PIM & FRANCIE

I received this book(Pim & Francie-The Golden Bear Days) in the mail about 2 weeks ago. I first noticed this book at my friend Levi's house. Unfortunately, the first thing I noticed while looking at this book at his house, was how disturbing some of the images were. Later that evening I found myself thinking about the book, and decided I would order it. When I opened my copy for the first time, my suspicion that there was more to this book than just shocking images, was confirmed. I have since been paging through this book daily. Although the images are very haunting, they are extremely beautiful. Pim & Francie is a pretty unique book.

Fantagraphics(the publisher) describes the book as follows:
This gorgeous grimoire is part alchemy, part art book, part storybook, part comic book, and part conceptual art from the pen of Al Columbia.
This is a comprehensive collection of Columbia’s Pim & Francie work, including paintings, comics, character designs, and much more, all woven into something greater than the sum of its parts, with Pim & Francie careening from danger to danger, threaded together through text and notes by the artist.

While looking through this book I was reminded of the Low Brow art movement, and started questioning how Columbia's work related to it. I have seen a lot of artists in Juxtapox and other places that have used similar ideas: shocking cartoonish images, and dark humor. I did read that many artists have been influenced by Columbia, and Columbia himself is clearly influenced by things that are older than most of us, but that isn't exactly what I am talking about. This book provided me with an entirely different experience. This book as a whole is actually quite creepy, haunting, scary, beautiful, and intoxicating. I seem to enjoy it more every time I look/read through it. With images on almost every single page, this book is worth a lot more than it's cover price.