Mome

Finally got my copy of Mome #1 through in the post via a long and tortuous process I won’t bore you with, but suffice to say it was worth it.

I’ve always had a soft spot for comics anthologies of the literary bent as they can give a really good snapshot of how seemingly disparate creators can be connected. I’d been intrigued by Mome for a while now, partly because of the names attached to it (Jordan Crane mainly, for his previous work publishing the best anthology of the late 90s, Non) but also by Fantagraphics publishing a showcase anthology of upcoming cartoonists.

Fantagraphics have always seemed, to me at least, a few steps behind when it came to the current crop of cutting edge creators, leaving such sifting of the minicomics scene to the likes of Drawn and Quarterly and Top Shelf. Maybe this was to do with their long and important association with the previous generation of underground and alternative creators, maybe they were just biding their time to see what came through, I can’t really say, but with Mome, they’re throwing themselves headfirst with a roster of pretty much unknown talent, and that alone is noteworthy. Beyond Crane’s design involvement this doesn’t feel like a Fantagraphics book and as such marks an interesting development for the company.

What’s immediately apparent is that it was worth the wait. With most anthologies you can rely on a good third, often more, not working for you but there are only two strips in here I’m not liking. And even then it’s not so much the strips themselves that are inferior, more that I just didn’t get on with them, so I won’t identify them here. The rest of the book is great, so much so I don’t want to pull out any one specific artist above the rest. Which is making for a really dull review, I know. Ah well.

What’s interesting about Mome is that the core roster of artists will stay the same throughout the series so we’ll get to see these talents evolving over the years. Another nice thing is that while it all hangs together really well there’s no specifically identifiable traits shared by the cartoonists. If they are bouncing off each other it’s not in a superficial surface way.

Fantagraphics currently have the best company blog in the comics industry (it tells you about what they’re publishing and is interesting – how revolutionary!) showing they actually understand the internet and now have an anthology that is both forward looking and a really good read. Mome sets them up well for the future, I feel.

Interview with co-editor Eric Reynolds.