The Strange Death of Alex Raymond - by Dave Sim & Carson Grubaugh (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The story traces the lives and techniques of Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon, RipKirby), Stan Drake (Juliet Jones), Hal Foster (Prince Valiant), and more, dissecting their techniques through recreations of their artwork,and highlighting the metatextual resonances that bind them together"--Page 4 of cove

Book Synopsis

"Comics' answer to Finnegan's Wake, an inspired work of obsessive genius that will take a long time to untangle." - Rob Salkowitz, Senior Contributor, FORBES

"The Strange Death of Alex Raymond is one of the most spectacular comics I have ever read or seen. I can't recommend it enough, although you may hate it. Bizarre and beautiful and completely unique." - Jim Rugg, Cartoonist Kayfabe, Street Angel, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes

"This is a master work. I'm honoured to have even laid eyes on it." - E.S. Glenn, author of Unsmooth, cartoonist for The New Yorker

"A must-read for anyone interested in the history and craft of comics" - Brandon Graham, King City, Warhead, Prophet

"Grubaugh provides a brilliant and fitting conclusion to what would have otherwise been one of the most notable unfinished works of recent times. I for one am excited at holding the completed Strange Death of Alex Raymond in my hands." - Gary Spencer Millidge, Strangehaven, Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman

Legendary creator Dave Sim is renowned world-wide for his groundbreaking Cerebus the Aardvark. Now, in The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, Sim brings to life the history of comics' greatest creators, using their own techniques. Equal parts Understanding Comics and From Hell, Strange Death is a head-on collision of ink drawing and spiritual intrigue, pulp comics and movies, history and fiction. The story traces the lives and techniques of Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon, Rip Kirby), Stan Drake (Juliet Jones), Hal Foster (Prince Valiant), and more, dissecting their techniques through recreations of their artwork, and highlighting the metatextual resonances that bind them together.

Foreword by Eddie Campbell.

Review Quotes

"...obsessively detailed, demanding, and dazzling..." - Publishers Weekly


"Bottom line is that The Strange Death of Alex Raymond is a beautifully designed volume with endlessly clever use of pages, panels, black ink, and blank space. It's clear that before his unfortunate medical issue, Sim has mastered the very photorealistic techniques he writes about as the art is the kind one continues to stare at long after one has finished reading the page." - Forces of Geek

"It's a magnificent piece of work and should be read by lovers of the medium." - Down The Tubes


"The finely detailed, highly stylized art [...] is beyond masterful and a true accomplishment." -- Kirkus Reviews


BOOKLIST (STARRED) -- Sim is highly influential and almost as controversial, thanks to his seminal indie work, Cerberus. His purpose here is largely incomprehensible. Ostensibly recounting the evolution of photorealistic comic art, he maniacally tracks the lives, careers and rivalries of various comic strip luminaries (including the titular Flash Gordon creator Raymond) but from there, his journey ranges so far and wide (Sports cars! Actresses! Occultists! Margaret Mitchell?!?) that it essentially becomes stream of consciousness. Underlying everything is Comic Art Metaphysics, Sim's theory that comic artists can shape reality through their craft, even as they must suffer the consequences. Due to Sim's "mysterious wrist ailment," skeptical collaborator Grubaugh provides a far-fetched, Borges-like culmination. That's fine-none of it really made sense to begin with. And yet . . . Sim's consideration of technique is valuable and insightful. His hyperreal panels are filled with cross-hatching so mind-boggling, expressions so sublimely intricate, they demand to be pored over line by impossibly precise line. As realistic as the imagery is, the compositions are sheer cosmic magic: traced panels of old comics wind around themselves, stream through space, fuse with Sim's photorealistic "now," just as he proclaims reality to be metaphysically combining with comics. Every page is visually enthralling. This is an astonishing aesthetic artifact, though in some ways that are not fully within its creator's control.


LIBRARY JOURNAL -- Sim (Cerebus the Aardvark) delves into the early days of comic strip artistry in this challenging graphic novel. Its title refers to the real-life death of artist Alex Raymond in a car crash in 1956. Sim introduces Raymond's death and investigates the reasons behind the crash. The book then wanders into the realm of the photorealist style of artwork in comics; this technique brings clean brushstrokes to the page with the look of photographs. Three men who pioneered realistic comic art (Raymond, Milt Caniff, and Hal Foster) are intertwined in this story. Their own competition led to harsh feelings among the group. Sim displays how he taught himself the difficult style of photorealism through trial and error and intense study of his predecessors. The reader is taken on a winding road of technical prowess, ingenuity, history, and betrayal, with the death of Raymond as the binding story. VERDICT Written for readers wishing to learn about the history of the photorealist style in comic strips, this book may be dense for casual readers. Fans more familiar with the history of comics will rejoice in the depth of research and analysis provided within.