Moriarty is probably best known now as a painter, but “Jack Survives”—his series of short painted comics vignettes about his father’s life in the ’40s and early ’50s—first appeared in RAW
magazine and a short book more than 20 years ago. (This edition begins with short essays by Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware in praise of Moriarty’s work.) These pieces, none longer than four pages and most only a single page, are generally tiny anecdotes about the way Jack clings to dignity. He’s at the mercy of his environment, but he’s armed with the props of his generation—coffee, a businessman’s suit and hat, the politesse of universal small talk. In a typical story, Jack is awakened by a ringing phone, finds his arms asleep, knocks the receiver onto the floor and lies down to talk into it, only to hear the person on the other end hanging up. The virtues of Moriarty’s work, though, are mostly fine-art virtues: immaculately designed compositions that suggest a psychological state; forms suggested by a minimum of thick, tactile marks; a sense of being thoroughly layered and revised. A few word balloons have earlier drafts of dialogue faintly visible through white paint, and this volume includes ravishing pen-and-ink studies for several strips. (July)
