Paul Madonna

What a delightful surprise! I received a review copy of You Know Exactly What You Have To Do through LibraryThing without any knowledge of Paul Madonna, or All Over Coffee, his comic strip that ran in the San Fransisco Chronicle from 2004 to 2015. This large-format, beautifully printed book is the third in a series collecting some of the best of the strip, though I wouldn't fret about taking it out of order. All Over Coffee is/was something of an ever-changing project, not so much telling a story but capturing moments in time and space. Each "strip" is really just one hand-drawn image, sometimes with overlaid or accompanying text, sometimes just on its own. Madonna's loose but detail-oriented hand presents building's, cityscapes, everyday objects, and landscapes in a monochrome so vibrant you could almost walk into them, sometimes with a splash of color to bring out an element. The stories they tell are often vignettes - from the mundane to the fantastic - whose relationships to the images are up to the reader to decipher. Very often, the text is just a phrase incorporated into the image, such as the title so dramatically printed on the front cover. The book is bound like a sketchbook, with the spine on the top of each page, making leafing through a little art adventure.

Madonna includes several essays describing his process, the history of the strip, and introducing some of the themes that tie together the selections. All in all, it is a beautiful, often touching, strangely inspiring, and quietly melancholy slice-of-life that I firmly recommend. Now I need to go find the first two collections!… (mehr)

I know exactly what I must do. I have to write a review of Paul Madonna’s Third Collection of All Over Coffee – an enigmatic comic strip collection that the author admits to not having a clear definition of.

The coffee table book (pun intended) is illustrated with cityscapes and empty streets, snapshot sketches with absorbing detail paired with unrelated, vague post-it-note phrases, quips and whimsical handwriting.

The intricate ink-washed drawings of public places juxtaposed with cryptic private thoughts create an odd relationship between image and words. The text disorientated me at times. However, I didn’t mind being lost between the elaborated lines.


… (mehr)

Thanks to LibraryThing and West Margin Press for an advance reader copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

I have been reading Paul Madonna since the San Francisco Chronicle began publishing his work in February 2004. At that time he was considered an artist/cartoonist and the pieces published were a comic strip called All Over Coffee. I have also seen Madonna’s work framed in a museum exhibit. This oversized book is the third and final collection of All Over Coffee.

A blend of storytelling and art, many would call this a graphic novel. Most of the images are pen & ink and watercolor and focus on architecture, sometimes landscapes, but rarely people. They often feature older San Francisco Victorian buildings with a great deal of detail, in addition to words and phrases that Madonna adds to create an aura of symbolism and meaning.

Interspersed with the art are first person accounts of Madonna’s experiences, which makes this a memoir of sorts. His personal story is juxtaposed with the often bizarre and haunting short stories written on top of the graphics. He also discusses why he chose to include certain images and why they are important to him, so the book becomes a personal notebook or diary.

I think Madonna is extremely talented. I admire his success in starting as an unemployed college graduate to becoming a published comic strip artist, winning several awards, publishing three books, and exhibiting in many museums. And through it all he has continued to draw, paint, and write in his unmistakable style.

This is the kind of book that is best appreciated when read a few pages at a time. I would put it on a coffee table for guests to enjoy. It would also make a unique gift.… (mehr)