By
LJ Douresseau
February 8, 2005 - 15:05
BLAB! #15 – ANTHOLOGY
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
EDITOR: Monte Beauchamp
COVER: Lou Brooks
ISBN: 1-56097-613-6; soft cover
120 pp., color and B&W, $19.95
Billed as “the preeminent anthology of the graphic design and illustration arts,” BLAB! keeps rolling with its fifteenth issue, and though the anthology series is an easy target for critics who think the series has past it’s usefulness, it still features some interesting and intriguing work. BLAB! #15 certainly holds more sequential comics than the previous issue, including nice short stories from Nicolas Debon, C.P. Freund and Peter & Maria Hoey, Mark Landman, and Spain.
Peter Kuper and Gary Baseman contribute excellent illustrated pieces, but the delight of this issue (for me, anyways) is the latest from Sue Coe & Judith Brody. I’ve been a huge fan of Ms. Coe’s work since Sue Coe’s X, and she never disappoints me. “Fowl Plague,” a painted expose on the poultry meat processing industry and avian viruses that spread to humans, alone, is worth the price of BLAB! Stark, sparse, and rich of text, Fowl Plague is my pick for best comics short story of the year – if it qualifies. A-
ComicBookBin
