To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Toronto cartoonist Seth’s Palookaville, Drawn and Quarterly has re-released the now out-of-print #1. Seth starts off with a self effacing intro talking about how embarrassed he is by that old comic from 1990, actually set in the mid-Eighties when Seth was going through a phase in which he was obsessed with having long white hair. Anyway, the story pretty much consists of Seth being gay-bashed after taunting a bunch of hoods. It’s entertaining enough, but, as the older, more experienced Seth is quick to point out, not much more than an anecdote. Of course, anyone who follows Palookaville knows that the comic has gone in a completely different direction. In the latest issue, Seth continues to explore the life of Simon, a failure of a travelling fan salesman who can’t seem to find a place for himself in the 1950s small towns he wanders through. Tense, depressing, utterly compelling, Seth brilliantly evokes a familiar yesteryear without ever making Simon’s neuroses predictable. Reading both comics one after the other gave me a rare opportunity to see how talent grows and develops. (Hal Niedzviecki)
comic, #1/#15, $4.95 per, Seth, Drawn and Quarterly, PO Box 48056, Montreal, Quebec, H2V 4S8