame, as there's a lot in the story to enjoy, especially the world-weary PI, dispensing advice while reading the racing pages, cursing out the loser he backed. By the end of the mystery we have answers to most of our questions, but there's no closure for anyone involved. If you've seen enough noir you'll already know that the best anyone can hope for is to see the sun come up the next day.
The production values on the book are impressive, with the cover being particularly lovely. It's rare to see a cover without a bar code and logos and credits cluttering everything up, but that's what we've got here, and it's all the more striking for it. The interior art is considerably less polished, but still manages some memorable moments. The reveal of what PI Lance Delaney finds in the barn is a lovely shot, and Wisnias plays with light and shadow in a way that befits the mood of the piece.
Many collected editions are pretty sparse, offering a couple of alternate covers, or maybe a few brief notes on a couple of pages, but Wisnias stuffs as much into this as he can get away with. Bulking out the page count we have the letters pages from the original issues of Tabloia, many pages of layouts and character sketches, an interview with the creator, an epilogue to The Lump, a bleak and highly disturbing four page story about a man and a mirror, and incidental pages of hysterically amusing tit-bits. Most fun are the pages featuring Chris Wisnias's tips on self-publishing, including the number of visits he's managed to drum up for his site based on random words he's littered throughout it ('Male spanko - 1 visit, Barnacle penis - 16 visits') and a truly harrowing account of just how dispiriting it is being in the self-publishing business (his account of the some poor guy in the self-publishing section of a convention unknowingly having little wads of paper flicked into his hair is truly sad). Despite his brutally honest account of his experience in the business, he keeps coming back. It's clearly a labour of love for him, with each comic published being its own reward. His enthusiasm for the work, in spite of his lack of commercial success, is infectious, as is his relentlessly self-deprecating commentary.
As a story it stutters, parking the action while characters explore ideas, but taken as a whole there's a lot here to enjoy, not the least of which is the sight of an artist visibly feeling his way through the medium, taking on Dave Sim's advice that one learns by doing, and then learning from the mistakes you make. That last panel or page might not have worked out quite as you wanted it to, but it taught you how to draw the next one better. This may be a book with all the flaws of self-publishing, but it has all the attendant strengths as well.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/onifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/onifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/onifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/onihalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/oninone.jpg
Read ComiX-Fan’s interview with Tabloia creator Chris Wisnia here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=30874).
Visit Tabloia Weekly Magazine’s website at http://www.tabloia.com (http://www.tabloia.com/)
Story Title: The Lump: The Complete Sordid Story
Death, amputation and science gone mad! Also, tips on self-publishing!
Created, Written, Illustrated, Lettered and Edited by: Chris Wisnia
Covers by : Damon Thompson
Wise Sage and Editor Emeritus: Wayne Jones
Editor In Chief: Rob Oder
Publisher: Salt Peter Press (http://www.tabloia.com)
A love-letter to both film noir and the old horror movies of the black and white era, The Lump has mood and menace to spare. A mishapen hunk of matter is found in the middle of the freeway, and eventually it's plain that it used to be a person. Maybe more than one. The trail to the identity of the body intertwines with a man who's taken a powder with $85,000 dollars, a world-famous surgeon who claims to be able to replace limbs and a simpleton whose barn is no place for the faint-hearted. The Lump originally appeared in Chris Wisnias's 6 issue series Tabloia, and is collected here for the first time in one place. It follows his earlier large format Doris Danger Seeks..., which was all kinds of Kirbyesque fun, and provides welcome evidence that Chris Wisnias is still plugging away at the thankless coalface that is self-publishing.
It's probably unlike anything you're currently reading, and will leave you intrigued, confused, impressed and frustrated. As well as the central mystery there are a horde of sub-themes running through the book, occasionally to the detriment of the narrative flow. Subsidiary characters talk about body-piercing, old sci-fi movies and the social repercussions of limb donation, expanding on the ideas in the story. It stalls the action somewhat, but the writer isn't just giving us a straight story. He's playing with several different themes, one of which is the fact that this is all just a comic-book. There are deliberate glitches in the continuity (one of the character's has a dog that changes every episode) and conversations about how stories like this always end. It's interesting, but it's undeniably at the expense of the story. Which is a shame, as there's a lot in the story to enjoy, especially the world-weary PI, dispensing advice while reading the racing pages, cursing out the loser he backed. By the end of the mystery we have answers to most of our questions, but there's no closure for anyone involved. If you've seen enough noir you'll already know that the best anyone can hope for is to see the sun come up the next day.
The production values on the book are impressive, with the cover being particularly lovely. It's rare to see a cover without a bar code and logos and credits cluttering everything up, but that's what we've got here, and it's all the more striking for it. The interior art is considerably less polished, but still manages some memorable moments. The reveal of what PI Lance Delaney finds in the barn is a lovely shot, and Wisnias plays with light and shadow in a way that befits the mood of the piece.
Many collected editions are pretty sparse, offering a couple of alternate covers, or maybe a few brief notes on a couple of pages, but Wisnias stuffs as much into this as he can get away with. Bulking out the page count we have the letters pages from the original issues of Tabloia, many pages of layouts and character sketches, an interview with the creator, an epilogue to The Lump, a bleak and highly disturbing four page story about a man and a mirror, and incidental pages of hysterically amusing tit-bits. Most fun are the pages featuring Chris Wisnias's tips on self-publishing, including the number of visits he's managed to drum up for his site based on random words he's littered throughout it ('Male spanko - 1 visit, Barnacle penis - 16 visits') and a truly harrowing account of just how dispiriting it is being in the self-publishing business (his account of the some poor guy in the self-publishing section of a convention unknowingly having little wads of paper flicked into his hair is truly sad). Despite his brutally honest account of his experience in the business, he keeps coming back. It's clearly a labour of love for him, with each comic published being its own reward. His enthusiasm for the work, in spite of his lack of commercial success, is infectious, as is his relentlessly self-deprecating commentary.
As a story it stutters, parking the action while characters explore ideas, but taken as a whole there's a lot here to enjoy, not the least of which is the sight of an artist visibly feeling his way through the medium, taking on Dave Sim's advice that one learns by doing, and then learning from the mistakes you make. That last panel or page might not have worked out quite as you wanted it to, but it taught you how to draw the next one better. This may be a book with all the flaws of self-publishing, but it has all the attendant strengths as well.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/onifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/onifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/onifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/onihalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/oninone.jpg
Read ComiX-Fan’s interview with Tabloia creator Chris Wisnia here (http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=30874).
Visit Tabloia Weekly Magazine’s website at http://www.tabloia.com (http://www.tabloia.com/)