My first exposure to Jim Mahfood’s work was a single-page story in The Song Of Mykal, an anniversary comic published by one of my favorite comic shops (Atlantic Fantasyworld, in Santa Cruz, California). The strip followed a heroic pooch named Smoke Dog as he saved an undersea kingdom by besting a demon in a breakdancing contest. The clear and stylized art, the good-natured absurdity of the concept, and the offhanded, natural way that Hip-Hop was used as a plot device hit all the right buttons. I was immediately hooked, and I decided right that I needed to seek out more Mahfood comics.
A decade or so later, Jim Mahfood has built a stellar career, and continues to weave together the worlds of Hip-Hop and comics in new and exciting ways. Nearly every one of his projects incorporates Hip-Hop culture, sometimes for the bulk of a plot line, sometimes as tiny references hidden in the corners of a panel. The freedom and ease of line in his drawings evidences the inspiration of graffiti technique. He’s produced album covers and promo artwork for a variety of musicians, he has a series of podcasts that mix conversation with funk and rap records, he does live painting for DJ performances. In short, he loves and lives Hip-Hop, and it comes through in everything he does.
The Stupid Comics and 40 Oz Comics anthologies collect short strips and fragments that Mahfood produced between 1998 and 2008 (including the aforementioned Smoke Dog story), illustrate this connection really well.
Pieces scattered through these books make use of graffiti, rap, and DJing for content and context, and Mahfood name drops innumerable musical and artistic luminaries throughout. One strip features Smoke Dog dressing up as Bootsy Collins and Fela Kuti, one dissects the early solo career of Ice Cube, another breaks down multiple subjective definitions of “funk” – even the stories with no overt Hip-Hop connections feature records scattered in the background, band names in characters’ t-shirts, and references to musicians in character designs and tiny details.
And then there’s Grrl Scouts, which follows a team of twenty-somethings as they spraypaint murals on freight trains, get down on the dancefloor, and talk endlessly about classic rap music.
The first volume (simply titled Grrl Scouts) has something of a crazy exploitation movie vibe, as the eponymous Scouts battle armed assassins, engage in shoot-outs to defend their turf from the local mafia, and generally engage in all manner of ultra-violent hijinks. The second volume (Grrl Scouts: Work Sucks) is more down to earth, following the grrls’ travails as they tussle with skate punks, find romance, and seek gainful employment.
Puttin’ The Backbone Back is a small paperback collecting a bunch of Mahfood’s sketchbook pages from the early years of the millennium. It’s not really a comic in any sense of the word, but (as with all his work) Hip-Hop influence rings loud and clear through the pages – from the rabbit DJ pictured above, to scribbled portraits of MF Doom and Herbie Hancock, to a bunch of pin-ups and record covers and gig flyers included toward the end.
His latest book collects the first few years of his autobiographical comic-strip journal. Los Angeles Ink Stains is a portrait of an artist in transition, trying to find direction while balancing creative and financial concerns. The strips are composed in a loose, sketchy style, thoughts moving directly from his brain to the page. Panels flow into each other, names and faces are rendered with a few simple lines.
Most of the strips aren’t heavy on plot, focusing instead on atmosphere, on documenting whatever details seem important at a given moment. Friends hanging out, playing records, throwing paint and ink around, going out to see bands and DJs. Long hours spent drawing at home, listening to music. Hangovers and deadlines. Vignettes of people and parties, chasing girls and chasing thrills, ducking deadlines, eating tacos and smoking weed and drinking copious amounts of booze. And a few longer pieces (included in the back of the book as “bonus material”) take some extra space and reach a bit deeper. They stick with the highlight-reel diary approach but also leave room for reflection, depicting actions while delving into the emotions underneath.
None of this is polished or sanitized in any way – Mahfood is self-aggrandizing, self-effacing, and self-critical in equal measure as he tells of the fun he has and struggles he faces. Very little time is spent on niceties and polish, to the point that it almost feels like you’re eavesdropping. The lack of glamour and hype accentuate the feeling of vitality, of reality, of being there. It’s a direct and unvarnished look at a guy making art and making his way through, dealing with the details of the day-to-day, immersing himself in Hip-Hop culture, and carving his own place in the world.
40 Oz. Collected, 40 Oz. Classic, Stupid Comics, Puttin’ The Backbone Back, Grrl Scouts, Grrl Scouts: Work Sucks, and Los Angeles Ink Stains are all currently in-print from Image Comics. Original copies of The Song Of Mykal comic can be purchased by contacting Atlantis Fantasyworld.