| Weathercraft | |
|---|---|
Cover of the first, hardcover printing of Weathercraft, featuring the hags "Betty and Veronica" and the head of Manhog |
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| Publisher | Fantagraphics Books |
| Date | June 2010 |
| Page count | 104 pages |
| Creative team | |
| Creator(s) | Jim Woodring |
| Original publication | |
| Language | English |
| ISBN | 978-1606993408 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Congress of the Animals |
Weathercraft is a 2010 graphic novel by American artist Jim Woodring featuring his best-known characters Frank and Manhog. It is Woodring's first graphic novel-length work, and like all the other works in Frank's world of the Unifactor, the story unfolds entirely in pictures, with no dialogue, captions or narration.
Contents |
The book was published in book form without the benefit of being serialized first, marking a recent trend in alternative comics, seen also with Dan Clowes' Wilson, Charles Burns' X'ed Out and Chester Brown's Paying For It.
When asked in an interview with The A.V. Club why, after 30 years of doing comics, he had now decided to produce his first graphic novel, he replied:
"It sounds kind of dumb, but I just didn’t think of doing it until recently. I used to publish these stories in 32-page comics, and I would either do short stories or break the long ones up into chunks so there would be some variety inside the Weathercraft comic. But since then, people have been doing more and more long, standalone works, and the term "graphic novel" has sort of become the codified term now. It just seemed like the time was right to do it. I always felt that I could do those Frank stories by the inch, yard, or mile. The length of the stories never really mattered that much to me."
On the amount of text on the dust jacket in contrast with the pantomime of the book itself he said, "I thought it would be funny to have a book that was almost word-free and a dust jacket that was slathered in copy."[1]
Some panels of the book were previewed on Woodring's blog leading up to publication.
Weathercraft, like all of the works set in Woodring's Unifactor (the world in which Frank and associated characters appear), is executed in wordless pantomime, with no word balloons or captions of any kind. In contrast, the dust jacket is quite verbose, and provides clues to the interpretation of the story.
"[A] cyclical telling of Manhog's suffering, punishment and enlightenment", the book actually stars Manhog, with Frank only appearing briefly, and also features the devilish Whim, another recurring character.
After merging with a psychoactive plant known as Salvia divinorum,[2] Whim proceeds to "distort and enslave Frank and his friends." After much suffering, Manhog sets out on a transformative journey, attaining enlightenment. Manhog then returns for a final encounter with Whim.
The book is dense and intricate and rewards (or requires) re-readings,[3] and which "blends his understanding of Vedantic beliefs with stylized, Max Fleischer nightmares to explore ideas about the evolution of consciousness. As if to hammer home this mysticism, Woodring notes that the Sanskrit symbol for the sacred syllable Aum [ॐ] is hidden on each page."[2] Every detail of the book has meaning to Woodring, although he accepts and encourages "reader participation" and further or alternate interpretations.
"In a lot of ways, Manhog is the most interesting character in the Unifactor. He has the most potential for change and the widest range of dramatic possibilities. Besides, it's fun to put him in awful circumstances and watch him suffer. There's something about a big fat guy screaming in terror that's just naturally funny. Oliver Hardy got a lot of mileage out of that formula."
The book was included on numerous "Best of 2010" lists, including:
| Translations | ||||
| Language | Title | Publisher | Date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | Weersomstandigheden[12] | De Bezige Bij | November 2009 | 978-9-054-92275-9 |
| Norwegian | Værverk[13] | Jippi Forlag | November 2009 | 978-8-292-22623-0 |
| French | Weathercraft | l'Association | 2010-01-09 | 978-2-844-14390-7 |
| Italian | Weathercraft | Coconino Press | July 2010 | 978-8-876-18169-6 |
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