Sharing a few potential Christmas gift ideas, Sam Leith with the U.K.’s Telegraph talks about “SSS Comix” — or Shy Schlumpfs in Specs Comix:
The rough gist is this: comic book artist, who is (like most comic book artists) a shy schlumpf in specs, mooches around feeling sorry for himself, worries that he might be too self-obsessed, has a short and self-loathing infatuation with a girl, returns to drawing board, creates comic describing the aforegoing events.
Still, there are SSS Comix and SSS Comix. Where would we be without R Crumb and the best of his disciples? And if you placed a prohibition on autobiography in comics, you’d be pretty quickly back to the men in tights.
He goes on to recommend a few comics that fall into the “SSS” category, including Seth’s It’s A Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken and Life, In Pictures: Autobiographical Stories by Will Eisner. Also getting a mention are Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds, Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine and Rich Johnston’s Flying Friar.
