Monthly Archives: June 2011
Update for 6/29/11
New review for Second Chances by Matt Sundstrom. Any roofers in the Champaign area looking for work? You should come to my house during the day and help out these people working here. It’s pretty clear that they’re in no hurry about finishing, so in theory you could really milk this job…
Sundstrom, Matt – Second Chances
Website where you can buy the book
Second Chances
Who else is sick of the seemingly endless eight hours a day you have to spend at an office? I’m guessing it’s most of the people who are in that situation. I’m currently not stuck in that hellscape (but am well aware that that’s a temporary reprieve, barring a pile of money falling in my lap from above), but Matt clearly either is or is well aware of that mindset. This comic is a mostly silent tale of Matt going through an average day. There’s Matt stuck at a computer, hunching further down as the day goes on, and getting bounced around on the subway. He picks up a pizza, eventually falls asleep and is woken up by a read oddity. He had been given a flower earlier in the day that can bring life to inanimate objects, so he decides to make a substitute for himself and send it off to work. Meanwhile Matt (I should probably just say “Matt substitute,” as I have no idea if this is really supposed to represent Matt and we all know the dangers of assuming) runs off to the wilderness and survives on his wiles. Things progress, the cardboard Matt ends up doing really well at work and with Matt’s old colleagues, and actual Matt (as represented in the comic, obviously) gets more than a little tired of roughing it. He decides to return to his old life, but by this point cardboard Matt has plans of his own. I’ve seen plenty of comics where the artist bitches endlessly about their sorry lot in life, but kudos to Matt for showing that there are always crappier options to your crappy life, and it can be dangerous to get exactly what you think you want. It doesn’t hurt that the art is gorgeous and that almost every panel tells a story (they kind of have to, what with it being a mostly silent comic and all, but Matt pulls this all off perfectly). Excellent production values for a $3 comic too, which leaves you with exactly zero reasons not to check this out. $3
Update for 6/28/11
New review for Revelations #1 by Louise Cochran-Mason & Barry Southworth. How long is it this after-flu “feeling better but still exhausted for no reason” crap supposed to last anyway? Blech.
Cochran-Mason, Louise & Southworth, Barry – Revelations #1
Website (where you can buy the book)
Hereafter Press
664 North Main Street
Bristol, CT 06010
Revelations #1
Oy. It’s bad enough when self-published mini comics don’t have any sort of contact information, but for a comic where they went to the trouble of getting it published? Louise and Barry used “Ka-Blam” digital printing, a name I’m seeing more and more on the backs of the more “professional” (i.e. color cover and excellent production values) comics, so it’s not like this cost $0 to put out there, and they couldn’t even be bothered with an e-mail address. Sorry, but that just seems stupid to me. I put the snail mail address up there, so for the two people in the world who still use that to order their comics while still being internet savvy enough to find such things online, there you go. For everybody else, well, maybe they’ll stick with this series long enough to eventually get a working website up about it. This all came about because I was checking on some of Barry’s old series and I was curious if some of them really stalled out after one issue or if I just hadn’t seen new issues. That can be a problem when my main method of getting small press books is through review comics, as if somebody doesn’t bother to send me one after a few issues I have a tendency to lose track. Have I mentioned that I’m in a rambling mood today? Christ. So how about the actual comic, other bitching aside? This is why I was wondering about Barry’s past work: seems promising, depending on whether or not they stick to the series for a few issues, but it could just as easily fall apart. Our hero is a woman who makes a living defending vicious criminals that she knows are guilty. She’s never lost and has set countless monsters back out onto the streets. Some hero, right? Still, it makes for a mildly interesting premise. We cut to six months later and she’s about to get pummeled by a group of thugs, which she arguably has coming but, as it’s put in the narration, “deserving and accepting are two very different things.” She sprouts some short, thick claws at the ends of her knuckles and takes care of the thugs. From here we get to see our hero trying drugs to stop the changes she’s experiencing and is finally given some facts about her condition by a mysterious figure who has broken into her apartment. So what you have as a whole are some possible cliches that could turn ugly, or enough new ideas for them to make something interesting out of all of this. It’s not a bad intro, I just find as I get older that I believe less and less that there’s going to be a #3 in a series, let alone a #6 that a series like this would probably need to really get going. If you’re less cynical than me, go ahead and order it by clicking on that link, or if maybe you think you’d like this type of story and don’t mind if it dies out after one issue. Me, I’m going to reserve judgment. $3
Update for 6/27/11
New review for Silent V #4 by Kyle Baddeley. Still messed up from this lovely weekend-killing flu bug, thanks for asking, but I dragged myself out of bed and all the way to the computer just so you guys could get your new comics fix. Yes, I am just that selfless.
Baddeley, Kyle – Silent V #4
Silent V #4
Could it be? Is this the missing Silent V origin story? Well, sort of. The storytelling in this one is damned near linear, which is shocking in itself after the first three issues. The first half of the comic (roughly) deals with the early years of our hero and his proficiency in killing aliens. I’m still not entirely clear on WHY he hates aliens so much, although it seems to be basically because his scientist father didn’t have time for him as a kid, so he killed aliens in brutal fashion to pass the time. Chances are I’m missing some nuance there. The second half has a human sacrifice gone wrong (actually an intended dingo sacrifice) and the escaped dingo learning about the god he was supposed to be sacrificed to. See, I was able to more or less summarize this issue coherently! This also leads me to an inescapable conclusion: I’m going to have to read all of these again when #5 comes out, theoretically by the end of the summer. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the things that seemed like nonsense before (delightful nonsense though, no doubt about it) are going to start coming together. If not, well, then Kyle hasn’t been doing his job properly. Still, there’s just enough sense to all of this that I can see bits and pieces of a master plan poking through the surface. You guys should buy some of his comics to motivate him to get #5 out on time. Sure, it helps me out, but this comic should be seen by the comic reading world at large. $2 (?)
Update for 6/22/11
New review for Weeknight Casserole by Kelly Froh, and why is it that I mainly get some variation of the flu in the summer months? It always feels vaguely wrong, outside of the obvious wrong feelings that it brings. I’ll still try to get updates together during the weekend though, as various chills don’t keep me from writing, right?
Froh, Kelly – Weeknight Casserole
Weeknight Casserole
I’ve found over the years of reading these books with funny pictures in them that there are two kinds of “collections of random stuff not collected in a single comic before” type of comics. One is the rushed mess of a comic, often half-filled with sloppy sketches, that was clearly done with the intention of having another (or one) book available at a convention. Then there’s the good kind, the kind that is full of stuff that just happened to be in different anthologies and sure, it probably doesn’t go together in any kind of logical sense, but who cares? Good comics are the goal here, not comics that tie together. This book fits that second description, as Kelly put a bunch of solid stories in here. Doesn’t Kelly know that you’re supposed to half-ass it for anthologies? Stories include a damned sweet piece about her Dad, an old boyfriend’s surprise party and how he was hit on all night by a male friend, cramming in a lunch break, “Accidental Adventures in S & M” (worth the price of admission all by itself), a page of small observances from her day, an early experience with live music (and not knowing a mildly famous guy by sight), and her odd crush on an older professor. There are a couple of pages that are portraits of various people, and not one of them was filler in any way. Once again I have nothing but praise for one of her comics. Sorry to disappoint the people out there who live for savagely negative reviews, but most of those folk left here years ago. $2
Mitchell, Brian John & Badon, Joe – Built #1
Built #1
Here it is! Brian’s 100th ongoing series! OK, maybe I’m being a bit of a glib dick, as that’s not even closely to being literally true, but damn, this man has a lot of ongoing titles to juggle. It doesn’t hurt that they’re all in comics roughly the size of your thumbs placed next to each other, but it’s still an impressive achievement. This one deals with a robot who breaks free of his programming and decides to escape. This robot is on all the time, constantly improving itself, and it knows that its behavior will be noticed sooner or later, so this escape is a matter of self-preservation. Anyway, it manages to escape, is eventually found by a group of angry humans, and discovers just how unlikely humans are to listen to a sentient robot. Things end on a note that quite obviously makes this another continuing series and why not? There are all kinds of possibilities from here. Sure, “robot gains sentience, escapes from captors and wants to join humanity” story has been done before, but at this point I have full confidence in Brian’s ability to get something new out of it. That and Joe Badon’s scratchy, almost panicked art was perfect for the story. So yes, the verdict is that this is another potentially excellent series. Or another potential series that is abandoned early on, and only time will make that clear. For now I’d say it’s worth your support, but what do I know? $1
Update for 6/21/11
New review for Major Mishap Pushes the Panic Button! by Jerry Goebert & Christopher Durant. In case anybody out there is looking for a convention to attend this weekend, it turns out that it’s FLUKE time again in Athens Georgia. The last one I went to was held in a bar, which should be mandatory for these things, and it’s a blast if you’re looking for great new comics, various performers and bands.
Goebert, Jerry & Durant, Christopher – Major Mishap Pushes the Panic Button!
Major Mishap Pushes the Panic Button!
It’s best that I get a few disclaimers out of the way before I get to the review. Jerry sent me a whole pile of comics but, due to the various technical problems my computer, scanner and brain have had over the last few months, I haven’t been able to get to them. Some of them are even still in the original envelope, to pull back the curtain on the goings-on around here a bit. So when I say that I don’t have much context to review this comic, or any idea if it’s part of a larger series (it sure seems like it, but that’s just a hunch at the moment), that’s exactly what I mean. I’m going to break my usual rule here and even talk about the ending, but to make up for it I promise not to spoil any of the other several comics he’s sent me, and it’s necessary for the point I’m trying to make. What is that point? That I don’t get this comic. Oh, the basic story is simple enough, and even a little funny: man trapped in a remote installation for 30 years snorts some “mystery powder,” gets a notice from his superiors that he cant’ handle in his state, and he blows up the world. It’s a very short comic, so that’s all you really need. But then there’s the presence of “Dusk, Ruska Vampire Nurse.” I assume that means that her name is Dusk, but a word of explanation about what a “Ruska Vampire Nurse” is would have been helpful, unless this is part of a bigger string of stories and I’m the one being stupid here. Anyway, it turns out that our hero gets nightly visits from this vampire nurse, so we see her in a few panels handcuffed near his bed, standing by a fan, and smiling a wicked smile after he discovers the mystery powder. Was it because she put it there? Was she a hidden instigator for the destruction of the planet? It seems like that would be a little inconvenient for her too. Anyway, the oddest thing was that there was no interaction between the two characters. She seemed to be there for very little reason. Was she invisible? Subtly influencing him? It’s a little baffling. I’ve already gone on too long about this tiny comic when I probably could have stopped at “I don’t get it.” I’ll have to dig through these piles further to try and find some contact info and a price, and I’ll update this thing once I do that. For now I did link to what is more or less (probably less) his website.
Update for 6/20/11
New review for The Collyer Brothers by Emi Gennis, and I just downloaded over 30 images to this computer (using the still very stupid process I’m stuck with in regards to this scanner), so any lack of reviews over the next couple of weeks will be due purely to my laziness/malaise/suddenly broken again computer. Not that it’s broken yet, but I’m well aware of my luck with these stupid things.
Gennis, Emi – The Collyer Brothers
The Collyer Brothers
And here I was thinking that this would be a mostly throwaway comic. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Emi’s work up to this point, and I was curious to see what she did with this story. Still, I got the general impression that most of her creative energies (in terms of comics at least) went to her Spaz comic. Turns out that she has plenty of that energy to spare for side projects like this, as it’s one damned fine comic. This is a story taken from Wikipedia (just in case you can’t read that cover and are afraid of the image embiggening process) about two brothers who lived as hermits in Harlem in the early 1900’s. The neighborhood changed around them, they both became hermits and withdrew from the world. When I say “hermit” I don’t mean your average person with little to no social life. No, I’m talking about two guys who would scavenge food from dumpsters and avoid paying bills until they were trying to generate their own electricity. And they were rich! Anyway, life went on, one brother had a stroke that left him blind, and their refusal to sell the house led to rampant speculation about the treasures hidden inside. I can’t say much more without ruining the ending, but Emi’s use of perspective leading up to that last page was a wonderful thing to behold. I still have a new Spaz to get to in the coming weeks, but this deserves the attention of the comic reading masses. I’m thinking maybe this is a concept she should really get behind, as there have to be a huge pile of stories about the internet involving people dying in bizarre ways. It’s a bit macabre, I guess, but Emi lists on her website that she lives with two cats and ghost, so how much weirder could it get? This isn’t listed on her website at the moment, but I’m guessing that if you send her $2 and request this book that she’ll be willing to help you out. Or add a dollar or two if you’re not sure, or contact her first. You know the drill.
Update for 6/16/11
New review for Monty #2 by Kayla Escobedo. Go outside and play, it seems to be a very nice day.
Escobedo, Kayla – Monty #2
Monty #2
More madcap hilarity from the only comic artist whose name I say out loud whenever I read her books. OK, maybe the truth is that it’s even more bleak than the first issue, but “Escobedo” is in fact very fun to say. Try it! Guaranteed to put a smile on your face, and good luck getting science to explain why that is. Anyway, stories include Kayla’s odd habit of picturing other people in class as bisected cross sections, general spiritual unrest, aimlessness, taking advantage of the brief moments of happiness without over-analyzing them too much, not bothering to waste time regretting the past, reality, pointless endeavors, and whether or not all this is just the elaborate dream of an alien. And that’s when things get really depressing. When you have four stories in a row dealing with a horrible illness, it’s kind of hard to avoid. These stories deal with diabetes (how it slowly killed her grandmother and her own worries about her biological odds of getting it herself one day), liver cancer (and it’s effectiveness at killing people), leukemia (and how it slowly killed her grandfather), and dementia. Top all that off with a story on the back cover (called “What a Terrible World” comix) about guys sexually harassing Whalegirl on the street and her slow, sad transformation to just a pair of boobs and a vagina. I know that women have it unimaginably rough in this regard, and there aren’t enough punches in the world for the assholes who participate in this kind of behavior. It’s just one more aspect of the planet that absolutely sucks. Ah hell, somehow the comic didn’t make me depressed but writing this review did. As for the quality of the stories, they were without exception thought-provoking, sometimes informative, and they ended up forming an impressive comic. Kayla has big things ahead of her in the comics, provided that she sticks with this backwards art form and doesn’t become a bigger star in some other genre. $5
Update for 6/14/11
New review for Herman the Manatee #3 by Jason Viola. Hey look at that, an update with no complaining about anything from me!
Viola, Jason – Herman the Manatee #3
Herman the Manatee #3
So much for all those boats hitting Herman on the head. Granted, Jason was able to make that running gag funnier for longer than I would have thought possible, and frankly he probably has it in him to make it funny again, but this issue veers away from that concept. In this one Herman is in jail. In case you were wondering why, it’s because he was hanging posters without a permit. Yes, the laws of the sea can be unduly harsh. Herman meets a couple of new friends in jail, one a self-loathing manatee (which is why he’s in jail) and a narwhal who is in jail because he killed other narwhals. Stories in here include a complicated escape plan, some time back out in the wild, and an even more complicated rescue plan. If I say any more than that this whole thing will get ruined, but I’m loving this change of direction. Sure, he still got hit on the head by a boat, but I think it was only the one time, and the individual strips are forming a cohesive narrative much more smoothly than they were in the first issue. Several strips don’t seem to have anything resembling a punchline, which is a welcome sight to me at least. And Jason’s art, even though he often doesn’t need to do much (what with it all taking place in the vast underwater ocean), is stellar everywhere. I was hesitant to go all in on this one because I was afraid it would get repetitive but you know what? Screw it. This is a damned fine comic book, and people who enjoy damned fine comic books should go out and spend some money on it. $3, or I just saw on his website that he’s selling the collection of #1-4 for $10, which is a steal.
Update for 6/13/11
New review today for Blackguard #3 by various international folks. Sorry about the review gaps, I had an actual weekend for once so no time for comics. I’ll try to make up for it during the week, he says one more time with his fingers crossed…
Various International Anthologies – Blackguard #2
Blackguard #3
The crime issue! If you’ve read past issues of this anthology and think that this is a subject that this crew could handle very well, you were absolutely correct. My only complaint is that almost the first half of the book is dedicated to a letters page and comics and zine reviews. Not that I hate such things, but sometimes it gets in the way of the actual comics, and I’m speaking from my own personal and cranky bias about getting zines and comics all jumbled up. As for the comics themselves, it’s hard not to find plenty to love. When things start off with a color strip about Nazi superzombie monkey sleeper agents (by Ryan Vella), you know you’ve reading a book with tons of potential. Well I do anyway, it’s entirely possible that such a thing would turn you off immediately, in which case I’d recommend leaving this review now. It’s OK, there are plenty of other comics to read about on this site and not a single one of them has a Nazi superzombie monkey sleeper agent to bother you. Strips include an actual serial killer and the Hamburglar discussing royalties (by “Glenno,” which may or may not refer to Glenn Smith), Adam Pasion (or his story stand-in) lighting an empty pool on fire as kids, Stratu with a brother killing his sister after a stupid argument, scribbling a penis on a “Walk” sign (by Bize), Chris Mikul with the profoundly strange story of Kenneth Neu, Shaun Craike with his crisis of conscience after his only attempted theft, Neale Blandon with the story of the property theft of Mickey Mouse, Anton Emdin with the angriest man on earth and Dexter Cockburn (with one of the few stories of his without visible sexual organs) with the story of the murder of a young girl and the enigmatic diary entry detailing the deed. There are also two text pieces by Damian McDonald and Henry L. Racicot, both of which are well worth reading. As I already gave away in the intro, this comic is well worth picking up. I only mentioned about half of the stories to leave you with a lot of surprises, and even if you think that comic and zine reviews are wasted space (and, even though I pointed them out, I did notice a few comics I should probably check out, making me a bit of a moron for even mentioning that in a negative light) there are still more than enough comics here to make this worth the $5.
