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Peep
Peep features brilliant established creators like Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Kevin Huizenga (Ganges), as well as exciting newer voices like Sophia Foster-Dimino (Sex Fantasy) and E.A. Bethea. Curated by Sammy Harkham (Blood Of The Virgin) and Steven Weissman (Looking For America's Dog). All contributions are brand new except for a never-reprinted Harvey Kurtzman one pager and original art scans of a little seen Spain Rodriguez comic.
Contributors include Alex Schubert, Disa Wallander, Lili Todd, Jeffrey Mahannah, Gabrielle Bell, Vanessa Davis, Chris Cajero Cilla, Maria Paz Gazale (Artichokat), Brian Chippendale, Sammy Harkham, Art Spiegelman, Ben Katchor, Antoine Cossé, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Molly Colleen O’Connell, Katie Skelly, John Hankiewicz, E.A. Bethea, Kevin Huizenga, Audrey Murty, Steven Weissman, Roman Muradov, Matthew Kam, Steven Weissman, Casey Tisdel, David Amram, Danielle Chenette, and Mats Stromberg.
Curated by Sammy Harkham and Steven Weissman.
Published by Brain Dead Studios.
Contributors include Alex Schubert, Disa Wallander, Lili Todd, Jeffrey Mahannah, Gabrielle Bell, Vanessa Davis, Chris Cajero Cilla, Maria Paz Gazale (Artichokat), Brian Chippendale, Sammy Harkham, Art Spiegelman, Ben Katchor, Antoine Cossé, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Molly Colleen O’Connell, Katie Skelly, John Hankiewicz, E.A. Bethea, Kevin Huizenga, Audrey Murty, Steven Weissman, Roman Muradov, Matthew Kam, Steven Weissman, Casey Tisdel, David Amram, Danielle Chenette, and Mats Stromberg.
Curated by Sammy Harkham and Steven Weissman.
Published by Brain Dead Studios.
48 pages, Saddled-stitched
Published January 1, 2024
About the author
Steven Weissman
33 books6 followersSteven Knight Weissman (born June 4, 1968, in California) is an alternative cartoonist.
Weissman was the recipient of the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best New Talent in 1998 and he is best known for his offbeat and bizarre explorations of childhood friendships. He is the author of a number of books, including Barack Hussein Obama (2012), Butter and Blood (2015) and the series of graphic novels Yikes! (1999-2008). His work has been published by Fantagraphics, Retrofit Comics, Nickelodeon, Vice, Mad Magazine and more.
Weissman lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and son.
Weissman was the recipient of the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best New Talent in 1998 and he is best known for his offbeat and bizarre explorations of childhood friendships. He is the author of a number of books, including Barack Hussein Obama (2012), Butter and Blood (2015) and the series of graphic novels Yikes! (1999-2008). His work has been published by Fantagraphics, Retrofit Comics, Nickelodeon, Vice, Mad Magazine and more.
Weissman lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 25, 2024
Peep is a new anthology curated by Sammy Harkham and Steve Weissman. Functionally, Peep does take a lot of cues from Harkham's previous comics collective venture, Kramers Ergot, with this extra-large magazine sized issue taking on the exact proportions of the final installment of that series. Weissman himself was a semi-regular contributor to Kramers Ergot, and even many of the other contributing cartoonists here were the sort to be featured prominently previously. But where it took until the now legendary
Kramers Ergot 4
for Harkham's previous anthology to really find its footing in the world of alternative comics, Peep #1 hits the ground running. The apex of the previous series involved releasing phone book sized anthologies packed with stellar work, Harkham and Weissman take a different route here and instead deliver a slim, lean and breezy package in Peep #1. While the heights of Kramers Ergot #4-6 is a truly enjoyable experience for any comics fan, I actually really appreciate the lighter design here since it challenges the contributors to be succinct with their pieces. Peep in a way is taking cues from other fantastic sequential art focused anthologies like Nobrow or Mould Map, where most contributing artists would only get a few pages or less to leave their mark. It's a challenge to be sure, but the majority of cartoonists featured here manage to rise to the occasion.
The first true feature here is Vanessa Davis' "Larder Love" which features the chronicles of a well endowed caveman collected in a smutty book being read by Vanessa herself. On surface, this piece is pretty straightforward but Davis' cartooning belies a level of sophistication completely unexpected. It's a strong opener to this book and carries a lot of momentum for the rest of the content here. Mats Stromberg follows Davis with a strip entitled "Amphibious Mutant" that utilizes rigorous panel layouts to feature the musings of a man who claims to be free from the constraints of society but ends up "bored stiff". Following suit from Vanessa Davis' semi-autobiographical opening piece is Gabrielle Bell who also dives into her bread-and-butter of slice-of-life, loosely biographical comics that utilizes her swooping expressionistic style well. Weissman, John Hankiewicz, Roman Muradov, Disa Wallander, Sophia Foster-Dimino, David Arman, Brian Chippendale, Chris Cilla and Molly O'Connell all follow suit and each deliver exemplary pieces as well.
After Vanessa Davis, it's Antoine Cossé's piece that really impresses too. Cossé gets the meatiest story in Peep with four pages and uses it to depict the final days of Paul Cezanne, the French Post-Impressionist painter who serves as the vanguard for the emergence of twentieth century avant-garde artistic movements. And though Sammy Harkham only gets a single page here, his output matches the density of Cossé's "Aix-en-Provence, 20th Octobre 1906" with "How to be a Cartoonist". Design-wise, Harkham seems to take more cues from Chris Ware, but the sheer number of panels feels very Kevin Huizenga (who also gets a piece featured in here).
Like Harkham's previous anthology, archival works are prominently featured with the most notable being a long lost page from Harvey Kurtzman. Art Spiegelman also gets a few pages with his riff on early newspaper strips with the slapstick "Muck and Jizz" (though the joke across the pages is that their names keep changing). Spain Rodriguez has an autobiographical strip in here too featuring members of Rip Off Press. The story involves the gang dropping Gilbert Shelton off at the airport on a particularly rainy day with a musing on how life is really about stretching out the time it takes to get to the final destination.
Anthologies will always suffer from certain issues like tonal whiplash and brevity negating the satisfying nature of a well-laid out story. While very few of the pieces here really push into a category akin to a masterpiece, what Peep #1 does well is the true variety of works here. In a way, the tonal gambit is less whiplash here and more satiating. Cartoonists like Kevin Huizenga have always excelled in working with "less is more", and it's clear everyone featured here took that to heart. The breezy nature of this anthology is what makes it work better than most, and as a package it feels very rewarding to read from start to finish. I don't know if Peep will stand the test of time like most issues of Kramers Ergot will, but this was absolutely a hell of a start.
The first true feature here is Vanessa Davis' "Larder Love" which features the chronicles of a well endowed caveman collected in a smutty book being read by Vanessa herself. On surface, this piece is pretty straightforward but Davis' cartooning belies a level of sophistication completely unexpected. It's a strong opener to this book and carries a lot of momentum for the rest of the content here. Mats Stromberg follows Davis with a strip entitled "Amphibious Mutant" that utilizes rigorous panel layouts to feature the musings of a man who claims to be free from the constraints of society but ends up "bored stiff". Following suit from Vanessa Davis' semi-autobiographical opening piece is Gabrielle Bell who also dives into her bread-and-butter of slice-of-life, loosely biographical comics that utilizes her swooping expressionistic style well. Weissman, John Hankiewicz, Roman Muradov, Disa Wallander, Sophia Foster-Dimino, David Arman, Brian Chippendale, Chris Cilla and Molly O'Connell all follow suit and each deliver exemplary pieces as well.
After Vanessa Davis, it's Antoine Cossé's piece that really impresses too. Cossé gets the meatiest story in Peep with four pages and uses it to depict the final days of Paul Cezanne, the French Post-Impressionist painter who serves as the vanguard for the emergence of twentieth century avant-garde artistic movements. And though Sammy Harkham only gets a single page here, his output matches the density of Cossé's "Aix-en-Provence, 20th Octobre 1906" with "How to be a Cartoonist". Design-wise, Harkham seems to take more cues from Chris Ware, but the sheer number of panels feels very Kevin Huizenga (who also gets a piece featured in here).
Like Harkham's previous anthology, archival works are prominently featured with the most notable being a long lost page from Harvey Kurtzman. Art Spiegelman also gets a few pages with his riff on early newspaper strips with the slapstick "Muck and Jizz" (though the joke across the pages is that their names keep changing). Spain Rodriguez has an autobiographical strip in here too featuring members of Rip Off Press. The story involves the gang dropping Gilbert Shelton off at the airport on a particularly rainy day with a musing on how life is really about stretching out the time it takes to get to the final destination.
Anthologies will always suffer from certain issues like tonal whiplash and brevity negating the satisfying nature of a well-laid out story. While very few of the pieces here really push into a category akin to a masterpiece, what Peep #1 does well is the true variety of works here. In a way, the tonal gambit is less whiplash here and more satiating. Cartoonists like Kevin Huizenga have always excelled in working with "less is more", and it's clear everyone featured here took that to heart. The breezy nature of this anthology is what makes it work better than most, and as a package it feels very rewarding to read from start to finish. I don't know if Peep will stand the test of time like most issues of Kramers Ergot will, but this was absolutely a hell of a start.
July 15, 2024
A strong collection from Harkham, Weissman and co. Some fantastic and beautiful comics here put together in a great package. Most of the stories were really great with an interesting array of approaches. I wish there was a bit more room for stronger stories as it felt very cramped with most artists restricted to just a couple of page. Sometimes this limitation can lead to greatness (I adore Skelly's single page), but often it just leaves me feeling a little unfulfilled. I also don't know how I feel about the cover, maybe feels more like a back cover
August 6, 2024
Sammy Harkham's latest anthology. Not sure if he's not doing any more Kramer's Ergot. There was no information in this book about their plans etc.
It has a very impressive list of creators, most of the content is quite new although a few of them are clearly from covid times and already feel dated.
Most of the stories are just a page or two.
> Contributors include Alex Schubert, Disa Wallander, Lili Todd, Jeffrey Mahannah, Gabrielle Bell, Vanessa Davis, Chris Cajero Cilla, Maria Paz Gazale (Artichokat), Brian Chippendale, Sammy Harkham, Art Spiegelman, Ben Katchor, Antoine Cossé, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Molly Colleen O’Connell, Katie Skelly, John Hankiewicz, E.A. Bethea, Kevin Huizenga, Audrey Murty, Steven Weissman, Roman Muradov, Matthew Kam, Steven Weissman, Casey Tisdel, David Amram, Danielle Chenette, and Mats Stromberg.
Standout for me was the Art Spiegelman comic strip, not sure how new it is.
It has a very impressive list of creators, most of the content is quite new although a few of them are clearly from covid times and already feel dated.
Most of the stories are just a page or two.
> Contributors include Alex Schubert, Disa Wallander, Lili Todd, Jeffrey Mahannah, Gabrielle Bell, Vanessa Davis, Chris Cajero Cilla, Maria Paz Gazale (Artichokat), Brian Chippendale, Sammy Harkham, Art Spiegelman, Ben Katchor, Antoine Cossé, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Molly Colleen O’Connell, Katie Skelly, John Hankiewicz, E.A. Bethea, Kevin Huizenga, Audrey Murty, Steven Weissman, Roman Muradov, Matthew Kam, Steven Weissman, Casey Tisdel, David Amram, Danielle Chenette, and Mats Stromberg.
Standout for me was the Art Spiegelman comic strip, not sure how new it is.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews