Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District (Pantheon Graphic Library) Paperback – August 12, 2003

The third bound installment of Ben Katchor's "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer" series finds his lonely observer at quite a distance from the simplicity and candor of "Cheap Novelties". Complex, arcane, and beautifully detailed, "The Beauty Supply District" represents, at last, a finely tuned rendition of Katchor's altogether fantastic and fully fictional Gotham. Arguably less accessible than "Cheap Novelties" or "Real Estate Photographer Stories", (I would suggest that the uninitiated read one of the aforementioned books first) it's a satisfying read for this Katchor fan, and it certainly will be for those who appreciate the moves he's made in "Cardboard Valise" and "Hotel and Farm". Katchor has sacrificed some degree of empathy in grounding Knipl increasingly less in "the actual world" but the allegories he creates in its stead are delights to be picked apart, and like a stranger's obscure promotional cap, ruminated over. The narrative that closes "Beauty Supply District" may be a sly metaphor for the real-life loss of New York City's individuality amid the burgeoning stampede of chain stores and attendant homogeneity; whatever the perspective, those 26 pages read like a warts-and-all requiem for an imperfect yet more people-oriented time. Alas, when the narrative's pretentious art fiend character makes a fateful purchase with no thought to aesthetics, the past, with its valued individuals and labored attention to detail, seems to be dealt a near-fatal blow. I can't wait to read it again and, like Knipl himself, discover what I've overlooked. Maybe I'm all wrong. That's what I love about it.

This comic is a really "understated masterpiece" or whatever you call a beautiful, subtle and entertaining comic collection. If you know who Ben Katchor is, you know how great he is, so stop reading this mediocre review and just buy the amazing book. And dont forget to pick up The Jew of New York and Cheap Novelties and, uh, ANYTHING else that Ben Katchor is a part of. BUY IT!

I guess I got a few of his books. A really complete world of detail, amazing art. Love this guy

Quirky and bizarre humor

great fun read

Delivery: was slightly late, but Amazon did a good job of keeping me informed about the delivery status (which was a gift arriving at a remote location, so this was quite helpful).The book: is a somewhat esoteric take on a fabulously imagined urban milieu, which is clearly a slightly warped vision of of Manhattan in some parallel universe in a somewhat vague time setting, in the near-distant past. Every humble vignette concerning our "hero" protagonist, the aforementioned Julius Knipl, is drenched in a semi-ironic bathos of nostalgia. Not everyone's cup of tea, perhaps, but a genuinely imaginative glimpse of a nether world that never quite existed but is now forever otherwise lost. Since I grew up on the Lower East Side in the 1960s, this book really resonated with me. I would highly recommend, but cautiously, if you see what I mean.

The extension fallacy is when an arguer takes a statement and exaggerates the parameters so much that it becomes completely ridiculous idea. This perfectly defines the humor in The Beauty Supply District. The strips revolve around the nuances of city life. Much of them are concerned the variances of architecture in a New York City-esque environment. The constant raising and destruction of buildings, as depicted in this book, paints a picture of a city landscape that drifts back and forth like an ocean current, where the occupants try to find stability and meaning in a chaotic ever shifting concrete jungle.The stories take mundane aspects and illuminate them to ridiculous heights. From tours of a shop that had been vacant since 1964. To a group of men at an office obsessed with their fire extinguisher. To a rich man who owns a private vintage bus and, for kicks, drives along an actual route picking people up. To the longer story of The Beauty Supply District, where many obsessions collide in a bizarre manner.

This is my 2nd compilation of Knipl - the first being the "Evening Combinator". Once again, we're taken on a tour of mysterious urban setting that seems equal parts WWII-era New York, and another city mourning for the first - at once the ghost of a city and its beloved survivors. Artist Katchor deftly etches his cityscape using tragic camp - postcard artists who depict unloved streets that nobody will visit, semi-professional gravediggers, a man who seems to own some huge industrial facility on an island in the south pacific, losers who answer wrong numbers at pay phones and the obsession that men have with cafeteria buffets.I may have been overdosed on Katchor's Knipl Camp, but something about "Beauty Supply" left me wanting. Earlier stuff like "Combinator" had their darker side, but were also balanced - Katchor sketched a city that was terrifying, depressing and yet oddly inviting, populated by characters who seemed victimized at the same time as being inspired. Here, the accent is on the dark and defeated, and the result is unsympathetic - as if his characters had grown more than tired by their own dark jokes. It's Katchor & Knipl, yet not at their witty best.

Great comics. Well worth the time.

Katchor continúa radiografiando en esta obra las rarezas del mundo y de las personas que nos rodean. Seres y lugares, aparentemente de otra época, en los que nuestras convenciones diarias quedan expuestas como lo que son, una vez que el tiempo pasa sobre ellas: una impostura hecha para poder sobrevivir en un mundo que nos han impuesto. Todo ello, observado con lupa y dibujado con trazos ágiles. La inteligencia hecha dibujo.

Este es uno de los tebeos mas raros que he leido en mi vida. Raro, Raro, Raro, pero curioso. Sólo para fanáticos del comic.