Thursday, December 12, 2013

365 Comics...344: Hip-Hop Family Tree (2013)

A full review should hit Thor's Comic Column tomorrow, but this incredible biography of the gestation of hip-hop culture back in the Bronx at the turn of the '80's is worth talking a little more about.  Ed Piskor's art, for starters, strikes a sweet spot with me, as it seems, at least to me, to be heavily influenced by Evan Dorkin who I've been a fan of for ages...  Kids I knew wanted to draw like McFarlane or Jim Lee or George Perez... I wanted to draw like Dorkin.  There's just a similar sense to the weight of the lines and the disproportionate head-to-body ratio.  

You can catch some Hip Hop Family Tree on boingboing where it was serialized before publication (and the second volume is currently in action).  I loved reading this so much (and it was somwe pretty hefty reading, largely responsible for my lack of output here the last few weeks) that I'm tempted to troll through the annoying blog-style interface of boingboing to read the next bit, but at the same time, I love the tabloid-sized tactile experience of reading it.  The book does smell kind of funny though where as my computer and phone are daisy-fresh scented.

I'm currently trolling through Piskor's hip hop discography by way of youtube (which has yet to disappoint on available tracks), which I'm going to try and coax GAK into turning into an episode of Exploding Head Movies, even though it's not a movie, but it's still like a soundtrack to a comic and that works, right.  (GAK if you're reading, expect a copy of HHFT for the X-Masses... or likely, after the X-Masses following travel plans)

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