Deitch's Pictorama by Kim Deitch

From the Publisher

Kim Deitch, creator of the acclaimed Fantagraphics collection Shadowland and the Pantheon graphic novels Alias the Cat and Boulevard of Broken Dreams, has recruited his siblings to produce a unique, all-new "picto-fiction"
pocket book. Alternating between heavily illustrated near-comics
stories and outright prose pieces, Deitch's Pictorama is a testament to the Deitch family's amazing yarn-spinning abilities!




The book leads off with Kim's lengthy picto-story "The Sunshine
Girl," a typically Deitchean tall tale involving bottle cap collectors,
drug dealers, family secrets, and the innocents who wind up in the
middle of the hullaballoo. Then it's time for Seth's prose short story
"Children of Aruf," about a man and his very unusual dog; "Unlikely
Hours," a paranoid picto-story about a conspiracy of sentient rats
written by Seth and illustrated by Kim; the prose novella "The Golem,"
once again written by Seth and decorated with a series of superb pencil
illustrations by Simon; and finally Kim's autobiographical "The Cop on
the Beat, the Man in the Moon and Me." This entire "Deitch treat" is
wrapped up with an introduction by legendary Academy Award-winning
animator, cartoonist and illustrator and proud papa Gene (Tom Terrific, Terr'ble Thompson, Tom and Jerry) Deitch.

Publishers Weekly

Noted independent cartoonist Kim Deitch (Alias the Cat; Boulevard of Broken Dreams) teams up with his brothers, writer Seth Kallen Deitch and illustrator Simon Deitch, to provide this experimental collection of "Pictofiction." It's not quite the revolutionary expansion of graphic novels the Deitches sell it as; it's illustrated prose with an occasional comics page. Kim's artwork, when it appears, is the highlight of the book, demonstrating the assurance he has acquired over years of underground cartooning. His depiction of a bottle cap convention in his novella, "Sunshine Girl," is sly and witty, and his illustration of brother Seth Kallen's story, "Unlikely Hours," is more of an illumination, employing inventive interactions between drawing and printed typeface. Simon's artwork is more static, so it's appropriate that he confines himself to illustrating a prose story (Seth Kallen's pastiche, "The Golem"). Still, like many experiments, this one is a qualified success. In some stories, extended blocks of text undermine the visceral impact of the artwork. Both Kim and Seth Kallen exhibit a tendency to wander off into various odd digressions, understandable in traditional prose but oddly redundant when paired with their brothers' illustrations. Still, a failed Deitch brothers experiment is more engaging than many lesser talents' moderate successes. (Sept.)

Product Details