Ephemeral landscapes: in the page . . .

Living in the material world:
lifestyle and irony
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In the worlds of Caza, Crumb, Mad, and many others that same sinister mood and style is used with conspicuous satirical intent, slipping readily into commentary on daily life in urban Europe and North America.

These are visions of constructed spaces that reflect on, argue with, or even destroy "real" places and environments.

Mad magazine, begun in 1952, occupies a peculiar place in the world of comics. Rather than serializing ongoing stories, Mad serializes attitudes and artists. Beginning with its 24th issue in 1955, it became more magazine than comic book, and concentrated on making fun of the world around the reader, often by targeting other popular media -- but not ignoring other comics, too (driving comic purists nuts, by design).

Mad magazine, East Side Story, 1963

Mad magazine, fold-in back cover, 1981

In North America, the satirical graphic narrative reached a zenith of sorts during the height of underground "comix" in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The environmental movement was strong and its visual critiques were scathing, especially in their anti-war, anti-nuclear, and even anti-urban manifestations. Perhaps the best-known of these artists is Robert Crumb. In his "City of the Future" (Crumb 1967):

Buildings, cars will be soft plastic. Streets will be soft plastic. Accidents will be a thing of the past. Nobody will get hurt anymore! . . . Cities will have room temperature all the time. Lighting will be soft, diffused. Warm snow for Christmas!! . . . Houses will get up and walk around! Trees will make faces! . . . Fantasy machines will manufacture any world you ask for in a matter of seconds! . . .

R. Crumb, City of the Future

But Crumb's parodies were not snatched from thin air -- they had come from a journalist's sensibility.

R. Crumb, "How's things in de slums dis moanin' ? "

In extended sets of comic strips or in particularly book-like comic books, Ben Katchor <http://www.word.com/komix/> is a similarly detailed observer of modern life, whether on the magic of high technology (inventing a more advanced method for listening to a seashell):

Or dietary obsessions:

Another social commentator of similar disposition, François Ayroles (2000: 22), takes up the theme of the obsessive collector, who -- by stealing place signs and direction-finders -- gives full meaning to the term "displacement."

So, are comics, even the futuristic ones, really just nostalgic?
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