{"id":320,"date":"2006-03-10T23:51:42","date_gmt":"2006-03-10T23:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=320"},"modified":"2006-03-10T23:51:42","modified_gmt":"2006-03-10T23:51:42","slug":"read-the-dharma-punks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"Read: The Dharma Punks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dharma Punks<\/i> by ant sang is the second great work of New Zealand comics, after Dylan Horrocks’ Hicksville<\/i>. It was released in eight parts over 2001-2003 and I finally got hold of the final two parts this week. They were worth waiting for.
\nSet over one long night in Auckland in 1994, the narrative follows punk Buddhist Chopstick during a plot to spoil the opening of a new fast-food restaurant. As the hours tick down until action time, Chopstick has to cope with the erratic behaviour of his fellow punks, the vicious attentions of some skinheads, a mysterious and beguiling mute woman, and periodic visits by the ghost of Kurt CObain.
\nIt’s a beautifully-realised piece of fiction. Ant’s distinctive style has become well-known in New Zealand over the last couple years thanks to his design work on hit animated series Bro Town. The Dharma Punks<\/i> features a scrappier, fiercer, thicker line suited to the grim beauty of his subject matter. His compositions are insightful and sometimes breathtaking. It’s just a damn pretty book.
\nBut what lodges in the memory is the deep, heartfelt humanity that fills every page. It’s made with love, and made of love, and the way it all ends left me grinning like a fool.
\nMy highest recommendation. It’s hard to find some issues, but a collected edition is on the way – keep an eye on his site<\/a> for news.
\n—
\nI also want to mention Ant’s editorial essay in issue 2. He writes:<\/p>\n

Some of the most inspiring things in life are things you have to search for… Zines, mini-comics, weird little DIY websites – they’re often funnier, more heart-felt, more passionate, more genuinely emotional than anything you’re likely to find coming from the mainstream media. When I read a zine like Cindy<\/b> or Help My Snowman’s Burning!<\/b> or a comic like Sticks and Stones<\/b> I feel connected. Alive. Relieved. Do you know what I mean?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I know what he means. That feeling of connectedness – of relief<\/i> – I get that strongly from stuff at the edge, from local stuff, from things made just to make things that are cool. This is where life gets most vibrant. These things are precious and important and worth celebrating.
\n—
\nAs an aside, comics-journalist Joe Sacco is coming to Wellington on Thursday as part of the Writers and Readers Week. He’ll be appearing with Kiwi comics heroes Dylan Horrocks and Tim Bollinger. I’m sure there are still tickets available, Welly folk, but it is in the afternoon so if you’re not a bum like me you’ll need to bunk of school for it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dharma Punks by ant sang is the second great work of New Zealand comics, after Dylan Horrocks’ Hicksville. It was released in eight parts over 2001-2003 and I finally got hold of the final two parts this week. They were worth waiting for. Set over one long night in Auckland in 1994, the narrative … Continue reading Read: The Dharma Punks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8D9ZE-5a","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}