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Black Rat
Black Rat is the sleeper in the shadow, the wanderer in the woods. He walks between worlds and travels through time--slaying monsters, solving mysteries, and philosophizing with his fists amidst a barrage of butchered quotes and borrowed styles in a series of seemingly disparate, sometimes violently visceral vignettes.
Cole Closser lives in Missouri and is an Assistant Professor of Art & Design at Missouri State University. His graphic novel Little Tommy Lost was nominated for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in the category of Best Publication Design at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con.
Cole Closser lives in Missouri and is an Assistant Professor of Art & Design at Missouri State University. His graphic novel Little Tommy Lost was nominated for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in the category of Best Publication Design at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con.
160 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 13, 2015
I’m still trying to wrap my little head around these bizarro fireworks called Black Rat... Let’s see, there is early newspaper strip humor, there is fantasy, there are heroes, there is action, there is adventure, there is sci-fi… but the thing is, the spotlight is always strictly on the dark side, always on the side of the story that usually remains hidden: it’s on the gore, the stupidity, the childishness, the injustice, the repression, the cruelty, the absurdity, the ugliness. Sounds like fun?
I’d like to quote my good friend David Schaafsma here, because he can describe what this book really means to me much better than I can describe it myself: “It's almost as if we were at the End of History, with the wheels off, what Golden Age comics looks like in a time of the destruction of the planet.” Well said, David, and thank you for your help! Let me just add that I cannot recommend this completely disillusioned, gorgeous, merciless, intoxicating, haunting, deranged, dangerous little book highly enough!
I’d like to quote my good friend David Schaafsma here, because he can describe what this book really means to me much better than I can describe it myself: “It's almost as if we were at the End of History, with the wheels off, what Golden Age comics looks like in a time of the destruction of the planet.” Well said, David, and thank you for your help! Let me just add that I cannot recommend this completely disillusioned, gorgeous, merciless, intoxicating, haunting, deranged, dangerous little book highly enough!
July 3, 2025
One of my favourite comics!
(I'm slowly going to try and re-read and review all of my favourites)
A bizarre graphic novel in the vein of Al Columbia's work in that it combines nostalgia with a sense of weirdness/horror. Closser is less concerned with horror though. I think there's a lot of connection with George Herriman. The art mimics early 20th century comic art and has a dated effect to it which really makes it seem like you've found an old collection of newspaper strips. Closser demonstrates a strong understanding of comics history.
Koyama Press is quickly becoming one of my favorite comic book publishers. Having published DeForge, Jesse Jacobs, Eleanor Davis, Keith Jones, Julia Wertz, Matthew Forsythe, Renee French. They are at the point now where I'd pick up a book simply because it's published by Koyama. They seem dedicated to producing quality avant-garde underground comics. They're also a Canadian company, so I can be especially proud of them. Up there with Drawn and Quarterly for making Canada an important part of the international comics community. I think both publishers have the Canada Council for the Arts to thank for some added funding. It's nice to know that my gov't cares enough about art like this to support the companies that make it possible.
I found the final story dragged on a bit too long, but overall the stories are quick and fun to read. The first story was possible the strongest with an unknown writer living in a mundane reality joining a rat on a journey to a new world (similar to how Little Nemo goes to sleep) where they go on different quests to collect items. I would love to see this story developed more.
(I'm slowly going to try and re-read and review all of my favourites)
A bizarre graphic novel in the vein of Al Columbia's work in that it combines nostalgia with a sense of weirdness/horror. Closser is less concerned with horror though. I think there's a lot of connection with George Herriman. The art mimics early 20th century comic art and has a dated effect to it which really makes it seem like you've found an old collection of newspaper strips. Closser demonstrates a strong understanding of comics history.
Koyama Press is quickly becoming one of my favorite comic book publishers. Having published DeForge, Jesse Jacobs, Eleanor Davis, Keith Jones, Julia Wertz, Matthew Forsythe, Renee French. They are at the point now where I'd pick up a book simply because it's published by Koyama. They seem dedicated to producing quality avant-garde underground comics. They're also a Canadian company, so I can be especially proud of them. Up there with Drawn and Quarterly for making Canada an important part of the international comics community. I think both publishers have the Canada Council for the Arts to thank for some added funding. It's nice to know that my gov't cares enough about art like this to support the companies that make it possible.
I found the final story dragged on a bit too long, but overall the stories are quick and fun to read. The first story was possible the strongest with an unknown writer living in a mundane reality joining a rat on a journey to a new world (similar to how Little Nemo goes to sleep) where they go on different quests to collect items. I would love to see this story developed more.
September 21, 2015
Black Rat is the second book by Cole Prosser, whose Little Tommy Lost I just ordered. I don't have enough background to know all the places this work is coming from, but it reminds me of Al Columbia's work, with that combination of nostalgia and horror. It made me think, as I have felt in the last year, that is is yet another golden age of art comics, maybe the most amazing and ambitious time for alternative comics ever. And Koyama Press is one place to look if you are interested: Michael DeForger, S.F., Blobby Boys, Jesse Jacobs, Julia Wertz. Really inventive and strange and new stuff, hard to categorize according to older conventions, which is I take it one way to approach art that most of these folks are about.
Closser lists these folks as influences: S. Tagawa, C. Dellschau, O. Voll, J. Gruelle, H. Richards, S. Yoshimoto, and and the anonymous patients of Dr. G. M. Bacon, and I know of none of this work. Guess I have a lot of reading to do.
The work showcases a lot of knowledge of early comics history--thus what I am calling nostalgia. There's fantasy in it, horror, science fiction, Katzenjammer kid humor and silliness, but there's a darkness and violence at the center of it that is madness, and it's almost as if we were at the End of History, with the wheels off, what Golden age comics looks like in a time of the destruction of the planet. Amazing stuff, exploring (as he is still young and this is his "early" work?) some different styles and influences. Sometimes nightmarish.
Closser lists these folks as influences: S. Tagawa, C. Dellschau, O. Voll, J. Gruelle, H. Richards, S. Yoshimoto, and and the anonymous patients of Dr. G. M. Bacon, and I know of none of this work. Guess I have a lot of reading to do.
The work showcases a lot of knowledge of early comics history--thus what I am calling nostalgia. There's fantasy in it, horror, science fiction, Katzenjammer kid humor and silliness, but there's a darkness and violence at the center of it that is madness, and it's almost as if we were at the End of History, with the wheels off, what Golden age comics looks like in a time of the destruction of the planet. Amazing stuff, exploring (as he is still young and this is his "early" work?) some different styles and influences. Sometimes nightmarish.
December 3, 2015
This little book of vignettes, all featuring the titular creature in one form or another, is a good example of comics that are chiefly about Comics; i.e. that use the art form to further the narrative, and the narrative to further the art form. Though I ultimately prefer more straightforward comics storytelling (I'm old-fashioned that way), I enjoyed this book: Closser's work is experimental without being opaque, ambitious but not pretentious, and the narratives are eerie and mysterious but with a sense of humor and a certain lightness of touch. Plus it is beautifully produced and beautiful to look at - definitely one of the best offerings from Koyama Press this year.
November 28, 2015
Closser maintains a cool ambience throughout, but the material didn't really engage me for sustained periods.
November 26, 2015
Appreciated more as a successfully strange exercise than an enjoyable narrative.
May 29, 2017
Kinda trippy. A very interesting, yet bizarre, graphic novel.
June 3, 2018
Really fun little stories
May 13, 2020
It is very apparent that there are influences on and factors of this work with which I am entirely unfamiliar. I came to this book with absolutely no context, and I believe that affects my appreciation of it.
That being said, I liked two of the stories a lot, but otherwise did not much care for this book.
That being said, I liked two of the stories a lot, but otherwise did not much care for this book.
July 4, 2017
I wanted to like this. And I do like it. I am glad I was able to experience it. But I don't like it right now (like, enough to give it 4 or 5 stars yet) because I am not totally 100% familiar with all of the material Closser is referencing to say, "I totally got it." Most of it went WHOOOSH over my head. But at the same time, I like this about the text because in a way, I have to do some homework. I can enjoy the images and the language for what it all appears to be on paper, sure, but then, the experience is just sort of mediocre. Or maybe a little more than mediocre. A little better perhaps. The beauty of it all is that in the beginning of the book, in the acknowledgements, Closser cites specifically all of his influences, so it's not like he is trying to hide any of what he is doing here. I was just in a mad rush to finish this text once so I could say I finished it (once). Now, I'm just going to have to re-read it maybe 2 or 3 more times, while at the same time referencing all of the artists and different styles Closser is adopting and then maybe, the score will change (from 3 to 4 or 5). In fact, I'm quite sure of it. But for now. A solid 3. Maybe 3.5. It really is good. It's something different and I like it, very much. Okay, maybe not very much (yet). But I like it! It's like the way Tarantino pays homage to all of the films he admires. Closser does that here, in his own little way. I anticipate I will be reading Little Tommy Lost: Book One sometime in the near future.
March 21, 2016
Time travel to the 20s and do shots of whiskey with yr great uncle Abner and his booze hound bathroom wall artist friends and maybe just maybe you'll end up in some cement box row house where after waking up the next morning half-naked, confused, and covered in somebody's secret funny papers and they look just like Black Rat.
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January 7, 2017Lost opportunity
April 7, 2016
This book was clever as heck!!
April 7, 2016
Some lovely historical pastiche.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews