Amy and Jordan

By Mark Beyer

For those of you who thought the comic strip was dead by the end of the twentieth century, here are 292 pieces of proof that you were wrong. Mark Beyer was breathing delirious, heartbreaking,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375422706
• ISBN13: 9780375422706
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 11.3" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Makes Dark Look Light

Brilliant! This book is a compelling argument against the use of anti-depressants. I can't think of anyone who compares with Beyer. Feiffer seems like Norman Vincent Peale next to him. The artistry is as bizarre as the writing. Not for weak hearts or minds.

Misery Loves Company

Some people find it odd that "Amy and Jordan" is among my all time favorite comic strips. Many people just don't "get" the constant stream of depression, misery, and atrocity. From the start I saw the underlying truth of the situations, which is the basis of any good creation- comic strip or otherwise. This is an examination of the existential absurdity of modern urban life. This is an ode to the constant stream of irritation and suffering in a totally alienated and alienating blighted urban landscape. Yet, the completely self absorbed characters of Amy and Jordan aren't all that sympathetic. They are as self-absorbed as all the monsters and sociopaths around them. You get the idea that the only reason that terrible things are happening to them are that they haven't had the chance to do it to others first. The constant theme is that life is an ordeal without meaning or purpose. Even children are sadistic monsters that will torture you if they can. It is repeatedly stated that you can trust no one. When supernatural elements such as the angel of death, demons, or ghosts pop up they are also shown to be just extensions of this same theme. And yet, it seems to me that there is a lesson here. The universe is largely what you make it- or at least limit your perceptions to see it as. If you choose to see suffering as meaningless then it is meaningless. If your concerns are exclusively materialistic and meaningless then that is how the world will in turn react to you. If you are totally wrapped up in your own self-absorbed little ego then the universe will inflict a synchronistic string of disasters on you, both great and small, until that ego is beaten down- and you see behind it all. I find it significant that the artist states, as himself, in the last strip of the collection that creative ideas are not invented but exist on other planes of existence and that artists merely connect with them and reinterpret them for a new generation. In that case, what is being connected with here is the upper rings of Hell- and Beyer and Dante are showing us the same thing in their own unique way. As for the critics of the artist's unique drawing style- it is no more highly stylized and consistent than, say, Schulz work on "Peanuts." This book itself has a truly unique design different from any other collection of strips that I am familiar with. My only criticism is that 1) the strips are not in consistent chronological order, 2) there are no page numbers (makes it impossible to suggest an individual strip to anyone,) and there is one duplicate strip.

Averting the eyes is important, but just as impossible

A self-taught outsider in the sequential arts realm, Mark Beyer's graphical work has been notorious for appearing in free urban weeklies from the late 1980s to early 1990s. His best known work consists of a surreal, subterranean-inspired comic strip series. Collected for the first time (outside of crumbling newspaper clippings stashed in a shoebox in some dark hiding place), Beyer's quasi-popular "Amy & Jordan" strip has finally made it to store shelves, in black-and-white hardcover format. Indeed, while the tome is a bleak, gothic compilation which almost certainly isn't for everyone, it is (at its nicest) morbidly compelling. Each strip is a study in urban alienation, with no oasis for Jordan or his sadistically-inclined roommate Amy throughout. The dead-end lives of the two protagonists continue unabated as the outside world invades and attacks them from the inside, page after agonizing page. Dealing with such light-hearted and universal subjects as premature death, prolonged starvation and mortal childhood illness, Beyer pries open every dismal, dry-rotted cask of the imagination, slyly smirking the whole while. The reader becomes a part of the assault, eyes incapable of averting, all the while whimpering, "Please... no more!" And no two Amy & Jordan strips are alike, thanks to Beyer's unique paneling techniques. Every strip features its own style of frame, as if each panel were a piece of art interdependent of the other, yet isolated from all other strips within the book. For fans who like their independent comic strips macabre (such as James Kochalka's now defunct Deadbear: Circus Detective) Amy & Jordan is the perfect compliment.