I just received the 1st issue of Gary Sullivan's comic, Elsewhere. I'm pretty psyched, and for a number of reasons, tho hey, I should be writing a paper à ce moment. I'm not a total comic guy but I grok the genre some. check out Donald Duck comics from the 50s and 60s for bafflingly surreal stories. I did Marvel and DC comics into my 20s, but not desperately. definitely got tired of Marvel's soap opera approach. I also had my phase with head comix, particularly R Crumb and S Clay Wilson. what I'm getting at, there's potential in comix, visual and word together. you remember Dorn's Gran Apacheria, I hope. to my taste, the genre's potential gets lost in the tedious gritty adventures of graphic novels, but to each his own. my young friend Isaac very often includes drawings with his writings. last year in our collage class he was doing what he called collage videos, which are largely visual narratives, which he would even supply a (paper) video cassette case for. I am kinda wandering here, but want to emphasize how cool comix can be. okay, I'm not the best judge about these things, don't have a good scan of what's out there. some of Jim Behrle's comix are pretty nifty, for instance. but as I say, I'm not the best judge. I've seen Gary's visual work in Rain Taxi, in his book How to Succeed in the Arts (Faux 2002), and on his blog. if I had to peg him, I'd suggest he's akin to head comix in style, but it's poetry not drugs at the core. have I bored you yet? I'm wicked tired and trying for lucid, hahaha. ANYWAY, this here is Japanese Notebook, "all words and images seen while on my honeymoon in Japan, June 2004". the cover (fairly sturdy cover stock) is a garishly bubbly anime-styled treat of color. it looks so foreign. if I didn't know Gary's work some, I don't know what I'd make of this cover. spacy and outré. the inside cover is a b&w photo of way too many Hello Kittyesque creatures. many have upraised paws, as if the cutesy proles were taking over. it could happen! the body of the work is standard comic boxes filled with strange. the images and words are variously goofy, disturbing, odd, baffling, and I dunno. p. 6 has 3 panels. the legend atop: "there's always someone doing one's best." below that is pictured a happy-looking cellphone that is apparently giving the reader some useful advice in Japanese. below that we see CP in a subway, flicking one of his/her buttons: OFF. the final panel, CP gives the universal shh gesture. get it? and couldn't you be more neighbourly too? on p 17, the bottom panel shows an apparent teddy bear ogling someone with extreme sunglasses. above that, the words: "I love your present time (www.misspuke.com)." a trip to that website finds photos and phone numbers of young Japanese women. and so forth. some of the incongruity derives from how Japanese gets shifted into English, and some of it, I daresay, is just plain whack. the effect is of life in the disjunctive lane. don't hold on too hard! I think Gary registers but doesn't align. which is interesting. I always thought I'd make a pretty good xenophobe because our human differences really rock me, plus I haven't travelled a whole heck of a lot. but I'm not offended by these differences, so I guess I'm okay. and so's Gary. he's that Keatsian character absorbing what's in the room. I suppose irony is at play here some, but that's not his point. a poetics is installed here, in his thick lines and weighty black patches. I look forward to the next installment. it looks like a labour of love.