I'm reading a stack of books sent to me a few weeks back by my marvelous Spanish Pals, Santiago Garcia and Manuel Bartual and another package from Pepo Perez. That trip to Spain opened up some wide new vistas for me, I can tell you.

The collected Los Garriris by Javier Mariscal (ediciones sins entido 2011) is a wonder. What's it about? who cares! the point is that you're off to the beach. It's like eating a fresh oyster. The delight of a fresh oyster, and it must be the freshest, is that it delivers you on the beach and reminds you suddenly and deliciously of the sensation of being smacked in the face by a salty wave. Fermin and Piker, the Garriris of the title, are always off to the beach, where they go fishing, or swim, drive around on vespas or open topped cars and introduce themselves to beautiful chicas. And I'm going with them.

Julian the dog turns up about half way through. here he is barking at lobsters. That's a day out by itself. I once spent an hour watching my dog Monty barking at ants.


At the bottom of this page he tries a new approach and plays music for them


Sometimes Mariscal goes all cubist without the slightest hint of pretension.


One of the sad things about these days of the 'graphic novel' is that too many of us want to know the story and have forgotten how to enjoy cartooning purely for its own sake.

For my earlier post about Mariscal go here.

For an interview with the artist, go to Paul Gravett.

For first rate oysters, get an invite to one of my pal Daren White's parties.

Speaking of whom, his swimming pool broke down the other day because this little chap got caught up in the filter.