Palookaville 22 ‘unmistakeably Seth-ian’

The Canadian cartoonist Seth has been working on his graphic novel Clyde Fans since 1998. 1998! And there's still a long way to go. The latest chapter appears in his ongoing comic Palookaville 22 and the result is an interesting example of how "arthouse" (for want of a better description) cartoonists are grappling with the lengthy (in this case elephantine) act of creation graphic novels -in this case a work that's projected to be around 350 pages long - require set against the desire for regular(ish) output. Los Bros Hernandez have been worrying away at the same issue in the pages of Love and Rockets for some time. Seth's answer seems to be to make each issue of Palookaville an event. And so we have this exquisitely designed hardback which includes the latest chapter of Clyde Fans, an ongoing autobiographical strip entitled Nothing Lasts and a photo essay for taste.

The whole thing is unmistakeably Seth-ian. Both strips concern themselves with times past, the frailty of memory and a sense of lost time and lost people. Nostalgia decays into melancholy on every page. The pace is deliberate, slow and stately. Every single panel is a still life. The result swirls like deep waters. But it's not perhaps for new readers.