IN THE STUDIO - VISITS WITH CONTEMPORARY CARTOONISTS

Nine alternative-comics masters here have their say about the medium in excerpts from lengthy conversations with Hignite in their studios. The home-base settings put R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Gary Panter, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Ivan Brunetti,and the others at ease as they explicate their comics, discuss their work processes, and deliver testimonials to earlier artists who inspired them. Hignite, editor of the journal Comic Art, where five chapters first appeared in shorter form, complements the artists' comments with well-selected color and black-and-white examples of their work. Equally compelling and revelatory are samples of work by the subjects' cited influences. Jaime Hernandez extols Bob Bolling for Little Archie, Chris Ware praises early newspaper strips, and Seth reveals the obscure (to Americans) Canadian cartoonists he read as a child. The attention paid to such unsung creators by the interviewees' praise and generous reproduction of their artwork makes the book serve as an idiosyncratic, if scattershot, course in comics history as well as a forum of top contemporary talent.