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REVIEWS
/ PRESS:
 Skin Graft began
as a DIY comix-zine in 1986, evolved into a groundbreaking experimental-rock
label and their work is still heartfelt, innovative and fun. If you
haven't heard of Skin Graft yet, go directly to your computer, type
www.skingraftrecords.com and lose a few hours in their world.
- VIVA
Chicago based Skin
Graft Records are an independent label run by Mark Fischer and Rob Syers
who have been wrapping comics around their releases since 1986, some
of which feature the indestructible Gumballhead The Cat. For their latest
release Syers has come up with an entire comic book called The Mystery
Of The San Miguel Apartments in which Gumballhead and his ape accomplice
become involved with a gang of murderous drug dealers. After shooting
the ape in the head at point blank range they turn their attention to
the cat who is fighting back. First they shoot the fearless feline in
the gut before dousing him with petrol-threatening to torch him unless
he reveals his mission. The climax is a scene of highly flammable ultra
violence where the bad guys find out too late that they have bitten
off more than they can chew. Cheer-Accident's accompanying soundtrack
adds an extra DIY rock dimension to Syers's stylishly hacked brutal
comic action. The score is made up of 13 songs, the bulk of which are
rattling, echoey instrumentals that pleasingly complement the punk fanzine
aesthetic of the images. It is the visual rather than the musical element
of this latest Gumballhead The Cat sound adventure, however, that scratches
deepest.
- THE WIRE
Happened upon a
copy of Skin Graft #67, the 67th release by the Chicago record label
Skin Graft. A-doy. Not an interesting story, essentially, but there's
a catch. This CD is a soundtrack by the band Cheer Accident for a 16-page
comic book called "The Mystery Treasure of the San Miguel Apartments",
which stars a cat (literally, a cat) named Gumballhead, and Gumballhead
is... well he's a mean-as-fuck, cigarette-smoking, cheap beer-drinking,
dirtbike-riding, stone-cold BADASS, and his adventures are the stuff
of glue-sniffing legend. I was having a terrible, sorry-ass day before
I discovered Gumballhead, and now my life is that much the scummier.
And funnier.
- BITCHINVILLE
Skin Graft's (music)
releases have consistently been some of the best looking around...
- PITCHFORK
(On The mini-comic
War Against Smart People) Syers' raw kinetic energy shines on these
pages and is a prime example of deconstructive cliche-busting in the
form of well-structured cartoons. His drawings are loose but confident...
efficient storytelling that inspires laughs at even a casual glance.
- NEURO
(On the comics in
Matte Magazine) Mark Fischer's "Staggering Stories" are the best of
the bunch. The vigor and immediacy of the brushwork, combined with razor
sharp renderings and discreet computer after-effects net a hypnotic
pattern of sustained and visual rhythm from panel to panel.
- SEQUENTIAL
ARK
During art school,
I became more and more interested in combining art and storytelling.
I experimented with different ways of telling stories in a single painting.
I cobbled together groups of paintings. I even, dare I say it, toyed
with cubism. Of course the answer was right there in front of me: SKiN
GRAFT comix.
(On Gumballhead The Cat) Rob Syers' comics describe a zany world of
hot rods, beer and smokes, rock and roll and guns. The stories mix humor,
action and a touch of EC-style horror. They revel in pop iconography
and arch dialogue. They are smart - filled with witty plot twists and
some of the most incredible drawings of explosions and broken glass
you'll ever be privy to. Rob's drawings are raw and honest with giant,
beautiful passages of black ink. These are the tales a cartoon Saint
Bernard would love while enjoying his pint of whiskey."
- THE COMICS JOURNAL / Greg Cook
(The entire article is available HERE)
The Comics Journal
#238 is fast becoming my favorite issue of that magazine. While so many
in the "comics blogosphere" has been muttering something about the need
for "mid-brow comics magazines" that would no doubt focus almost exclusively
on the sub-sub-sub-sub genre of super-heroes, here was a mag that tackled
such culturally important artifacts as John Stanley's teen comics, the
Moomintrolls, Cola Madnes, CARToons and Silver (y'know, the adventures
of the Lone Ranger's horse before he was the Lone Ranger's horse) with
genuine interest in their merits. One such article concerned the DIY
adventures of stoic anti-hero Gumballhead the Cat as told by Skin Graft
Comix. I was sold. Hell, the punk rawk kid in me wanted to be Gumballhead.
If the tiny reprint of the four-pager found in the article above doesn't
do it for you, there's a better scan available at Skin Graft's comix
page, along with a small pile of previews and full stories of other
raw comix trash.
- FLAT EARTH
... The consequence
of this visual eclecticism is that sleeve design is defined by an overwhelming
number of trends and stylistic nuances. Perhaps the dominant trend -
certainly the most interesting one - is the anti-design stance of many
contemporary American bands. Energetically avoiding the conventions
of graphic design with great relish, their sleeves hark back to the
amateurism and psychedelia of punk, but with the crucial difference
that their choice of imagery is informed with intelligence and wit.
Besides permanently holding two fingers up at the record industry and
at conventional graphic design, these sleeves cock a snook at fashionable
American graphic design, particularly the "music + style" tendencies
of the Ray Gun school - what design writer Rick Poyner has called "car-crash
typography". Instead their inspiration comes from the vernacular of
daily life: comic books, TV cartoons and the folk art of modern commercialism.
The work of Chicago label SKiN GRAFT exemplifies this trend.
- SAMPLER, Contemporary Music Graphics
book, published by Universe / Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
( SKiN GRAFT comics)
are both anarchic and (surprisingly) quaintly traditional. While Fischer
and Syers are never at a loss when it comes to experimenting with the
form, their work is steeped in comics history, and a conversation with
the two revels an affinity for everything from Carl Bark's Duck comics
to Jack Kirby's Fourth World). They know the art, and in this day of
the moping autobiographic cartoonist, Skin Graft's visual slapstick
and high-octane rim-shots bring a much-needed freneticism to the fore.
- NOVEL GRAPHICS
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