Review by Graham Johnstone
As Kim Deitch worked on Reincarnation Stories (2019), he reached his half century making comics. Perhaps that’s why we find him both revisiting his past, and pondering his future.
Deitch established his art style early: a combination of diagrammatic clarity and restrained shading, all realised with pre-digital inking precision. Over the decades, he’s pushed his page designs, and the best here match the medium’s finest. Sometimes, (perhaps aiming for greater weight and depth, on the ‘real’ scenes), he over-renders, causing the slightest wobble in his feathered backgrounds to jump out. However, that’s a minor quibble, far outweighed by generally excellent pages. Deitch’s first editor told him to be ‘more psychedelic’, and that pays off here in some hallucinatory sequences. His retro sci-fi pastiches (pictured) evoke the panoramic Old Testament nightmares of Hieronymus Bosch. Yet the pages also appeal as artful abstract arrangements of ink. A short colour sequence is similarly a career highlight.
A fascination with the hidden or forgotten backstories of popular culture fuels Deitch’s work. Previous books have focussed on carnivals and side-shows, animation, kids’ TV, and cartoon cat collectables. His signature approach combines fact, fiction, and their foggy fringes. The results are both detached examination and affectionate homage. Reincarnation Stories, further develops the approach and the pop-cultural reach, into stories exploring pulp fiction, showbiz cowboys, and biblical apocrypha.
Opener ‘What Does it all Mean?’ offers an introduction and exemplar. A medical condition prevents Kim from working or sleeping, necessitating an activity to occupy his mind: remembering. However, narrator Kim questions the reliability of his own sleep-deprived ‘memories’. Credibility-straining coincidences are all part of the fun, like (real-life) film director D.W. Griffiths, mistaking little Kim for a reincarnation of (apparently fictional) screenwriter Sid Pincus. Esoteric lore, fact/fiction fudges, unreliable memory, self-questioning narration, and claims of reincarnation, all wander through this book.
Thereafter, Kim introduces a series of fascinating ‘memories’ woven together with musings on his current predicament. In ‘Shrine of the Monkey God’, little Kim is captivated by a display of stuffed primates, and a story an old man spins about it. This includes uncanny claims about Kim himself. Next, a washed-up writer bequeaths Kim his effects, including ‘The Plot Robot’ and a film script, credited to (who else?) Sid Pincus. This provides next story ‘Hidden Range’, fusing the western and secret-world pulp genres. ‘The Jack Hoxie Story’ has the film and rodeo star enthrall little Kim with more uncanny connections. The remainder of the book draws on more proven sources, with a memory of Deitch’s Underground cartoonist friend Spain particularly welcome. ‘Young Avatar!’, tells of Jesus as indentured super-soldier conquering worlds for an expansionist Jehovah. It’s an unlikely success, in Reincarnation Stories, and in the story-world, where it fuels Kim’s publishing empire and toy museum, so providing further twists on Deitch’s pop cultural obsessions.
Appendices offer fifty pages of more factual comics about the book’s real life subjects.
Deitch’s weaving of elements from each story into the next is impressive. Aided by his bad-penny, omniscient demon cat, Waldo, ‘What it all Means’, answers the opening question. It’s the ultimate wrap-up, marshalling seemingly divergent strands into an overarching story of Kim’s past lives and an imaginative tour de force. However, the niche appeal of some material, and extension of personal myths built up over decades, make it a tough entry point. The candy coloured cartoon cover, though masterfully composed, may further misdirect the uninitiated.
Deitch fans persevering through unpromising material, will be rewarded with fresh twists on enduring themes, and a bravura conclusion. Newcomers may be better tracking down a more accessible entry point, like Shadowland, or Hollywoodland.
