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At ten by fifteen inches, Six Hundred and Seventy-Six Apparitions of Killoffer will get your attention simply from it’s large format. Further examination reveals the $25.95 cover price— also an attention getter. It’s not a cheap book. Yet, flipping through the pages reveals some shockingly engaging line work, compositions and subject matter.

The story starts with the main character, Killoffer, alone but soon escalates to where there are as many as 26 “apparitions” of him on a single page. You see, Killoffer isn’t a stranger to self-loathing and debauchery. Over the course of the story he drinks with himself, shits upon himself, cuts himself, has sex with himself, has sex with other people, watches himself having sex with other people and throws-up upon himself. I think he urinates on himself too.

There is a quote from Ivan Brunetti on the back of the book. Brunetti, with his own twelve by fifteen inch comic released last year, is very much a cartoonist in tune with Killoffer. That is, he’s the type of artist who also honestly and openly degrades himself. 667 Apparitions, like Brunetti’s work, is both beautiful in it’s honesty and impressive in its execution.

Also like much of Brunetti’s work, 667 Apparitions is autobiographical. Yet, one doesn’t see auto-bio like this in American autobiographical comics very often. Killoffer isn’t chronicling his daily routine. His honesty doesn’t have anything to do with how accurately he depicts the “major” events in his life. This grotesque tale is very one sided towards Killoffer’s interpretation. However, this side of the story is the only accurate depiction of what it is like to live as the author.

To wake up as Killoffer would be a confusing mixture of equal parts desire and self-loathing. And just enough narcissism needed to draw yourself Six Hundred and Seventy-Six times.

Being both a cheap bastard and a cartoonist, my big purchase of the week was Introduction to Cartooning by R Taylor. Total cost: $3.

Normally I’m not one to really go for the “Learn To Draw See It’s So Easy Even I Can Do It” books, but this one seemed a little unique. For one thing, look at the author …

APPLESAUCE. That’s a cartoonist. Smoking a pipe, he looks like he has a half drank bottle of whiskey sitting next to his inkwell.

But what does Mr. Taylor have to say about cartooning?

“The best way to judge an art class is to look at the work being done by the student. If their work looks something like the sketch I have made in A, hang up your hat. If it looks anything lke B or C, say you’’re just browsing around and want to think it over——then go home and forget it. And try again, elsewhere.” Had Mr. Taylor given me this advice while I was still in school, I would have avoided many unesessary headaches. It’s true that nearly all art schools are lost when it comes to the education of a cartoonist.

More constructive advice:

“Unscrupulous people have made money out of books based upon trick theories … but their books are exactly nothing more than catchpenny frauds. You can’t draw by trick methods.”

I’m certain that I’ve never heard the unique phrase “catchpenny fraud” before, but think that it would look excellent on a tombstone. Thank you, Mr. Taylor.

“I grant that once a cartoonist is established … it is much easier for him to sell his drawings. There is only one way in which to arrive at such a blissful state and that is to go through the period of arriving … something which takes courage and determination. The easily discouraged, the weak, the self-sympathizers can’t do it. Only the strong survive.”