Find of the week: Dark Side Of The Moonies-Erica Heffmann

Ok so technically I found this quite a number of weeks ago but I'm running a bit behind with these and therefore have a ready made stockpile to take from.


It's quite a rarity here on Graphic Engine for me to do a find of a week that didn't grab my attention for its visual proprieties. This book's cover is nothing special but the book itself is something I am very much looking forward to diving into headfirst.

Dark Side Of The Moonies by Erica Heffman is a first hand true account of one woman's brainwashing and involvement in The Moonies cult (or The Unification Church), written after her deprogramming and liberation. Heffman since her liberation became fascinated by cults and the use of power in an academic and a 'I need to make people aware of how this works' kind of way. This book was first published in 1982 so if you think cults were just a phenomena of the 60's think again (read:Scientology).

Here's a qoute from the back if that doesn't get you interested.

'I was a Moonie. When I regained my mind, I looked back at the horror of it. I was haunted by the need to understand how and why I had been transformed into what I hated most'.

Animation of the week: The Seperation-Robert Morgan)

Ok so Robert Morgan very clearly wears his influences on his sleeve here (Brothers Quay, Jan Svankmajer, bolexbrothers) but when the result is as good as this who am I to complain. This is a creepy, atmospheric, and well paced (the movements are incredibly smooth but don't suffer being Disneyfied because of this) tale of two separated conjoined twins who can't bear to be apart. A particularly nice touch is the gloss of sweat on their aged faces that really makes them believable despite the slightly fantastic plot line. The set pieces and lighting are also gorgeous reminding me of an even more sinister Blade Runner or perhaps Brazil. Watch it here.



I originally found this recommendation through master of comic book/movie sleaze Rick Trembles and the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal (which looks fantastic, and where Rick Trembles has his own animation film Goopy Spasms debuting).

Review: Digesting The Child Within-John Callahan

'John Callahan is no ordinary cartoonist' starts the brief introduction to this book. The idea of any cartoonist being ordinary is quite a laughable one to me. Comics (or at least the type of comics I'm partial to) are usually the venting of the guilty, the repressed, and the downright neurotic. Callahan certainly ticks all the alternative comic artist boxes in this sense, and gets extra brownie points for a difficult and religious upbringing (it seems one of the key ingredients in some of the best comic artists out there-Crumb, Justin Green etc, is Catholic guilt). Not only this but Callahan was an alcoholic at 12 and a quadriplegic at the age of 21. My friend commented that he was one of those people who couldn't t draw but who gets away with it because of the humour inherent in their work. Now whether or not Callahan could draw before his car accident, I can't be sure, I do know that cartooning was something that he came back to almost as part of his recovery process from alcoholism. But it is not entirely a deliberate primitive style on his part but actually because he can't move all his fingers and has to use his left arm to guide his right when drawing, although in my opinion it does add to the overall effect.


Callahan's gag cartoons to me epitomise the phrase 'gallows humour'. Instead of drawing cartoons and attaching words about how hard his life is and was, Callahan doesn't play the victim, and lampoons everyone and everything he can. Even though his cartoons are not about him you can tell he pours himself into them, and you can tell that the humour he adopts is cathartic, his own personal way of dealing with his lot. It is refreshing to see someone with a disability laugh at themselves, reminding us not to be too oversensitive, and indeed that laughter is the best medicines. But he doesn't just laugh at himself. no stones are left unturned: from cocaine addicts ('It doesn't seem like Christmas without snow') to schizophrenics and people in L.A. These cartoons are like the politically incorrect evil twin of the classic New Yorker gag cartoon, or better yet Johnny Ryan with brains. Even the cartoons without captions, even though they are crude, are remarkably easy to decipher and instantly hilarious (see below).

Deceptively simple, twisted, but not without a message, Callahan (who sadly died this year) was an innovative master of his craft and an inspiration for many (as the accolades from Matt Groening, Gary Larson, and Don Martin on the back of the book show). Having read this small collection I feel inspired to go out and get his best selling illustrated autobiography 'Don't worry, He won't get far on foot' which I can imagine will contain as much wit and perseverance as the drawings in this collection.

Find of the week: Spumco Comic Book

I picked this up from Orbital Comics in London for a measly £2.50. Illustrated by Jim Smith, this is a comic book off shoot of the fantastically twisted animated series Ren and Stimpy. Named after Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi's own animation house, the comic mimics Kricfalusi's iconic style to the tee and features two of his lesser known (but equally hilarious) charecters George Liquor and Jimmy the Idiot Boy. The comic is short but sweet, big, colourful, and offensive, all of which make it appealing for children and adults alike. Kricfalusi with his Ren and Stimpy cartoons managed to combine his fanboy love and admiration for the classic animation of the Fleischer Brothers, Chuck Avery, and Disney(*1), with more than a hint of the grotesque and the out and out creepy. This resulted in many of the episodes of the show being banned (although thankfully these banned episodes are available on the DVD boxsets). I have to admit that I didn't get Ren and Stimpy when I was younger, I found it crude, and thought it was simply toilet humour and violence. It seems strange that my appreciation for it would be rekindled as an adult precisely when I'm not supposed to find those kind of things funny. But that is because I understand there is actually more to Ren and Stimpy than that: the hints at satire, and the mix match of 50's values and kitsch with a psychotic, unnerving, and surrealist edge made it unlike any other children's cartoon out there, and the shocking fact was that this cartoon was aimed at children. But children want violence and children want weirdness, and the very fact that the children were being given what they want back then must have been refreshing. But now that we live in an age where all our children's programmes are done in CG, and are all too glossy, shiny, happy, with annoying songs and voices, and overtly PC (*2), I know what kind of programme I'd rather my (imaginary) children were watching.
Anyway, I've noticed I've made a major digression there. The comic itself will make you laugh. The existence of the Idiot Boy in cartoons doesn't seem as possible in this day and age but the staggered punchline concerning him evading potential trouble at every turn simply because he's a 'cute little moron' is pleasant enough. The star of the strip however has to be George Liquor. His strip is written in classic Ren and Stimpy style with great back and forth dialouge between George and the Dirty Mouth Bass and a great tounge in cheek pay off at the end. Every panel is animated, you can hear the sound effects and the music, even sense the comic pauses, it reads just like the Ren and Stimpy show in your head. This neat little package is wrapped up with a great advertisement for Spumco toys in which 'the great nations' (of the USA and China) 'have temporarily buried their differences for the good of Spumco'. Check out Spumco.


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(*1) Which you can see if you look at John K's Blog here.
(*2) There is obviously good 'safe' children's TV out there. Sesame Street is an obvious example of multi-culturalism that doesn't seem like it's trying to hard and benefits from Jim Henson and cool animation.

Ah Pook Is Here

I've never been a huge fan of William S Burroughs, finding his cut-up technique of writing a little irritating and overrated, however with the impending release of a once abandoned graphic novel collaboration between himself ,and the artist Malcolm McNeil, I may be forced to reevaluate.
Started in the 70's and originally appearing as a comic strip under the title The Unspeakable Mr Hart in English magazine Cyclops, Ah Pook Is Here, and after seven years of struggles(*1) they finally got the book published in 1979. The idea of a book lenght comic strip, predating Eisner's invention of the term 'graphic novel' (with what is argued(*2) is the first graphic novel, A Contract With God) was a daring move.
It is Fantagraphics Books that will be releasing a restored edition in the summer of 2011. It will be released as a two part book the second part being the artist's own memoir of his working relationship with Burroughs.
Whether or not the text will make me see Burroughs in a different light remains to be seen(*2). However one thing can be said for him is that he certainly has an eye for artistic talent, his only other comics based project that never came to fruition was a science-fiction strip for the dream anthology that never was, Someday funnies(*3)
I can only image how much of a visual delight the full colour reprint of this is going to be just from the samples available on McNeil's website. Luscious horizontal panels of landscapes, stretching out and evolving into surreal masterpieces, reminiscent of Dali, classical religious artwork, William Blake, and Escher. Other sections of the book , which resemble more closely the comic book format, are sketched out in pencil and are atmospheric and brooding and taking a leaf from Will Eisner's book, make great use of negative spaces and well thought out panel composition.
If the samples presented to you here are not enough to keep you satisfied until the books release, then you always check out McNeil's site here and also a creepy slightly Tim Burtonesque(*4) short animation based on the Burrough's text (and voiced by the man himself) directed by Philip Hunt

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(*1) Their original publisher closed
(*2) Although there are other contenders for that crown, Milt Gross's He Done Her Wrong and the early woodcut novels of Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel (although all these are wordless).
(*2) Judging by the plot (the usual paranoid conspiracy theory about the media/government with some sci-fi elements) I doubt it.
(*3) Which was to feature legends of the comics world as well as the non-comics world, including Steadman, Fellini, Dali, Tom Wolfe, and even Germaine Greer.

Kayne West's New Yorker Tweets

What do you get when you cross Kayne West's egotistical, often off the wall and grandiose twitter tweets with cartoons from The New Yorker?


Fantastically fitting captions is the answer. Even the Jesus Christ of Hip Pop approves.
Click here to view them all.

Review: My friend Dahmer-Derf

I have a small goal, one that when I confess it makes me feel like I should be locked away in a home for the socially inept. I wish to own ALL of the weird and wonderful comics collected together in Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury's great little reference book The Leather Nun and Other Incredibly Strange Comics This book gives you a taster of a whole range of comic book alternatives to offbeat erotica, cheap b-movies, and exploitation shlock horror including Amputee Love, Barkley versus Godzilla, and Hansi: The Girl Who Loved The Swastika. Derf's twenty six page comic book true life story about his high school experiences with the notorious serial killer Jeffery Dahmer is the first one of The Leather Nun comics that I can cross off my list. It all starts off with a pretty intelligent and yet straightforward text only introduction from the author/artist of the book. It responses openly to questions about why he wrote the book, and his difficulties getting it published, before finally sticking a boot in to any would-be serial killer groupies reading it requesting them not to contact him, and go and get help. He finally explains in response to people questioning the authenticity of his story, that he deliberately toned down his usual style of artwork(*1) in order for it to match the straightforwardness of his story and therefore make it entirely believable. Derf's handling of the story is effective because it remains fairly neutral and open ended throughout. It doesn't glamorise Dahmer or set out to represent him as evil incarnate, neither does it alievate him of his crimes due to a less than perfect childhood. Derf does express a certain belief that perhaps if someone had taken notice of his strange actions Dahmer might have been saved, but he places the emphasis on the word 'might' acknowledging that there was something in Dahmer's make up that wasn't right from the beginning, a numbness almost. His storytelling is sparing, both visually and in terms of narrative. In terms of plot outline, it is broken down into a series of small chunks that make up the bigger picture. There are no real earth shattering moments of relivation but Derf's omnipotent narration at the top of the panels piece together clues and signs that his teenage self may have missed or just chose to ignore. Visually Derf makes good use of black and white, and a very subtle use of shadow, a lot of which ends up focused on Dahmer's face in a perhaps cliched attempted to make him look menacing and/or tortured. A fairly uniform panel layout except for a few visual effects and metaphors (the end of the penultimate section of the comic sees the final panels shrink in size to represent Dahmer's withdrawal from society) means that you are not distracted from the story at hand. Overall this small slice of life comic is well worth owning although I wouldn't expect any major insights into the mind of a serial killer when reading this. Derf however is honest and brave in this comic, admitting guiltily that although he was no way responsible for what happened to Dahmer, his friendship with him was not one based on mutual respect.


View Derf's website here.
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(*1) Derf's style is usually heavily influences by his punk sensibilities, something that is desperate to break out in some of the depictions of Dahmer imitating his disabled decorator, with the grotesque distorted lip curl Derf comes across like a slightly more two dimensional Charles Burns