Mome

I've been following the Mome anthology from Fantagraphics since it started, and although some of the early issues were pretty uneven, the latest issue (number 7) is one of the best ones yet, and contains the welcome news that Jeffrey Brown and Gabrielle Bell are leaving the series - I find their auto-bio comics to be incredibly tedious. One of their replacements, Eleanor Davis, has debuted in this latest issue with a wonderful piece called Seven Sacks. I can't wait to see more of her work in future issues.

I'm curious if anyone has thoughts about Mome? If nothing else, it strikes me as an important contemporary vehicle for comics as art...

I've been very disappointed with Mome and gave up on it with issue 6. Which isn't to say there aren't good parts to it, but just not enough in a comics world where things get collected in to book on a regular basis.

I was excited that they were publishing Trondheim but then it turned out to be one I'd already read in French.

I did just put up a post on some of Anders Nilsen's Mome work.

I'd have to agree with your assessment of Anders Nilsen's work in Mome. It's uneven for sure, and it does seem as though his best work is often to be found elsewhere. His recent contribution to Fantagraphics' Ignatz Series is one of the most interesting titles in that line, so the fact that he is apparently leaving Mome for good (along with Gabrielle Bell, Jeffrey Brown, and Martin Cendreda) may end up being a blessing.

And I have to say that the latest issue (Spring 2007) of Mome is cause for hope - with Bell and Brown on the way out, and Eleanor Davis and Tom Kaczynski as thier apparent replacements, Mome seems to be refining its approach - better things may well be yet to come...

What does Mome have to offer? I never bothered to pick it up because I've always regarded it as a poor man's Kramer's Ergot. What am I missing out?