Friday, April 22nd, 2011 | 12 Comments
Root Rot
One look at Michael DeForge’s deeply weird and beautiful cover art, depicting the romantic entanglements of a forest dwelling ghost and a Sasquatch, will tell you that Root Rot is no typical forest-themed art book.
Bringing together the talents of 16 artists, each given 2 pages to run amok with the title theme, Root Rot is a strange excursion into our collective imagination of what goes on in the woodland’s strangest corners.
With consistently amazing art from cover to cover, what is most interesting about Root Rot is seeing how each of the artists took the theme in their own direction. While Jon Vermilyea’s iridescent trip-out is instant eye-candy, Robin Nishio’s blood-thirsty squirrel still haunts our dreams days after the last reading. Joseph Lambert, Angie Wang, and Jesse Jacob’s short comics effectively allude to larger stories, while Inés Estrada’s vision of the forest is a singular sprawling dream-scape.
Root Rot, the latest offering from the maverick Toronto-based Koyama Press, was co-edited by artist Michael DeForge and Annie Koyama. We caught up with Annie to talk to her about all things Root Rot ahead of its launch at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival in May.
@holharris & @jaredschorr each won a copy of Root Rot by tweeting this review.
The title “Root Rot” has a rather seedy undertone for a forest themed art book. Can you tell us a bit about what inspired the title and theme?
Annie Koyama: I like anthologies and wanted to work with Michael DeForge on something other than his ‘LOSE’ series of comics.
We wanted a theme that was quite broad to give the artists the most freedom to create but also something that in Michael’s words would have a unifying aesthetic.
I may also have had beautiful forests on the brain after working with Tin Can Forest on their ‘Baba Yaga and the Wolf’ book. Michael came up with ‘Root Rot’ as a working title but it sort of grew on us (sorry) and we decided to keep it.
Jesse Jacobs
Root Rot features an incredibly eclectic group of artists. How did you go about choosing them? What qualities were you looking for in the work?
Annie Koyama: We both made lists of who we’d like to invite. Not surprisingly, there was some overlap. I’d personally hoped for some comics and some non comic spreads but did not put any restrictions on anyone. We chose a variety of cartoonists, animators, printmakers and illustrators.
We narrowed down our lists by trying to go with artists in Canada and the U.S. but we love Inés Estrada (Mexico City) and wanted to include her. That group of artists gave us some very different styles.
How was your experience collaborating with co-editor Michael DeForge and designer Diana McNally?
Annie Koyama: Michael and I are used to working together but adding Diana to the mix was great. She came up with the type treatment which suits the book well and the three of us laid out the book together.
What’s next for Koyama Press? Anything that we can look forward to in the future?
Annie Koyama: Maurice Vellekoop’s comic will come out later this year and Michael continues to go forward with his ‘LOSE’ series. I’ve embarked on a year long zine project with artists Niall McClelland and Jeremy Jansen, a photography book with local artist Jeremy Kai and am co-publishing a book by Jesse Harris with Simon Cole of Show & Tell Gallery in Toronto in conjunction with Jesse’s show at the gallery in June. And more to come…
Joseph Lambert
Koyama Press books debuting at this years Toronto Comic Arts Festival:
Colour Me Busy,
by Keith Jones
Rackham Loses It,
by Steve Wolfhard
Lose 3,
by Michael DeForge
Monster Party,
by Chris ‘Elio’ Eliopoulos
S&TM: Huge thanks to Annie Koyama for her time and all her help with this interview!
Contest closes May 7th, 2011. Winners will be contacted via Twitter.
All images © 2011 of the originating artists.
Dwight Pavlovic
April 23, 2011 @ 11:04 am
The sample from Jacobs looks incredible… beautiful coloring.
Root Rot review + interview » Design You Trust – Social design inspiration!
April 23, 2011 @ 9:04 pm
[...] out the Root Rot book review and interview with Annie Koyama on Squidface & The [...]
Scott Mackenzie
April 23, 2011 @ 11:04 pm
Koyama Press does it again!!!!!
Squiface and the Meddler examine Root-Rot from Koyama Press | THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS
April 25, 2011 @ 12:04 pm
[...] Squidface and the Meddler take a look at Koyama Press’ new Anthology “Root Rot” [...]
Sequential | Canadian Comics News & Culture
April 26, 2011 @ 4:04 am
[...] Squidface & the Meddler interview Anne Koyama about Root Rot, the gorgeous new anthology she edited with Michael DeForge that will be [...]
asia
April 27, 2011 @ 12:04 pm
wait wait wait…i don’t understand how to enter the contest
Squidface & The Meddler
April 27, 2011 @ 1:04 pm
Hi asia,
To enter the contest, if you’re on Twitter, all you need to do is tweet about this article (using the hashtag #rootrot). Easiest way is to click the “Tweet” button in the contest box!
Hope that helps!
Cheers!
S&TM
asia
April 27, 2011 @ 2:04 pm
oh, ok, thanks!
toronto » ~**$$~m i c k e y z.o r g~ #@~
May 2, 2011 @ 12:05 pm
[...] not drunkenly drawing pictures of WHATEVER I WANT. if you don’t have any money you can “tweet to win” a copy of it. you can also fist fight me for one of my contributor [...]
Koyama Press in the News | Koyama Press
May 4, 2011 @ 12:05 pm
[...] Review of Root Rot at one of our favourite websites Squidface & the Meddler [...]
leophobia
May 4, 2011 @ 10:05 pm
i really like it , it’s unique and creative , but sometimes it’s hard to see the subject and object .
6 gorgeous fetish objets that I want, paper-style » geniwate.com
September 19, 2011 @ 1:09 am
[...] – Everything We Miss by Luke Pearson 2. Root rot 3. Pebble Island by John McNaught (gotta love Nobrow Press) 4. Alternate Histories, Historical Art [...]