Favorite Noah Van Sciver

[awfulquiet]

Noah has something from each end of his spectrum coming next year with Joseph Smith and his Mormons as well as a new collection of more of his autobio type stuff coming from Fanta.

So what's your preferred style of Noah?


Fante Bukowski is hard to beat for me. Though I only recently read The Hypo for the first time and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed that.

[bayls171]

NVS is a strong contender for my favourite cartoonist. Especially best "young" cartoonist

Honestly don't know if I have a favourite. I really love his autobio stories, like My Hot Date, One Dirty Tree, and that short story in Now #1 (plus a lot more.. from Blammo and his minis etc). His short stories in general are usually my favourites of his, even if they're not autobio. 

Although ultimately Fante Bukowski would be my #1 pick of his if I had to choose. Blammo #9 and #10 are also spectacular.. Blammo #9 being one of the first "alt-comix" type books I ever read.

and yeah The Hypo is kind of genius for a debut book, and I think really works overall

But ultimately the thing I like most about him is how versatile he is. I like that I don't have to choose a favourite because he's doing everything at once.

[mamalips]

My Hot Date is a great introduction to Noah, it captures a lot of his humour. Disquiet and the new collection "As A Cartoonist" I think will be perfect recommendations. Oh and One Dirty Tree (some of his best colouring) and Constant Companion (diary comics, always inspires me to draw). There's too many to mention. I'm pretty sure I am Noah's biggest UK fan haha. Every 10th post on my @bestsmallpress Instagram is basically about his work

[teemcgee]

The autobio shorts are the sweet spot for me, especially some of the minis and late Blammos other people above have mentioned. Also I know parenting is probably his priority atm but I'd love to see him do more reprint zines of early strip cartoonists, he has interesting tastes as a curator.

Fante Bukowski I never clicked with - I was primed for it to be some cutting literary scene satire (I love the tone perfect parody packaging of the hardcover), but I don't think it really succeeds very well as a parody of writer personalities (maybe Noah isn't in this world enough for the observations to cut deep?), and I think my disappointment meant I never connected with the social drama it turned it out to be... but that speaks as much to my preconceptions of what the book should be, than what it actually is!

[benjaminlclark]

I've never gone wrong reading his stuff. It's all great! Really wish I could get my hands on his Clare Briggs book I missed out on.

[timbecile]

Across the street from my old job, there was a used book store, so on a whim for a lunch break book I tried "A Fan's Notes" by Frederick Exley.
I had a hard time getting through it (your mileage may vary), but I found I enjoyed it better if I imagined Fante Bukowski had written it.
With Exley suddenly all of Van Sciver's arrows seemed to be hitting their target for me in a concrete way for the first time. 
I like his comics...

[andrewpilkington]

I really like Saint Cole.

All Noah's stuff is great, it's easy to read.

[Ian M]

One Dirty Tree is my favorite so far, with book one of Fante Bukowski as number two. I ended up reading a lot of his stuff this year as I supported the Killgore Books Kickstarter and found his two books with Paul Buhle marked down.

I definitely prefer his autobio work overall, but I wonder if it's getting harder for him to do it so well, as he becomes "successful" as a cartoonist.

[timbecile]

Nov 10, 2021 22:57:26 GMT timbecile said:

I tried "A Fan's Notes" by Frederick Exley.
I found I enjoyed it better if I imagined Fante Bukowski had written it.

Duh, here's the first page of A Fan's Notes: