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Powr Mastrs #1
Powr Mastrs 1
According to "The Comics Reporter," "If a reader were to pick up on any one cartoonist working at a furious and considered and accomplished pace right below the radar of most comics fans, C.F. might be the best choice." This first book by C.F. (also known in the East Coast underground music scene as Kites) is perhaps the most anticipated graphic novel debut of the year. Coming out of the fabled Providence, Rhode Island, art and noise scene, "Powr Mastrs" is an intense fantasy story projected to run to 10 volumes. In it, C.F. narrates the story of a tribe of mystical warriors whose power relations are constantly in flux. As power shifts, so do physical and psychological identities. In this first volume, we are introduced to the central characters and the complex geographies in which they wander. Overflowing with graphic ideas, from the intricately designed costumes each character wears to C.F.'s exacting architectural detail, "Powr Mastrs" is rendered in a distinctive pencil line that has already attracted much attention in sources like the groundbreaking comics anthology, "Kramers Ergot,"
120 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2007
7 people are currently reading
649 people want to read
About the author
C.F.
101 books83 followersC.F. is an American visual artist, cartoonist and musician.
Born Christopher Forgues in Eastern Massachusetts in 1979, C.F. graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and is currently based in Brooklyn.
Born Christopher Forgues in Eastern Massachusetts in 1979, C.F. graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and is currently based in Brooklyn.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 26, 2011
I read part 3 first, now this. Compared to 3, it's a little more coherent, and a little less enticing. Not because I prefer to be confused, but knowing I was coming in part way allowed me not to worry so much about what I did or didn't get and to just go with it. Which is the right way to read these. So this was more gettable but a less excitingly weird ride, perhaps. I'll probably read part two off the shelf or something, now.
June 27, 2015
This is stuff, like Brian Chippendale's, out of the Providence art and noise scene, experimental, drug-induced, surreal, decidedly different. Feels like Chippendale's, on the surface to be juvenilia, but a closer look reveals he is playing with comics form and narrative. Like Chippendale, CF would seem to move often fast, and the lines, narrative and identities shift like Chippendale's work. . . otherwise, this doesn't feel like him. It feels almost elegant compared to Chippendale's stuff. Sometimes very carefully designed architectural grids. Both are experimentally in conversation with each other, though, seems to me, coming out of the same (anti-) school.
I don't fully understand this and don't think I am maybe meant to, as with Chippendale. It's (maybe) just meant to be experienced and "enjoyed". I find it more interesting than truly enjoyable, though, more abstract than anything. I mean, there's this fantastical world at the center of things that I don't really care about, in this first of what I understand to be ten planned volumes. !!?? May be too crazy for me to go on the whole ride.
I don't fully understand this and don't think I am maybe meant to, as with Chippendale. It's (maybe) just meant to be experienced and "enjoyed". I find it more interesting than truly enjoyable, though, more abstract than anything. I mean, there's this fantastical world at the center of things that I don't really care about, in this first of what I understand to be ten planned volumes. !!?? May be too crazy for me to go on the whole ride.
September 20, 2017
Like if Henry Darger created Dune. What's not to love?
January 5, 2009
you can skateboard your elbows into a knot guaranteed to fixate the witches of a pizza coven or you can read powr masters vol. 1. much like brian chippendale's "galacticrap" series there are some things from rhode island that no one is meant to completely understand, only to enjoy.
gas loops.
beard parties.
fangs on top.
cephalopr0n.
don't say i didn't blarn you artfully rodgered.
gas loops.
beard parties.
fangs on top.
cephalopr0n.
don't say i didn't blarn you artfully rodgered.
October 15, 2008
C.F.'s sci-fi story has many narratives -some that are solid, some that meander- involving young people that live in a futuristic enigmatic expanse. The laws of physics don't apply in this universe as walls disappear and characters trans-mutate from one frame to the next.
C.F.'s writing and drawing style are well suited for each other. Dialogue has a stream-of-consciousness/ hallucinogenic drug-induced feel to it while the art is carefully contoured and fantastical, recalling Henry Darger. Its like looking in on who someone mastered a drawing technique they learned in high school. I mean that in a good way, though I can easily see how this style would turn people off.
The stories range from esoteric to pornographic to inchoate and each is its own pleasure.
C.F.'s writing and drawing style are well suited for each other. Dialogue has a stream-of-consciousness/ hallucinogenic drug-induced feel to it while the art is carefully contoured and fantastical, recalling Henry Darger. Its like looking in on who someone mastered a drawing technique they learned in high school. I mean that in a good way, though I can easily see how this style would turn people off.
The stories range from esoteric to pornographic to inchoate and each is its own pleasure.
January 11, 2009
C.F. has a bizarre style and a fervid and fecund imagination. At first glance, his line work looks like he was tracing, but he would have to be tracing from the weirdest catalogs never made, full of products and people from an alien dimension that made no sense even to those who've spent a life time playing D&D on LSD. This is wonderful, new stuff, and as usual for the Picture Box crew, pushing the comics medium into new and great worlds.
February 9, 2020
Subra Ptareo! Tetradyne Cola! Buell Kazee! Pico Farad! Windlass Wendy Wheeta the Witch! Mosfet Warlock and the Mechlin Men!
...Sorry, I just like to exclaim the names of these characters aloud. Please carry on.
...Sorry, I just like to exclaim the names of these characters aloud. Please carry on.
June 23, 2023
C.F.'s crude and bizarre style of comic storytelling is mesmerizing. I'm envious of him since he's pulling off the "homemade" comics aesthetic while getting to tell some really out there bits of absurdism and surrealism, and he makes it look so easy. The various pieces in Powr Mastrs 1 are fever dream-esque, loud and experimental, and are hardly even comprehensible but completely enchanting. C.F. is definitely one of the more unique contemporary alt cartoonists working and this book is a showcase as to why he is viewed as such.
April 18, 2024
Powr Mastrs is just one of the best comics I have read in years. I hate Lord of the Rings and (being from) Providence, RI I despise the post Fort Thunder comic scene of cloned robots but I LOVE Powr Mastrs. C.F. is without peer.
March 6, 2024
Yeah really enjoyed this. It felt very real while simultaneously being completely unreal
February 6, 2011
First Picturebox purchase. Certainly won't be my last. In fact Powr Mastrs 2 and 3 I'll probably be getting immediately.
Bought this for the artwork, its reputation, and because I assumed it would be a really strange surreal book. The artwork was fantastic, most impressively his use of perspective which is noticeable from the first few pages even. And his forests are beautiful. Over the 120 pages of this volume you can really see CF develop as an artist already, which makes me excited to see where he will be at once I check up to volume there. The plot was just as weird and hilarious as I expected, however what I did not expect was how not only coherent, but also fucking good, the plot was. The twenty or so characters are all immediately fleshed out and interesting even when we just spend a few pages with them, and it's going to be interesting to see how things tie together (or perhaps not tie together) over the course of the series.
Powr Mastrs completely lived up to its critical acclaim and, assuming this is his debut, CF has immediately become one of the most interesting comic creators throughout the medium.
Bought this for the artwork, its reputation, and because I assumed it would be a really strange surreal book. The artwork was fantastic, most impressively his use of perspective which is noticeable from the first few pages even. And his forests are beautiful. Over the 120 pages of this volume you can really see CF develop as an artist already, which makes me excited to see where he will be at once I check up to volume there. The plot was just as weird and hilarious as I expected, however what I did not expect was how not only coherent, but also fucking good, the plot was. The twenty or so characters are all immediately fleshed out and interesting even when we just spend a few pages with them, and it's going to be interesting to see how things tie together (or perhaps not tie together) over the course of the series.
Powr Mastrs completely lived up to its critical acclaim and, assuming this is his debut, CF has immediately become one of the most interesting comic creators throughout the medium.
August 30, 2012
I can only describe this as the missing link between mainstream and art comix. It's amazing how this guy is balancing all sorts of huge abstract ideas in his art, with this story that seems like something you'd find in Adventure Time.
The other day I was thinking about how the gap between genre and literary fiction is irrelevant, because the people writing literary fiction today have pop-culture in their very DNA. I think CF is the cartoonist equivalent of that. He's doing a comic where he's concerned about things like energy, and experimenting with sequences, but you can just see the influence Herriman and Kirby had on his work. Maybe not something I'd start loaning out to the casual comic reader, but definitely something diehard enthusiasts and fringe types should be introduced to.
The other day I was thinking about how the gap between genre and literary fiction is irrelevant, because the people writing literary fiction today have pop-culture in their very DNA. I think CF is the cartoonist equivalent of that. He's doing a comic where he's concerned about things like energy, and experimenting with sequences, but you can just see the influence Herriman and Kirby had on his work. Maybe not something I'd start loaning out to the casual comic reader, but definitely something diehard enthusiasts and fringe types should be introduced to.
March 16, 2008
a philosophical inquiry ala candide and a science fiction burner of the high-est order. resonance with stanislaw lem: rich in systems, (meta)characters, codes and territories for the traversing/transgressing. cf's draftsmanship is incredible -- lecorbusier on a crystal binge. fans of anders nilson, mat brinkman, gary panter and brian ralph will eat well tonight.
October 7, 2009
Just reread and feel conflicted. I think CF's landscapes and spells are my favorite. I feel like I can tell the panels he enjoyed drawing and the ones he did not. Having to include a page with a map and a character identification key is a bad sign, but I guess if this running for 10 volumes it is more reasonable to have such a complex set up. I do not like the awkward pacing & timing or the abstractness, but I also think those two qualities make it seem extremely genuine. Also the insane fantasy world the reader is thrust into is fun nonetheless. Exactly what we've come to expect from Providence.
January 25, 2016
really minimal lines, but tons of character in the drawings. the story is legit and valuably weird. it could be that my comics semi literacy means i'm not seeing some antecedents or references (other than drugs, drugs seem like they were involved in some direct or oblique way). although the jellyfish sex scene definitely seemed like it had something to do with those um problematic anime tentacle pr0n situations BUT anyway: dug this, although parts of it i was just like, weird, i'm into it man, whatever works. always nice to surprised and mildly confused. except for the jellyfish vs human sex scene which i reserve the eternal right to not be into.
November 6, 2007
The art in this book also reminded a lot of Henry Darger's in the realms of the unreal. Strange, two in a row. This book was very unique and there was a lot going on, it's supposed to be a series of 10 books but I don't see a release date for the second volume listed anywhere. I really enjoyed Powr Mastrs, but it's not for everyone. Some may be turned of by the confusing plot and the art work which is all in single contour pencil drawing. Overall very unique.
June 14, 2016
This is one of the better examples of freewheeling, childlike comics unrestricted by standard story structure or art style. It's often genuinely funny, and always original. However, I'd appreciate about 20% more linear/traditional storytelling; as it is, I'm not sure it can hold my attention for more than 40 or so pages.
June 2, 2008
Sheer insanity. Veering between incomprehensible, inscrutable, nonsensical, pornographic and genuinely touching - affecting. Artwork that seems simplistic at first glance, but reveals talent and skill on inspection. Pretty great stuff.
August 15, 2013
There's a lot of deception in this weird little book, times when you think, "I could draw this scraggly whatsit" even though you're not really an artist. Then, there a couple of well placed lines, an elegant curve, and BOOM: comics.
September 23, 2008
Drugs!
March 18, 2010
This is absolutely amazing/wonderful/perfect. It's the perfect combination of fantasy and absurdity. I want to live in the world of this book.
February 25, 2010
This is a really weird book.
March 1, 2010
Not your typical graphic novel. I am not sure whether I liked it or not. The story line is not linear and the art is simplistic, but there are some interesting moments here.
May 27, 2010
comics,indie,alt,drama
April 17, 2011
This book it so good that I am detoxing, waiting for volume 2 and 3 to arrive from abebooks.com
Derivative of nothing, a true original.
Derivative of nothing, a true original.
April 26, 2012
Four starts for now but I have high hopes that the next volume will convince me to change it five.
April 23, 2013
Wtf? lolz
So that was weird.
So that was weird.
June 15, 2016
Wow.
June 25, 2010
This series is excellent, I'm waiting on #3
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews