#Maurice Vellekoop

[altcomix]

I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together, Maurice Vellekoop, 2024. Random House Canada

I’ve loved Maurice Vellekoop’s work since I first saw it in Drawn & Quarterly, and I loved his first collection, Vellevision, when I got it in the 90s. The reason I loved it was that it felt happy. So many indie books were depressing and cynical, but Vellekoop’s work was light and pleasant. I wanted more. He wasn’t really a comic artist though, he was an employed illustrator doing comics on the side out of passion. I waited patiently for his next comic book, and that’s taken about 30 years.

I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together is his memoir. It’s incredible. At a certain point, we can’t keep ranking books, but this is instantly part of the great comics canon. It’s not leaving my library.

The book has four parts:

childhood

university

unhappy adulthood

healing into a happy adult

I don’t know if that’s a spoiler, that the book is about his journey into being a happy person. That’s not how the book was publicized. And it was one of the most cathartic things I’ve ever read. I think most people can relate. If you were happy out of the gate after school, either you won the emotional lottery, or you’re delusional. I think most people struggle to become the people they wish to be, and we all have our journey. This is his.

Vellekoop gets into his neuroses; as a child, as a teen, as an adult. And he bares a lot of difficult truths about himself. I considered his comics in the 90s ‘happy comics’, and he portrays himself as a frustrated, uncomfortable person during that period, even while having good friends and social networks. It’s personally revealing along the lines of D&Q stablemate Joe Matt, but without making comedy of it. I imagine some parts were enormously difficult to put to paper.

But, the book never once feels like homework, which “serious” books often become. Because his creative instincts always have a touch of Disney in them, the book feels light until the emotional hooks sink in. It’s very smooth storytelling. Not every ‘great’ book has to be a chore to read.

He uses a sort of id and ego cartoon motif throughout, and it seemed quaint enough early on, but by the end, it has become an important part of the narrative. I don’t want to spoil it, but I think it’s one of the cleverer narrative devices I’ve seen in comics. I’ll just say that rarely has a design change inspired so much of a statement on inner change.

I really worry that this book will be brushed off as a ‘gay book’, because that’s how books featuring gay people can get labeled. I hope the comic world has mostly moved beyond the concept that a gay main character means the book is intended for a gay audience. This is a book about a gay person, but it’s a human story. A very human story. I related to this book at a very core level. I also contorted myself to fit what I thought others expected me to be, to the detriment of myself, something I’m still dealing with, to be honest, though I think I’m over the hump. His journey and how he tells it is worth reading.

Such themes sound weighty, and they certainly are, but Vellekoop’s deft hand makes them so easy to take in. This is a good book.

[420-buddy]

[smashpages]

Nominees announced for the 20th annual Doug Wright Awards

Deni Loubert and Maurice Vellekoop will be indicted into the Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame.

[the-forest-library]

November 2024 Reads

In Memoriam - Alice Winn

A Sorceress Comes to Call - T. Kingfisher

Graveyard Shift - M.L. Rio

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

A Curious Beginning - Deanna Raybourn

The Empress of Salt and Fortune - Nghi Vo

Bride - Ali Hazelwood

The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett

Pony Confidential - Christina Lynch

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love - India Holton

Here We Go Again - Alison Cochrun

One Last Shot - Betty Cayouette

Under Your Spell - Laura Wood

The Love of My Afterlife - Kristy Greenwood

This Summer Will Be Different - Carley Fortune

Savor It - Tarah DeWitt

Kiss Me at Christmas - Jenny Bayliss

Christmas Is All Around - Martha Waters

XOXO - Axie Oh

Killing November - Adriana Mather

Miracles on Maple Hill - Virginia Sorensen

The Miraculous Life of Edward Tulane - Kate DiCamillo

Because of Winn Dixie - Kate DiCamillo

Thunder Pug - Kim Norman

Stringbean's Trip to the Shining Sea - Vera B. Williams

Dr Seuss's Sleep Book - Dr Seuss

Leap - Simina Popescu

Uprooted - Ruth Chan

Taxi Ghost - Sophie Escabasse

They Called Us Enemy - George Takei

I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together - Maurice Vellekoop

Adulthood is a Gift - Sarah Andersen

Joyful Recollections of Trauma - Paul Scheer

The Deaf Girl - Abigail Heringer

True Gretch - Gretchen Whitmer

Growing Up Urkel - Jaleel White

How to Know a Person - David Brooks

The Expectation Effect - David Robson

Glory Days - L. Ron Wertheim

Democracy Awakening - Heather Cox Richardson

The Sleeping Beauties - Suzanne O'Sullivan

What It Takes to Heal - Prentis Hemphill

Vanishing Treasures - Katherine Rundell

Noodles, Rice, and Everything Spice - Christina De Witte and Mallika Kauppinen

Appetites - Anthony Bourdain

Bold = Highly Recommend

Italics = Worth It

Crossed Out = Nope

Thoughts: Please read In Memoriam if you haven't yet. It's sweeping and sad and sweet and very satisfying. The audiobook is lovely and does some interesting things with the narration.

Goodreads Goal: 414/400 

2017 Reads | 2018 Reads | 2019 Reads | 2020 Reads | 2021 Reads| 2022 Reads | 2023 Reads | 2024 Reads

[librarycomic]

I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together by Maurice Vellekoop. Pantheon, 2024. 9780307908735. 496pp.

Vellekoop's graphic biography begins when he's a little boy in love with his mom, heading downtown together on Remembrance Day. When he arrives home with a new book (Cinderella) he shares it with his older sister. After a pillow fight with his two brothers, everyone sits down at a family dinner during which his father goes into one of his regular rages. And then his father takes him on a special excursion to see Fantasia, "an experience that more or less set the course for the rest of [his] life." Disney becomes his obsession. (Later Barbies and science fiction do, too; there's an amazing scene where he first sees Planet of the Apes on TV.)

His relationship with his parents becomes a little more complicated when he comes out to them, but he's lucky enough to have theater, drawing, and good friends to help him through difficult times. Vallekoop attends art school and eventually moves to New York where he works as a commercial artist. He contends with loneliness throughout his life, though the book ends on a high note.

Worth noting: Vellekoop's illustrations feel like they belong to past decades, but they also have a quality. I particularly enjoyed the way he drew family photographs (there are quite a few on the endpapers), movie posters, and scenes from movies and TV.

Also: the photo drawn on the cover appears on the outside of the hardcover, under the dust jacket. Be sure to have a look.

[lastchancevillagegreen]

Top Ten Favorite Graphic Novels of 2024:

I read less graphic novels this year than ever before.  Usually I read 50 to 60 and this year?  19.  I have a Top Nine and then one of them…well, you’ll see. 

#1:

Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir (2024) Tessa Hulls

First time author and self taught artist (?!!) Tessa Hulls delivers one of the greatest novels I’ve read, graphic or otherwise.  Tracing her grandmother Sun Yi’s escape from Shanghai in 1949, this books recounts how memories, flawed or otherwise, can taint a person.  We get three generations of people here: Hulls, her fractured relationship with her mother and her mother’s tainted relationship with Sun Yi.  The historical aspects are incredible, the insight Hull has into her own emotional issues, Feeding Ghosts is every bit as good as Maus.  Seriously. 

#2

My Last Summer With Cass (2021) Mark Crilley

Mark Crilley is an American who lives in Japan (part of the year) who write and draws manga or kid’s picture books.  This is his first non-manga graphic novel and it is an absolute jewel about the importance of art, friendship and forgiveness.  The two lead characters, aspiring artists, Megan and Cassandra are captivating and infuriating.  Damned if they don’t act just like real people.

#3

Okinawa (2023) Susumu Higa

This is a series of short stories all surrounding the island and surrounding territories of Okinawa beginning with the Japanese defending the island during WWII and subsequent relationships with Americans following the war.  The best stories have little to do with the war but deal with the people.  One of the best stories features a group of Japanese students trying to save sacred ancient texts while another concerns an American returning to the country to meet with the children he taught baseball to almost 40 years later.  Lengthy and beautifully touching with superb artwork.

#4

I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together (2024) Maurice Vellekoop

This autobiographical graphic novel documents Vellekoop’s early life in Canada in an ultra-conservative family to his career as a graphic artist.  Vellekoop is gay and it caused any number of problems in his family.  His stern father didn’t see it was a big deal and his loving mother was devastated.  Vellekoop had an amazing career and now this, his first foray into graphic novels is a tome worth reading (his therapy sessions are incredible) as he is unflinching about his life.

#5

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book One (2017) Emil Ferris

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two (2024) Emil Ferris

The first book is an all time classic graphic novel.  The second one?  Not so much (storywise, the artwork, predominantly drawn with a Bic pen, is flawless).  There are zero resolutions in Book Two and there are so many more questions that it will drive you over the bend to learn there is never going to be a third installment.  There will be a prequel no one wants, but we must know what happens to these people, no one wants to learn from where they came (except Anka but it seems that will never be resolved either).   Karen Reyes thinks she is a werewolf, her brother may have murdered someone.  Anka, the beloved Jewish neighbor, who dies has her story left open ended.  We learn the secret of Karen’s father, but that still raises more questions.  It is hard to separate the second volume from the madness that surrounded the book (the Panama Canal seizure, West Nile Virus, Fantagraphics lawsuit against Ferris) and how much all of this effected the book.  It is worth googling to understand the complications surrounding this series. 

#6

Miki Falls Book 1: Spring (2007) Mark Crilley

Miki Falls Book 2: Summer (2007) Mark Crilley

Miki Falls Book 3: Autumn (2007) Mark Crilley

Miki Falls Book 4: Winter (2007) Mark Crilley

I loved My Last Summer With Cass so much I had to venture into Crilley’s manga work and the four book series Miki Falls did not disappoint.  Ostensibly a love story, it involves an otherworldly concept: what if someone were in charge of taking the last remnants of love in a dying relationship and tried to save it before it was completely extinguished.  By saving the tiny flame of love and delivering it to a more worthy person, perhaps love can be saved, otherwise, it is just more love loss in a world that is very hateful. 

#7

Belonging: A German Reckons With History and Home (2018) Nora Krug

Krug reflects on what it means to be a German in the 21st century and can a German ever escape their country’s horrid history? At the end of WWII some Germans had to register in one of five categories: Major Offender, Offender, Lesser Offender, Follower and Exonerated Person.  Krug discovers her beloved uncle had to register and it cause her endless grief.  I doubt we ever get great graphic novels like this about the Age of Oligarchy we are currently living through. 

#8

Marry Me A Little (2023) Rob Kirby

Is the concept of marriage a truly heterosexual construct?  Rob Kirby recounts his eventual marriage to his partner in an era when it was illegal to the changes in our nation’s laws and how it affected him.  He also talks about what it means to be a gay person in the Age of Felon 45. 

#9

Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M Schulz (2023) Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi

Telling the life story of cartoon strip artist Charles M Schulz as if it were a Peanuts strip is a bold move (and to mimic the Fantagraphic series of reissuing Peanuts books is equally bold since that company did not publish this book).  You really need to understand the pacing and dynamics of Peanuts but Debus and Matteuzzi do a fantastic job of capturing a life and rendering in classic comic strip panache. 

And then there is:

The Complete Maus (1997) Art Spiegelman

The classic graphic novel.  Yes, it should be Number One, but I’ve read it about three times and I decided it was important to give full authority to Feeding Ghosts as #1.  We all know Maus is a classic of the genre.

Plenty of Missing In Action titles that didn't get photos of their spines: Okinawa (2023) Susumu Higa, I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together (2024) Maurice Vellekoop, The Miki Falls Mark Crilley and Belonging: A German Reckons With History and Home (2018) Nora Krug,

[virtualmemoriespodcast]

Episode 618 - The Guest List 2024

Twenty-two of this year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2024 and the books they hope to get to in 2025! Guests include Roland Allen, Shalom Auslander, Laura Beers, Sven Birkerts, Mirana Comstock, Leela Corman, Nicholas Delbanco, Benjamin Dreyer, Eric Drooker, Randy Fertel, Sammy Harkham, Frances Jetter, Ken Krimstein, Jim Moske, Robert Pranzatelli, Jess Ruliffson, Dmitry Samarov, Dash Shaw, David Small, Benjamin Swett, Maurice Vellekoop, and D.W. Young (+ me)! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our e-newsletter

Check out the new episode of The Virtual Memories Show

[dumeworld]

Maurice Vellekoop

[bookjubilee]

Maurice Vellekoop on his graphic memoir and growing up gay in a conservative household

BookJubilee.Com http://dlvr.it/T3Y9kv

[balu8]

Drawn and Quarterly (1990) #6: Music by Maurice Vellekoop

[walrusmagazine]

Cleaning Up Christmas

It wasn't always ho-ho-ho

Over the next few years, a number of variations on Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas, appeared in print: Santa-claw, Santeclaus, Sandy Claw, and Sanctus Klaas. The range of monikers speaks to a long-standing oral transmission of the legend of a Christmas Gift-Bringer, rather than, as some have suggested, the outright invention of Santa Claus by a Knickerbocker literary clique.

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

Illustration by Maurice Vellekoop (mauricevellekoop.com)

[filmhoundsmag]

Boulevard! A Hollywood Story (BFI Flare Film Festival)

Boulevard! A Hollywood Story (BFI Flare Film Festival)

(more…)

[kaospheric]

ART SKOOL

From the archive - the gallery is open, at KAOS.

[comicsstump]

Drawn and Quarterly Vol 2 #2

Drawn and Quarterly

Dec 1992

David Mazzuchelli

Eric Drooker

Loustal & Fromental

Maurice Vellekoop

Jacques Tardi

   A 26 year old comic has become the best comic that I’ve read in weeks. A 50¢ purchase! A gorgeous package, impeccable production values, and a creator line up to die for. When a David Mazzuchelli story takes backseat to any story you know the content is magical. I‘m of course referring to my first experience with “It Was The War of the Trenches” by Jacques Tardi. Wow. Just; wow. I suppose that I’m just preaching to the choir and you all know the magnificence of these creators. 50¢…

Grade: A+

[theblackestofsuns]

Pope Hats #5 (Spring 2017)

Cover by Ethan Rilly with Maurice Vellekoop

Adhouse Books

[bewarethebibliophilia]

Maurice Vellekoop illustration, 1990s