Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
The Portable Frank (Frank)
by
Jim Woodring
Frank is a unique, visionary comic, exquisitely drawn and
so fully realized that adults and children alike find themselves drawn
deeply into Woodring’s hallucinatory mindscape. The stories, almost
entirely wordless, unravel like a good puzzle, rewarding re-reading,
providing an experience as immersive as that first love affair, that
first samadhi, or that first breath. Simply p...more
so fully realized that adults and children alike find themselves drawn
deeply into Woodring’s hallucinatory mindscape. The stories, almost
entirely wordless, unravel like a good puzzle, rewarding re-reading,
providing an experience as immersive as that first love affair, that
first samadhi, or that first breath. Simply p...more
Paperback, 200 pages
Published
September 17th 2008
by Fantagraphics
(first published September 15th 2008)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
227)
Jul 28, 2011
Mariel
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Nelson from The Simpsons
Recommended to Mariel by:
intergalatic pottery barn shoppers
I almost wrote a review for Jim Woodring's The Portable Frank a few different nights. I'd go to sleep instead. They hypnotize me into saying nothing. Wordless, expressionless that's how you can always add more kinda less (that's more!) to zero drawings. If I knew the technical terms on my own and not from picking up how people who are in the know talk to each other talk from reviews of other things I could say "woodcuts" (woodcuttings? What is fringe knowledge good for?). I'd be a fraud. I don't...more
I don't think I can say it better than Chris Ware when he says Jim Woodring is "trying to feel eternity within the universal rhythms, gestures and silent music of the corporeal, self-deluding persona."
I was intrigued, as I often am, by the deep strangeness of Jim Woodring's art, and yet the fact is that his worlds are also profoundly familiar. Having seen Jim speak at the Graphic festival recently I was moved by his description of his youth and the strange inward life he led. That eschewing of c...more
I was intrigued, as I often am, by the deep strangeness of Jim Woodring's art, and yet the fact is that his worlds are also profoundly familiar. Having seen Jim speak at the Graphic festival recently I was moved by his description of his youth and the strange inward life he led. That eschewing of c...more
Infinitely peculiar and infinitely re-readable, Frank and Pupshaw venture through their universe. You can come along if you like, but don't expect an explanation. Woodring's art - part Ub Iwerks, part Fleischer Studios, and part mushroom trip - is front and center, and carries the story because there is no dialogue. The fascination with the Frank cartoons comes from the fact that the reader enters the story by placing his/her own interpretation on the actions of the characters, which are alterna...more
Jim Woodring has is amazing. Here, he's somehow able to set wordless stories in an incomprehensible world filled with entirely unexplained (maybe unexplainable) wonders and terrors, and yet still make each individual story make total sense. What I mean is that the actual narrative is rarely confusing; what it means may be another question entirely. Though many of these do play out basically as sharp, strange fables of a sort. Also manages to balance gracefully between whimsy and brutality in a t...more
To say Jim Woodring’s Frank series is “compulsively readable” might be misleading, since, apart from titles and the occasional word-box, there’s no real reading involved with this comic. It is hard to put down though, and hard to get enough of. After reading The Portable Frank and Congress of the Animals, I now want very badly to track down every Frank comic.
To read my full review, please go to: http://paneldiscussions.wordpress.com...
To read my full review, please go to: http://paneldiscussions.wordpress.com...
Like Meanwhile: Pick Any Path. 3,856 Story Possibilities., this is an interactive work of graphic fiction. While some words appear in the stories, in titles, in narratorial comments, and in signs and papers in the characters’ surroundings, there is no dialogue. Nevertheless, one can move from panel to panel, following the apparent action without a great deal of effort: even if it is difficult for a jellyfish-bat creature in one of the stories to distinguish actual threat from playing or from acc...more
It's hard not to love Jim Woodring's greatest creation, the mysterious and yet all-too-familiar Frank. Although all of the pieces in the volume have been previously published elsewhere, The Portable Frank is nonetheless an ideal distillation of what the fuss is all about. If you haven't already encountered Frank elsewhere, you're missing out on one of the most important pieces of the contemporary world of comics, and this volume is a fine place to pursue the correction of your mistake.
tits. images i've never seen before, but have felt in dreams. hard to describe. must be seen to be believed. awesome, wordless (mostly wordless) comic. woodring has tapped into the unconscious like dali only wished he could. viewing frank is like revisiting a dream you know you've had but can't remember. i would recommend frank to inbred retards and academic elitists alike.
A collection of short silent comics following the protagonist 'Frank' and his faithful pet 'pupshaw'.
Uncanny in the best possible ways. Utterly impressed by Woodring's story telling and art.
Every short left me puzzled and yet satisfied.
If I ever start cracking down on making comics, it's work of this caliber that I'll be aiming for.
Uncanny in the best possible ways. Utterly impressed by Woodring's story telling and art.
Every short left me puzzled and yet satisfied.
If I ever start cracking down on making comics, it's work of this caliber that I'll be aiming for.
Um espantoso mergulho num mundo onírico e psicadélico através do traço detalhado do ilustrador Jim Woodring. Com uma solidez fortíssima, alicerçada num claro traço a preto e branco, o autor mergulha-nos nas estranhas aventuras de Frank na paisagem surreal do seu mundo próprio. A lógica e a sanidade são colocadas de parte nestas histórias silenciosas, visualmente ricas, pequenas alucinações confinadas pelos limites da vinheta.
This was amazing - fantastic, even! The only problem is trying to describe the hype and wonder about it to friends who have never been under the influence of a psychedelic drug, nor talked with schizophrenics (or remembered weird enough dreams to compensate for this lack of experience!)
As someone who has done all three, this is great - the main benefit of this book is that there is no dialog at all, which forces you to make sense of the images you see - which is no mean task, mind you!
If you've...more
As someone who has done all three, this is great - the main benefit of this book is that there is no dialog at all, which forces you to make sense of the images you see - which is no mean task, mind you!
If you've...more
This must be the most bizarre comic I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot of strange things). Highly recommended for any experienced (or aspiring) psychonaft or generally fans of abstract universes.
Re-exploring the strangeness of childhood as it is, not as it would be manufactured: A demented and indifferent world, unfathomable and marvellous.
My first foray into the Frank universe. Thoroughly enjoyable, though I'd recommend picking up The Frank Book to get the full experience.
Jim Woodring is a master of zen psychedelic storytelling. His Illustrations are amazing and the stories are bizarre but poignant.
Great balance of the characters of unifactor.
I envy anyone who has yet to encounter Woodring's work. Savour that first read.
I envy anyone who has yet to encounter Woodring's work. Savour that first read.
Favorites were "Gentlemanhog" and "Bliss." The expressions on Pupshaw's face throughout the book are hilarious.
A must read for any die hard comic fan. Sequential art at some of its finest.
Hallucinatory, mystical, fascinating, and gorgeous. Religious texts from another universe.
Watch this. Because you don't really READ it. What an amazing world.
There's something classic about Jim Woodring's cartoons: while Tezuka is more Betty Boop, Woodring is Mickey Mouse noir. Although Woodring himself can hardly be called "classic" as he's barely older than this reviewer, the style and themes, the goofily surreal sense of humor is '30s classic. Frank (a chipmunk? a tailless monkey? a cheeky doberman?) lives in an onion dome with a breadbox cat and trades pranks and life lessons with a mani-in-the-moon and a caliban. The Portable Frank is fantastic...more
Very creative, but not as cute as I would like.
Mind blowing.
complete madness. one of the wierdest, most masterful things i've ever seen- the adventures of a silent, misshapen cat-man in a lysergic, lethal, cruel and frequently cuddly cartoon universe. every other page or so things threaten to lapse into intelligibility, then just when you feel like you understand, something horrifying and/or lovely happens that bears no resemblance to what you might expect.
really recommended for folks who want reality to get a bit bigger.
really recommended for folks who want reality to get a bit bigger.
Trippy. Funny. Trippy.
I think I"m finally getting the hang of this...
I think I"m finally getting the hang of this...
Definitely interestingly weird, but I'll probably check out his Jim books before I bother with any more Frank.
I love Frank. Reading a Frank comic is like watching silent film-era cartoons on DMT.
Interesting drawings and (wordless) stories in a very imaginative, bizarre way.
Brilliant abstract visual storytelling.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Jul 27, 2011 11:50pm
Jul 28, 2011 03:42am