Blab! Volume 1

by Monte Beauchamp, Ryan Heshka (Illustrator), Giselle Potter (Illustrator)

BLAB!—the Harvey Award-winning anthology of cutting-edge comics, art, and culture—has returned to its comics roots with a stellar lineup of contributors.

Noah Van Sciver depicts the tragic demise of Crime Does Not Pay editor Robert Wood. Ryan Heshka recounts the rise and fall of Superman creators Siegel and Shuster. Sasha Velour portrays the making of film director F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. Children’s book illustrator Giselle Potter examines Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter’s passion as a naturalist. Illustrated articles include the history of the gorilla and a report on UFOs.

All this and much more in Comics and Stories That Will Make You BLAB!

Genres: Comics, Short Stories

112 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 6, 2023

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ecclectic mix of short comics and reprinted newspaper ads, that you really have to be in the mood for. And I was!

I especially liked the contributions from Noah van Sciver, exploring bits of comicbook creator lore.

It's certainly not for everyone, but not everything has to be.

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a mixed bag for me. The Ryan Heshka stuff was cool as well as a couple of other things. But this was only a 3 star read for me. I got it from the library though so it’s all good. All in all worth reading!

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

These stories just weren't very good. Some of them I've read other places too, like the one about Superman creators Siegel and Shuster. There was more than one story that was prose as well which I hate in what is supposed to be a comic. There's a ton of these Blab! comics out there, from back in the Kitchen Sink and Fantagraphics days. Hopefully future installments are better.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who are already familiar with Monte Beauchamp’s anthology series when they see the phrase “Premiere Issue” added to the anthology’s title, BLAB!, may furrow their brows in puzzlement but this is indeed new material, and not a re-print of the out-of-print first issue. What’s new, too, are the publishers, Dark Horse and Yoe Books, whose support of Beauchamp’s efforts bodes well for more and more frequent installments in the series.

Anyhow. The new issue? Beautiful. In terms of editing, layout, sequencing, and design BLAB! Premier Issue represents Monte Beauchamp’s skills at their prime. For those unfamiliar with the BLAB! series, it has been a kind of Cabinet magazine for graphic designers—unexpected topics and reference illustrations, wide-ranging yet cohesive.

Every inch of this book is illustrated, including two different two-page endpaper pictures and a feature on Monster Magic Trading Cards for the end flaps. Over the years, the frequent presence of pictures by Ryan Heshka has made him as close to a house illustrator as BLAB! Between stories are full-page ads from old comic books—themselves exercises in old school low-budget/imagination/technical competence shilling. Editorially, the focus is on the first half of the 20th century, featuring two stories by Noah van Sciver (one on a cartoonist who started a cat craze about 80 years before B. Kliban), the other on a writer, during the ‘50s, of scandal-plagued crime comic books for kids, whose end became one of his own scripted stories.

A long section on the gorilla in popular culture culminates with an old Fletcher Hanks strip about a mad scientist who sets out to take over the world with an army of gorillas he has injected with a secret formula. Posters for forgotten, obscure films about gorillas are presented, along with knickknackery such as firecracker wrappers and toys. (I don’t know if color adjustments had to be made for any of the old objects shown here, but the color reproduction throughout the book is excellent.) And where would a casual survey be of illustrated popular culture of the 20th century’s first half without ending on a feature (again illustrated by Heshka!) on UFOs?

Although the editorial concerns are old, BLAB! feels less like a trip down memory lane than an exercise in contemporary design as applied to older content. Whether a person is interested or not in the topics (I’m one who is), Beauchamp’s selection of older material—movie posters, toys, and other ephemeral—is a trove of older design and typographic sensibilities that shows the wide eye he employed in his capacity as an advertising director.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The newest iteration of Blab! was quite fun. While some things felt like disparate additions, like the Fletcher Hanks "Fantomah" story, most of the pieces are enticing for any fan of comics. Noah Van Sciver's and Ryan Heshka's contributions were the easy highlights, with both doing a few biographical pieces. The Charles Biro story by NVS ("The Death of Comics") is easily my favorite in this collection, re-telling the story of Biro's signficant hand in bringing crime comics to the forefront of the medium and the subsequent downfall due to the panic du Jour brought on by people like Fredric Wertham. Van Sciver tells his stories with such utility and efficiency, whereby just a dozen or so pages can feel like a fully realized graphic novel.

Ryan Heshka provides some fantastic covers/endpages, and his work on the Siegel and Shuster story with Beauchamp was splendid. I also enjoyed the archival piece of Watson Heston's critical satirization of religion. It was a bit out of place, but a welcome read nonetheless.

Overall, a solid return for a great anthology and I'm excited to see this continue again.

[Jameson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best bits and the most substantial bits are from Noah Van Sciver and Sasha Velour (presumably of emotional roses fame?) I’d like to see more from them. Illustrated text pieces, alas, just don’t interest me in digital form. (I don’t like reading lots of text on a tablet. Which reminds me, I thought we’d have color e-ink tablets by now! My last Kindle looks virtually the same as my first almost twenty years ago.) They do look interesting, though. Especially the one about the persecution of Catholics. As for the Superman creators recap, this story is too depressing to read again in any form, no matter how nice the art is. (I don’t like how the guys look so depressed in the final panel.) I’ll definitely read another Blab. This is indie comics with quality control. Too many indie anthologies come out that scream “nepotism!” It’ll have one or two quality strips then a bunch of half-assed crap.

[Jio Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant idea, and some of the stories are excellent and very interesting. The vintage ads are a little weird because they’re not exactly comic-book relevant, they just appeared IN comic books. Something like this can never be 100% because it’s an anthology of different ideas, so a few of the articles did fall flat for me. The layout design could be improved, the written articles have large line spacing which isn’t so fun to read. I look forward to more of these coming out, it’s such a great idea and I love how zany it is!

[Victor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Possibly the weakest of all the Blab material I've read, which means this still has a small pile of 5 star material, it's just overwhelmed by meh stuff, with too much space given to text materials of little interest.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blab! is an eclectic symphony. A poignant amalgamation of imagery and words, both old and new, conducted flawlessly by Monte Beauchamp. This is a gripping collection that will indeed make you Blab!

[Luca Cendón · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a damn near perfect collection of stories, artwork, and outdated ads. I learned and I laughed and I gawked at the badass gorilla art.

[Regis Philbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Noah Van Sciver and Ryan Heshka strips are standouts but I think the Heshka (on Siegel and Shuster) was printed elsewhere.

[Al McCarty · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this is the Premiere Issue, what were all the others?

[Digi M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it over a few days. Really enjoyed the Noah ones. The art by Ryan Heshka was great was was the whole piece about the gorillas.
Really enjoyed it.