Ghost Comics: a Benefit Anthology for R.S. Eden. Various artists, edited by Ed Choy Moorman, published by Bare Bones Press, 165 pages. On sale for $5!
and
Stitching Together, by Ed Choy Moorman. 16pg. @ 1/2 letter size. $4 from the author.
OK, so I might not be the fastest horse in this race. I will admit that I bought a book called Ghost Comics without realizing that it was literally a book entirely of comics about ghosts. As I got several stories in, my excitement grew as I realized what the title had very straightforwardly been trying to tell me.
Ghosts are one of my favourite things to draw and one of my favourite motifs in general. I like the idea that we’re all trailed by obliging little passels of ghosts. The longer you hang in there on this earth, the more dead guys you know— always more, and never less. For me, the presence of those absences is an important and palpable part of being alive.
Ghost Comics is also a benefit for RS Eden, a community service organization in Minnesota. I’m not sure if it was intended as such, but ghosts seem like a poignant symbol of the things about our lives that dog us and that we struggle to get out from under. Whether or not the topic and the beneficiary are supposed to be thematically linked, I’m not sure, but I am stoked about the theme any which way.
I bought my copy of Ghost Comics on sale for five bucks, and you can too. It is a crazy steal of a deal for a thick book of awesome art. The comics are all great, with the exception for this reader of the contribution from Jeffrey Brown, for whom I feel a white-hot hatred. (Nonetheless I appreciate that he, as a Big Name, contributed to a benefit anthology for an unglamorous but important local organization.)
There’s a good mix of established comics artists with many I’d never heard of, and a variety of interpretation of the ghost theme. There are stories of grief and loss, cute ghosts, scary ghosts, mythical ghosts, fake ghosts, and even dinosaur ghosts. This is a beautiful book, and reading it made me really excited about people and art and ghosts.
Below, the cutest darn ghosts you ever did see, by Maris Wicks:
Stitching Together is a little comic book about Jim Henson. It begins with a brief retelling of Henson’s childhood, his work on the Muppet Show and Sesame Street, and his death and funeral. There is also a one-page comic about Henson’s influence on the author’s life, excerpts from other Muppet-related comics Choy Moorman has drawn, and a little comic about his visit with friends to Henson’s childhood home in Leland, Mississippi. If this sounds like a lot for 16 pages, it is, but Choy Moorman draws with a punchy, consistent style that ties the stories together. His art is inky, confident, and fun for the eyes.
He also gets a lot of points in my books because he personalized both Ghost Comics and Stitching Together with a little personalized drawing on the overleaf. To me this marks him as a nice guy and a class act.
- Lily Pepper
