Loser City's THE 100 BEST COMICS OF THE 2010s

The fine folks over at Loser City are running 

an audacious list laying out 

THE 100 BEST COMICS OF THE 2010s. 

It's been quite a list so far, and they kindly asked me to contribute 

a couple of blurbs about a few of my particular favorites.

CHECK IT OUT HERE

If you scroll down, you'll get to #30 in which I get to shill (once again)

 for the greatness of DEREK VAN GIESON'S 

EEL MANSIONS

One House, Many Rooms: Derek Van Gieson's EEL MANSIONS

I'm on a plane headed to Bethesda for SPX right now, but that won't stop me from plugging my new book!

And when I say "my", I really mean Keith Silva, David Fairbanks, Taylor Lilley, Justin Giampaoli, and mine.

ONE HOUSE, MANY ROOMS is a critical discussion of Eel Mansions, containing new essays, an "interview" with Van Gieson, and other assorted gimcracks and gewgaws. 

PLUS, it features an original cover by Derek Van Gieson! 

WHY NOT BUY IT TODAY?

Derek Van Gieson is Selling some Original Art from EEL MANSIONS

If you know me, you know how much I love Derek Van Gieson's Eel Mansions.

A matter of fact, if things go as planned, I should have a new e-book out soon collecting all of the previous reviews of the first 6 issues I contributed to, as well as some sweet new stuff from Keith Silva, myself, and Van Gieson.

Anyway, I just found out yesterday that Van Gieson has put some 

ORIGINAL ART FROM THE SERIES up for sale.

Check out some samples below and then head on over to the whole collection

HERE.

BTW, my birthday is in 18 days. Just saying....

Writing More Blurbs About EEL MANSIONS for More Top Ten Lists

(Wrote this one for LOSER CITY's 10 Comics We Loved This Year)

Eel Mansions

by Derek van Gieson

Derek Van Gieson’s Eel Mansions is the journal entry you feverishly write down upon awakening from  dreams that seemingly border between the three point intersection of nightmarish moments filled with spittle-dripping demons, your most turgid and undulating dance party romances, and the ones where you’re sharing a delicious sandwich with Edvard Munch in a dive bar along the Akerselven. It’s a series that is reminiscent of the hell-gate Porter at Inverness Castle who tells you about drink and lechery, it makes you stand to and not stand to, all accompanied by The Hit Pack singing “Never Say No To My Baby”. It is collision. It is unfathomable. It is the Eggman and the Walrus. And it is you as much as it is me. Koo-koo-kachoo.

2014 marked the end of this initial six issue series salvo, and Van Gieson concluded it with beginnings, possibilities, left-turns, right-turns, and, above all else, a kiss. He’s an artist who, with his creation, masters the art of equivocation and goes thick groove whirling down the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire while sticking his thumbs under his overalls with the confidence of the man winking in the dark. Here, it is the creator who commands the landing, and you approach it understanding that without faith there is no real art. Eel Mansions is that trust exercise waiting to catch you as you fall. It may not be gentle, but you’ll be safe in its arms.

Review -- EEL MANSIONS #6

”And in fact the only way I can deal with this eerie situation at all is to make a conscious decision that I have already lived and finished the life I planned to live – and everything from now on will be A New Life, a different thing, a gig that ends tonight and starts tomorrow morning.” – Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, PhD.

KEITH SILVA: With apologies to Raymond Carver: what [do] we talk about when we talk about endings?

As I began to write about the end of Eel Mansions — actually, rewrite would be more accurate since Elkin said my first attempt at this review read like I was smoking banana peels again followed by a nutmeg chaser — I took to the warm cottony solace of research i.e. strong black coffee and the internet as a way to spark my imagination. Always the nerd.

The internet claims the existence of a television program called Supernatural. In a voiceover in the fifth season, episode 22 to be exact, a character by name of Chuck says: ”Any chapped-ass monkey with a keyboard can [shit] out a beginning, but endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end, but you never can. The fans are always gonna bitch. There’s always gonna be holes. And since it’s the ending, it’s all supposed to add up to something. I’m telling you, they’re a raging pain in the ass.” As another television personality (and one I have more currency with) Ralph Wiggum might say, ‘Endings? That’s unpossible!’

Ralph and Chuck are right. Besides spotty wifi coverage, a decent 180g repressing of Skip and Flip’s ‘Hully Gully Cha Cha Cha’ and Bâtards with a respectable mouth feel that, at least, look like they weren’t rolled by robots, haters love to hate on endings. Copious uses of words like ‘stick,’ ‘didn’t’ and ‘landing’ are commonplace in said discussions as if the aggrieved parties were all judgey-Le-judgersons and 2002 never went autumnal. The divine right to bitch once the final page is turned or a favorite entertainment shuffles off its coaxial cable is universal.

Enough with the windup, here’s the pitch: Eel Mansions #6 eschews the bitch. Derek Van Gieson may have ninety-nine problems but that bitch (the one about sticking the landing) ain’t one, son.

Revelations occur, comics are read and all are made aware, ”you haven’t heard [Black] Sabbath until you’ve heard ‘em with saxophones!” Speaking of which, in the parlance of the ‘record store guys,’ Eel Mansions #6 is less Last Waltz and more Sex Pistols at Winterland. Instead of an ending-ending, Van Gieson offers more of a conclusion made more useful by its inconclusiveness. It stands we may never hear surf music again, but Janet, Armistead, Frank, Bert, demon baby Chee-Chee, Shelby and Bruno endure. And we may thank God for it.

Review -- Derek Van Gieson's EEL MANSIONS #5

Eel Mansions #5 

Hush, hush. Voices Carry

Elkin:

Silva:Face-Time-with-John-McEnroes

Fairbanks:moomins

From the Concierge: Having conquered Britannia in their review of Eel Mansions #4, Mssrs. Elkin and Silva have been informed that their crusty brand of effusive braying was beginning to rub the youth of today as poppycock and the gibbering of toothless old fools who still clung tightly to their convictions that musicians like Barbara McNair, R. Dean Taylor, and The Hit Pack inform contemporary music. Hoping to skew younger, the editorial staff at ComicsBulletin.com thought that they should bring into the critical fold the non-crusty perspective and youthful vigor of young David Fairbanks.

In a somewhat desperate and certainly embarrassing desire to appear hip and relatable, Silva and Elkin celebrate the addition of Fairbanks and have found themselves infused with the energy of youth. The editorial staff at ComicsBulletin.com have since explained to them that, at their age, the liberal use of the phrase, ''Dang, son'' and bandying about words like 'jacked' and 'wanksta' was both ridiculous and pathetic and would subsequently be edited out of any final copy. To this end, Silva and Elkin have agreed to comport themselves in accordance to their age, provided it be well established that neither of them is a coffee table.

Daniel Elkin: So, gentlemen, we have before us the penultimate issue of Derek Van Gieson's Eel Mansions and issue 5 reads much like the love child of Willy Loman's sad reveries of happier times and David Foster Wallace's footnotes to his ''Dear John'' letter. Things move fast and frenetically in this book, pushing toward an ending with increasing velocity while Tokyo Drifting into new areas of madness drowned in the soundtrack to a “supernatural kind of noir kind of thing”.

You could dance to it if you could just keep the beat. Give it a try:

Eel Mansions #5 looks to wrap up through moving the narrative forward while gazing ponderously behind. This is the first issue without Armistead Fowler, while having Fowler's backstory be the centerpiece of everything that is going on. Hmph. Still. When will the sub-plots be revealed to be functioning in tandem? Van Gieson is keeping everything up his sleeves, but they are poking out teasingly from beneath that plaid smoking jacket he so fashionably is styling. He's been looking good so far sporting that thing, but has he been wearing it so long it's now torn and frayed and seen much better days?

No. Eel Mansions is still dernier cri and by golly if Van Gieson ain't still his own kind of Lizard King.

To whit: Janet Planet has set her ''way out'' in motion, Bert and Chee Chee (sort of) are that much closer to their confrontation with Armistead, Record Store Guys continue to ''do their thing,'' the Negative Orphans are still pondering ''life's deep questions'' and 'Doomin' gets more abstract while 'Tales of Abstraction House' gets more non-sequitur (if possible). And then there's even more 'Milk City,' where the grass is green and the seagulls regret ''yesterday's late night drunken quest for burritos.''

We're set up for closure here, boys, but it's closure on Van Gieson's terms. As Janet Planet says, ''Everything's all commercial (sic) now. They're squeezing the Golden Goose. Now we're gonna squeeze back.'' Because this is love, brothers, love for the artistic intent.

Review -- EEL MANSIONS #4

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Review -- Derek Van Gieson's EEL MANSIONS #3

Remember I told you about The Oldness? and you told me how ugly it was – the oldness, the oldness. I can hear the tumbrel wheels creek. So fucking ugly and coming so close to me.

– Gary Gilmore, noted executed murderer and cornea donator, in a letter to his girlfriend.

I know the name on the tip of your tongue

And I know that accusing look

Everybody knows I've been so wrong

That's the problem and here's the hook

– Elvis Costello

This ring don't plug no holes.

- The mother of my girlfriend to me when I was 16, drunk

Daniel Elkin: Where the fuck were we? Oh yes, one house, many mansions...

Okay, Silva – we're well into this whole Eel Mansions thing, aren't we? We've worked through our thoughts about issues one and two dropping pop culture references along the way like drunk girls throwing beads at Mardi Gras, hoping for, I don't know, what? Understanding? Attention? Because that's just what we do given the situation and the expectations and the booze? We've built a critical castle high on the hill, laying brick after brick of cognitive innuendo and charm, brashness and largess. And we've examined Eel Mansions as a fortress of artifice, encompassing the ''anxiety of influences'' of our ''cultural touchstones'' – but by doing so, thinking so much with our heads, I think we've missed its heart.

Reading issue three of this six-part series brought to my ears the rhythm of the crux of the core, the tempo of its center, the beating of its heart.

What if I were to tell you that underneath all its trappings, Eel Mansions is a love story?

Just look at all the interactions in this story. Janet and Frank, Fuller and his family, Wilma and that guy, hell, even Chee Chee and Bert -- there is a passion to their connections, an underlying obligation that motivates them to do what they do, and they do it out of love. In issue three, the record store guys interaction with Chet even points to it. Chet's buying “180 gram repressing of Anal Cunt, Discharge, Penetration and... Juice Newton.”

Juice Newton? Queen of Hearts? Isn't that all about what people do when wrapped up in love and obsession and anxiety of possession? Something about ''laying out another lie'' and ''Thinking 'bout a life of crime''? Why? Because ''that's what I'll have to do to keep me away from you.'' There's an inherent fear associated with the giving of oneself fully to the wiles of another's heart -- and that fear mixes with the sturm und drang of dopamine and serotonin and whatever native chemicals our brain produces when we go ga-ga -- sometimes we create demons and Zapfs, sometimes we create Doomin, sometimes our minds tell us Tales of Abstraction House, sometimes Milk City, sometimes Eel Mansions.

Review -- Derek Van Gieson's EEL MANSIONS #2

EEL MANSIONS #2

(Derek Van Gieson, Uncivilized Books)

Rating: Elkin: 5 stars!!! Silva: eh, 5½

''In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.''

-- Jesus, having recently returned from the dead

''[shouting] Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!''

     -- Dennis Hopper, the rich man's Anthony Hopkins

''You're a jittery little thing, aren't you?''

-- Princess Leia, in conversation with an Ewok

Silva: Where the fuck were we? Oh yes, our ''chameleon ways.''

I often hear or read the comic book anythingerati use the phrase: 'this comic isn't for everyone.' Now, these (dark) knights of the keyboard and four color corporate comic catamites never say whom the comic in question is for, buteveryone need not apply. Eel Mansions #2 a/k/a Eel Mansions Number Two or EM2, if you're into the whole brevity thing, falls into this vague category of vagueness. I would argue every comic -- from Larfleeze to Deadpool Eats Shawarma -- isn't for everyone. I digress.

Hell, I've read Eel Mansions #1. We've scaled those vertiginous heights together, Elkin, returned and written, in depth, about our adventures. Yet, damn if I wasn't a mule with a spinning wheel when I wandered back into Derek Van Gieson's asylum for dipsomaniac cartoonists, retired Satanists, abstract demons, comic book reading government agents who answer to Chee-Chee, record store clerks, those two guys who are silhouettes and the most intimidating jar of mayonnaise … ever. In other words, Elkin, it's good to be back.

My advice for Jedis and young Padawans alike is to fork over the folding stuff, block out a responsibility-free half-hour and settle in with Eel Mansions #1 before moving onto the harder stuff in this second installment. Van Gieson's brand of referential and conversational sense of humor takes time to kick in. His goofy sense of reality should be a given. Idiosyncrasy, after all, ain't no coffee table.

Review -- EEL MANSIONS

This Review Originally Ran on Comics Bulletin.

Justin Giampaoli: As if Tom Kaczynski wasn't already an innovative voice and talented enough creator in his own right (Beta Testing The Apocalypse is currently garnering well-deserved critical attention, including an interview/profile piece right here from Comics Bulletin's own Nick Hanover), he also channeled an entrepreneurial spirit, joined the Small Press Renaissance currently underway, and launched a boutique publishing house called Uncivilized Books. I've very favorably reviewed about half a dozen books in the line to date, of particular note is James Romberger's cataclysmic environmental cautionary tale Post York, which tickled my post-apocalyptic Achilles Heel real good.

But, it was an innocent looking book called Eel Mansions by Derek Van Gieson that lingered in my thoughts long after I put it down. We track story coils unfurling from Armistead Fowler's conscripted service. It's a hypnotic descent into a foreign world lurking just below the surface of our own. It contains twinges of government conspiracy, secret occult cabals, lyrical humor, a dash of music references, and a tendency to subvert familiar character archetypes and to reclaim hipster parlance. The rustic paper stock that Uncivilized Books trades in lustfully swallows up Van Gieson's inky inky art, as mysteriously intertwined story threads slide effortlessly into your gray matter, with a sense of recognition just on the periphery of understanding. There are hints of memory, of longing, of nostalgia, and a devilish flirtation coaxing you to the edge of narrative climax. She wasn't so innocent. She's a very inky girl.

As a follow-up to our somewhat polarizing roundtable discussion of The Coffin: 10th Anniversary Edition, I asked Comics Bulletin's own sandwich connoisseur Daniel Elkin and hot off the pull quote press Keith Silva, indie aficionados both, if they'd be up for discussing Eel Mansions for our next joint venture. Yes, I have questions for these two. So, guys, what did you think? Tell me about your trips (pun intended) to Mill City, and your first impressions of Eel Mansions.