weird fiction, visual

[ChildofOldLeech]

Daniel Clowes - Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron
Hans Rickheit - Folly, Cochlea and Eustachia
Richard Sala -The Hidden, Delphine
Jim Woodring - Jim, Book of Frank
Josh Simmons - The Furry Trap
Al Columbia - Columbia can't be recommended highly enough; his work captures a genuine nightmarishness that most only aspire to. His sole collection, Pim and Francie is a must read, despite being comprised mostly of fragments and rough drafts, and overall his strongest work remains uncollected, and can be found in various anthologies and in the issues of The Biologic Show, which are readily obtainable in digital form.
Michael DeForge - Very Casual, A Body Beneath
Charles Burns - Black Hole is good, but I prefer the earlier, more experimental stuff found in Skin Deep and Big Baby.
Suehiro Maruo - Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show
Hideshi Hino - Definitely seconded; Red Snake and Panorama of Hell in particular.
Tiziano Sclavi - Dylan Dog (Only a handful of volumes are available in english, but some of these rank among Sclavi's best; 'Morgana' is an oneiric masterpiece. )
Emily Carroll - Through the Woods
Martin Vaughan-James - The Cage, The Projector
Cole Closser - Black Rat
Edward Gorey - The Complete Works

Also of possible interest is Robert ParkeHarrison's The Architect's Brother, a sort of narrative comprised of thematically-linked photographs set in an environmental dystopia that's one part Eraserhead, one part Stephen Gammell, and one part Odd Nerdrum.

[ChildofOldLeech]

- Here's several more titles that have come to mind: although neither can by any means be classified as horror, the work of Chris Reynolds and Ben Katchor possesses uncanny, unsettling qualities that place them firmly in the 'weird' camp. Reynolds' Mauretania comics are almost impossible to describe; they take place in a sort of nouvelle vague science fiction universe with a sense of dreamlike dislocation pervading everything, and are reminiscent of both Aickman and Kafka. Several collections are available - The Dial and Other Stories being my favorite. Ben Katchor's 'Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer' strips on the other hand revolve around a retro-mythical New York City that never quite was, and with these comics Katchor can be rightfully called the American heir of Schulz and Walser (with more than a dab of Borges thrown in too). Both the first Julius Knipl collection and its followup The Beauty Supply District are masterpieces in my opinion.

- Turning from art/experimental comics, I am a great admirer of David Lapham's Batman: City of Crime; while the author is best known for his ultragritty, hardboiled noir series Stray Bullets (which is kind of like Sin City for grownups), this is genuine weird fiction in comic form, with Ligottian elements and a kinship to Leiber's Our Lady of Darkness. Pretty much hated by the fans, it's one of my top 3 favorite Batman books along with The Killing Joke and Starlin's The Cult.

- While I don't read that much manga, Kentaro Miura's Berserk, in terms of art, mythology, and everything, is a supreme achievement of weird visual narrative. While not up to its standards, the body-horror extravaganza Parasyte and 'HR Giger does cyberpunk action' saga Biomega are both highly entertaining series as well.

[Trinculo]

I'll check out your book, Ibrahim.

The two works that came to my mind when I read the OP were Alan Moore's From Hell, which I think is one of the great works of literature of the last quarter century, and Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean's comic Mr. Punch.

I'm not a huge Gaiman fan, but McKean has always seemed to bring out the best in him. Mr. Punch is a kind of anti-Proustian horror story: fragments of memory come together to form something that probably never was, but undeniably is in the imaginal present.

I doubt anyone who's into weird comics is unfamiliar with these works, but them's my two cents.

(Now other things surface: the proto-comics of William Blake, the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, etc. It's a rich domain.)

[Ibrahim]

Trinculo- thank you. Hope you enjoy. I'd say that Blake could be defined as Ur-comics, even, instead of just proto. But yes, Blake, definitely.

Child/Leech- thanks for the Katchor tip; i'd always avoided him, as he seemed like a 'thinking man's Eisner' or something? Leaning towards The New Yorker 'literary fiction-' ness. Will check it out.

Funny how, if you look at all these lists, the tone and style of the works mentioned are all over the place. Only in comics can a Canon be that small and diverse at the same time.

All you Anglophones are missing out on some treats though; as in the literary field, there is a rich tradition of very atmospherical stuff in the Franco-Belgian realm.
Schuiten/Peeters ( Dark Horse did a few translations, serialized in Cheval Noir, alongside Andreas Martens' Coutoo)
Didier Comès
Grimlein Lederwant by Makyo
Philemon by Fred
Totentanz by Frédéric Bézian

And there's the entire body of work of Daniel Hulet, some of his later stuff is so atmospheric i can't bear to have it in the house- which is also true of Columbia's Pim & Francie by the way.

From Hell gets mentioned a lot, and rightfully so, but the Moore thing with the best artwork to my eyes remains the Bisette/Totleben/Alcala/Yeates Swamp Thing issues.

[Ibrahim]

Soft City, by Pushwagner

[Robin Davies]

Quote Originally Posted by ChildofOldLeech

- Here's several more titles that have come to mind: although neither can by any means be classified as horror, the work of Chris Reynolds and Ben Katchor possesses uncanny, unsettling qualities that place them firmly in the 'weird' camp. Reynolds' Mauretania comics are almost impossible to describe; they take place in a sort of nouvelle vague science fiction universe with a sense of dreamlike dislocation pervading everything, and are reminiscent of both Aickman and Kafka. Several collections are available - The Dial and Other Stories being my favorite.

Seconded.
I'm not a major comics fan but Chris Reynolds' work fascinates me and you've described its appeal perfectly. I just wish I could track down the first three issues of Mauretania comic...
http://mauretania.cinemadetectives.com/

[Ibrahim]

Stray Toasters- Bill Sienkewicz

...come to think of it, comics might be the weird medium par excellence, consisting as it does of incongruent parts. Comics R Weird.

[miguel1984]

Stray Toasters! Back when Bill Sienkiewicz was still relevant and not working as the replacement inker in Before Watchmen: Nite Owl, among others, or doing useless variant covers. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Al Columbia rocks, and I think they made a huge mistake in selecting him as the replacement artist for Alan Moore's Big Numbers; his style was not suited for that at all. I think someone like Dave McKean, Jon J. Muth or Kent Williams would have made more sense.

Lastly, Ibrahim mentioned Alberto Breccia. You, sir, have a place in my heart. I think he would be far more recognized if he had worked in Europe or the US more instead of my country, Argentina.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I don't know why Breccia still hasn't had English translated books (aside from a few small things ages ago). Seems like something a lot of the alternative publishers would leap on. He was a huge influence on so many of the 70s black and white comic artists.

I've been praying for Carlos Nine books in English too.

Sienkiewicz did an incredible job inking some really lousy superhero comics.

[miguel1984]

Maybe, but it is Bill Sienkiewicz we are talking about here. He should be considered one of the titans of the field and, instead, his talent is being wasted, in my view.