Sublife #1 - Softcover

Pham, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560979461 ISBN 13: 9781560979463

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, 2008

Synopsis

The all-new series from MOME's John Pham. Separate threads weave through the first part of "221 Sycamore St.," an ongoing story about the desperate need for family in two distinct households that share an indelible yet mysterious connection. Sublife is the engaging new series from emerging talent John Pham (Epoxy, MOME). Similar in format to other great one-man anthology comics before it (Eightball, Acme Novelty Library, Jim), Sublife presents a variety of stories told in a range of styles and voices, all demonstrating a singular vision. Issue one features the first self-contained chapter of "221 Sycamore St." as well as "St. Ambrose," a fractured memoir of the author's grade school alma mater. John Pham won the Xeric Grant in 2000 and has been featured in publications such as Giant Robot, The Face, MOME and The Comics Journal.

About this title

About the Author

John Pham is a cartoonist and animator living in Los Angeles, CA. He is a Xeric Grant recipient, multiple Ignatz Award nominee, and his work has been featured in two volumes of Best American Comics.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Pham made his name in the art comics community with his minicomics and self-published work, but this first volume of a projected twice-annual series is a leap in both style and scope. Most of it is devoted to 221 Sycamore St., a set of linked vignettes about the dysfunctional residents of a shared house and the community that surrounds them, including a bitter old Catholic school teacher, a boy who wears a sheet over his entire upper body, some cokehead club kids and a pair of white supremacists with an attack dog. The tone and design of Sublife owe a lot to Chris Ware—a pair of one-page strips about lonely, bored astronauts could be Acme Novelty Library outtakes—and a lot of its dramatic tension similarly comes from Phams attempts to present miserable or loathsome characters sympathetically. The two-tone artwork, though, is a striking, distinctive combination of broad, minimalist cartooning (a closeup of an odor-sensitive deli employee's face is drawn with six stylized lines and two dots), painstakingly detailed textures, bold open spaces and vivid abstractions. Phams also a superb storyteller who lets his drawings carry symbolic elements as well as psychological details—the book's bravura opening sequence, about a stray cat trying to find safety, silently anticipates everything that follows. (Oct.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1560979461
• ISBN 13: 9781560979463
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 64