Top Shelf Productions Spring 2007 Book Reviews

Top Shelf Productions is a small press publisher specializing in graphic novels that are created by an eclectic roster of artists and writers. For those of you unfamiliar with the graphic novel format, imagine a comic book writ large - a visual story told via words and pictures, placed between the pages of a quality paperback, or sometimes even a durable hardback book. For many comic artists, the graphic novel format is preferable to the demands of a monthly publication since it allows them more room to stretch out and tell a story with greater detail and with a definite beginning and finite ending.

Celebrating their tenth anniversary this year - literally a generation in the small press world - Top Shelf Productions has had the good fortune to work with an impressive group of creators over the past decade, including talents like Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell, Jon B. Cooke, Dennis P. Eichhorn and James Kochalka. The company continues to grow and expand both its operation and the scope of the books that it publishes. The titles reviewed below scratch the surface of the entertaining reading material currently offered by Top Shelf, illustrating the company's commitment to quality and diversity.

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JEFF LEMIRE
Essex County Vol. 1: Tales From The Farm
(112pp, Top Shelf Productions)

I was unfamiliar with cartoonist Jeff Lemire before receiving this graphic novel from Top Shelf, but I have to count myself among his most ardent fans after reading Essex County Vol. 1: Tales From The Farm. The first in a proposed three-part series, this is the story of Lester, a ten-year-old boy whose mother recently died from cancer. Lester has never known his father and, with no other family, ends up going to live with his Uncle Ken on his farm in Essex County, Ontario Canada. Isolated, confused and probably more than a little angry, Lester finds a friend in Jimmy Lebeuf, the town's simple-minded gas station owner and a former pro hockey player.

Tension grows between Lester and his bachelor uncle, due to their individual personalities and attempts to emotionally deal with the death of Lester's mother and Ken's sister. Lester prefers to be alone with his thoughts, losing himself in the world of comic books and super heroes. Uncle Ken is trying to understand the boy but, being somewhat of a loner himself (like most small farmers working long hours in the field), struggles to connect with Lester on any meaningful level. Only hockey brings the two together, albeit briefly. Meanwhile, Lester has found a kindred spirit in the childlike Lebeuf, as the two play pond hockey and fend off an imaginative alien invasion.

Lemire is a natural storyteller, able to convey a great deal of emotion and thought with a simple line or facial expression. His distinctive art style is unlike any that I've seen and, to his credit, he clearly isn't trying to look like any other artist. Bold black lines intersect with stark white backgrounds, blackness envelopes some panels, and Lemire's use of perspective and panel arrangement sit easily within both the flow of the story and in his graphic narration. Lemire's art is elegant in its simplicity, deceptively hiding the depth and beauty of the story.

Jeff Lemire's Essex County Vol. 1: Tales From The Farm presents a charming, entertaining story and is a fine example of what can be done with the graphic novel format by an artist and writer working outside of the admittedly more popular super-hero comics genre. I eagerly await future volumes in the series; kudos to both Lemire and to Top Shelf for their dedication to excellence.

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JEFFREY BROWN
Feeble Attempts
(48pp, Top Shelf Productions)

Jeffrey Brown reminds me of the underground cartoonists of the '60s and '70s, specifically Justin Green. He brings the same sort of personalized storytelling to his work, and his amateurish drawing style is both enchanting and brimming over with detail. Feeble Attempts is a collection drawn from Brown's mini-comics and other strips, running the gamut, in terms of subject matter, from imaginative super hero romps to autobiographical material, political and cultural commentary, and thoughts on relationships and romance.

Brown is a clever humorist and his short, one-and-two-page strips hold up well to repeated readings, revealing a little something extra each time. I particularly liked the truth about human nature revealed by Brown's "My Conspiracy To Not Sell You The New 'Garden State' DVD," while his comparison of the Iraq War and reality television is simply brilliant. In a nod, perhaps, to Green's work with "Binky Brown," you have "My Jesus Is An Awesome Jesus," and the drawing of the robotic construct shown on the back cover of Feeble Attempts is just awesome (and would make a great poster).

Nothing here is going to shake up the world of comics greatly, but Feeble Attempts does provide a thoughtful, entertaining read; Brown's distinctive style and unique voice is a refreshing change from the many far-too-serious recent attempts at creating "art" in the comics' world. This is nothing more than 48-pages of fun between two covers - too subtle to be called "mindless," too thoughtful to be easily dismissed.

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NICOLAS MAHLER
Lone Racer
(98pp, Top Shelf Productions)

At some point, many years ago, Lone Racer was a champion on the track. Presumably he had it all - fame, fortune, and the perks that accompany being the best there is at your chosen sport. These days, however, he's an answer to a trivia question, overshadowed by younger, faster and more aggressive racers that have stolen his thunder. His wife is in the hospital, he lives in a small apartment, and he drinks his nights away at Bar Juanjo with former driver "Rubber" and racetrack-mechanic-turned-cop "Irksome." Along the way, as the story unfolds, Lone Racer is drawn into an aborted bank robbery, an odd romance and even odder conversations before rededicating himself to racing and hitting the track once again in pursuit of his dignity and self-respect.

Nicolas Mahler's Lone Racer is a small graphic novel but a large, brilliant work of storytelling. Mahler's narrative is compact and lean without a wasted motion or a meaningless word. Mahler's minimalist drawing style is slightly surreal, with odd-shaped characters and unsightly, almost Dali-esque perspectives. It's with this unique style, however, along with the Spartan coloration provided the panels, that Mahler makes his story of the down-and-out racecar driver resonate with truth and reality. In weaving a tale of loss and redemption, Mahler has struck a vital nerve at the heart of every reader, encouraging us all to react like Lone Racer and get back on track to chase our dreams.

Lone Racer is an entertaining, thought-provoking story, magically offbeat yet ambitious in scope and universal in its reach. Well-known in Europe, where his work has appeared in German, Swiss and Austrian newspapers and in French and Czech anthologies, Austrian artist Mahler is an intriguing, one-of-a-kind storyteller and artist, a talent well worth keeping an eye on....

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JAMES KOCHALKA
American Elf, Book Two
(192pp, Top Shelf Productions)

Perhaps the best-known artist on the Top Shelf roster, James Kochalka is both a cult musician ("James Kochalka Superstar") and TV cartoonist (Nickleodeon) as well as an amazingly prolific comic book artist (Monkey Vs. Robot, Super F*ckers). Perpetually on the verge of a mainstream breakthrough, his highly-personal work, unbearably cute artistic style and individual quirkiness seems to keep him forever one step away from grabbing the brass ring. However, Kochalka is undoubtedly talented, and his work displays a great deal of thought and insight that could take him to whatever level of success that he desires.

American Elf, Book Two is the second anthology of Kochalka's daily "sketchbook diaries," circa 2004 - 2005, an intimate and incredibly perceptive collection that reveals both the inner workings of the artist's profession as well as his personal thoughts and emotions. The format is deceptively complex in its simplicity - one strip a day, one to four panels each - a miniscule space in which to convey an idea or throw out a punch line. But Kochalka has this medium down to a gleeful science.

With his wife and infant son, band members, friends and complete strangers all participating characters in his ongoing narrative, Kochalka pulls back the curtain to reveal a wonderful world where minor setbacks are offset by small triumphs, and even something as simple as son Eli's Halloween outfit or traveling out-of-town to sign autographs at a comics convention is fodder for daily reflection.

American Elf works not only because Kochalka invests so much of himself and his world into his daily "sketchbook diary" but because he does so with such humor, innocence, honesty and insight. Kochalka's talent is not necessarily as a storyteller, nor even as an artist (although his work certainly has its simple charm), but rather as a sharp-eyed observer of the human condition. Just as each day's entry becomes a commentary on romance and relationships, sex and parenthood, the struggle for artistic recognition and the rigors of everyday life, so too does each daily strip work as a single frame in virtual documentary film of the artist's life and work.

It's not only a breathtaking concept, but a highly entertaining one as well, Kochalka matching his childlike glee with an often world-weary perspective that borderlines on cynicism. In the end, however, his love for his family and his overall sense of wonder inspire Kochalka to create an enduring work that is timeless, entertaining and universal in its ability to relate to the reader. American Elf is definitely not a child's comic book, but rather a book for the child that exists in every one of us, demanding the opportunity to come out and play....