Monthly Archives: July 2007
Update for 7/31/07
New reviews for Death, Cold As Steel #3 by Bram Meehan & Jamie Chase and True Travel Tales #2 by Justin Hall (the second one being part of my ongoing effort to review some of the stuff that has been available in the store for years).
Update for 7/30/07
New reviews for Chucky by Donovan Cater and Carl’s Large Story!!! #1 by Marcos Perez, both available in the online store. Also new to the store is Tear-Stained Makeup #6 by Marcos Perez. Thanks to everybody who ordered comics for the fundraiser, I ended up with around $120 of the $150 I was shooting for, which was a lot more than I was expecting, frankly. Please resume your regular comic buying schedule. I’ll still be very, very broke until I get a big check at the end of the next month, but nowhere near as bad as it was this month.
Update for 7/27/07
OK, here’s all the new stuff available in the store: Slither #6 and The Cheapest S.O.B.’s by Kelly Froh, Morgenmuffel #15 by Isy, Elm City Jams #2 by Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe & various artists, Satisfactory Comics #7 and Demonstration by Isaac & Mike, Unlovable #2, 3, 4, 5 and Unlovable Fat Pack by Esther Pearl Watson, Flip-Tard by Mark Todd & Esther Pearl Watson, Comic Characters! and Bad Ass Pack by Mark Todd. As for the fundraiser, I’m still about $50 short of my goal. This weekend will be the end of my begging, as anything that comes in after that won’t be able to help with my rent. So if there are 5 people with $10 each burning a hole in their pockets and in desperate need of comics, please order away, you’d be doing me a huge favor. Next week things should be back to normal with the usual amount of rambling and such. Happy weekend everybody!
Update for 7/26/07
Done! Well, that weekend project ended up taking about a week, but it was worth it. Everybody, from Nick Abadzis to Jeff Zwirek, should have current, functioning contact information. I left some of the “under construction” websites up, but tried to note that they weren’t working. I also didn’t check the e-mail addresses, but I did try to make sure they were the most current available. What did I do, exactly?Put the contact information at the page for just about everybody, added blogs and Myspace pages when I could find them, and just generally tidied the site up a bit, something I should have done a long, long time ago.� So if you notice something I missed, please let me know. I tried to be thorough, but, as I saw while doing all this, I am very capable of making mistakes. I’m probably going to skip out on reviews tomorrow and just add all the new books that have come in for the store, then things will be back to normal next week. Reviews for the past week that have been shoved off the main page: Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox, Black Book by Steve Black, Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (available in the store), My Word by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (also in the store), Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner, Panel #9 by Various Columbus people, Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido, Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson, There’s No Place #1 by Corey Bechelli, and Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen. New stuff in the store last week included Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault and a bunch of stuff by Corey Bechelli.
Various: Graphic Classics
Graphic Classics: Bram Stoker
Oh, what an awful scan. What’s new, right? Anyway, I’d heard of this series but hadn’t seen it before. It’s a great idea, having some really talented people interpret stories from various literary figures. They also have Jack London, Ambrose Bierce and H.P. Lovecraft (I’d love to see that one), which all begs the obvious question: where’s Edgar Allen Poe? Just curious. Here are the names in this that you might recognize: Jeremi Onsmith, Hunt Emerson, Spain Rodriguez, and Richard Sala. Various stories from Bram Stoker are interpreted here, some as pictures accompanying text and others just as illustrated versions of stories. Certain artists would take chunks of stories too, as a few different people did parts of Dracula (with the Hunt Emerson illustrated “strengths and weaknesses of vampires” being my favorite. Basically if you like the Big Book series from DC or like the work of the author in question, they’ve done a great job with this book. Well worth a look, especially considering that it’s only $9.95 for a fat book. Check out the website, why don’t you?
Graphic Classics: Mark Twain
I love the fact that nobody spent any time in this interpreting The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Clemens (that’s his real name, as a tiny bit of my schoolin’ is clinging to my brain) had pearls of wisdom and quirky little short stories that have probably never been equaled, and that’s what everybody here focused on. The Mysterious Stranger, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, A Dog’s Tale, P.T. Barnum and the Cardiff Giant, and A Ghost Story are a few of the stories in this book. I’d only heard of two people in this one (Rick Geary and Mary Fleener), but it’s obviously a lot more fun than the Bram Stoker volume. It is worth your time to actually seek out some of his books, but this is perfect to introduce children to his work or just a great collection of his stories. It’s still only $9.95 and everything I’ve seen of this series so far shows me that it’s a blast. Website!
Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe
There’s probably not a single author out there more responsible for my sense of wonder as a human being as Edgar Allen Poe (with the possible exception of Tolkien). It probably had a lot to do with the fact that we were taught genuinely horrific stories in grade school about being buried alive, murder, plague and torture. It’s obvious, right from the gushing introduction from Joe Lansdale, that this whole book is a labor of love. All of the favorites are covered here (although there are plenty that aren’t, as there just aren’t enough pages in the world to do this man justice and still have the book be less than $100), and even the story of The Raven is redone in an interesting way, something that I didn’t think was possible after seeing tributes/rip-offs from all manner of media over the years. If there’s some way that you’ve made it to this point in your life without reading any of Poe’s work, check this out, as it’s only $9.95. I read it at work, in broad daylight, while listening to country music (hey, I don’t have control of the radio station), and I’m still creeped out and jumping at random noises. Buy this, but also check out his prose work, as I’m going to try and find a decent collection of his for the next thing on my reading list. Contact info is up there!
Various: Riverwurst Anthologies
Riverwurst #3
Man, I was expecting so much more from this one. I read #4 before #3, in case you were wondering, and this was an issue that was all about Halloween. I was really expecting great things from this one, and instead I got a mish-mash. Certain stories are pretty funny, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a lot more poetry in this one, and at least one of the poems looks like somebody had those poetry magnets and just threw it onto a page. Not that I’m an educated critic of poems or anything, but blech. A lot of the same people are in here that were in #4, but I’m much too lazy to type them all again, so scroll down there if you’re curious. All in all I’d say you should get #4, as that was a solid, thoroughly entertaining anthology, while this one was your typical anthology: a few good stories, a great one or two, but mostly it’s not worth the time or effort. Oh, stories in here include zombie love, old Denis Kitchen stuff, eggs from hell, a bad dream, demon night, aliens making fun of Earth, piercing humor, a punk rock zombie, and the true story of Satan. $3, contact info is down one title, and get #4 instead!
Riverwurst #4
It’s always great to see a good random anthology. Seems like these are a dime a dozen, but real quality books are always hard to come by. Here are some familiar names from this website, at least: Nick Jeffrey, Larned Justin, Jen Sorenson, and Jenny Gonzalez. All kinds of good strips in here from people that I’d never heard of too, and a former sex worker who had an essay about how great boobs are, Candye Kane. What’s the book about? Well, you can read the cover for a few themes (it’s magazine sized, I just shrunk it down), but it also has Pickle Dude by Ben Liesch, a story about the ironies of eating meat from Jeremy Kirk, tattoo revenge by Bill Krupinski, some old strips from Denis Kitchen (you know, the guy who ran Kitchen Sink Press), a couple of incredibly funny strips from Dug Belan, and a disturbing story about a young girl who wants to be a robot from Heather Shinn… and that’s only the the first half of the book. Great stuff all around, probably the best anthology I’ve seen so far this year… but it’s early yet. Here’s an e-mail address, #3 is available too, and this is a great way to spend $4 if you like comics.
Riverwurst #5
OK, there are two possible ways for me to review this book. One is to treat it as just another anthology, and on that front it’s not bad at all. Fairly typical, actually. A few great good stories, a couple of crappers, and a whole bunch somewhere in the middle. The other way I could review this, however, would be to see it as a piece of political protest, an informed piece of dissent, and on that front it pretty much sucks. Is there a single good political comic being done out there? I don’t mean the newspaper stuff, I mean a regular, independently published small press comic. There’s nothing new in here about George W. Bush, and most of criticisms are simple, easy jabs about him choking on a pretzel or being a small man with a huge ego. That’s great, but I’ve seen it done a hundred times, and most of the book has nothing to do with GW. So why the cover? Were they just trying to cash in on the flood of anti-GW books out there? If so, kudos to them, but you should at least make the entire book about the guy and his administration, and do some research! I know it might be a bit boring, but there’s plenty to nail the guy on that doesn’t involve just calling him names. Most of the usual suspects are here from the last two issues, which automatically means that a lot of talent was involved, and I have to repeat that this is far from a bad anthology. It’s just that one look at that cover gives you an entirely different impression of what you’re going to get on the inside, and it’s hard to consider that anything other than a disappointment. Contact info is up there, this is $3, check out #4 if you want to see what this crew is capable of when at their best, and I’m perfectly willing to accept the hypothesis that I didn’t like this book all that much because the artists didn’t tear GW apart nearly as much as I would have liked to have seen, especially after the election…
Various: Mauled Anthologies
Mauled! #1
In case you can’t read the cover, it says “True Stories of People Attacked at the Zoo”. With that being said, how much convincing could you possibly need to check this out? Here’s a partial list of the people involved: Danny Hellman, Jenny Gonzalez, Dave McKenna, K. Thor Jensen, and Brian Musikoff. Those are just the people who are already on this site, but there are all kinds of stories in here of very stupid people being mauled by animals who have every right to take a chunk out of them, as far as I’m concerned. Let’s see, what animals are involved: monkeys, a polar bear, an elephant, tigers, and a panther, among other things. I love stuff like this, so if you don’t feel the same way, you probably shouldn’t bother to check it out. If you do like this stuff, you can get copies through Brian for $3.95.
Mauled! #2
There’s very little reason for me to write a review after you get a good look at that cover. You either think the idea is morbidly hilarious or you don’t. Well, in case you need any convincing at all, I’ll tell you what’s in here. There’s a woman who has a scalpel in her chest cavity, a man who loses a leg through prolonged incompetence, a small boy who loses his penis at an early age, and more stories about people screwed out of their rightful piles of malpractice money because of all those “anti frivolous lawsuits” bills that the Republicans have been passing for years than you can shake a stick at. That’s a long sentence, take a breath and read over it to make sure it made sense. Good? Good. If I could make a suggestion, I think the next one should be about people who put a variety of things in electrical outlets. Come on, we know the stories are out there! Here’s the talent that I knew: Neil Kleid, Mike Dawson, K. Thor Jensen, and Dave McKenna. Good stuff all around, it’s $3.75, send an e-mail!
Mauled! #3
And this behemoth of a page just keeps getting bigger and bigger. One of these days I’ll pare it down, etc. etc. excuses excuses. So, once again, you can see that cover, right? You already read the first two issues of this series and chances are that you’ve been waiting for more for quite a while, and here it is! A few of the artists involved: Stan Yan, Josh Frankel, Lonnie Allen, Peter S. Conrad, Fredo, Jenny Gonzalez, Kate Allen, Adam Suerte, and Dave McKenna, among many others. What sorts of tragedies at sea are they talking about exactly? You have snapping sea turtles, a giant eel, various shark attacks, a whale trying to jump over a boat, horrible storms, and at least one swordfish living up to its name. Great fun to be had here as always, although I was less than impressed with the stories that were told in poetry form. I’m here for the mayhem dammit, not iambic pentameter! $4.50, please keep buying these so they keep making them, next up is “Mauled by Machines”… Website
Various: International Anthologies
Sentence
Anybody out there curious what the British comic scene is like these days? No? Then shame on you, there’s nothing for you to see here. For the sane members of the viewing audience, read on. There are eight artists in this, four of which are on this site somewhere: Gary Northfield, Nick Abadzis, Tom Gauld and Dave Shelton. The concept of this anthology is simple: each creator gets to work with one sentence, and one sentence only, of their choosing. Then they have six pages to tell that story, only using the words in that sentence, if any. Here are the sentences: I want your body and soul; Walk towards the light; What could possibly go wrong?; You’ve gone up in my book now your grandad had a hook; Like a bird-call, but harsh and distorted, like sounds in a cave; Be a happy, healthy dog; Heavens to Betsy, Miss Wickerstaff, have you no shame?; and If I stumbled from your party at three in the morning, would everything turn out fine? There’s not a single bad story in here. My favorite of the bunch changed almost every time I read a new one, which makes this nothing short of a phenomenal success in my book. The price is a bit steep at $12.50 but this is a rare chance to see creators from “across the pond”, as they say, all in one place and getting the chance to really shine. Here’s the e-mail address of the publisher and I really think this book should get some attention…
One of these days I’ll figure out how to do a review for an anthology. I liked the vast majority of it. Lots of familiar faces, either from other anthologies or just things that I’ve come across, like Alexsander Zograf and Jakob Klemencic. I’ve mentioned before that I think Stripburger puts out some of the best anthologies going, right? Good. This is over 200 pages and has a great insert with samples from all of the cartoonists and contact information for everybody. Damn you, finite amount of money! Anyway, the stories here are about all sorts of things. Vague enough for you? Life, love, work, futility, time, zoos, rebellion, dreams, hunger, suicide, Hitler, hostages, trolls, elves, oblivion, family, trickery. and death. There, who says these things have to be complicated? This one is about a year old (as of 2/16/03) but they have a new anthology available for preorder from Top Shelf. Come on, aren’t you getting sick of all these American comics?
Stripburger #18
Anthologies are, invariably, a tricky proposition. How do you recommend something that has 3/4 great stories, but 1/4 of it sucks? Or how about if that number is turned around and 3/4 of it sucks, but the other 1/4 of it is so amazing that you think everyone should read it? Well, that issue can be dealt with another day, because this book is almost all at least worth reading, if not great. It’s an anthology of handicapped people from Europe and it’s something else. Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland and France all had people contribute to making this book. Chances are you haven’t heard of most of these people, unless you follow the scene in other countries. I was happy to learn that there are so many other issues of this series available. It’s up to #20 now along with a few special issues, and most of them are anthologies with a theme of come kind. Once I move out of my current place in Champaign, I’m going to send away for as many of these things as I can afford and see if they’re all as enjoyable as this one.
What kind of stories are in this mini? Well, there’s the man with no arms who has to find a way to take a piss, an impotent bigot wandering around town, two people in a convalescent home who can’t get sexual satisfaction, and a wheelchair race in hell. As I look through this again, maybe I was being too generous in saying that the whole thing worked. There’s not a bad story in the bunch, which is saying something, but a couple of them aren’t much past average. And if that’s the worst thing that I can say about a book, that has to be a good thing. I also expected more of a sense of anger at the non-handicapped world. I don’t know why I thought that would be the case, and there are hints of it here and there, but it’s not anywhere near as pervasive as I thought it might be. If you’re at all curious to see what the scene is like in Europe, this is the best place I’ve seen to start looking.
Check out the website: www.ljudmila.org/stripcore/com.htm
Update for 7/25/07
OK, A-S is all done, and if all goes well I should be able to finish up tomorrow, depending on how long it takes to deal with the mess that is the Various pages. As for the fundraiser, I’m a few orders away from being able to shut up about it, so that’s a good thing, and thanks to everybody who has bought stuff. Reviews for the past week that have been shoved off the main page: Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox, Black Book by Steve Black, Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (available in the store), My Word by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (also in the store), Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner, Panel #9 by Various Columbus people, Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido, Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson, There’s No Place #1 by Corey Bechelli, and Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen. New stuff in the store last week included Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault and a bunch of stuff by Corey Bechelli.
Update for 7/24/07
| Sorry about the lack of a regular update, but I’m a man on a mission here. I had no idea the site had so many broken links and was such a general mess. Anyway, A-Q (SPOILER ALERT! There are no Q’s)�is now good to go, and I’ll probably keep this up until I get through the whole thing. The fundraiser is still going, so please feel free to order stuff. Reviews for the past week that have been shoved off the main page: Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox, Black Book by Steve Black, Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (available in the store), My Word by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (also in the store), Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner, Panel #9 by Various Columbus people, Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido, Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson, There’s No Place #1 by Corey Bechelli, and Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen. New stuff in the store last week included Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault and a bunch of stuff by Corey Bechelli. And I’ll keep plugging away at the rest of the names on this website, so things may be a little chaotic around here this week… |
Update for 7/22/07
Looks like I was a complete idiot to think that I could get through all these people in one weekend. Still, A-G is done, and everybody that I could find online has valid websites. I did find a lot of new websites doing all this Googling, although I can’t vouch for every single e-mail address. Reviews for the past week that have been shoved off the main page: Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox, Black Book by Steve Black, Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (available in the store), My Word by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (also in the store), Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner, Panel #9 by Various Columbus people, Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido, Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson, There’s No Place #1 by Corey Bechelli, and Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen. New stuff in the store last week included Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault and a bunch of stuff by Corey Bechelli. And I’ll keep plugging away at the rest of the names on this website, so things may be a little chaotic around here next week…
Update for 7/20/07
New reviews for Black Book by Steve Black and Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox. The fundraiser is almost exactly half over, as I now need $77 by the end of the month to pay my bills, and I do have a big check coming at the end of next month, so this really is a temporary thing. As long as this goes on, everybody who orders something gets a free comic, and if anybody from Columbus wanted to get a big order I’d drive the damned thing to their house. That’s service, people. And a bit of desperation. As for updating all the creator pages this weekend, the front page may look like a bit of a mess for anybody who comes in while I’m in the middle of things, as it’ll be a long, contextless list of streaming names. When I quit for the day on Saturday and Sunday I’ll post the updates for the last week at the top of the page, so the weekly visitors can keep up if they want. Thanks everybody, happy weekend!
Update for 7/19/07
New reviews for My Word! by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (available in the store) and Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (newly available in the store, along with Super #2). Also I’m going to try a fairly big project around here this weekend: fixing up all the creator pages. You know, link to the current website for people I haven’t updated in years, take down all the broken links, that sort of thing. If you know of anybody on the site now who has a broken link or incorrect e-mail address, feel free to e-mail me and I’ll fix it. I hope to get to everybody this weekend, even if it seems insane to try and fix 738 (yes, I counted) distinct pages. And keep those comics orders coming, I may reach my fundraiser goal yet…
Update for 7/18/07
New reviews for Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner and Panel 9 From Outer Space by the fine Panel folk from Columbus Ohio. Another new comic for the store too, Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault, with #1 and 2 to be coming shortly.
Update for 7/17/07
New reviews for Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson and Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido. Also, I’m going to cut and paste my fundraiser plea with an updated dollar figure, because it’s not a real fundraiser if it’s not getting on peoples nerves, right?
I’ve tried this before as a sort of informal plea, but I’m going to beg again, even if it pains me to do it. I’m taking some time off this summer, to work on the website and a number of other things, but money is going to be a serious issue by the end of the month. Specifically, I’ll be about $85 short. I’ve seen blogs do this from time to time, so why not me: I’m doing a “fundraiser” until the end of the month. I’ll post weekly updates as to whether or not that dollar total has changed. Don’t feel obligated; there’s bound to be a plasma center or pawn shop around here somewhere, I won’t end up homeless at the end of the month if nobody buys a damned thing. But if you ever wanted to show your appreciaton for the site and get a lot of great comics to boot, now would be the perfect time. Like I said before, I should be able to get orders out in a hurry after I get them, and for the month, I’ll throw in a free comic with any order. And if you like buttons, I get all kinds of buttons from comic people, say the word and I’ll throw some of those in as well.
Update for 7/16/07
New reviews for Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen and There’s No Place #1 by Scott Oliver and Corey Bechelli. Corey also sent a bunch of new stuff for the store: There’s No Place #1 and 2, Hate Yer State #2, The Battle Within (with Scott Oliver), Willy Wonka: Candyman, Solidarity, and Pursuit. 4 of those are only a measly $.50, for those of you out there on a budget, which I imagine is just about everybody…
Update for 7/13/07
New reviews for The Ineffables: Political Science by Craig Bogart and Others by Will Dinski. And the grand total of the fundraiser so far: $66. Honestly, that’s more than I was expecting out of the first week. The grand total goal is still $150, which puts me, what, $84 short� Another week like that last one and I can take off this stupid PBS fundraiser hat. Thanks everybody, happy weekend!
Update for 7/11/07
New reviews for Muse #1 by Jamie Chase and Dark Matter Mission for A Cooped-Up Cosmonaut by Christopher Davis (also available in the store). And even more new stuff for the store: This Is Still America #1 and 2 from George.
Update for 7/10/07
New reviews for Blow by Robert Swinton and The Bird And The Bear: Doormats Of Life by Alex Kim. Happy All-Star game day! Even if I can never manage to sit through more than a couple of innings…
Update for 7/9/07
New reviews for Badassitude by Pat Aulisio and Craig Coleman (also new to the store) and Satisfactory Comics #7 by Isaac Cates & Mike Wenthe.
