Week of 10/14/2024
Week of 10/14/2024
This week, I answer some big fan questions on The Shapes, and on Sammy the Critic, I review Maggie Umber's experimental collection Chrysanthemum Under the Waves!
The Shapes
Annual Anniversary Special 9-10
The Sample
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Sammy the Critic
Chrysanthemum Under the Waves Review
Painstakingly created over a six-year period from 2016-2021 using woodblock printing, Maggie Umber’s newest work is a collection of short stories inspired by James Harris, a demonic folkloric figure from the ballad “The Daemon Lover.” The final result is a wildly experimental piece of abstract expressionism for the better or worse.
Those Fucking Eyes — Illustrated with rough black-and-white contrasts amidst a minimalist backdrop, we follow a woman, who I assume is based on Jane Reynolds, in a series of loosely connected vignettes containing vaguely sensual imagery.
Rine — In what’s easily the most robust comic collected here, Umber takes the reader on a journey that’s the graphic equivalent of an extended long shot as each panel represents a part of a vast single picture beginning from a scenic landscape with some abandoned human infrastructure (like broken bridges) and continuing to a pathway leading to a manor. In the manor, the narrative switches gears from being a love letter to Mother Nature’s dominance to focusing on the couple inhabiting it. While facial expressions are obfuscated by perspective or shadows, there is a palpable distance felt that’s implicated compositionally. Given there’s another man portrayed and the literary parallels, this likely alludes to Jane’s intense longing for her bereaved lover.
Unlike the previous comic, the artistic choices made here feel more deliberate including the progression from restrained hatching and shadows during the natural scenes indicating brightness to mostly pitch-dark figures during the manor scenes with minimal lights for visual clarity’s sake.
Intoxicated — Regression at its finest, this is the first story to begin with clearly defined figures where even the facial expressions are clear in the opening panel. Gradually, it strips itself down to base elements in depicting an office party affair which, judging from the scribbles as it progresses, also articulates a similar sense of emptiness and overpowering yearning for a phantasmic person— who’s shown in the penultimate panel.
The Devil is a Hell of a Dancer — Umber dials back her art direction in this hell of an illustrated poem employing very fuzzy and splotchy visuals that evoke a ghostly dreaminess in line with the folksy writing. I also liked how the Scottish dialect was used.
Chrysanthemum — And now we jump to a refined, realist art style that’s fairly polished as the panels portray newlywed couple James Harris and Jane Reyonld’s honeymoon bliss in a contemporary setting. For those who didn’t know by now or searched it up, in the original Daemon Lover ballad, James is a seaman who dies before marrying Jane, so this comic operates as a sweet what-if scenario teeming with romanticism albeit not without a skosh of haunting implications such as James’s blank eyes in one panel.
There is Water — This is the shortest inclusion in the collection containing two pages and four lines of narration about blood, desert, and water over a crude abstract background. Besides the water portion, I’m not sure how else it ties in with the overall theme or what else to say.
The Witch — Fog billows akin to a nuclear cloud revealing a castle in the mists occupied by a white phantasmic entity that seduces the woman who enters the otherwise tenebrous vicinity. Even a sultry kiss at most depicted, erotic ecstasy pervades galore.
The Tooth — A woman buys teeth from a black market salesman to bring to the dentistry and attach herself — I think. The lines are thicker and have a detective noir tone to them stylized in a smooth yet gritty way. I don’t have much else to say otherwise.
.The Book — Closing off the book (no pun intended) is a series of mirrored panels showing James and Jane rowing away together alluding to the ballad’s ending, a somewhat foreboding yet calm and neat send-off.
Stories (from favorite to least favorite) ranked:
Rise
The Witch
Chrysanthemum
Intoxicated
The Rock
The Devil is a Hell of a Dancer
The Tooth
Those Fucking Eyes
There is Water
Overall, this is a very ambitious project. Maggie Umber has a clear vision in mind that she indulges and takes liberties with to the fullest extent. I think the top four entries reflect said vision the most vividly while “The Rock” serves as a decent closer. “The Devil is a Hell of a Dancer” and “The Tooth” share polar opposite strengths and shortcomings with the former containing solid writing but art I felt left a lot to be desired while the latter comic features amazing artwork but could use tighter conceptualization to hold it together. Meanwhile, I found “Those Fucking Eyes” and especially “There is Water” too out there for their own good.
Your reading experience in general will benefit from knowing the folkloric context behind these comics. On my first reading, most of the material went over my head and came across more as a series of miscellaneous gallery artwork in book format, but on my second go with the contextual details in mind, it clicked together. If experimental reinterpretations of classical works sound like your fancy, then this might be the read for you.
You can buy the book on Maggie Umber’s website.
Thank you Maggie Umber for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.