Marc BellCritiques

Twisted and occasionally hilarious.

I always loved Marc Bell's cartoon "Shrimpy and Paul" in Exclaim magazine. While I never could figure out what it was doing there its been too long. Bell's cartoon world is maybe not for everybody, a mesmerizing, schizoid-psychedelic dystopia, a "good" bad trip! In this, apparently his first stand-alone graphic novel there is more of a satirical undercurrent (at least I think... I can't be too sure, lol!). Stroppy appears to move towards becoming liberated from mechanistic industrialism, only to find himself in a frying-pan to fire situation between the senseless world of the rebel Schnauzers and the music-industry appropriation by the Mr. Potato Head like Monsieur Mustache. Ridiculous, insane, dark, wonderful!

Pure Pajamas is a great collection of fun items from the always inventive Marc Bell. This volume is a good contrast to his recent Hot Potatoe book, which focused more on the high-falutin' end of his "artwork", where the present volume collects pieces that are more in the vein of traditional comics. Taken together, both books present an excellent mid-career snapshot of an artist who is doing great things in the field of comic art.

Hot Potatoe is a pretty amazing journey through the unique mind of Marc Bell. Given the idiosyncratic (and somewhat repetitious) aspect of his comics work, some of this material does begin to blend into a homogeneous mass after a while. If you can't appreciate Bell's style, you'll never make it all the way through these pages. On the other hand, if the quirky nature of Bell's deceptively simple drawings appeals to you, this is the sort of volume that you can dip into and always find something kooky, strange, and rewarding.½

This is certainly a minor work in Marc Bell's overall oeuvre, clocking in at a mere 16 color pages. Nonetheless, it's completely true to the spirit of his "bigger" works - clever, subtle, and wholly imbued with the unique logic of Bell's private universe. Definitely fun stuff for the Marc Bell aficionado.

Worn Tuff Elbow is a fun visit to the strange world of Marc Bell, a comics artist who regularly delivers idiosyncratic worlds full of odd characters, beautifully detailed black-and-white panels, and colloquial language that often serves to build story structure (rather than serving merely as dialog). What is perhaps most interesting about Bell's achievement is the lack of cynicism or darkness in these tales; many of Bell's peers end up leaning on violence, despair or general grimness in order to deliver comics art of equal inventiveness. There's nothing schmaltzy about Bell's work, but at the same time he strikes a unique note of whimsy that makes his work enjoyable and very memorable.½