Derik Badman's Journal

The fox kits appeared again last night around the same time. We got out onto the porch to watch them which was slightly better though still mostly obscured view. The mother (or father) showed up and was staring at us. I think there are actually 5 of the kits, though its hard to tell exactly. Their feet are mostly very dark colored as are their tails. They were playing and jumping around with each other. Wish we could get a better view or they'd come into the yard.

Both ducks showed up on my morning walk today, sitting in two adjoining driveways. I guess they are enjoying the peace and quiet that comes with almost no cars on the road. They are very wary of me, even from across the street, the male got up and walked a few steps further up the driveway he was sitting in.

Reread Frédéric Coché's L'Homme Armée (Fremok, 2018) yesterday. It's a almost completely mysterious comic to me. Visually it is partially etchings like many of his earlier works and partially soft colorful paintings like Hic Sunt Leones. The narrative is esoteric, like it feels like there is symbolism to it, but I can't quite ascertain exactly what it is all about. There is a big purple naked monster guy (like the Hulk) who is fighting with these renaissance looking soldiers, and there's a more modern looking guy with a pistol that shoots flares or something. There's a wise man or king or wizard or something and a scientist in a observatory. The wise man goes down into a basement with all these half woman half snake demons and... there are some women singing like a choir and a large bird with an egg. It's like reading some kind of comics alchemical text.

But it's also beautifully imagined. Coché is an master etcher, they are warm and detailed and sparse at the same time. The paintings are bright and soft and colorful. The juxtaposition of the two is really effective. There's almost no text, so it's also an easy one for non-French readers to read. I don't really know anything about Coché but I always love when Fremok puts out new work by him.

Another artist published by Fremok that I adore is Dominique Goblet. Her latest (I think, it's from January 2019) is a collaboration with Dominique Théate called L'Amour Dominical. It's a really mixed book. Théate is an outsider artist from a studio the Fremok artists have collaborated with quite a bit. If I understand the text I've read correctly, the artists there are all mentally ill or developmental delayed or something. Théate's work is not really to my taste at all. The book alternates between two styles. In one there is text by Théate from a daily journal he keeps that is typeset and accompanied by (and then superceded by) lovely colored pencil (I think) drawings by Goblet of nature and roads and houses. She uses a limited color palette and the drawing often become blurry or abstractions. They are the total highlight of the book for me and just a delight to "read", though there is no text on her images. I didn't read all the accompanying text, but my impression is that the relation is extremely loose. For these sequences alone the book is worth getting. The other part of the book is this crazy story about "Hulk Hogan" (though clearly an imagined version by Théate) and his love "The Blue-Bearded Woman" and... it's all over the place, but totally not to my taste or interest. I skimmed but did not read, looking for the sections of Goblet's drawings.