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Mould Map #3
Mould Map 3
New comics and narrative art.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2014
An impulse buy via Kickstarter, this anthology is enormous, violently colored, often messily unpredictable, sometimes brilliant. As such the somewhat bafflingly designed pseudo-manga cover seems appropriate: it sets a tone that the curation seems well in accord with in general.
Best bits here include Simon Hanselman's autobiographical(?) foray into "girling", Olivier Schrauwen on receiving one-way messages from the past (in the hedonistic future), a typically excellent silent sci-fi escape sequence from Lando, a remembrance of water from Lala Albert, the completely unforeseeable office intrigues of Viktor Hachmang & GHXYK2, evocative Aidan Koch material, and a nice insert falling-sequence from Yuichi Yokoyama. It goes on, there are 35 contributors. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it must be said that I've not entirely sure what to do with the hermaphroditic bodybuilder manga porn. Anyway, as one of the more lavish and extensive publications of its sort, this will probably go down as a crazy artifact of this moment in diy comics -- plus I think they actually paid their contributors, so worth supporting.
Best bits here include Simon Hanselman's autobiographical(?) foray into "girling", Olivier Schrauwen on receiving one-way messages from the past (in the hedonistic future), a typically excellent silent sci-fi escape sequence from Lando, a remembrance of water from Lala Albert, the completely unforeseeable office intrigues of Viktor Hachmang & GHXYK2, evocative Aidan Koch material, and a nice insert falling-sequence from Yuichi Yokoyama. It goes on, there are 35 contributors. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it must be said that I've not entirely sure what to do with the hermaphroditic bodybuilder manga porn. Anyway, as one of the more lavish and extensive publications of its sort, this will probably go down as a crazy artifact of this moment in diy comics -- plus I think they actually paid their contributors, so worth supporting.
September 1, 2024
Where the first two Mould Maps were gloriously sized artistic showcases of some powerhouse talents in the industry, editors Hugh Frost and Leon Sadler sought to provide an avenue for more longer form pieces for deeper stories to set in. And just as the seminal comics anthology Kramers Ergot took a leap in quality with Kramers Ergot Four, Mould Map 3 serves as a distinct step up in quality. Frost described the theme of the third volume as being "trans-hopeless", defined as the feeling of being "trapped in power structures that we have little to no control over". The longer format provides the multitude of cartoonists here with more grazing room, and every single contributor jumps at making this one of the greatest single comics anthology ever compiled.
Most entries in Mould Map 3 deliver some fantastic stories within their half dozen or so page counts, with some pieces (like Yuichi Yokoyama, Dmitri Sergeev and Aidan Koch) having small booklet inserts for their pages similar to Spiegelman's Maus in Raw. Lando's esoteric sci-fi piece gets the longest page count at 13, but even with the varying page counts, artists make their durations count to the fullest. Some contributions were a genuine surprise by how great they were, in particular Joseph P. Kelly's (an unknown artist to me) wordless comic about a violent revolution and a rare non-Megg, Mogg & Owl comic from Simon Hanselmann were truly excellent comics. Olivier Schrauwen's talents are much more well-established for me, and included here is a fairly familiar storytelling beat featuring yet another member of his fictitious family named Armand Schrauwen. This might have been the best individual piece in the entire collection.
I'm re-reading this for who knows how many times since its initial release a decade ago, and Mould Map 3 still remains unparalleled in its ability to showcase some of the best names in the industry. For me, it's been great going back to this to see just how many names are on here that went on to deliver some truly great classic comics throughout the late 2010s/early 2020s.
Most entries in Mould Map 3 deliver some fantastic stories within their half dozen or so page counts, with some pieces (like Yuichi Yokoyama, Dmitri Sergeev and Aidan Koch) having small booklet inserts for their pages similar to Spiegelman's Maus in Raw. Lando's esoteric sci-fi piece gets the longest page count at 13, but even with the varying page counts, artists make their durations count to the fullest. Some contributions were a genuine surprise by how great they were, in particular Joseph P. Kelly's (an unknown artist to me) wordless comic about a violent revolution and a rare non-Megg, Mogg & Owl comic from Simon Hanselmann were truly excellent comics. Olivier Schrauwen's talents are much more well-established for me, and included here is a fairly familiar storytelling beat featuring yet another member of his fictitious family named Armand Schrauwen. This might have been the best individual piece in the entire collection.
I'm re-reading this for who knows how many times since its initial release a decade ago, and Mould Map 3 still remains unparalleled in its ability to showcase some of the best names in the industry. For me, it's been great going back to this to see just how many names are on here that went on to deliver some truly great classic comics throughout the late 2010s/early 2020s.
May 1, 2022
Foundational text. Still gives me goosebumps to this day whenever I flick back through it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews