Critical DMs: Minnesota-made comics
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Critical DMs are lightly edited Slack conversations by members of the MPR News arts team about Minnesota art and culture.
This week, arts editor Max Sparber, senior arts reporter and critic Alex V. Cipolle and arts reporter Jacob Aloi discuss locally created comics.
Max Sparber: Hello comics fans!
Alex V. Cipolle: Before I can critically direct message with anyone, I need some goofy psychedelic music to set the tone for this. Recs?
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Max Sparber: C.A. Quintet. Minnesota psychedelic rock from the ‘60s. I’ll add a YouTube video to the web story so readers can also enjoy.
Cipolle: As Mario says, ‘Here we gooooooo!’
Sparber: Is Jacob here? As Luigi says, ‘Where you at,’ Jacob?
Cipolle: If he doesn’t come in saying, ‘Its-a ME, Jacob,’ it’s a missed opportunity.
Sparber: He’s in the other thread. He doesn’t even know this exists. I’ll get him.
(Moments later)
Jacob Aloi: WOW.
Sparber: There-a we go!
Aloi: WOW people WOW. Been here two years, and I’m JUST now being added.
Cipolle: (Takes deep breaths while listening to C.A. Quintet.)
Sparber: So there is a comic book store a few blocks from me called Odd Mart, and they sell local comics. I thought I would buy one for each of us. Tell us what you got, by name and author. You first, Alex.
‘Twin Cities Freakout!’
Cipolle: I got “Twin Cities Freakout!” which features a few different stories by different artists. Including Stoney Baloney, Glorp and Sexx Wizards!
Sparber: Okay, I should clarify. They are all by the same guy. Brad McGinty, who owns Odd Mart, under a variety of groovy pseudonyms.
And Jacob, what did you get?
Aloi: I got “What Came of Picking Flowers,” a Portuguese folk tale adapted by Midwest artist Alex Mitchell, who is based in Minneapolis.
Sparber: And I got “The Drain Pipe” by Zelda Zawacki.
Aloi: Alex, what did you think of your comic? It has a really bright, psychedelic cover.
Cipolle: I loved it. I read it with my morning coffee today and was chuckling through the whole thing. The style feels very R. Crumb with a dash of gross-out David Cronenberg. It’s absurdist and sharp. It covers reefer madness, hippies and veterans, capitalism, organized religion as a malignant force and of course benevolent electric sex wizards.
Sparber: Brad told me he sometimes finds it sold on eBay as an authentic underground comic from the ‘70s, which totally makes sense. It’s extremely credible.
Cipolle: Well, you had to correct me this morning. I also thought it was made in 1971 as the cover page states. It feels very much of that era, at least Stoney Baloney about the stoner who’s forced to work in a grocery store.
He smokes a lot of “primo grass-a-rino.”
Aloi: I always love when an artist authentically captures a time period after the fact.
Cipolle: Yeah me too. The ‘70s had a loose swirly grit that I love. And this captures that.
Sparber: I bought it a few years ago and to me it’s both a perfect 1970s underground comic and a perfect satire of 1970s underground comix.
Cipolle: That’s exactly it. Feels very self-referential.
Aloi: A hard balance to strike I imagine.
Cipolle: What about you Jacob?
‘What Came of Picking Flowers’
Aloi: So, “What Came of Picking Flowers” is one story about four sisters. Three of them are kidnapped by magical means, and the youngest sister sets off to rescue them with her wit and a few magic items she stole.
Sparber: If we’re going to include music with all our comics, here I suggest “Gather Up” by Matt Berry.
Aloi: I love a good folk tale — I was the weird kid who was fascinated by the Brothers Grimm’s lesser-known work like the Mouse the Bird and the Sausage.
Sparber: When I bought it, the salesperson said it was heavily inspired by the art you used to find in role-playing games. Which I thought made it perfect for you.
Cipolle: Oooh cool. So describe that style for us.
Aloi: It certainly has that vibe to it, feels like an indie TTRPG (Table Top Role Playing Game), very sharp and angular. It’s whimsical, but a bit more grounded than a high fantasy story would be. Feels more earthy, with subdued colors.
Everything is outlined with a thick black line, almost brushstroke-like, something I learned from muralist Adam Turman can really help something pop and stand out.
Cipolle: What’s your biggest takeaway from that comic, J?
Aloi: It’s clear that the inspiration for the comic is oral tradition, it reads like a story an avó would tell her grandchild. And the art style is fun to look at, somewhere between the cover of a Conan the Barbarian or a Piers Anthony cover and “Persepolis.”
Sparber: Avó is short for avocado, I presume.
Aloi: Portuguese for grandmother.
Cipolle: I mean, absolutely everyone knows that, Max!
Sparber: I am ashamed.
Aloi: Max, what was your comic?
‘The Drain Pipe’
Sparber: My comic is “The Drain Pipe” by Leda Zawacki. It was nominated for an Ignatz Award in 2021, which is an auspicious independent comic award.
It’s very short. So short that at the end I thought, that can’t be it. But then I realized it was perfect. Just a tiny, tiny slice of life.
Cipolle: Just a lil guy.
Sparber: It tells of a young woman who goes back to her hometown in North Carolina for a few days and hangs out with her friend, who she has a crush on.
And it perfectly captures the immense discomfort and disappointment of being around somebody who is not available and not interested and you can’t share your feelings with.
Cipolle: That sounds lovely.
Sparber: It’s drawn in very precise, but slightly jittery lines and is largely monochrome — tan, really — with little pops of muted color.
Aloi: I think many readers know that moment too well. Reminds me of the feelings I get listening to Mitski’s “Strawberry Blond,” a song I have a deep love for.
Sparber: I can see why it was nominated for an award. It’s what I love about independent comics — they tell stories that you just don't find in mainstream comics.
Cipolle: I feel that what I read in my comic was the most hard-hitting truth I’ve gotten from any media in a while.
Sparber: That day jobs are boring and doobie is fantastic?
Cipolle: That, and the dark side of religion, the corrosive effects of feeling like we all need to make a brand of our personalities, police brutality.
Sparber: I feel like I need to reread “Twin Cities Freakout!”
Cipolle: I don’t think I would see anything this bold in film or television. There's a religion monster who has a fleshy crucifix for a face that says “money money money money money money” lol.
Aloi: I have loved comics since I was a kid, and I’m so happy we are in a renaissance of independent comics and graphic novels.
Sparber: I’m also happy about the renaissance. When I was a kid I used to buy comics at garage sales, and I wound up with a whole lot of actual underground comics that I SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN READING.
They warped my brain in ways that I have come to really appreciate.
They still do.
