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If there is one genre of comics that I’ve been the most outspoken about in my time here at iFanboy, aside from the X-Men line of books, it’s the sub-genre of books that mix music and comics together. For years now I’ve sung the praises of books like Phonogram, Scott Pilgrim, and Blue Monday in both posts on this site and on the iFanboy video show. More recently, I’ve really been getting into anthologies as well.

Collections of short comic stories like Popgun have served the dual purpose of making simple comic stories enjoyable while also exposing me to new artists and writers I may not have heard of. I was over the moon when Image Comics published Put The Book Back On The Shelf, the anthology of comics inspired by the music of Belle and Sebastian. And then when the Tori Amos inspired Comic Book Tattoo came out last year, the bar was raised with the 12 inch sized comic album.

Reading Comic Book Tattoo was unlike any other comic reading experience. When I read the next music inspired anthology from Image was going to be This Is A Souvenir: The Songs of Spearmint & Shirley Lee, I was perplexed. I loved the format and the idea, but I was very much unfamiliar with the work of Spearmint or Shirley Lee. I had heard of them, but I didn’t own any music and when I went to go buy some, nothing was available besides expensive imports. So suddenly, I found myself like many of you, I was holding a book of comic stories influence by music that I had absolutely no context, connection or even admiration of, which was very different than my experience with the previous anthologies. I guessed this much be what it’s like to read Phonogram for people who don’t like or know about Brit Pop.

So before we go any further, some information on Spearmint and Shirley Lee. Spearmint is another Brit Pop band, formed in London in 1995 and features songs written by lead vocalist Shirley Lee. Spearmint have been a dedicated indie band, releasing records on their own label, and have had some success in the UK charts in 1997. The band is still around, with their last record coming out in 2006, and Shirley Lee released his solo record this year in 2009. (NOTE: I’ve provided a playlist of two songs from Spearmint at the bottom of this review if you’d like to hear them, just scroll down and press play.)

My process for reading This Is A Souvenir was, not knowing any of the music of Spearmint, to read the book all the way through first. I was curious to see if the stories worked without knowledge of the songs they were inspired by. Being a fan of the band, reading the Belle and Sebastian book was enriched for me, that with each story I already had the mood set by knowing the songs that inspired the work. But if you take away that piece of the puzzle, do these type of comic stories stand on their own? Obviously since you’re reading this review of a comic book that I have dubbed the Book of the Month at iFanboy for July 2009, the conclusion is that they do. But the thing is, the stories not only stand on their own, they stand up and shine.

This Is A Souvenir isn’t as dense as Comic Book Tattoo was, but it’s bigger than Put The Book On The Shelf. Coming in at 208 pages with 19 stories, This Is A Souvenir keeps the 12 inch size pioneered by Comic Book Tattoo. Before I highlight the stories and creative teams that I enjoyed the most, I just have to sing the praises of the 12 inch format for this book. At 12 inches wide by 12 inches high, reading this book is unlike any other comic book reading experience. Opening This Is A Souvenir on the table and seeing the large pages makes for an immensely more immersive experience as well as providing the artists more of a canvas to work on. I didn’t realize what a relief it was to move away from the standard comic size that 99.9% of everything I read seems to be in. When I open this book the pages are so big and expansive, I can’t help but to get lost in the pages, which is exactly what makes reading this so fun.

The anthology starts, naturally, with a short piece by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie of Phonogram fame. A four page story based in the Spearmint anthem, “Sweeping The Nation,” the character David Kohl from Phonogram explains what “Sweeping the Nation” is about. It’s about all those bands we never got to hear. It’s about all those musicians who wanted to make music, but jobs and life got in the way. It’s about the moment that separates the great ones from everyone else, where belief is reinforced, and while it may be a waste of a life, you have to do it, you have to make music. It’s easy for me to read this story and swap out “music” for “comics” and it becomes just as poignant. The desire and decision to create and not rest until success has been achieved is something I think many comic creators, and anyone who pursues a passion really can relate to. While criminally short, what makes this story so great for me personally was to see McKelvie stretch his arms with the wider page format and the use of typography as well as layouts. At four pages, the story is deceptively simple, but I would kill for a Phonogram story/series to be told in this format just to see how much more amazing it could be. This “B-Side”, so to speak, for Phonogram fans makes this book worth getting alone.

But that’s just four pages of 208. The rest of the book contains stories by names you’ve heard and read before, B. Clay Moore, Richard Starkings, Chynna Clugston, Jamie S. Rich and many others fill out the remainder of the 18 tracks, or stories. What’s so fascinating about an anthology is the varying styles of stories that you get. With different writers and artists, each story is an adventure in and of itself. One story may feature clean art style of Kevin Mellon whose story (“A Different Lifetime”) with B.Clay Moore features very little dialogue, and yet the story is told completely and elegantly through the art to the cartoony art of Mike Holmes on “This is a Souvenir.” Not one story is alike in both narrative or art style which keeps you guessing as each story ends and a new one begins.

Some of the stories that stood out for me the most were the ones I expected to, but there were also some surprises. I always giggle in glee whenever we get some work from Chynna Clugston and her story, “Left Alone Among The Living” is wonderful both visually and story wise. It tells a story of love and loss and weighing what is important in life. I’m amazed at how effective she was able to pull the story off with such few words and subtle visual cues throughout the story — things such as the simplicity of a look from one character to another. Simply great stuff.

“I Went Away” by Marc Ellerby was one of my absolute favorite stories from the entire book. I’ve enjoyed Ellerby’s work on Love The Way You Love with Jamie S. Rich from Oni Press, so I was excited to see not only some full color artwork from him, but also a story that he wrote himself. He tells the story of a young couple meeting and trying to make things work between them despite distance and life’s other challenges. I really like Ellerby’s art style, reminiscent of Alex Robinson, it’s cartoony and yet not comedic. Ellerby is able to draw emotions with a simple adjustment of an eyebrow or a facial expression and totally nail it. The story itself, one of the longer ones in the book, was complete and engaging. Using time-shifting and flashbacks to tell the tale, I don’t think this story could have been told any better and be any more gut-wrenching to anyone who can relate to the situation.

A wonderful surprise when reading This Is A Souvenir was “A Bench in the Park”, written by Tony Lee with art by Kevin Colden. An emotional story of a woman visiting a bench dedicated to a former lover who passed away, who was also the father of her child. To hear the heart breaking tale of relationships and futures cut short was not a story I expected to read, and yet I was enthralled by the tale. Kevin Colden’s art and use of color made the story that much more amazing and unexpected. The use of pastel color hues in the story telling, with each character being a different color set the tone of the story so naturally.  Such a great story that totally justifies the existence of this anthology, purely to get these 7 pages of this wonderfully touching story.

I could go on and on about each of the stories and the creative teams that worked on them and how many of them surprised and delighted me, but you get the idea. I can honestly say that there was not a stinker in this bunch. There was no story that I skimmed through or flipped past. Each story was created so well and was unique in its own right that they all deserve, and got, my full attention.

Only after I read the entire book did I then go out and get the music of Spearmint and listen to the songs that provided the inspiration for these stories. Of course now listening to the songs while I read the book is nice, but I can say with confidence and wholeheartedly that they’re not required to enjoy this book. If you want to read some quality comic stories, some short, some long with a wide range of creators, then I can’t think of a better book to pick up. Each story is beautiful in it’s own right and is an example of how anthologies can be wonderful additions to your comic library. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like or have ever even heard of Spearmint, if you are looking for something different in your comic reading than standard superhero fare or you’re interested in more indie style comics, I can’t recommend This is a Souvenir enough. There really is something for everyone in this book. You can’t beat the format and the clear amount of love poured into each story and the book as a whole is clear and inspiring.

Ron Richards
“As long as you stick to what you believe in, everything you want will come to you”
ron@ifanboy.com

You can buy This Is a Souvenir: The Songs of Spearmint and Shirley Lee at Amazon.