Comics Question!: What are the most ‘difficult’ great comics? (I’m thinking in terms of demanding to read, formally/narratively/stylistically daunting rather than harrowing or problematic but suggest those too if you like!)
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I’d go the other away around, actually. Comic first, then the novel. That’s how I did it, and I suspect you’d end up more dazzled by the amazing formalism at play in both this way.
I wouldn't say it was difficult but 100 bullets has a very twisty turny plot, I had to keep rereading bits to remind me who's on who's side and who is double/triple/quadruple crossing who.
Great series though.
Chris Ware’s comics are up there in difficulty of reading from a formal perspective. Charles Burns’ comics are disturbing to read. We could mention Julie Doucet’s Dirty Plotte for sure too, not that I’ve re-read it recently.
Yes, I was going to say Ware. I do love his use of widely varying formats and the puzzle like nature of some of his lay-outs. Also agree that the brilliant Hernandez brothers can be tricky if you're not on the ball and/or don't have a sense of the chronology. And I've been reading them since 1987!
Also the fact the Bros both use magical realism liberally - so the character who is dead still appears sometimes, etc. But even without that, I found eg the way Maggie Chascarillo changed looks in between issues to be initially hard to understand (even though actually realistic).
Ware, absolutely. Some of the greatest formal achievements in all of comics, but they hinge on looking very closely at tightly spaced sequences of images that are often smaller than a postage stamp and following them through dizzyingly unorthodox layouts
I wouldn't have thought of Ware's comics as difficult to read because to me they're actually very clear and easy to follow even when they look complex from afar.
A mention has to be made of Woodrow Phoenix’s ’She Lives’ which is daunting in format. Have you seen it? It is very large and exists in an edition of one, turned by hand by Wds. In terms of formal storytelling it is wordless so pure
comics in that way.
Underwater was too difficult for him yes! I remember enjoying it the one time I read it but it was maybe not the best project for monthly serialisation
I read his ICELAND and it was a real headfuck, then looked at the write ups and they were going “ah yes a more conventional outing” so I definitely have to read more of his stuff
That also makes me think of @carlaspeedmcneil.bsky.social ‘s Finder comics: SO great, and a thickly layered created world. Footnotes add so much to that.
Every time, I open From Hell thinking: "this time I read it". Every time, I read a few page and I just go : "Oh, there's a bird outside, I can't read in these conditions, I'll try again next month."
Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s work is challenging both in content and meaning. The imagery is as important to narrative resolution as the text, and the meanings are often very layered and conflicted.
But the beauty found underneath the rough subject matter can be breathtaking. I revisit Good-Bye frequently.
Oh good call - one of my great pleasures in the last year or so has been the wave of translated work by Garo artists, which led me to Tatsumi - I only have Abandon The Old In Tokyo tho not Good-By. You’re right that there’s a willingness to be ambiguous/overlapping/contradictory which is fascinating
Old newspaper comics are at a real disadvantage cos the only way you encounter Krazy Kat (which is incredible!) is surrounded by 100 other Krazy Kats, and that’s too high a dose for a newcomer I think
I think that's right - my generation discovered KK through seeing excerpts in encyclopedias and anthologies like the Smithsonian book. So when we eventually had a whole book of the stuff we sort of knew what to expect.
Though seeing the US Dennis the Menace strip that way, in a fist thick Fantagraphics paperback, did wonders for my impression of Hank Ketchum's craftmanship.
Chris Ware's Building Stories? Here's a box of stuff you sort it out. Though admittedly half the challenge is in fact that it's just so physically unwieldy.
The line between "this book is difficult" and "the story is simply not engaging enough to try very hard" can be tricky to parse. On those lines I'd say Tempest, the last book in LOEG, which got too thick with references and Moore trying on different hats for my tastes.
I need to read more LOEG - I found my physical copy of the Black Dossier in a box recently; its vanishing had stopped me in my tracks a bit so I’ve never read Century let alone Tempest
Century is excellent and I'd recommend it to anyone without reservation. Tempest is as I described above (and I idly wondered if Moore knew it would be one of his last comics and thus overstuffed it with stray ideas and deep literary cuts).
I was thinking about Century the other day and how at the time there was a lot of online eye rolling and tutting at his use of a certain boy wizard, but now it feels like Moore saw something that not a lot of people had spotted yet.
My Great Comics Sin is I've never finished THE INVISIBLES. The couple of times I've tried, I make it up to the final 12 issues, then bow out with just a few to go.
Pick any Chris Ware book and strap in for one of the best comics you ever read, but some pages emerge gradually as you figure out ways to read them at all (this is very rewarding and fun though)
Moore's last issue of PROMETHEA can be read two different ways, either sequentially or as the giant poster. The latter involves a lot of flipping around.
eg the first time I read Gilbert Hernandez’ “Poison River” I was *completely* lost by the very fragmented, non linear storytelling; it took me another two goes through the collected version before it connected up for me, and then I loved it
Yeah definitely, I find later Beto very hard to get a grip on, and High Soft Lisp definitely the toughest of what I’ve read for the sudden shifts in tone as well as narrative
That makes sense. There’s almost a MOBY DICK ebb and flow to FROM HELL between the narrative-forward parts and the glorified infodumps (absolutely no shade intended).
No shade inferred. I absolutely get it! I think that's precisely why I enjoyed the approach I took. It added another layer to that rhythm that I personally felt I needed.
FLAGG I found to be pretty understandable, but BLACKHAWK was an unholy mess.
Though my roommate's father, who had not read a comic in about 20 years, on a visit read it and loved it so I gave it to him.
Well I guess you've already blogged through the big one so the first one that comes to my mind is Alison bechdel's "are you my mother" which I remember as a bit of a slog and this scan just reminded me why :
I couldn’t be doing with this one; I bought it eagerly when it came out but it was really off putting to me. Yes difficult but not something where I felt the struggle would be worth it for me. Fun Home is painful but rewarding; The Secret to Superhuman Strength is likewise a bit painful but fun.
tbh panter's "jimbo: adventures in paradise" -- his signature tales of his punk everyman which first appeared in west coast punk fanzines -- are not exactly easy-read stuff
From Hell by Campbell and Moore is astounding, but at times the combination of dark subject matter and unstuck narrative can make for a very difficult read.
From Hell springs to mind, being as much a thesis as a metaphysical narrative of the Ripper murders. Not helped by literally being difficult to read at the time because of its fragmented release 😅
I didn't read that until its 15th(?) anniversary edition, which included the script and annotations. IIRC those were helpful in explaining stuff that wasn't conveyed very well by - or didn't even make it into - the final comic.
It’s one of the few well known things by them I’ve never even been tempted to read, a perfect combination of things I know I’m not going to get much out of
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Great series though.
Perhaps I'm just thick 🤷♂️
comics in that way.
Harrowing: Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde (Joe Sacco)
But the beauty found underneath the rough subject matter can be breathtaking. I revisit Good-Bye frequently.
(also his horniness)
He was mildly amused. Which was gratifying.
Hickman’s stuff can be dense and esoteric, don’t let that deter you or put you off comics in general.
Though my roommate's father, who had not read a comic in about 20 years, on a visit read it and loved it so I gave it to him.
Cette page, c’est une sacrée dose de stimuli avec 3 bulles de texte au milieu 😵💫
*from GOJIRA vs HEDORA (1971)