The following post originally appeared on attractmo.de, on May 28, 2013.
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So, how’s everyone spending their Memorial Day holiday? I myself am taking it easy, with some ice cold beer, grilled hot dogs, and… a pile of comics. Today’s the day in which I’ve finally decided to dive into this year’s TCAF haul.
And some, while not directly related to video games in the least bit, should still appeal to those who dig game-like aesthetics. Like the above, Frontier #1: Uno Moralez, the debut book from pal of Attract Mode Ryan Sands‘ brand new comics/zine label.
Morale is an up and coming Russian illustrator that’s responsible for the flat out creepiest pixel based illustrations that you’ll find anywhere. And as gorgeous as his stuff looks on a monitor, they’re 100 times more beautiful on the printed page…
Meanwhile, Adam picked up a copy of LODE by V A Graham, published by Most Ancient. It’s 30 pages of vellum, each detailing Nevada circa the late 19th century, which was a time of great property and even greater decline.
While it’s particularly inventive that you learn about the land by simply looking at the landscape itself, sans any traditional narrative, the coolest part is how each page essentially looks like the overworld map from an old school, 8bit JRPG…
Next we have the latest form the Norwegian cartooning collective known as Dongery. Truth be told, there is zero video content to be found in their recently published collection, which covers pretty much every single mini they’ve ever produced…
… But I’m mentioning them anyways because A. they’re simply the best, and B. when signing my copy of the aforementioned, telephone book-thick collection, they did a illustration of the Attract Mode logo, if he was a dude with a hot dog on his head…
Moving on; also picked up some books at The Beguiling, easily one of the finest comic shops in all of North America, and which is run by Chris Butcher, who happens to run TCAF as well. Including a Shintaro Kago collection (which Chris, who also works for UNDON, picked up when he went book hunting in Japan) that parodies an old Namco action RPG…
… Unfortunately, I really can’t share the rest. Anyone familiar with Kago’s body of work will know why already! But trust me, it’a pretty awesome.
Instead, one last thing: at this year’s show, I ran into Ed Piskor (FYI, his Top Shelf published book WIZZYWIG is a must read, especially anyone into hacking circa the early 80s) and he told me about Mystery Object. Ed described it as “Finnegans Wake of video game comics” and it’s a pretty apt description! Be sure to check it out.
