J & K, John Pham
2019
I'm reading these books everyday, I read three at a time (one tome, and two more normal sized books), so I finish one a day on average. So I'm not writing about good books, I'm simply collecting my thoughts on what I've just read. Generally, I like the books I read, but not always.
I'd wanted to read this for a long time, and heard a lot of good things John Pham. The positive about this: it's a great looking book. The production is top notch. I don't know how it was made, I think he made a Risograph-style print and replicated that as a traditional full color print. If not, he has an incredible eye for imitation. And the art is very good for what it is, cartoon illustrations in the vein of Adventure Time.
The thing is, there was nothing I enjoyed in the reading of it. The characters are two depressed girls hanging out in a mall, and later a cemetery. There are jokes that I didn't laugh at, and pathos that I didn't feel because the characters are vague. It treads in some of the same territory and tone of Simon Hanselmann's Megg and Mogg, but I regularly laugh out loud at that stuff. This stuff didn't hit me at all.
The book comes with an assortment of stuff tucked into the inside cover: stickers, a magazine referenced in the book, trading cards, and a record that I'll never be able to play but you can listen to online.
I can imagine being a 20 year old stoner and getting this and being blown away. I probably would have loved it 20 years ago. At this point though, I regret spending the money on this hardcover. I would rather have just bought a single issue to sample Pham's work to know it wasn't for me.
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