Kramers Ergot Four

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0967798957 ISBN 13: 9780967798950

Publisher: Avodah Books, 2003

Kramer's Ergot is an anthology of comics and art from some of the best "new," "up- and-coming," "promising," "emerging" what-have-you's, and a few proven favorites. Contributors include: Andrew Brandou, Matt Brinkman, Genevieve Castree, Marc Bell, Chris Forgues, Ben Jones, Renee French, Christian Cummings, Leif Goldburg, Stefan Gruber, Sammy Harkham, Tobias Schalken, Laura and Billy Grant, Amy Lockhart, Kozydan, Stefan Van Dinther, Dave Kiersh, Souther Salazar, John Hankiewitcz, David Lasky, Allison Cole, Anders Nilsen, David Heatley, Joe Grillo, Lauren Weistein, Jim Drain, Josh Simmons, and Jeff Brown.

From Publishers Weekly:

One of the most impressive-looking comics anthologies ever, the mammoth fourth volume of Harkham's Kramers Ergot series has a flabbergasting range of visual techniques and printing styles. Most of the stalwarts of the art-comics underground, from Jeffrey Brown (Unlikely) to Renee French (Grit Bath), contribute pieces to it. Harkham's aesthetic is a bit different from those behind predecessors like Raw and Non, though. The artists he favors tend to be people who've come to comics from a fine-art background, often because they were drawn to the form's narrative possibilities and potential for bold graphic approaches. Some of their work is distinctly unpretty, like the crayoned art brut cover by Mat Brinkman and the garish doodles by Ben Jones; some of it is delicately controlled, like David Lasky's witty narrative, drawn in the style of late-1920s newspaper cartoons, of how the Carter Family came to record "Wildwood Flower." Some might call all the abstract collages that incorporate some drawing and some language in this collection comics by association only. But there's also a cornucopia of masterful cartooning here by artists who are just starting to break out-the book is anchored at both ends by Anders Nilsen's freewheeling "Sisyphus" stories and in the middle by Harkham's own devastating "Poor Sailor."
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