Hear it in the Pages: Austinist Reviews Comic Book Tattoos

There are coffee table books, and there are glittering behemoths, good behemoths, that happen to be book-shaped. Comic Book Tattoo, an anthology of standalone comics inspired by Tori Amos lyrics, comes alive in almost 500 pages of startlingly unique tales from over 80 different writers and illustrators. They provide a staggering artistic range – one moment you’re immersed in an oil painting, the next a photo realistic poem, then suddenly you’re smack in the middle of a stark black-white-red cityscape before emerging out of a bright cartoon.

The stories take hold like an electrical charge. While Amos’ lyrics serve as the foundation for plot and imagery, the characters quickly take on powerful emotional lives of their own, rendering each story wholly unpredictable and unendingly rich. These interpretations span Amos’ entire repertoire, including B-sides, new work, and even a nod to the Y Kant Tori Read days.

But this collection transcends fandom. It’s a celebration of art, and its power to terrify, stimulate, provoke, amuse, and surprise. Sometimes the dialogue is poetic, sometimes hard-edged, sometimes not there at all as the pictures speak for themselves. Every story reads like a different world, and the fearless lack of barriers between these diverse forms of expression emphasize just how unifying creativity really is. If Amos’ lyrics are a platform for this project, these contributors have chosen to fly off of it, bringing back skies that contain undiscovered planets. If you love comics, see what these artists can do to you in just a few 12” x 12” pages. Fans of author Neil Gaiman will also enjoy his moving introduction.