Jimbo's Inferno
An experimental, highly visual graphic work built on a Dantean frame.
Work Information
It reshapes a descent into hell through allegory and visual energy.
The book maps Jimbo’s journey onto a Dante-like descent, powered by Panter’s rough lines and uneasy humor. It is short but densely experimental.
Review Summaries
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Even its difficulty is part of what readers value, alongside its distinctive visual style and dense references.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Fantagraphics Books
- Published
- 2006-04-10
- Pages
- 40 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 28.19 x 1.27 x 38.1 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781560976912
- ISBN-10
- 1560976918
- Price
- 42399 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Comics & Graphic Novels/Graphic Novels
"Don't try to pass a pop quiz on Dante's Hell based on a reading of this comic," warns Gary Panter. "It won't work. Even though the comic is engorged with Dante's Hell and though Jimbo mouths a super-condensed version of what happens in The Inferno , canto by canto, characters are fused, actions inverted, parodied, subject to mutation by my odd memories and obsessions and whims…" That said, Jimbo's Inferno is the hugely anticipated sequel (or prequel, as it was actually completed first) to Jimbo In Purgatory . In this oversize hardcover cloth-and-gold-finished volume, produced to the same exacting standards as 2004's Purgatory , Jimbo, accompanied by his trusty guide and ride Valise, visits Hell (here envisioned as a gigantic subterranean shopping mall called Focky Bocky), and in so doing runs across minotaurs, drug-addled punkettes, UFOs, giant robots, and more, leading him to such profound questions as, "Why do so many recreational activities involve smoke and heat?" Panter's wild Albrecht-Dürer-meets-Jack-Kirby graphics are wilder and more hallucinatory than ever, and given the full, expansive treatment they so richly deserve.
Reviews
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I love the shattering of hi/lo-brow castes here, the fusion of grungy zine work right at home in the Fields of the Lord. I also feel like I’ll probably switch to 5 stars once I have time to revisit influences and explore the other volumes. I love what Panter is doing here - unoriginal name drops but I sense a aesthetic and formal commonalities with Woodring and Regé. Great great stuff, which I’m long overdue to be reading.
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Be aware this is a huge book! Doesn't fit on my shelves but is a totally ace read