I've written about Seth's book It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken, and the miniature buildings that make up his city, Dominion. When I heard about his recent book, Clyde Fans, it sounded quite interesting and I thought I'd give it a try.
Clyde Fans is a pleasure trip, and one thing I've started to think about as I turn the pages are the similarities between Seth's work and E. L. Moore's. Maybe it's all in my mind, and is just another example of A-Man-With-A-Hammer-Thinks-Everything-Needs-Pounding syndrome, but let me play with the idea for a minute.
Clyde Fans is a pleasure trip, and one thing I've started to think about as I turn the pages are the similarities between Seth's work and E. L. Moore's. Maybe it's all in my mind, and is just another example of A-Man-With-A-Hammer-Thinks-Everything-Needs-Pounding syndrome, but let me play with the idea for a minute.
Both focus on recreating life of an era earlier than the one where their work is being produced. Loving and stylized depiction of the era's buildings is a focus. Both have built large collections of miniatures of those buildings, and both are story driven. However, Seth's primary medium is the graphic novel, and E. L. Moore's is HO miniatures. And, Seth's work is somewhat more clear-eyed and less nostalgic than E. L. Moore's.
There's no direct connection between Seth's and E. L. Moore's work, but in broader terms they both seem to fall into the larger miniature building folk art tradition. Although, Seth has broken much new ground, and has pushed the art well into a popular consumable 21st century form.
No doubt Clyde Fans has surprises in store. Stay tuned.
P.S.: If you've taken a look at Seth's miniature buildings here, you may want to compare the setup and collection with Peter Fritz's here, and the one at the Hollywood Heritage Museum here and here to get a sense of how Seth's collection situates with respect to a couple of other high-profile ones.
P.S.: If you've taken a look at Seth's miniature buildings here, you may want to compare the setup and collection with Peter Fritz's here, and the one at the Hollywood Heritage Museum here and here to get a sense of how Seth's collection situates with respect to a couple of other high-profile ones.
Hmmm...makes me wish more modelers would better catalogue and document their collections of structures and dioramas to share with others. I know of several fine modelers who produce outstanding scenes filled with character and perhaps even a story or idea of one running through them. But as is often the case, this work is hidden away in forum threads scattered between reams of attaboys or mindless chatter, or not even shared at all, let alone documented for posterity. Hopefully those with more time on their hands during the pandemic will be about this work.
ReplyDeleteThat sort of documentation would be great and quite insightful.
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