Coin-Op Comics Anthology: 1997-2017

Coin-Op #1-6

by Peter Hoey, Maria Hoey, Josh O'Neill (Introduction)

This first-ever collection by the award-winning team of siblings Peter and Maria Hoey encompasses the very best of their inventive and mysterious comics.

The compilation ranges from the Hoeys' early comics in Blab! magazine to their groundbreaking newest series, Coin-Op. All in all, it's more than twenty short stories and vignettes--about music and film, the comic and the absurd, the past and the future--all sparkling with innovative storytelling and design.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Art, Fiction

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Stewart Tame for his review which nudged me to look at this, and I have had it here from the library for several weeks now. An impressive volume collecting 20 years of comics/illustrations self-published in the Hoeys’ own Co-Op Anthology as well as in Blab! (the magazine). It took me awhile to recall where I had seen some of this, and sure enough, it was finding copies of Blab in a comics shop many years ago. The Hoeys are superb illustrators working in a high concept style, something like art deco, recalling early comics/animation, too. Their focus is on music and films, some of the bios, though there are also some one-off wordless comics and formal experiments.

Some highlights: “Une Lune Andalouse” is a mash-up of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window with Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali’s Un Chien Andalou. Their “Saltz and Pepz” strips are like Mickey Mouse comics, with a darker edge. “Valse Mecanique” is about man and machine, inspired by Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis. Two decades of marvelous artwork and interesting cultural/art analysis. It was great to have it around the house for a couple months.

Here’s a review with some images:

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/coin-op...

An interview with the Hoeys:

http://smashpages.net/2018/07/19/smas...

Some images from Blab! (The magazine):

https://www.printmag.com/illustration...

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I know that the Hoeys were first published in Blab!, a comics anthology series that I used to read, but I don't recall ever seeing their work before. So either they didn't start appearing until after I stopped reading the series, or else their earliest work was one of those collage pieces like the ones sprinkled throughout the book. I guess it's possible that I just don't remember, but it's mentioned in the book that one of their Blab! stories was a full color version of “Valse Mecanique” and I’m pretty sure I’d remember that. It's an amazing story!

… except that I just now went and checked my shelves and I have up through Blab! #12 and “Valse” supposedly appeared in #9. I suck, or at least my memory does. Clearly I need to reread my Blab! collection one of these days …

Anyway, this is a fantastic book! The stories are decidedly on the surreal side, with office cubicles, cinema history, and jazz music being among the recurring themes. The pieces tend to fall into four distinct categories: traditional comics narratives; illustrated text pieces, usually about jazz musicians; full page scenes subdivided into panels, with each page moving the entire scene forward a few seconds--the panels help frame various bits of action; and straight up collages. I’ll admit that the works that fall into that last category are my least favorite parts of the book. They're nice to look at and all, but they just don't do much for me. I'm more blown away by the rest of the book.

There's an impressive level of craft and talent on display here. While there are aspects of their work that remind me of folks like Kim Deitch and Harvey Pekar and Chris Ware, they have a unique style that defies description. Highly recommended!

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elliptical and ineffable, mysterious but precise, the collected output of brother/sister comics team Maria and Peter Hoey is unlike anything else I've encountered. Spanning all manner of 20th-century pop-culture iconography and elevating it to something bordering on the talismanic with fetishized graphics and absurdist writing, the stories featured in these 20 years of comics provide a fresh perspective on the junk - both high and low - our culture is built on, from film noir to jazz to early animation to science fiction and beyond. It's a strange world we live in, and Coin-Op makes it all the stranger.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hoeys really enjoy making surreal comics, whether it's semi-historical work or a silly spoof of depression-era cartoons, the art and writing are top-notch. Their panel work especially shines, using lots of tight frames to make things work, create an illusion of time and space, and more. They even open by taking the panel borders and making them round.

I remember them from the Blab issues I read at the library and this was a really fun collection to read.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the Hoey's longer form comics. These comics pulled from Blab and Coin-Op though didn't make a whole lot of sense most of the time. The art is cool, with this art deco aesthetic to it. The stories though? Nope.