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Pim And Francie: The Golden Bear Days (2009)

by Al Columbia(Favorite Author)

4.23 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1606993046 (ISBN13: 9781606993040)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Fantagraphics Books

review 1: Al Columbia is an anomaly in the world of comics. He first emerged in the late 80's, working as an assistant to Bill Sienkiewicz when the older artists' fully-painted work on series like Elektra: Assassin had established him as one of the most influential and successful names in comics. When Alan Moore quit DC and began writing edgier material for independent publishers, who were enjoying a temporary but massive sales increase thanks to a speculative market gone mad, Sienkiewicz was the artist who would collaborate with him on a creator-owned title, 'Big Numbers'. It was an astonishingly complex and ambitious work, and the first two issues were a critical and financial success. For reasons never fully understood, Sienkiewicz quit the project after completing most of issue ... more3. Al Columbia was announced as Sienkiewicz's replacement, beginning with issue 4, and a new publisher was on board. He was a talented artist, and likely the only one capable of replicating his former boss and mentors' style (with the possible exceptions of Dave McKean and Barron Storey, who were busy with their own respective projects at the time). But as the deadline got closer, Moore and the publisher, Tundra (who agreed to release issues 3 and 4 if they liked Columbia's finished pages; Moore's own company, 'Mad Love', had handled issues 1 and 2, but Moore wanted to focus on writing), had a harder and harder time contacting him. When they did, it was clear he wasn't going to make the date originally solicited. So they pushed it back, and made their excuses and apologies to the distributors, assuming a bit more time would allow young Al Columbia to get it together. But it didn't. He dropped out of sight completely, and no one could find him. Finally, they searched the studio, hoping to find whatever had been completed in a state close enough to finished work that it could be published, with a little doctoring. But what they found was evidence Columbia suffered a nervous breakdown; the studio had been trashed, and all that was left of Columbia's art for Big Numbers issue 4 was shreds and scraps. With the deadlines for both 3 and 4 blown and no high-profile artists willing to work with Moore on the cursed project that had sent one artist fleeing across the ocean and driven another one insane, Tundra pulled out. Moore reluctantly let his promising story go and turned to other, equally ambitious tales. Issue #3 was never published in its proper form, but in 1999, 10 pages were printed in a one-and-done magazine called 'Submedia'. In 2009, a photocopy of the complete lettered art for Big Numbers #3 surfaced on eBay. The purchaser contacted Moore, and with his permission published scans of the art on LiveJournal.In 2001 Eddie Campbell, who was the artist behind Alan Moore's greatest work, 'From Hell', published a sequential art account of the Big Numbers-meltdown in his book 'Alec: How To Be An Artist'. From Wikipedia: 'Columbia declined to address the subject publicly for several years, writing in a 1998 letter to The Comics Journal that "I could easily launch into a tirade about the extensive horror of my Tundra experience, but I much prefer the very entertaining and conflicting accounts already in circulation." In later statements he confirmed that he destroyed his artwork but disputed other claims by the principal figures in the fiasco.'His career after the Big Numbers meltdown has been suitably strange. In the last 25 years he has produced five or so comics, most notably The Biologic Show #0 and 1 for Fantagraphics, and around 20 short stories for comic anthologies like Zero Zero, Blab! and Mome. Despite his extremely limited output, his work is among the most original and beautifully rendered in modern comics. His style quickly mutated in the early 90's, as he abandoned the Sienkiewicz influence and pioneered a heavily inked chiaroscuro approach that incorporated the painted black-and-white backgrounds and thickly-lined characters and foregrounds of early animators Max Fleischer, Pat Sullivan and Otto Mesmer, and Winsor McCay (whose comic-strip masterpiece, 'Little Nemo in Slumberland', was probably more of an influence than his innovative pre-WWI animation).It was his short stories that first blew my mind, as it likely was for many people. His 8-page story from Blab! Volume 10, 'The Trumpets They Played', featuring his character Seymour Sunshine, is a hilarious and horrifying vision of the biblical apocalypse. The artwork is ineffable, a gorgeous black-and-white horror-show starring the many beasts described in Revelations, with scriptural excerpts included like the story-boards from silent films... which is exactly what this story looks like, a cartoon from the silent era.For me, 'The Trumpets...' is the best 8 pages in comics history. Together with other classics like 'Amnesia' and 'I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool', this spare oeuvre has fascinated and influenced an entire generation of artists. He remains a mystery, and that works to his advantage. He also does what very few artists are able to do -- he always leaves his audience wanting more.That made the news that his long-time publisher Fantagraphics would be releasing a 240 page book of NEW Al Columbia work so f****** shocking; if you took all his comics, stories and illustrations from the previous 20 years it probably wouldn't add up to much more than 240 pages (NOTE TO FANTAGRAPHICS: That is a collection every Columbia fan is still impatiently waiting for). The material included in 'Pim and Francie (named for the occasionally murderous siblings who have been Columbia favorites since The Biologic Show #0): The Golden Bear Days' is a disjointed compilation of stories, illustrations and sketches, some pages only half-inked, others torn or stained with coffee-rings. A longer story will begin to surface, then abruptly terminate, or change direction entirely. Pim murders Francie, then Francie murders Pim, then both kids are fed into meat-grinders by a demonic stranger, or pursued by the cat-decapitating 'Bloody, Bloody Killer'. Recurring images indicate a narrative left unexplored. Faint pentimentos from drawings and dialogue erased by the artist provide fascinating clues... In a long article from the first issue of the deluxe Comics Journal Special Editions (with huge, full-color 12" x 12" pages), the writer sums up the frustrating genius of Columbia perfectly, and provides a detailed history of his comics career. Columbia provided quite a few full-color illustrations to accompany the article, including promotional art for the Pim and Francie book that was said to be coming out later that year... in 2002. Needless to say, it never materialized. Six years later, the painfully self-critical Columbia appears to have denied his perfectionist impulses, and in an incredible feat of will, burst into Gary Groth's office screaming 'Take it! Just take it, take it, TAKE IT," hurling a massive portfolio stuffed with the pages that make up 'Pim and Francie' at the notorious publisher. Before Groth could respond, Columbia disappeared into the Seattle night. That's not what really happened, but after 'reading' this glorious testament to the genius of Al Columbia, it's how I like to imagine it. 'Pim and Francie' is not a graphic novel. While it contains short stories and story fragments, it is actually a beautifully produced art monograph. I couldn't believe I finally had an entire book full of Al Columbia art, from sketches to finished illustrations and everything in between. In the intervening years since it was first released, his reputation has grown. His influence on sequential art is a given, but lately, it is being acknowledged by more and more gallery artists that he was a defining inspiration -- artists like Aaron Horkey, Camille Rose Garcia, and Marguerite Van Cook. Columbia, like his fellow Zero Zero contributor Dave Cooper, has made the move to galleries, and has been profiled by Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose. His second appearance in Hi-Fructose magazines' April issue included one of their awesome 16-page inserts devoted entirely to his art (Hi-Fructose Magazine Volume 15 - His first appearance, 12 pg; Hi-Fructose Magazine Volume 31 - 18 pages, 16 of them in a booklet insert. It includes new art, while much of the material from V.15 is from Pim and Francie and his older stories; but the article/interview is great. Both are a must for Columbia fans, and if you haven't read Hi-Fructose, you should). Good news, for Al Columbia fans.As Aaron Horkey put it in Juxtapoz: "countless successful artists continue to pillage [Columbia's] back catalog, propping up their half-baked careers on the well-worn spines of second hand copies of Biologic Show." It's time Al Columbia stepped into the spotlight.
review 2: The darkest heap of corrupted childhood cartoon memories I've ever come across, Pim and Francie is a tragedy on so many levels. Simply "reading" the story gives you nothing but a sense of loss, but even worse, the artist's incredible talent and creativity shines through much of the time but falls back into scribbled-out, barely-penciled, partially-erased jibberish on almost every page. Not always, mind you; some pages he's able to put down what he wants to show in incredibly graphic, unsettling detail. Just most. less

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