(Simpsons (c) Fox)

For some unknown reason I had a song from the Simpsons stuck in my head all day yesterday – Mister Burns singing “see my vest” (in a pastiche of a classic musical scene whose name escapes me at the moment) as he shows off his wardrobe full of handmade garments fashioned from animals “see my vest, made from real gorilla chest… Like my loafers? Former gophers, it was that or skin my chauffers…” As with many folks when I get an earworm lodged in the brain like that I had a look online for it to play it out my system and instead I came across this – a ‘dramatic’ reading of the See My Vest song, which is just pure, cracked genius…

Phil Hebblethwaite, Editor. Mickey Gibbons, Designer.

Featuring comics and cartoons by Paul O’Connell, Lawrence Elwick, Tom Brass, Lindsay Pollock, Krent Able, JC & APK, Richard Cowdry, David Ziggy Greene.

“Yes indeed, 40 of your all-time favourite musicians and writers got together to tell you a story in the Exquisite Corpse-style. It’s… potty.
Interviewed! Trevor Horn, A$AP Rocky, The Maccabees, Beth Jeans Houghton, Pusha T… and many, many others. Comics! Loads of them! A jumbo prize Christmas crossword! A thing to behold. And, oh my Christ, so much more besides in this, a special Yuletide edition.”

That’s how The Stool Pigeon describes its festive frolic edition – and it’s lots of what we’ve all come to expect by now – good writing, nice, snappy design, and full of musicians I may have known about if I was; a) younger, b) cooler, c) both.

Still, know the music or not, the writing’s good, and this time round there’s the addition of that Exquisite Corpse; with this beautiful bit of honesty in the intro:

“We initially insisted that contributions be kept to a single sentence. That didn’t work out, because we didn’t have the balls to tell Ian Rankin to re-submit his entry.”

On top of that, there’s a short, but typically good, punchy interview with Buggles himself; Trevor Horn about all things music, electronic, Frankie, Paul Morley, the sound and the romance. Like I say, typically great.

But enough with the music, The Stool Pigeon continues with its comics as well, here’s what’s on offer this time round….

Tom Brass and Lindsay Pollock’s pop superstar returns this issue – still good, but all a little less enjoyable than the debut last issue. Just didn’t quite click with me like it did before. And too full of grey, meaning it just scans as a bit of a muddy mess – take my word for it eh? No such problems with Krent Able’s strip though. His usual hypercolours are gone, but it’s not missed, especially as the subject for his invective is The Man In Black himself…. yes, here’s Johnny Cash:

And yes, there are words, angry, nasty, idol toppling words later.

One day ‘ll come up with a definitive for whether or not I actually like it or not. But here, Hipster Hitler, dropped to a single gag panel, actually worked for me this time – go figure….

Martin Kellerman’s Rocky takes place in a smoothie booth, taking in music evolution and moving through to fish ‘n’ chip flavoured smoothies and feeding tubes in the workplace. And all done in super laconic, conversational style.

Highlight of the issue would have been O’Connell and Elwick’s A Charlie Parker Christmas, except you’ve all gone out and read that in comic form like I told you to haven’t you? Because although it’s really good here, it’s better, bigger and more detailed over in the comic. Yet again, I find myself wishing for a proper, large format Charlie Parker collection. You should as well.

Also in the seen it already department is Richard Cowdry’s Down Town featuring Fat Charlie Chaplin, as seen here, here, and here on this very blog – but unlike Charlie Parker, this time The Stool Pigeon wins as it’s good to see all three parts there on one page, letting Cowdry’s work flow so well.

But absolutely, without doubt, the best bit of the whole issue is my delight on seeing David Ziggy Greene’s music review – and actually knowing the damn band he’s talking about. He’s reviewing a gig by US math rock band Battles, who may or many not have already made the best album they possibly could in Mirrored, may or may not have already made the best song they’ll ever make in Atlas. But whatever, Greene nails them, perfect, in just 8 images, you have the band, the venue and just a feel of what they sound like….. and my god they sound incredible.

So yes, yet again, good comics, good writing, good design, a good read. And all for free. Get out there and support it – you can find a full list of stockists at The Stool Pigeon website.

Now, special treat…. Battles; Atlas, 2007:

…. and Sundome, 2011

By Dan Berry (words by Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family)

Okay. So, Dan Berry decides, just like that, to transcribe a song by alt-country band The Handsome Family into comic form. Comic folk can be strange, impetuous folk. Or, like Berry says on his website, October 5th:

“I began an impulse project yesterday that I hope to have finished in time for thought bubble next month. Here’s a sneak look at the titular first page. I’m rather enjoying it. I’m using the palomino blacking pencils with an ink wash. I want to keep this as simple as possible for efficiency’s sake.”

So, just over a month later, it’s done. Complete, finished.

“Based on the song of the same name by The Handsome Family, After We Shot The Grizzly is a sorrowful tale of loss, life and love. 32 pages printed on recycled paper.”

Here’s the first 8 pages…..

That’s the first verse covered. And a tale of love and loss set out quite beautifully. Lucky you, you’ve got the rest of the song to luxuriate in. Because that’s what you need to do here, luxuriate in the pages. Linger over the words, play them over and over. It’s a simple tale, as lyrical as you’d expect, seeing as it’s a song lyric, and you don’t get much more lyrical than that.

But what my scanner can’t get, sadly, no matter how many times I tried scanning, is the subtlety and textures on each page, and they really are quite lovely pages.

Here’s page 1 a little bigger…. about full size on a 20″ monitor….

For a whim, Dan Berry sure makes a gorgeous comic.

And of course, you will be wanting to read it alongside the music…. I know I did. Sing along….

After the airship crashed
After we lost the compass
After the radio went dead

We shot and ate the horses
We marched through deadly swamps
Inside a limestone cave
I found a human skull
Yes, Mary, I found a human skull.

The rest you can discover yourself. The video is below, but Dan Berry has made a beautiful accompaniment that add to the words, embelishes the music, gives it vision.

After We Shot The Grizzly is available to buy from Berry’s webstore.

Seattle is the place to be this Friday – the awesomeness that is Peter Bagge will be in the Fantagraphics (1201 S. Vale Street) store Friday November 25th from 7pm – comics, signings, chat and brews will be the order of the evening, followed by decamping to next door club Mix where Bagge’s “power pop combo”  Can You Imagine? will be rockin’ it. Comics, brews, music and an excuse to post up some Peter Bagge art, that sounds like a damned fine Friday night…

We do like a bit of Amanda Palmer around here and there is some lovely animation in her Evelyn Evelyn music video; the Evelyn Evelyn book by Amanda, Jason Wbley and Cynthia Von Buller was released just recently by Dark Horse.

Phil Hebblethwaite, Editor. Mickey Gibbons, Designer.

Featuring comics and cartoons by Paul O’Connell, Lawrence Elwick, Tom Brass, Lindsay Pollock, Krent Able, JC & APK, Richard Cowdry, David Ziggy Greene.

God, that’s a great cover shot of David Lynch, isn’t it? Bloody good interview with the man in here as well.

By now, if you’ve been with us a while, you’ll know about the bi-monthly, independent and free music paper The Stool Pigeon, and how it’s a damn good read, packed with interviews and features, full of great design elements and a continued reminder of how little new music I’m even aware of.

Alongside the interesting Lynch interview and the usual mix of intriguing and unheard of bands there’s good coverage this time round of the problems of Stolen Recordings, who were hit hard by the destruction of the Sony DADC/PIAS warehouse in the Tottenham riots.

But enough of the other stuff… the reason we cover The Stool Pigeon here at the FPI Blog is the extensive comics section that sits in the middle of the paper. So lets get into that…..

Throughout The Stool Pigeon there’s a smattering of cartoons, but the best of them comes in the reviews section – with David Ziggy Greene covering The War On Drugs.

As with last issue, I’ve no idea who the bloody band are, but I get a great idea of the gig thanks to Greene’s sketchy, informed comic review.

There’s a new strip this time round; Roger Wriggley / Nigel Wriggley by Tom Brass and Lindsay Pollock, previously known in these parts for the great Moochowski. It’s a tale of two brothers, previously united in the band Deux from what I can work out. Except one is hugely successful (Roger – appearances on Jonathan Ross, Grammy nominations) and the other not so much (Nigel – currently playing Telford Poly).

It’s good, it’s funny, the art works a treat. A welcome addition. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more.

There’s the welcome return of Elwick and O’Connell’s Charlie Parker Handyman, with the second part of their Charlie meets Elvis strip. You can read the whole thing, and catch up with the other, equally impressive) Charlie Parker strips here.

One day they’ll figure out a way to release the lot in a comic of their own and I’ll waste no time telling you how damn brilliant it is.

This issue Krent Able is back with Doctor Cave, his morose MD of doom and gloom going up against the big bloke in the sky himself this time. Able does angry and funny and grotesque so very well.

Also returning is Richard Cowdry, a regular on the FPI blog with his Downtown strips, here we see one really inept post office would be robber finding the post office clerk not as cowed as he may wish….

The only bum note in the comics is Hipster Hitler, which still leaves me cold, I look at it and can see it’s well done. But knowing that and enjoying what it’s doing are two completely separate things. Oh well. Joe likes it – each to their own eh?

All in all The Stool Pigeon delivers a great music paper and some great comics. And it does it all for free. Get out there and support it – you can find a full list of stockists here.