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Palookaville #21
Palookaville #21
A lavish volume with all-new autobio comics, from the author of
It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken
Continuing the new semiannual hardcover format for Palookaville in volume 21, Seth presents two very different autobiographical pieces, and the continuation of Part Four of the ongoing Clyde Fans serial. In the latest dispatch from the beautifully crafted Clyde Fans, Abraham muses further on the ruins of his life. Then, in the first sustained sequence of the two Matchcard brothers, Abraham and Simon finally sit down together and begin to talk.
“Nothing Lasts” is the first half of a sketchbook memoir about Seth’s childhood and adolescence in small-town Ontario. It is a wryly self-conscious, often moving visit to the attic of Seth’s memories: from his first attempts at cartooning to the last time he kissed his mother good night, “Nothing Lasts” is a masterpiece of the graphic short story.
Finally, the third section of Palookaville #21 consists of entries from the comic-strip diary Seth has been keeping for almost a decade. He employs a mixture of hand-drawn panels and rubber stamps of his own work to tell anecdotes about moments from his life. Nothing from this diary has ever been made public before. This lushly designed collection of stories comprises an anthology of the different types of cartooning work Seth has done over his two-decade-long career.
Continuing the new semiannual hardcover format for Palookaville in volume 21, Seth presents two very different autobiographical pieces, and the continuation of Part Four of the ongoing Clyde Fans serial. In the latest dispatch from the beautifully crafted Clyde Fans, Abraham muses further on the ruins of his life. Then, in the first sustained sequence of the two Matchcard brothers, Abraham and Simon finally sit down together and begin to talk.
“Nothing Lasts” is the first half of a sketchbook memoir about Seth’s childhood and adolescence in small-town Ontario. It is a wryly self-conscious, often moving visit to the attic of Seth’s memories: from his first attempts at cartooning to the last time he kissed his mother good night, “Nothing Lasts” is a masterpiece of the graphic short story.
Finally, the third section of Palookaville #21 consists of entries from the comic-strip diary Seth has been keeping for almost a decade. He employs a mixture of hand-drawn panels and rubber stamps of his own work to tell anecdotes about moments from his life. Nothing from this diary has ever been made public before. This lushly designed collection of stories comprises an anthology of the different types of cartooning work Seth has done over his two-decade-long career.
104 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 2013
2 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Seth
155 books432 followersSeth, born Gregory Gallant in Clinton, Ontario, is a Canadian cartoonist celebrated for his distinctive visual style, deep sense of nostalgia, and influential contributions to contemporary comics. Known for the long-running series Palookaville and the widely acclaimed graphic novel It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken, he developed an aesthetic shaped by mid-20th-century magazine cartooning, particularly from The New Yorker, which he blends with themes rooted in Southern Ontario’s cultural memory. After studying at the Ontario College of Art and becoming part of Toronto’s punk-influenced creative scene, he adopted the pen name Seth and began gaining recognition through his work on Mister X. His friendships with fellow cartoonists Chester Brown and Joe Matt formed a notable circle within autobiographical comics of the early 1990s, where each depicted the others in their work. With Palookaville, published by Drawn & Quarterly, Seth refined his signature atmosphere of reflection, melancholy, and visual elegance. Beyond cartooning, he is an accomplished designer and illustrator, responsible for the celebrated book design of the ongoing complete Peanuts collection from Fantagraphics, as well as archival editions of Doug Wright and John Stanley. His graphic novels Clyde Fans, Wimbledon Green, and George Sprott explore memory, identity, and the passage of time through richly composed drawings and narrative restraint. Seth also constructs detailed cardboard architectural models of his imagined city, Dominion, which have been exhibited in major Canadian art institutions. He continues to live and work in Guelph, Ontario, noted for his influential role in shaping literary comics.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 19, 2013
It’s always a delight to see a new issue of Seth’s Palookaville published, especially as its publication is often sporadic with issues spread out over many years (Palookaville #20 came out in 2010!). It’s also a tribute to how far Seth has come as a cartoonist that his series that started out like so many indie comics as a pamphlet, is now published as a hardback by a major publisher! Palookaville has been going for over 20 years now, with the saga of Abe and Simon Matchcard being central to the comic, albeit their story plays out at a fiendishly slow pace as their family business, Clyde Fans, winds down while the brothers become old men. I adore Seth’s work, with books like It’s A Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken and Wimbledon Green being among my favourites, but I’ve always found Clyde Fans to be among his least interesting comics - and unfortunately this latest episode doesn’t get any better.
Simon’s dementia continues to deteriorate, sitting alone in his room with his memories and imaginary people, while Abe briefly gets into a squabble with his ex over the house and continues his melancholic soliloquising as he wanders from room to room repeating employee surveys from years ago. Clyde Fans remains stubbornly resistant to traditional narrative, content to wallow in its own depressing nostalgia than bother with things like plot or story – this comic doesn’t even seem to be about the characters anymore, it appears to be about the buildings and its histories! It’s as exciting as it sounds, though I think that maintaining the same tone and look of the comic for so many years is pretty amazing – though, to be fair, nostalgia and misery seem to be Seth’s comics default setting!
Seth prints some of his daily diary strips in the second section of the book. A daily diary strip is quite demanding on top of his illustration work so he ingeniously had a dozen or so rubber stamps made up of panels he could use every day, eg. him sitting in his studio, going for a walk, a view of his house, then he adds some captions and he’s got his diary strip! This might sound repetitive but he includes a blank stamp to draw in a new picture, which he tends to use quite a bit for variety. These strips don’t really talk about his day-to-day personal life very much but instead focuses on his inner life, portraying a particular thought or moment in his day, like going for a walk in the spring and noticing the plants, or thinking about how much he enjoys the outdoors when he’s outside and then realising he much prefers the indoors, and so on. These are very quiet, meditative cartoons that PasteMagazine brilliantly observes “Seth’s so old school, his blog is a hardback book!”, though they are almost instantly forgettable.
The third and final section of the book is an autobiographical comic about his childhood. It covers his family’s numerous house moves, his parents’ turbulent and unhappy marriage, his awkwardness fitting in at school, discovering comics and learning to draw – in short, nothing particularly memorable. In the author’s own words, he had an unremarkable childhood – well, lucky us, getting to read about it! I did find the section on his mother interesting though, as he talks about his lack of affection from her bothering him his whole life and then slowly discovering his mother’s multiple mental problems, like being committed to a psychiatric hospital prior to becoming a mother and receiving electroshock treatment for depression, and then being put on a highly regimented series of drugs for the rest of her life. That he discovered this incrementally over years says a lot about their distant, uncommunicative relationship, and I found this episode both sad and moving.
Seth is a tremendous cartoonist whose art style is truly unique and eye-catching and that’s certainly the case once again with Palookaville #21. The book is as good looking as the best of his work, but unlike books like Wimbledon Green or It’s a Good Life, Palookaville #21 features quite plain stories that are mostly dull to read. The book has its moments, the art is beautiful, and Seth knows how to tell a story sequentially like a true master – I just wish his stories in this book were a bit more interesting!
Simon’s dementia continues to deteriorate, sitting alone in his room with his memories and imaginary people, while Abe briefly gets into a squabble with his ex over the house and continues his melancholic soliloquising as he wanders from room to room repeating employee surveys from years ago. Clyde Fans remains stubbornly resistant to traditional narrative, content to wallow in its own depressing nostalgia than bother with things like plot or story – this comic doesn’t even seem to be about the characters anymore, it appears to be about the buildings and its histories! It’s as exciting as it sounds, though I think that maintaining the same tone and look of the comic for so many years is pretty amazing – though, to be fair, nostalgia and misery seem to be Seth’s comics default setting!
Seth prints some of his daily diary strips in the second section of the book. A daily diary strip is quite demanding on top of his illustration work so he ingeniously had a dozen or so rubber stamps made up of panels he could use every day, eg. him sitting in his studio, going for a walk, a view of his house, then he adds some captions and he’s got his diary strip! This might sound repetitive but he includes a blank stamp to draw in a new picture, which he tends to use quite a bit for variety. These strips don’t really talk about his day-to-day personal life very much but instead focuses on his inner life, portraying a particular thought or moment in his day, like going for a walk in the spring and noticing the plants, or thinking about how much he enjoys the outdoors when he’s outside and then realising he much prefers the indoors, and so on. These are very quiet, meditative cartoons that PasteMagazine brilliantly observes “Seth’s so old school, his blog is a hardback book!”, though they are almost instantly forgettable.
The third and final section of the book is an autobiographical comic about his childhood. It covers his family’s numerous house moves, his parents’ turbulent and unhappy marriage, his awkwardness fitting in at school, discovering comics and learning to draw – in short, nothing particularly memorable. In the author’s own words, he had an unremarkable childhood – well, lucky us, getting to read about it! I did find the section on his mother interesting though, as he talks about his lack of affection from her bothering him his whole life and then slowly discovering his mother’s multiple mental problems, like being committed to a psychiatric hospital prior to becoming a mother and receiving electroshock treatment for depression, and then being put on a highly regimented series of drugs for the rest of her life. That he discovered this incrementally over years says a lot about their distant, uncommunicative relationship, and I found this episode both sad and moving.
Seth is a tremendous cartoonist whose art style is truly unique and eye-catching and that’s certainly the case once again with Palookaville #21. The book is as good looking as the best of his work, but unlike books like Wimbledon Green or It’s a Good Life, Palookaville #21 features quite plain stories that are mostly dull to read. The book has its moments, the art is beautiful, and Seth knows how to tell a story sequentially like a true master – I just wish his stories in this book were a bit more interesting!
December 12, 2023
Clyde Fans Part 4
Collected in Clyde Fans so I won't comment here.
Rubber Stamp Diary (Selections from Sketch Books 7 and 8)
Seth created some custom stamps that create small comic panels with common things. For example, one is a stamp of his profile. So he can create quick diary like comics. He does quick little sketches of scenery and other things within the panels too. It's a fantastic idea - and honestly I could see someone stealing this idea and putting it in the gift section of book stores.
"Nothing Lasts" (From Sketchbook 10)
Nothing Lasts is Seth's new ongoing story - after Cylde Fans wrapped up - and he's still working on it in the newest volume (24). It's not going to create any new Seth fans I don't think. Basically its just sketches of his memories back in his early life. He we see Seth's childhood home purchased by his parents in 1962 then they move to Clinton Ontario. Look out for the hardcover edition coming to your local bookstore sometime in the 2050s!
Collected in Clyde Fans so I won't comment here.
Rubber Stamp Diary (Selections from Sketch Books 7 and 8)
Seth created some custom stamps that create small comic panels with common things. For example, one is a stamp of his profile. So he can create quick diary like comics. He does quick little sketches of scenery and other things within the panels too. It's a fantastic idea - and honestly I could see someone stealing this idea and putting it in the gift section of book stores.
"Nothing Lasts" (From Sketchbook 10)
Nothing Lasts is Seth's new ongoing story - after Cylde Fans wrapped up - and he's still working on it in the newest volume (24). It's not going to create any new Seth fans I don't think. Basically its just sketches of his memories back in his early life. He we see Seth's childhood home purchased by his parents in 1962 then they move to Clinton Ontario. Look out for the hardcover edition coming to your local bookstore sometime in the 2050s!
October 19, 2014
Moving forward with the Clyde Fans story, always welcome. Also, some "rubber stamp" stories in a series of journaling, using rubber stamp images to help with the drawing. He apologizes (as he usually does for something) about the faded look of the stamp images, and the faint lettering, and this is a little annoying, but here we see Seth doing memoir work.. and then there are personal stories from an ongoing collection, entitled Nothing Lasts… the total effect is… melancholy, sweet, honest, self-deprecating, nostalgic, all lovingly rendered.
December 28, 2015
Clyde Fans continues, bringing Simon and Abe together for the first time in the "present." Amusingly, the final panel is Abe wondering where this discussion will go--a question he and we must wait two years to answer, according to the publication schedule. Seth's deliberate, minimalist, almost poetic narrative inches forward as it has done since the beginning. It's a story inimical to serialization, really, but there it is. It's all about the interstitial moments, the little things, though major dramatic events occur as well--divorce, adultery, bankruptcy, etc. Masterfully observed. Also included is perhaps one of Seth's most odd projects, a selection from his "Rubber Stamp Diaries," in which Seth combines perfab rubber-stamp images with drawing--sometimes combined--to tell ellipticlal autobiographical stories about what he freely admits are the minor things, not the big stuff or the deeply personal. It's a somewhat disengaging method, which pretty much requires one to consider the mode of production, and therefore the form, almost as much as the content, and to be at least aware of, if not sensitive to, the extent to which these works are self-conscious acts of self-construction. "Nothing Lasts," the third piece here (and the first installment of another ongoing story) is a fascinating study in contrasts, as a sketch-book style reminiscence of childhood: autobiography again, but in a very different style and about a very different person, a sort of pre- or gestational Seth. As a whole, the book provides a showcase of Seth's styles: the polished Clyde Fans, the prefab "Rubber Stamp Diaries," and the looser sketchbook style "Nothing Lasts." Gone now, I guess, is the distinction Seth used to draw between his polished Palookaville style and his less mannered sketchbook style, since the latter is now officially folded into the former. Regardless, a great single-author anthology.
June 23, 2016
This is a haunting three-part graphic novel, consisting of an installment of "Clyde Fans," a set of selections from the author's rubber stamp diary, and the autobiographical "Nothing Lasts, Part I."
Somehow, this volume resonated powerfully, with each section of the book re-echoing the themes of the other sections: Loss, transiency of life, inability to connect emotionally, and many more related themes. I don't think these thoughts or feelings could be conveyed in a conventional book or a film (even though many graphic novels seems to resemble story-boards, they are not exactly the same thing, and it seems to me, at least, that the economy of information in graphic novel frames, cannot be translated into live-action films, or even animated feature films, something would be lost with the additional visual information).
I've been reading Seth's works for at least 20 or 25 years - since I came across him and Drawn & Quarterly at the Tower bookshop or annex in the Village, and became entranced with his work & that of many of the other authors D&Q was publishing. I found the world of Palooka-ville riveting - not sure exactly why; was it the "ordinariness" of the story-line, the sense that what he was describing was happening all over (de-industrialization in general), or that the story of the decay of Clyde Fans reflected the decay of "empires" - commercial/industrial/family businesses - in general, and thus was a theme that many could contemplate, think about, the passage of time and the inevitable end of "empires" and so forth? I would say I eagerly consumed all of the D&Q books I could get my hands on in those days,and actually kept them all - maybe they were a contemplative counterpoint to the mad rush of survival, working, keeping house, having a social life, and so forth. I was working long hours, watching cable TV shows - movies usually - and reading graphic novels/comics. In between I had to keep a household going. I was sleep deprived the whole time but somehow made it through that frenetic period of my life. Looking back, I have no idea how I managed to survive - I know I wasn't cooking much, was usually eating out, how did I manage to keep everything going for so many years? I know I was getting much less sleep - for one thing - and everything became a routine or blur of time/work etc. I had so little time, I would "reward" myself by shopping almost compulsively, maybe to make up for the trivialization of my existence (office worker/household "drudge"). Of course, when you are hitched up to a never-ending treadmill, you don't even have time to consider you are running around in a mind-numbing hamster wheel. It's possible Seth's work resonated with me then - as now - because his work presented many of these realities honestly, more or less telescoping the futility of life, ultimately, as distilled in the story of the Matchcard family & Clyde Fans. For me, there was no alternative but to try to survive as an office worker - I didn't have any other option. Even had I pursued a less mind-numbing career, though, the story of Palooka-ville would still have resonated. What is life; don't all our plans and achievements ultimately end up like Clyde Fans? At least Seth - and other writers - have this insight, and can convey the truth that mostly, our "chase" after money, plans, achievements, career, etc. - is mostly futile, as times change, tastes change, people eventually die off, cities change, and so forth. This is not to say we shouldn't try - and shouldn't encourage people to follow their dreams, get a good education, play the game of life, amass money and so forth. It's just that in the end, most of our plans, achievements, money we may have amassed, will seem like leaves flying by in the wind. Time will have removed much. This is a valuable long-term perspective; what may seem meaningless today, the mindless "rat-race" eventually leads to more or less the same emptiness and meaninglessness tomorrow. It's at least possible to know or be aware of the process; what we built up, more or less lasts for our lifetime only. Descendants have their own lives, which are totally their own and if they remember us at all, may only retain slivers of memories. Friends may actually remember us even more - but even their memories of us will fade.
Still, there is hopefulness even within the insight that everything changes, everything eventually decays and ends. In the Clyde Fans section of PV #21, Abe, although he's being berated by Simon, is still pleasantly surprised Simon is talking to him at all. In "Nothing Lasts" the author is about to emerge from childhood - could the next phase of his life be more hopeful? The Rubber Stamp Diary section is again a soliloquy of loss, but the author isn't mindlessly moving through life without awareness, or without noticing what's around him. Yes, there is sadness - this isn't an upbeat volume, but hopefulness is still there, embedded within the themes of loss and decay, since the author has the insight to perceive and write about change and loss, rather than never confronting these issues, as most people either avoid them, or distract themselves from them.
I would say Seth is in a class of his own, and the world he has created in Palooka-ville - probably is a response to his world, as we see from "Nothing Lasts" (Seth's childhood/past) and the Rubber Stamp Diary section (Seth's present). The world of the Matchcard's "empire" is over. This was the message from day 1 (just about) from 20 years ago. The "family melodrama" that played out through the various volumes, the characters that wandered in and exited the story, were peripheral (almost) to the central story of decay, and near-extinction. Yes, Abe still drives his car, and still checks on Clyde Fans - but he's just going through the motions. And this was how it was from day 1. It was not in the cards for Clyde Fans Co. to continue. It's almost as if Palooka-ville itself is simply a long flashback explaining how Clyde Fans died out. It's the day-t0-day reality of the Matchards' lives - how they deal with the end of the company - that makes Palooka-ville so compelling. How they dealt with the end of Clyde Fans, the stoicism, matter-of-fact stubbornness - maybe this was part of the appeal of Seth's work, from way back when. Don't we all go through the same thing, the same arc of life? Building up a career, or life, only to see it eventually fade away due to one circumstance or another? And yet we continue on, perhaps going through the motions, but more likely like Abe and Simon, stubbornly holding on to what we've built, what made life meaningful to us?
PV #21 is one of the most powerful graphic novels I've come across; I can't say exactly why although it must be the collective mutually-reinforcing sections, whose themes build on each other. You only "get" the point of the book once you've read it, and it occurs to you that each section is examining similar themes, and how powerfully and effectively the sections each examine them. I recommend this volume to anyone who is interested in graphic novels - it's truly unique, gut-wrenching, and powerful.
Somehow, this volume resonated powerfully, with each section of the book re-echoing the themes of the other sections: Loss, transiency of life, inability to connect emotionally, and many more related themes. I don't think these thoughts or feelings could be conveyed in a conventional book or a film (even though many graphic novels seems to resemble story-boards, they are not exactly the same thing, and it seems to me, at least, that the economy of information in graphic novel frames, cannot be translated into live-action films, or even animated feature films, something would be lost with the additional visual information).
I've been reading Seth's works for at least 20 or 25 years - since I came across him and Drawn & Quarterly at the Tower bookshop or annex in the Village, and became entranced with his work & that of many of the other authors D&Q was publishing. I found the world of Palooka-ville riveting - not sure exactly why; was it the "ordinariness" of the story-line, the sense that what he was describing was happening all over (de-industrialization in general), or that the story of the decay of Clyde Fans reflected the decay of "empires" - commercial/industrial/family businesses - in general, and thus was a theme that many could contemplate, think about, the passage of time and the inevitable end of "empires" and so forth? I would say I eagerly consumed all of the D&Q books I could get my hands on in those days,and actually kept them all - maybe they were a contemplative counterpoint to the mad rush of survival, working, keeping house, having a social life, and so forth. I was working long hours, watching cable TV shows - movies usually - and reading graphic novels/comics. In between I had to keep a household going. I was sleep deprived the whole time but somehow made it through that frenetic period of my life. Looking back, I have no idea how I managed to survive - I know I wasn't cooking much, was usually eating out, how did I manage to keep everything going for so many years? I know I was getting much less sleep - for one thing - and everything became a routine or blur of time/work etc. I had so little time, I would "reward" myself by shopping almost compulsively, maybe to make up for the trivialization of my existence (office worker/household "drudge"). Of course, when you are hitched up to a never-ending treadmill, you don't even have time to consider you are running around in a mind-numbing hamster wheel. It's possible Seth's work resonated with me then - as now - because his work presented many of these realities honestly, more or less telescoping the futility of life, ultimately, as distilled in the story of the Matchcard family & Clyde Fans. For me, there was no alternative but to try to survive as an office worker - I didn't have any other option. Even had I pursued a less mind-numbing career, though, the story of Palooka-ville would still have resonated. What is life; don't all our plans and achievements ultimately end up like Clyde Fans? At least Seth - and other writers - have this insight, and can convey the truth that mostly, our "chase" after money, plans, achievements, career, etc. - is mostly futile, as times change, tastes change, people eventually die off, cities change, and so forth. This is not to say we shouldn't try - and shouldn't encourage people to follow their dreams, get a good education, play the game of life, amass money and so forth. It's just that in the end, most of our plans, achievements, money we may have amassed, will seem like leaves flying by in the wind. Time will have removed much. This is a valuable long-term perspective; what may seem meaningless today, the mindless "rat-race" eventually leads to more or less the same emptiness and meaninglessness tomorrow. It's at least possible to know or be aware of the process; what we built up, more or less lasts for our lifetime only. Descendants have their own lives, which are totally their own and if they remember us at all, may only retain slivers of memories. Friends may actually remember us even more - but even their memories of us will fade.
Still, there is hopefulness even within the insight that everything changes, everything eventually decays and ends. In the Clyde Fans section of PV #21, Abe, although he's being berated by Simon, is still pleasantly surprised Simon is talking to him at all. In "Nothing Lasts" the author is about to emerge from childhood - could the next phase of his life be more hopeful? The Rubber Stamp Diary section is again a soliloquy of loss, but the author isn't mindlessly moving through life without awareness, or without noticing what's around him. Yes, there is sadness - this isn't an upbeat volume, but hopefulness is still there, embedded within the themes of loss and decay, since the author has the insight to perceive and write about change and loss, rather than never confronting these issues, as most people either avoid them, or distract themselves from them.
I would say Seth is in a class of his own, and the world he has created in Palooka-ville - probably is a response to his world, as we see from "Nothing Lasts" (Seth's childhood/past) and the Rubber Stamp Diary section (Seth's present). The world of the Matchcard's "empire" is over. This was the message from day 1 (just about) from 20 years ago. The "family melodrama" that played out through the various volumes, the characters that wandered in and exited the story, were peripheral (almost) to the central story of decay, and near-extinction. Yes, Abe still drives his car, and still checks on Clyde Fans - but he's just going through the motions. And this was how it was from day 1. It was not in the cards for Clyde Fans Co. to continue. It's almost as if Palooka-ville itself is simply a long flashback explaining how Clyde Fans died out. It's the day-t0-day reality of the Matchards' lives - how they deal with the end of the company - that makes Palooka-ville so compelling. How they dealt with the end of Clyde Fans, the stoicism, matter-of-fact stubbornness - maybe this was part of the appeal of Seth's work, from way back when. Don't we all go through the same thing, the same arc of life? Building up a career, or life, only to see it eventually fade away due to one circumstance or another? And yet we continue on, perhaps going through the motions, but more likely like Abe and Simon, stubbornly holding on to what we've built, what made life meaningful to us?
PV #21 is one of the most powerful graphic novels I've come across; I can't say exactly why although it must be the collective mutually-reinforcing sections, whose themes build on each other. You only "get" the point of the book once you've read it, and it occurs to you that each section is examining similar themes, and how powerfully and effectively the sections each examine them. I recommend this volume to anyone who is interested in graphic novels - it's truly unique, gut-wrenching, and powerful.
November 22, 2015
Just utterly beautiful stuff. I'll break this into three parts like the book itself.
1.) The Latest Installment of Clyde Fans - Clyde Fans is going to be his magnum opus someday. Like Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, he's serializing it in short, slow installments and every time I read the latest vignette I appreciate the masterful illustration and panel layout, and I appreciate the unique brand of loneliness Seth peddles, but ultimately I can't wait to reabsorb this long running story in one big volume.
2.) Rubber Stamp Diary - Seth had 20 or 30 different rubber stamps made as a way of expediting diary comics. It's a neat little gimmick, but the comics he displays here are seriously moving and soulful stuff. Most of it involves him getting out of his studio and walking on train tracks and admiring nature and contemplating stuff, but these comics really helped me break my preconceived notions of the artist. I typically found his work to be staggeringly great but maybe missing something emotionally but here (in these rubber stamp diary comics, and the newest clip of Clyde Fans, and the new diary comic series that follows this "Nothing Lasts") I feel like he's striking a balance between the high art Chris Ware-ian comics and the contemplative quiet beauty of John Porcellino. I loved these so much.
3.) Nothing Lasts - New diary comic series focusing on the places (the towns, the addresses) where Seth grew up. I still can't believe he goes by Seth and not his birth name Gregory Gallant. I mean, it seems cruel. That name is so good it SOUNDS like a damn pseudonym! Alas, here we get Seth's childhood under a microscope and the results are unflinching, occasionally uncomfortable, and incredibly moving. It's a powerful self-psychoanalysis and a really moving meditation on memory.
1.) The Latest Installment of Clyde Fans - Clyde Fans is going to be his magnum opus someday. Like Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, he's serializing it in short, slow installments and every time I read the latest vignette I appreciate the masterful illustration and panel layout, and I appreciate the unique brand of loneliness Seth peddles, but ultimately I can't wait to reabsorb this long running story in one big volume.
2.) Rubber Stamp Diary - Seth had 20 or 30 different rubber stamps made as a way of expediting diary comics. It's a neat little gimmick, but the comics he displays here are seriously moving and soulful stuff. Most of it involves him getting out of his studio and walking on train tracks and admiring nature and contemplating stuff, but these comics really helped me break my preconceived notions of the artist. I typically found his work to be staggeringly great but maybe missing something emotionally but here (in these rubber stamp diary comics, and the newest clip of Clyde Fans, and the new diary comic series that follows this "Nothing Lasts") I feel like he's striking a balance between the high art Chris Ware-ian comics and the contemplative quiet beauty of John Porcellino. I loved these so much.
3.) Nothing Lasts - New diary comic series focusing on the places (the towns, the addresses) where Seth grew up. I still can't believe he goes by Seth and not his birth name Gregory Gallant. I mean, it seems cruel. That name is so good it SOUNDS like a damn pseudonym! Alas, here we get Seth's childhood under a microscope and the results are unflinching, occasionally uncomfortable, and incredibly moving. It's a powerful self-psychoanalysis and a really moving meditation on memory.
October 26, 2013
No contemporary cartoonist affects me quite like Seth. I must admit that I have mostly lost the plot of Clyde Fans, but I eagerly await the finished version. The stamp diary makes for compelling stuff, and 'Nothing Lasts' (part one) looks like the beginning of another remarkable exploration of the pleasures and pains of memory. Art Spiegelman once said (or wrote--I can't remember where I saw it) that 'Comics are time. Time transformed into space.' That formulation is extremely helpful for understanding the formal complexities of someone like Chris Ware, and it is also useful in thinking about Seth, whose work is ostensibly less complicated, but no less moving. Seth completely understands all that comics are capable of.
October 27, 2013
What's immediately notable about this issue -- volume, now that it's in book form? -- of Palookaville is the latest installment of Clyde Fans. This one is significant in that there's a sustained confrontation, or the beginnings of one, between Abe and Simon, the first time we've really had that in the series. A way for the earlier parts to converge? But more moving are the two autobiographical sections that follow, the rubber stamp dairy and "Nothing Lasts," the first part of a sketchbook story. I always feel a profound sense of sadness? wistfulness? contemplativeness? after reading Seth's comics, and this book is no exception.
March 9, 2014
An emotionally raw collection of fiction and nonfiction, as the saga of the Clyde Fans continues (with brothers Simon and Abe both bitter and self-imploding) and Seth provides autobiographical sketches as wrenching as--and as similar to--Chester Brown's "I Never Loved You."
July 26, 2016
Clyde Fans chugs along. The Rubber Stamp Diary is too pretentious for words. Nothing Lasts shows promise, but meanders about. I love Seth's art, but I'm not finding anything here that moves me.
September 27, 2017
4.5 stars
December 25, 2025
sombre and melancholy vignettes of a childhood long lost and the author's attempt to remember it, in the collection "Nothing Lasts".
November 14, 2016
Seth lives in a bubble, but what a bubble! It is sad and lonely in beautifully rendered, minimal cartooning. I feel he yearns for a spectral past alongside his parents with all their inadequacy.I completely identify with his sentimental attachment to forgotten, deserted urban (and rural) landscapes. This is one "high-art" cartoon nerd!
October 8, 2013
What a great book. The whole package is awesome
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April 10, 2015I could stare at Seth's art all day.
February 24, 2016
First book of this series that I've picked up. Love the rubber stamp diaries (great concept!) and especially his childhood memories ("Nothing Lasts"). We're of the same generation...
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