560 SETH
concerns to the fore. He has declared it to be a new type of superhero comic, one
which consciously avoids current trends that have elevated a violent type of coolness
to the fore in the medium, a trend that he dislikes intensely. He sees Seaguy as a move
to a more new-wave, Silver Age-inspired aesthetic combined with a modern literary
sensibility. Th is idea, and the work on Seaguy that has occurred as a result of it, is per-
haps similar in tone and execution to some of the work created by Alan Moore in his
America’s Best Comics (ABC) line.
Morrison and Stewart have generated a sense of surreal, weird mysteriousness that
has its roots in work like Th e Prisoner TV series from the 1960s, which Morrison has
stated as being a specifi c infl uence on Seaguy. Morrison gives full vent to his surreal
and bizarre interests in this series, and while much can feel illogical or disconnected at
times, he ultimately begins to draw the seemingly disparate threads together as each
issue of both series progresses. Morrison has stated that Seaguy Eternal, the proposed
fi nal series of the trilogy, will form the ending to his ultimate statement on comic
superheroes, and at the time of this writing is set for publication in the near future.
Andrew Edwards
SETH (born Gregory Gallant, 1962–) is a Canadian artist and illustrator living in
Ontario. Educated at the Ontario College of Art, Seth fi rst gained attention for his
comics work with his autobiographical series Palooka-Ville, fi rst published in 1991
by Montreal’s Drawn & Quarterly, and re-issued in a 10th anniversary edition in
- In earlier issues of the series, he recounts daily events, ranging from an episode
from 1984 where he was beaten up on the subway, to simply hanging out and talk-
ing with other characters. Most frequently, these people are the other two members
of the “ Toronto Th ree”—Seth, Chester Brown, and Joe Matt, who became the col-
lective public face of mid-1990s autobiographical comics. All three were published
by Drawn & Quarterly, worked at that time on largely autobiographical comics, and
appeared in one another’s works.
Where early Palooka-Ville issues were autobiographical and narrative-driven, later
issues are more concerned with the small details of careful, slow story telling and
beautifully rendered panels. Seth’s work is elegant and demands that the reader both
pay attention to the characters’ facial expressions and notice the backgrounds suff used
with nostalgia. For example, Palooka-Ville became a way for Seth to start crafting longer
stories, such as 2004’s Clyde Fans in which two brothers’ fan business is driven to ruin
by the rise of air conditioning. Overall, Seth’s comics work displays a fascination with
lost history and the past, be that traveling salesmen in small-town Canada, mystery
New Yorker cartoonists, or collecting various artifacts—Pez dispensers, View-Master
reels, or comic books (such as in 2005’s Wimbledon Green).
Between Palooka-Ville and Clyde Fans rests what is Seth’s most critically acclaimed
work. In 1997, he won Ignatz Awards for Outstanding Artist as well as Outstanding
Graphic Novel or Collection for It’s A Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken (Drawn and
Quarterly, 1996, Palooka-Ville issues #4–9). On fi rst pass, this work seems to interweave
