Reading Through 2021 23: Or Else, by Kevin H(uiznega)

Or Else #1, by Kevin H(uiznega)

2004

I miss Drawn and Quarterly's textured paper covers!

This comic was one of the last indie "issues" I bought. I know Fantagraphics and Drawn And Quarterly occasionally print some at the request of the artist, but those companies have pretty much moved to the graphic novel format. For me, I remember enjoying this issue at the time, but not being blown away by it. After a decade of reading Eightball, Palookaville, Black Hole, Hate, and Peepshow off the stand, this didn't resonate too strongly with me. 

The art stood out though: a simple, classical cartoonist style; and Huizenga has stuck with this character, Glenn Ganges. I saw some of his work on his Tumblr some years back and really was blown away. I read Glenn Ganges in: the River at Night last year and was immediately convinced it was a Great Comic. That's a book that every reader should own.

So I had my eye on revisiting this book. What first stood out is that this wasn't original work; it was a collection from his mini-comics and anthologies around that time. D&Q must have been quite taken with his work to republish it.

There are three longer pieces, and some one pagers here. The first full story, NST '04, is indie fare, trying to find poetry in daily life in a slow town. It works because Huizenga is somewhat formalist in his construction, cutting between scenes from panel to panel, creating a patchwork experience of life. I don't love it, but it's different from what was being produced at the time and manages to stand out.

The final page of NST '04 is quiet and poetic

By its length, Chan Woo Kim is the meat of the comic. It's, again, a formalist comic, overlaying adoption agency notes over Asian ink paintings (I live in Japan, it's called sumi-e here, I'm guessing Huizenga is following a Korean tradition in his piece). The art is refined, and shows that Huizenga has skills outside of simply cartooning. I don't know that it's a great comic, but it's an interesting experiment at the very least. 

I don't think this is a must-own comic that people need to track down, but it definitely shows the seeds of an artist who is interested in exploring beyond the established boundaries of comics. In his later work, he has very good linework, but it is in story construction, abstract concept illustration, and the use of repetition and tropes where I think he shines. This book shows some of the promise of that work yet to come.