Joost Swarte is a master of European underground comics. His works have appeared in various publications in America over the years, the vast majority of which are long out of print.
The cutting edge of the subject's work is in evidence in this volume. The artist's popularity comes as no surprise when you see all his issuances together in one place.
I pre-ordered this ages ago, and was pleasantly surprised when it showed up on my porch this morning. The book is a bit smaller than I'd hoped, but the content more than makes up for it.
I bought this book for two main reasons: I liked the idea of exploring the art of a Dutch modern artist, and I thought the cover was provocative yet witty. While the art did not disappoint, the old proverb about judging a book by its cover proved all too real...
I think Joost Swarte is a great artist. I'm still not sure what to do about the racial stereotypes--it needs to be really explicitly a satire of older humor for me to get it, I guess, and to me it just reads like a rehashing of old "humor".
Mostly influenced by Herge's Tintin, and somewhat by the underground comix movement (his stuff was published first in RAW by Spiegelman), this is interesting. His "clean line" approach is impressive; his humor quirky and not particularly compelling to me, but it is interesting and impressive from an artistic perspective.
The art is terrific! I could stare at his Raw #2 cover, "Comix Factory", all day.
