Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello and Stephen Colbert, “Wigfield, the Can-Do Town that Just May Not”

When it comes down to it, this is a book about a man trying to write a book. A man who has a word count of 50,000 to meet and decides to write about the fair people of Wigfield, more of a toxic waste dump than a town, when the state threatens to tear down a dam (which didn’t need to be there to begin with). Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello and Stephen Colbert created some pretty insane characters populating Wigfield, and they did portraits of each of them to go along with the interviews.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2004, 224 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 10.15.07
Date finished: 10.28.07
What I liked: The dedication to character. Some of the portraits grossed me out so much I felt like I had to wash my hands after handling the book.
What I didn’t like: The author character is grasping at straws to get to the 50,000-word line and misuses just about every turn of phrase that I’ve known. It’s funny at times, but also grueling to read.
To sum it all up: Though I like the concept, I get the feeling this would have been a better movie than a book.

Various artists, “Flight Volume One”

Lotsa young comic artists came together on this compilation.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007 reprint, 208 pp.
Obtained via: Kevin
Date started: 10.16.07
Date finished: 10.20.07
What I liked: Lots of really talented artists in this—I especially appreciated the use of chiyogami in the collage piece.
What I didn’t like: I tend to go more lo-fi in my comics preferences. Some of this stuff was Disney-style or CGI-style. Just not my thing.
Unresolved question: Why would Scott McCloud write an essay about the Flight series from the future?

Pete Jordan, “Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States”

The title says it all: This dude, a kind of pioneer slacker, travels around the country, getting jobs, eating leftovers, quitting jobs—often all in one day. It’s not incredible writing, but it is great fun. (Hear an NPR story here.)

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 385 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 10.5.07
Date finished: 10.18.07
What I liked: Dishwasher Pete ran a zine from various pitstops and friends’ places over the years, and you can feel the zine origins in the writing. I also love the Pittsburgh shoutout and all the mentions of how awesome Portland is. (He put out a few issues from Reading Frenzy, a zine shop I love.)
What I didn’t like: Dude takes about 50 pages to get to the nut graf/thesis of the whole thing. Luckily, the rest of the book flies by.
What I learned: If I want a job with ultimate mobility, dishwashing is it.

Anders Nilsen, “Monologues for the Coming Plague”

Drawn and Quarterly dude Anders Nilsen has perhaps the saddest story in comics. Comics buddy Curt lent me some of Anders’ “Dogs and Water” series last year, and I was down with the ethereal, existential feel it had. I’d read his latest, “Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow,” but I’ll have to be sure I wasn’t planning on feeling happy that week. (An excerpt from the book, which centers around the death of his fiancee, as described by the Chicago Reader: One section, with the deceptively blithe title “Since You’ve Been Gone I Can Do Whatever I Want, All the Time,” shows him crying by himself at every point of the day.) So I guess I’ve written more now about a book that I haven’t read than the book I did read. Oh well.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2006, 260 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 9.28.07
Date finished: 10.10.07
What I liked: If you need a dose of existentialism, Anders is your guy.
What I didn’t like: Because of the repetition, I wasn’t able to concentrate on the book after a while.
What I learned: I can get a little lost with no narrative.