Reading Comics #82 "Manny Trembley"

I first became familiar with Manny Trembley's work when I was an active member of the Digital Webbing community.  At the time Trembley was launching a web comic called PX! with Eric A. Anderson.  I followed PX! for years, and was pretty happy when Image started collecting it under its Shadowline/Silver Lining imprint in graphic novel collections (two volumes).  Trembley and Anderson also collaborated on Sam Noir, which Image published directly.

Then PX! went on permanent hiatus, and I wondered if I would ever hear from either of them again.  Flashforward to this year, a few months ago when Anderson announced on his Facebook page that Trembley was launching a Kickstarter campaign for a new project called Martin Monsterman.  It was a little sad to see that the band indeed had broken up, but knowing that either of them was still pursuing the comic book dream was enough to motivate me.

To my surprise, I learned that Trembley was pursuing this new project through his own FishTank imprint, with an aim to creating books for young readers that don't pander to them but rather engage their imagination.

What was more, he had already put out another book earlier this year, Hoss and Feffer.  Naturally I needed to have a look!  A few weeks ago the book arrived in my mail (packaged with previews of Monsterman and Bamboo, which continues Trembley's interest in pandas, which also feature in PX!, which is short for Panda Xpress, so shortened because of the Asian fast food chain with an incredibly similar name).

Here then was the moment of truth.  I had adored PX!, I mean, really adored it.  Could Trembley, on his own, truly live up to these fond memories?

Well yes, as it turns out.  As I don't ordinarily provide artwork on this blog (which may or may not limit its user-friendliness in an age that really likes images with everything, especially its websites, and especially websites dedicated to comic books, and especially websites dedicated to comic books that pretty much leave all the content to images from comic books with a few witty remarks), I can only refer Trembley's style as being very similar to Skottie Young, Eric Shanower's collaborator in his ongoing adaptations of L Frank Baum's Oz stories for Marvel.  I love that stuff, too.  If you don't know that, then I will once again use Bill Watterson as a reference in regards to Mr. Trembley's work.  Watterson, of course, is responsible for the beloved comic strip Calvin + Hobbes.

Where Watterson could sometimes be hopefully cynical and Young whimsically fantastical, Trembley strives for a playful style that allows his work to match the bountiful imagination of his stories, whether or not Anderson is involved.  Hoss and Feffer is a take on the traditional tortoise-and-the-hare tale, superimposed on the video game culture that has absorbed the last few generations of today's youth.

As a first indication of what FishTank will ultimately represent, H&F suggests that Trembley has his finger on the pulse of a child's perspective on the world which is not, as he'd hoped, childish but rather filled with possibility, the way Watterson and Baum and Dr. Seuss represented it.  Much of what we expect from entertainment not in the form of video games seems to be featured in animated movies these days, filled with moral lessons, but Trembley correctly suggests that children don't always want adults to talk down to them.  If strange and bizarre things happen to them, kids are likely to try and figure out what happens next.  That's what Trembley allows to develop, too.

Hoss and Feffer is his initial offering.  It suggests that Manny Trembley is on to something.