I don’t often post about non-Kirby comics here, even (especially?) “Kirbyesque” stuff, but I wanted to quickly note Bryan Talbot’s new book, ALICE IN SUNDERLAND. Partly because of the image above, a panel from a sequence where Talbot’s character has a crisis of confidence about the scope and viability of the book. It was a funny line in a funny scene. But up to that point I’d already been thinking of Kirby a lot during the book.

That’s partly because earlier Talbot had evoked Kirby art in a sequence dealing with the Battle of Hastings. That’s among many references in style to old comics that Talbot uses in the book, including pages evoking EC horror comics, Herge’s TINTIN, British “Boy’s Adventure” comics and many more. But even more, I was struck by how Talbot is able to fully integrate his own art with photography and collage in this book. Kirby, of course, was a pioneer in the use of collage in his comics, going back over 40 years, but for the most part was let down by technical limitations, like the printing which couldn’t handle what he was throwing at it. I imagine he’d be impressed by how far we’ve come, where Talbot can achieve what he aims for here.

I also imagine that he’d be impressed by the fact that the comic book industry has progressed to a point where Talbot can do something like this, an original 300+ page book, in a format that suits it best. It’s not a book which would have worked serialized into regular sized chunks, so thankfully it wasn’t forced to. Something I’m sure Kirby would have appreciated back he was (unsuccessfully) pushing for new formats over 30 years ago.

Anyway, it’s a great book. I’ll write more about it on my other site soon. You can read more about it on Talbot’s site, including details about his signing tour (which brings him to Toronto later today, so I might go) and you can buy the book at various places if it suits your fancy.