Weathercraft

For those unfamiliar with the Frank series here's the basic idea...The stories are wordless and take place in a dreamlike world inhabited by a cast of strange characters, each one being a unique archetype (see the back cover for a brief description of each). FRANK is a cat/mouse-like anthropomorph, who is typically the central character. In Weathercraft, Man Hog is the star and Frank is a background character....I have long been a fan of this series and my appreciation for Jim Woodring's draftsmanship and depth of storytelling continues to grow. Before actually reading Weathercraft, I was lucky enough to attend a book signing event where Jim Woodring gave a slide show presentation on his art. In response to a question during the Q&A he spoke at length about the meaning of a scene in the middle of the story where Man Hog sees a series of weird visions (or tableaus). I won't go into detail on what he said, but what he demonstrated is that far more thought and meaning is embedded in this story than the casual observer will realize.I have since bought and read Weathercraft. I read it closely and slowly. Then again.... and now three times, taking 45 minutes to an hour each reading. If you wanted to, you could read this story in ten minutes. But did you look at the creatures dressed as royalty, did you notice how their manipulations from afar affected Man Hog? Did you see that creature in the background? Did you notice the clues, the relationships, the recurring symbols, the causes and effects...?Sure, there are plenty of funny and cute and simple scenes in Weathercraft, but much like the films of Stanley Kubrick or David Lynch, readers willing to really delve deep will find this to be a rich work, executed with meticulous technical skill.

This was really great, I loved everything about this book. This guy Woodring must be a genius, because for a comic with no words its pretty much just as good as any other comic that i loved. The imagery in this book is so stylish and original, plus the storytelling is impeccable. I am a big fan of good comics and this is one of the most creative comics i've ever read. I look forward to checking out other releases by Jim Woodring.

Book is brand new and beautiful.

This is one of my favorite comics of all time. Woodring's work isn't so weird as all that - only the FORMS have changed, the essence is the same as our reality, which is to say, the reality. It is another wrinkle in the mind of god. Whatever we can imagine must be. Weathercraft is at once entirely familiar and utterly alien, owing to Woodring's imaginative forms disguising things we would otherwise immediately recognize. Manhog goes through one cycle, hits the top, and returns to the beginning. What fun!

woodring has yet to disappoint.

Woodring is magnificent, a treasure. Life as seen through another's eyes! This book is accomplished with nominal language, unsurpassed linework and visionary perspective!

This is a pleasantly (and at times, downright terrifyingly) strange book created by a weird visionary artist and creator by the name of Jim Woodring. I first heard of Jim on the Duncan Trussell Family Hour podcast a couple years ago. Their conversation went to several interesting places—art, vedanta, meditation, and of course Jim's "Frank" series of graphic novels. Even though I'm not necessarily a devotee of the anime/comic book/manga/graphic novel genre, I knew I had to check out this series because Jim's genuine interest in esoteric topics and Duncan's fantastic description of his artistic style really piqued my curiosity.So I checked out three "Frank" books from my local library a few months ago and took them to the beach with me for a two-week vacation. My travel partners and I ended up eating a fairly large dose of psilocybin mushrooms (5 grams) in the middle of our vacation and it was during the come-up of that trip that I pulled this book out and started to enter the "Frank" universe."Weathercraft" seemed like the best "Frank" comic to start with compared to the other selections I had ("The Portable Frank" and "Fran") because of the book's description on Goodreads:"For over 20 years now, Jim Woodring has delighted, touched, and puzzled readers around the world with his lush, wordless tales of “Frank.” Weathercraft is Woodring’s first full-length graphic novel set in this world—indeed, Woodring’s first graphic novel, period!—and it features the same hypnotically gorgeous linework and mystical iconography."Without much knowledge about the "Frank" series, I thought that the "first full-length graphic novel set in this world" would be a good place to start. And I found out that although the reader can certainly jump into this universe with any of the comics, the main character in "Weathercraft" is merely an extra in the other books, not the protagonist of the series. This one isn't really about Frank much at all.Even though Frank has a brief supporting appearance in this book, which actually stars Manhog (a pathetic, brutish everyman who regularly shows up in other stories), I really enjoyed reading it. Especially while I was tripping on magic mushrooms—the psychedelic art and bizarre story mixed quite well with them.So what happens in this story? Well, after enduring a nearly unbearable amount of unfathomable suffering, Manhog sets off on a transformative journey and attains enlightenment. Along the way, he encounters the cruelest foes imaginable, mind-bending landscapes, and various flavors of truly twisted torment. "Weathercraft" is horrifyingly magnificent and similar to the psychedelic experience by being frustratingly ineffable. It's all very strange and beautiful and must be experienced firsthand to be understood.Ultimately, even though I was a bit disappointed when I realized that "Weathercraft" was not about Frank very much at all, I did find it to be an excellent introduction to this world. If you're looking for a trippy book to spend an afternoon or evening with, you should definitely owe it to yourself to check out a "Frank" book, and "Weathercraft" would be an excellent one to start with.

Woodring is the king of this uniquely crafted work, the result of infinite patience and craftsmanship, and shot through with a haunting weirdness that unsettles and delights in equal measure.

great buy

Jim Woodring adds paper,pen and ink to the list of mind-altering substances.The finest,let it read you thoroughly.Woodring,not even once.

Class

How on earth do you review a Jim Woodring book? I suppose it's safest to start with the physical object itself, which is a beautifully designed solid 100-page hardcover, in a green binding with embossed colour dustjacket, the interior pages of heavy paper stock that brings out the textured quality of Woodring's wavy dream-like black-and-white drawing style. (Woodring's colour work brings different other-worldly psychedelic qualities to his Frank universe, but his black-and-white work has a clarity of line that is beautiful to behold).Despite the absence of its usual main character, Frank, from the larger part of the narrative (and thus a little unsatisfying for me personally), the switch to Manhog as the conduit for what is experienced in Jim Woodring's curious and somewhat disturbing dream-like world, actually seems - for a brief period at least - to give the strange place of Unifactor some kind of weird sense. While Frank is mainly just an innocent who goes with the flow of the strange events that take place, the unpleasant Manhog often finds his rather selfish desires are contrary to the way the universe works and it places him in conflict with it. Not so in Weathercraft, where, surprisingly, Manhog seems to be on the road to enlightenment and become at one with the world around him.The path to enlightenment however is not an easy one, seeing the horrible part-man/part hog-like creature go the usual humiliations and beatings, but this time succeed in overcoming Whim, the sinister devil-like creature that tortures him and conducts experiments on the other denizens of the universe. Manhog's actions - guided perhaps in some way by the two strange Moebius-like figures who appear here for the first time and conduct a strange ritual? - have however other wider consequences that threaten the whole fabric of the Unifactor world.A description of Woodring's narrative, silent with no word panels or dialogue, is however misleading and almost impossible to fully interpret, but all his work has a weird surreal rationale that seems to have resonance on some unconscious level that one is compelled to follow and try to make sense of, forcing you to want to re-read it and experience it again. Perhaps I'm projecting too much into it, but the two figures dubbed "Betty and Veronica" bear a resemblance to Bush and Blair, while the sadistic Whim could be a Saddam figure, whose destruction has a profound effect on the stability of the world.Such literal interpretations however only go part of the way to describing the immense richness and multiplicity of readings that give Woodring's world a strange fascination. The artist seems to rather get in touch with his own inner world (I think I once read in a Comics Journal interview that this world is real and Woodring gets in touch with it and visualises it in detail in his dreams), and touches on a deep subconscious level in a way that is fascinating and a little unsettling. The notes and Q&A on the book's inner sleeve are helpful in pointing towards interpretations without giving away too much of its mystery, and consequently how much you get out of this will be down to the individual reader, but personally, Frank's intervention at the end of the story only emphasised for me how much I missed his usual interaction with the strange world this time around.