Trickster: Native American Tales, a Graphic Collection Edited by Matt Dembicki

from http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100725/LIFE01/100729918/-1/NEWSMAP

at Amazon

Bookworm Sez: Illustrations frame each tale of tricks


By Terri Schlichenmeyer
July 25, 2010

“Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection” edited by Matt Dembicki (Fulcrum Books, 232 pages, $22.95)

“I got yer nose.”

Remember that? Some relative, usually an uncle or somebody, tucked his thumb in his fingers and somehow, you were convinced that your nose was in his hand. How many times did you fall for that when you were 3 years old?

Back then, such tricks were a harmless way of teasing a gullible kid like you. But as you grew up, pranks became sophisticated and sometimes, they felt meaner.

In the new book “Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection,” edited by Matt Dembicki, you'll read ancient tales of pranks and tricks; some nasty and some just plain funny.

While killing time one day in a library, Matt Dembicki came across a book of Native American myths and tales. Intrigued, he pooled together a group of illustrators and storytellers. This book is the result.

From Yup'ik Eskimo John Active, illustrated by Jason Copland, comes the story of Raven, who tricked the Dog into letting him go free, then tricked the Beluga into opening its mouth wide. Finally, Raven fooled the hunters into leaving their prey, and he took the entire catch.

Chief Kiha, who ruled the Waipi'o Valley, was angry when someone stole his ‘Awa. In “Puapualenalena, Wizard Dog of Waipi'o Valley” by Thomas C. Cummings, Jr. and illustrated by Paul Zdepski, the culprit is a spotted dog who took the roots for his elderly father. When Chief Kiha orders the dog to be killed, the old man spins a tale of brutish spirits and possibility.

Did you ever wonder why rabbits have puffy little tails? In “Rabbit's Choctaw Tail Tale” by Tim Tingle, pictures by Pat Lewis, Rabbit wouldn't stop talking. He almost talked Fox into giving up a tasty fish, but Fox was a fast thinker. He quickly tricked Rabbit into leaving not only the fish, but a bit of butt as well.

And from the Navajo comes the tale of Mai and the Cliff-Dwelling Birds (story by Sunny Dooley, art by J. Chris Campbell). When Coyote decides that he wants to fly, it just might be possible - until a few birdbrains trick him in more ways than one.

Years ago, civic leaders often swore that comic books would be the ruination of civilization. They never saw comics like this…

In his afterword, editor Matt Dembicki says that this book almost wasn't published.
“People I approached about the project were unsure of my intentions,” he says.

But one supporter became three became 21 storytellers from across the mainland, Hawaii and Alaska; each matched with comic artists who illustrated the stories as told to them.

While I enjoyed reading the tales themselves, what I liked best about “Trickster” was seeing how each artist interpreted the legend they were given. Some tales were made dark and foreboding, while others were given a lighthearted mien. Those differences and perceptions give each old tale a fresh, new twist.

If you think mythology and folk tales are boring, this book will change your mind. Once you open it, “Trickster” has got yer brain.

"Trickster" rounds up American Indian writers.

A Star Tribune Review
By ANDREW A. SMITH, Scripps Howard News Service
Last update: July 15, 2010 - 4:11 PM



"Trickster" (Fulcrum Books, $23) is one of those brilliant ideas that, in retrospect, are so obvious, people slap their foreheads and say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Trickster" editor Matt Dembicki rounded up American Indian writers from across the United States, and paired them with artists (including himself) to relate tales of American Indian trickster gods. They conjured up more than 20 tales of pure, undiluted magic.

Trickster-god stories are as varied as the tribes that told them as instructions, jokes, morality tales and more. Some trickster gods take on a specific form; others shape-shift into animals such as ravens, rabbits and foxes. The variety is amazing, and no two tales are alike.

For example, in "Azban and the Crayfish," a clever trickster takes the form of a raccoon, plays dead and allows a crayfish to take credit for "killing" him. That brings the crayfish just close enough to eat, and a lesson is learned about bragging.

Some tricksters can be helpful, as in "The Bear That Stole the Chinook," in which Coyote rescues the wind from Bear after Owl and Weasel fail. Some are selfish troublemakers, such as the egotistical trickster who ruins the order of the stars in "Coyote and the Pebbles."

But whatever form the trickster takes, and whatever his scheme, it generally results in chaos or trouble for someone -- sometimes the trickster.

Trickster gods are not unheard of in comics. For example, Loki, the Norse god of mischief, has been a constant in Marvel's "Thor" comics since the early 1960s. Steve Englehart's "Coyote" was an influential book in the 1980s at Eclipse and Epic, with art by Marshall Rogers, Steve Leialoha and others. (It's available in five trade paperbacks from Image now.) Anansi, the Spider God of West Africa and the Caribbean, has been hero, villain and supporting character in a variety of comics.

Which just goes to show that trickster gods and comics were made for each other.

.......

A Review: Tricksters and Punks of Asia by Phil Nicks

Amazon
Publisher: Fast Track Publishing


Damn, this book is funny, crazy, insightful, resourceful, intriguing, chaotic, Asiaphilic, new-agey, hodgey-podgey, and PUNK. I recommend it to the old, the accepted, the comfortable, and anyone who might pass it over because of its title. I recommend it to the bored, the curious, and the seekers. I also recommend it to anyone who is fascinated with the energies that exist in the categories of Trickster and Punk. As Bette Davis says, in All About Eve (1950), “Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.” Prepare for a great ride.

This book is, of course, ordered disorder and fractured fractal. It is divided into two parts playing like two hands of the same body wrestling, finger-popping, and gesturing to the beat that all tricksters and punks recognize. Part I, called unassumingly “Introduction,” is a whirlwind tour of Punk, and if the history of punk interests you, this is a place to start. Nicks seems to know his stuff, but what is most intriguing is how he weaves punk and tricksters with humor and insight into a delightful narrative.

Part II, called “Trickster Tales,” is an dizzying trip though Asia visiting Tricksters real and literary, folktales and folk-tellers. Part expat guide, part How-to, part hip ethnography, part biographic remembrances, and part advice-column, “Trickster Tales” covers the gamut of adventure in the Wild, Wild East and those wonderful areas of shady boundaries of time, money, sex, and life that tricksters in habit. Organized like an intellectual three-card monte game, Hicks dazzles the play of categories asking the reader to find the Joker as the real money card. Margins, edges, marks, flips, blow offs, the love the the Con is clearly part of Hick's personal obsession. He's been there and done that, and takes the reader on a wonderful memory-ride around the edges of the world.

Personally I found the first part the most insightful and enjoyable. The second part became one of those collections of anecdotes that are worth reading at multiple settings. The text is provocative sending the reader out to look up stuff and shadowed by the question of is this all there is. It smells of smoke, feels of bars, looks out from the night, and continually winks at the reader, but the center is still very whole and human. If you have ever been in “a clean well-lit place” at the existential hour of three o'clock in the morning, if you have ever walked down the street talking to yourself, if you like trickster, if you like punk, if you like cons, if your mind is whole, your heart pure, and your soul perverse, you will delight in what Hicks presents. Buy it! Mark it! Use it! You won't be sorry.

Trickster: Native American Tales, a Graphic Collection Edited by Matt Dembicki

 Fulcrum, $22.95 paper (232p) ISBN 978-1-55591-724-1

These 21 folktales, created by pairing Native storytellers with a variety of artists, feature creatures explaining how things came to be, like islands or stars, or animals playing tricks on one another. Often, the trickster, while trying to take the lazy way, outwits himself, especially when it involves Coyote. In other tales, Raven does whatever people tell him not to do, but ends up with a free meal anyway, and Rabbit tricks some buffalo and wolves and is tricked by Fox into losing his tail. Many of the stories, some of which involve tribespeople as well as animals, are told through captions, as though listening to an elder and envisioning the images he describes. Micah Farritor's art in "Coyote and the Pebbles" and Dembicki's in "Azban (Raccoon) and the Crayfish" are standouts in their animal images. The diverse styles are presented in lavish color in this thick, handsome volume. The short collection of contributor bios at the end is a helpful resource for finding more about the artist's credits or the writer's heritage. (June)


 from: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/457156-Comic_Book_Reviews_4_26_2010.php

Welcome

I want to welcome all who would like to see, to read, or to publish reviews of the on-going works related to Trickster.  My intent here is to keep this as open as possible; so there is an available space for discussing trickster work.  I suppose at first I should keep posting of reviews in my control, but at some point later I will open this up to all.  I expect that the exchanges will be constructive, and I hope this site will serve to make connections amongst the community of folks who follow trickster.  I have set up the blog to function with RSS feeds so that anyone following the blog will get notice of new materials.  I have also set up an series of each reaction buttons and wish to invite folks to comment on what is posted here.

A word about the blog title: I chose Trickster's Rear View for a couple of reasons.  One, it is obviously a one-step off of review.  Two, I do think of reviews as looking back.  The rear view of Trickster seems to be appropriate for those of us who suspect that scholarship spends a lot of time looking up its own rear.

If you have a review you wished published or if you have a work you would like reviewed, please send to Dauber at bill.spinks at gmail.com. If you know of someone work on trickster, please mention this site to them, and if you yourself are interested in trickster work, I will be glad for you  to become an author of this site (right now the limit is 100) if you will contact me.  Let us enjoy and play in the fields of trickster.