Maurice Vellekoop's drawing style may look like a dead-on imitation of '50s and '60s-style New Yorker illustrations, but there's more to it than that. Not one to simply pay homage or ironically embrace, Vellekoop—who has the distinction of being the only artist to appear in every issue of Drawn & Quarterly's eponymous anthology—uses his cartoony figures in an expressive manner, whether the project is a single, wordless panel or a long-form story. Of course, The New Yorker's strips have never featured explicit sex or references to their creators' homosexuality. In the beautiful new Vellevision collection, there's plenty of both, along with some sharp stories, short pieces, character studies, and other material from throughout Vellekoop's career, from early mini-comics to later work for publications such as Vogue. Vellekoop clearly has more than a passing familiarity with camp, and this sensibility informs most of Vellevision, from the humorous queer version of a girl-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks story ("Side Door Lover") to "A Day In The Life Of Pierre Pouffé: Hairdresser To The Stars." But he also takes his camp seriously, and is capable of employing the same style, with equal effectiveness, to both "Homoman" and some lovely, vibrantly colored character studies. If you're not familiar with Vellekoop's winning work, Vellevision is a great place to start.
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