One of the additional intriguing elements of Jonathan Baylis’s autobiographical So Buttons anthology series is that not only does it also give a deserved spotlight to the many artists he chooses to work with it also encourages the reader to think about how those creative collaborations work in terms of the artists’ interpretive choices. In So Buttons #13 (a ‘Film School’ special) those names include such Broken Frontier indie favourites as Tony Wolf, Whit Taylor and Maria and Peter Hoey, and even the legendary Michael T. Gilbert. Issue #13 is a thematic blend with film-influenced subject matter sitting with a smattering of creative partnerships with some of Harvey Pekar’s past collaborators and Baylis’s own friends (“a split between Harvey’s pals and my pals.”)
So Buttons #13 employs, as ever, the by now familiar ‘So…’ prefix to each slice-of-life short. Some of these strips have an almost ephemeral quality to them like ‘So…Swampy’ with animated art by Tony Wolf and vibrant colours from Alex Hernandez that revisits Baylis’s discovery of the Alan Moore Swamp Thing run while at summer camp. Or the punchline-led exploration of childhood fears in ‘So… Zombified’, illustrated with perfect comedic pacing by Whit Taylor.
Others have a more profound depth to them like ‘So… Premiered!’ (above) which recounts the inspirational evening Baylis met Harvey Pekar and then sat behind him at the American Splendor movie premiere. Joe Zabel and Gary Dumm’s visuals here injecting a blend of pop cultural visual metaphor and knowing references into the proceedings. In the best possible way, much of the work here has a casual name-dropping quality to it that adds to the sense of discovery inherent in these pages – Baylis’s time working for Robert Redford, for example, or his film school student days friendship with Hostel director Eli Roth in ‘So… Inglourious’ (below).
‘So… It’s a Viscous Cycle’ takes the filmic theme and uses it as a springboard into a tale about Baylis’s laser eye surgery (below). The art of Maria and Peter Hoey is a perfect fit here allowing for a mix of procedural scientific imagery and, again, plenty of cultural references to enjoy. Baylis also uses this platform to wax lyrical about some of his movie idols like composer Ennio Morricone (art by Rick Parker) and the “ambisextrous” Tallulah Bankhead (illustrated by Michael T. Gilbert).
As ever, Baylis’s curation is excellent in terms of matching artists to subject matter. Something that is perfectly demonstrated in ‘So… Ripped’. Here the jaunty cartooning of Karl Christian Krumpholz (below, also cover artist) is an inspired choice for an anecdotal bar-room tale with one foot in the slice-of-life world and one in the exaggerated realms of the tall tale.
As is always the case with anthologies we are only touching on some of the stories available in this issue of So Buttons. But the thing about a Jonathan Baylis collection is that each and every entry is either an autobiographical or a biographical gem. Ignore the numbering convention, this is an entirely accessible and contained collection of stories from a too neglected voice in the slice-of-life arena.
Jonathan Baylis (W), Karl Christian Krumpholz, Tony Wolf, Joe Zabel, Gary Dumm, Bernie Mireault, What Taylor, Brian Bram, Maria Hoey, Peter Hoey, Kate Lacour, Rick Parker, Miguel “ECH” Echemendia, Michael T. Gilbert, T.J. Kirsch, Lucas Eisenberg-Baylis, Ed Piskor (A), Alex Hernandez, Laura Dumm (C) • Self-published, $10.00
Review by Andy Oliver
