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Pure Pajamas
IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE HUMOROUS, FRENETIC WORLD OF NONSENSICAL WORDPLAY AND TALKING HOT DOGS
Pure Pajamas collects Marc Bell's best material from his syndicated weekly comic strip for the Montreal Mirror and the Halifax Coast, as well as a host of anthologies such as Kramers Ergot, Expo, Maow Maow, and more, featuring his recurring characters Kevin, Ol' Simp, Chia-Man, Mr. Socks, and Shrimpy and Paul. Throughout Pure Pajamas, Bell creates symbiotic relationships within his fantasy ecosystems, drawn in a rubbery big-foot style. Reminiscent of the sixties comics of R. Crumb but with a kind of bemused detachment in place of Crumb's ire, Bell addresses the big issues of what it's like to live in today's world.
Pure Pajamas collects Marc Bell's best material from his syndicated weekly comic strip for the Montreal Mirror and the Halifax Coast, as well as a host of anthologies such as Kramers Ergot, Expo, Maow Maow, and more, featuring his recurring characters Kevin, Ol' Simp, Chia-Man, Mr. Socks, and Shrimpy and Paul. Throughout Pure Pajamas, Bell creates symbiotic relationships within his fantasy ecosystems, drawn in a rubbery big-foot style. Reminiscent of the sixties comics of R. Crumb but with a kind of bemused detachment in place of Crumb's ire, Bell addresses the big issues of what it's like to live in today's world.
- GenresComicsGraphic NovelsArt
96 pages, Hardcover
First published October 25, 2011
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61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 2, 2016
Free-Floating Fluffiness
Heavily influenced by Robert Crumb and Julie Doucet, Marc Bell’s artwork caught my eye when I came across Pure Pajamas in the bargain section of a bookstore. Looks pretty good for the price, I thought, and Drawn & Quarterly tends to be a reliable publisher… – I am getting this! Well, looks can be deceiving. As it turns out, there is one major problem with Pure Pajamas: Unlike his heroes Crumb and Doucet, Marc Bell does not really have anything to say.
Oddly enough, this does not seem to bother Bell in the least. In fact, whenever the opportunity presents itself to explore a potentially interesting topic, he quickly turns around and moves into the opposite direction instead. Is he aiming for some kind of free-floating fluffiness that does not get weighed down by concerns as pedestrian as meaning or relevance? Go figure.
In one strip, for example, a cartoony version of Bell tells us that he “had agreed to draw some comics for this Nike catalogue in Asia… For various reasons that I won’t get into here I don’t want to ‘do it.’… I asked my neighbor to fill my shoes, a very talented young man without a telephone…” Two questions come to mind:
a) Why exactly does Bell have second thoughts about working for Nike?
b) What were the reactions to the ghostwritten strip?
Bell avoids them both, of course. And just in case you are interested in that phone-less neighbor: the only other thing we learn about him is that, for reasons unknown, he also has no doorbell.
And then the pointless parade of weirdness marches on...
Heavily influenced by Robert Crumb and Julie Doucet, Marc Bell’s artwork caught my eye when I came across Pure Pajamas in the bargain section of a bookstore. Looks pretty good for the price, I thought, and Drawn & Quarterly tends to be a reliable publisher… – I am getting this! Well, looks can be deceiving. As it turns out, there is one major problem with Pure Pajamas: Unlike his heroes Crumb and Doucet, Marc Bell does not really have anything to say.
Oddly enough, this does not seem to bother Bell in the least. In fact, whenever the opportunity presents itself to explore a potentially interesting topic, he quickly turns around and moves into the opposite direction instead. Is he aiming for some kind of free-floating fluffiness that does not get weighed down by concerns as pedestrian as meaning or relevance? Go figure.
In one strip, for example, a cartoony version of Bell tells us that he “had agreed to draw some comics for this Nike catalogue in Asia… For various reasons that I won’t get into here I don’t want to ‘do it.’… I asked my neighbor to fill my shoes, a very talented young man without a telephone…” Two questions come to mind:
a) Why exactly does Bell have second thoughts about working for Nike?
b) What were the reactions to the ghostwritten strip?
Bell avoids them both, of course. And just in case you are interested in that phone-less neighbor: the only other thing we learn about him is that, for reasons unknown, he also has no doorbell.
And then the pointless parade of weirdness marches on...
October 1, 2011
A nice little collection of some old out of print Marc Bell comics, including some great autobiographical (seemingly) shorts. As always, Marc's comics are good for reading, but also for staring at for hours catching all the things you missed the first time you read them.
December 7, 2015
Crumb lite. This collection is an array of stuff from a variety of sources to help you see the range of ideas he has. And visually much of it looks like it riffs off Crumb but lacks his edge and ire. Which for people who dislike those aspects of Crumb and are offended or put off by him. . . well, I guess this might be a better Crumb for you. And there is some offense to be had here, too, in places. But it's less interesting stuff. And part of it is that he doesn't seem to be commenting on anything new visually or socially. Which may be fine for you, but it isn't all that interesting to me. This may have something to do with the fact that it is a collection, i'm not sure. It's kind of fun to flip through, made me smile a bit.
November 13, 2014
I had the pleasure of seeing Marc Bell speak some months back, so for some of these strips I could recall his narration--there's something extra funny about someone reading a comic aloud, because there's so much visually going on (especially in a Marc Bell comic)--and that gave it an extra layer of enjoyment.
Because this is a collection of strips it took me longer than usual to read the book, and I also appreciate that. I always _want_ to slow down when I'm reading graphically and I'm not always able to make myself. But there's all of these little moments and asides built into the work here. Overall the narrative voice is of someone being funny to themselves when they're alone, without becoming overly self-indulgent. That's a hard note to hit, and it's a special pleasure to read.
Because this is a collection of strips it took me longer than usual to read the book, and I also appreciate that. I always _want_ to slow down when I'm reading graphically and I'm not always able to make myself. But there's all of these little moments and asides built into the work here. Overall the narrative voice is of someone being funny to themselves when they're alone, without becoming overly self-indulgent. That's a hard note to hit, and it's a special pleasure to read.
November 11, 2011
Pure Pajamas is a great collection of fun items from the always inventive Marc Bell. This volume is a good contrast to his recent Hot Potatoe book, which focused more on the high-falutin' end of his "artwork", where the present volume collects pieces that are more in the vein of traditional comics. Taken together, both books present an excellent mid-career snapshot of an artist who is doing great things in the field of comic art.
July 4, 2015
Liked the drawing style. The writing was a little stoner-frenetic at times. Best part for me was the comic re: Bell's and his girlfriend's dreams.
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August 1, 2024this art style is really cool! im trying to get into graphic novels and comic books a little bit more. however, a lot of the writing in Pure Pajamas was boring, bland, and uninteresting--it lacked any clear arguments and left a lot to be desired in the comedy realm. i found the beach trip story about the pet bologna to be the best. those lil guys are so cute!
i didnt catch every page, but i found the one-page graphics were so satisfying to look at!!
i didnt catch every page, but i found the one-page graphics were so satisfying to look at!!
February 24, 2024
$22.95 US & CAN
April 30, 2013
I enjoy Marc Bell's artwork most when it's jumbled full of weird details and funky characters doing and saying obtuse things. It's like his own very skewed reality that bears only a passing resemblance to ours. I enjoyed this collection of his works, but some parts of it were less enthralling to me than others. I don't like when he illustrates other people's song lyrics, even though I get what he's trying to do. I'd rather have him use his own words. And sometimes when there's too much of a "plot," so to speak, it gets overly simplistic and less mysterious. When it hits that perfect pitch of bemused WTF, THAT'S when it's magic. :)
March 5, 2012
First thing I've read by Marc Bell and after reading this I'd really like to explore more. On surface, his humor and jokes seems really obvious. But his pieces work in layers, packing tons of visual puns and jabs into every panel. He's a real master and anyone who holds a love for alternative comics should be reading his work.
January 31, 2013
"Bell has a gift for incomprehensible gab, juggling a dozen language gags in complicated comic pages that, like Ulysses, could take you twenty-four hours or a lifetime to read."-Lee Henderson BORDER CROSSINGS
November 20, 2011
I'll take Tony Millionaire any day over whatever this was supposed to be. I may have liked this strips one at a time in the local alt-weekly, but as a collection it was unbearable.
September 25, 2012
read it with waffles. get the pages sticky.
September 25, 2012
This book is a book for reading while you eat waffles. Piles of waffles. So many waffles. All the waffles in the universe.
January 14, 2017
Quirky and funny journey into the (at times) perhaps demented mind of a talented illustrator and writer. Very fun first taste of Marc Bell.
February 19, 2012
real sweet drawrings but he doesnt have anything to say
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews