Sarah Horrocks
The Knife’s Edge Of Western Colonialism: Sergio Toppi’s ‘The Collector’ [Review]
One of the lesser explored stanchions of the Western genre is the fairly consistent notion of the dominant invading culture moving into indigenous lands and, over time, brutally removing said peoples from that land. Usually our focus is so narrow within the genre that we rarely realize that this is exactly what is happening. The dreaded “Indian raids” of many a John Ford classic are lensed so thoroughly through the perspective of the white-faced hero or anti-hero that an audience can’t help but miss the absurdity of maligning sovereign nations responding to mass invasions by another sovereign nation. Go try and start a mass migration into Putin’s Russia and see how that goes for you.
I bring this up because Sergio Toppi’s The Collector is acutely focused on this precise issue. The collection of stories which make up this stunning tome from Archaia all occur on the knife’s edge of colonialism and western expansion -- and almost without fail, Toppi’s Collector sides with the invaded side rather than with colonizers the way his forebears -- and, really, antecedents -- might.
Image’s ‘Genesis’ Artist Alison Sampson On The Intersection of Comics And Architecture [Interview]
Available for pre-order now, Genesis is a forthcoming graphic novella from Image Comics created by the team of Alison Sampson, Nathan Edmonson, and Jason Wordie. In it is the 56-page story of the awesome thankless burden of one man’s ability to shape and change the world. Edmonson has scripted a moody, horror-tinged tale that captures perfectly the spiraling psyche of a man trying to create a better existence only to be constantly overwhelmed by the obstacles that come with this, not the least of which is a a multicultural and gendered world which seems more than happy to stick to the status quo. It's a mind-melting story brought to uncommonly vivid life by Sampson's artwork and the coloring of Jason Wordie.
We sat down to with Alison Sampson to discuss these topics and more, both with respect to Genesis and her approach as an artist in practice. What followed was a really fascinating discussion, delving into the intersection of architecture and comics.