Monthly Archives: January 2012
Swartz, Frank – Star Pilot #6
Star Pilot #6
Is two issues enough for a pattern? Because if it is then it’s safe to conclude that this comic has nothing to do with stars and only very little to do with pilots. Unless maybe either the monkey or the rhino (see the last review for this guy if you’re confused) is a licensed pilot, that is. Anyway, this one starts off with a musical genius who makes one mistake in his performance. The papers go crazy because of this error, so the musician finally decides that he has to get away from all the negativity and do something new. He finds a mountain that has never been successfully scaled and makes his way up, but comes across some small and starving birds. He decides to save them and give up his quest for personal glory, but the mountain remains treacherous and he still has to make it down alive. Oh, and the monkey and rhino from the last issue also play a very small but crucial role in things. This one lacked the sheer insanity that was #5 of this series and instead went with something like 85% insanity. That’s more than enough for me, and this comic was a lot of fun, even if page 14 did feature a ridiculously out of proportion yeti. Pretty sure this is also still $1, and the entire comic is up at Frank’s website at the moment if you wanted to read it for yourself. Of course, it’s better to buy it, so maybe just read a few pages to know that you either will or won’t like it.
Update for 1/26/12
New review for Gnarlton Livingston by James Stanton. Attention comics senders: I’m going to be out of town dogsitting for most of February (depending on whether or not I pick up a temp job in Champaign at any point in the next month). So if you’ve already sent me review comics, not to worry, I’ll probably either get them before I leave or a friend will pick them up for me if I’m nice enough to the guy. But if you haven’t sent the comics out yet it might be best to wait until I get back to Champaign and give the all clear here.
Stanton, James – Gnarlton Livingston
Gnarlton Livingston
Do you like pot? Do you like comic stories about pot? How about comic adaptations of a song that’s about pot? In that case, this comic will be right up your alley. As for the rest of us, you probably won’t find a whole lot to like here. This is an adaptation of a Carlton Livingston song called “100 Weight of Collie Weed,” which is about a guy trying to evade cops while carrying around, um, 100 pounds of weed. This comic kind of encapsulates my problem with comics/music/shows that are all about weed: OK, we’ve established that you really, really like weed. Now what? James has a pot leaf on most of his comics and his dinosaur series was all about dinosaurs that smoked a lot of pot, so we can kind of see where he’s coming from. But hey, at least that series had a lot going for it outside of that (and I should mention that he’s putting out a collected edition of that series soon with an entirely new “fifth issue” included), while this is a straight up adaptation of a song, which has never been my favorite kind of comic in any circumstance. Throw in the fact that I don’t generally care for reggae music and I’m not left with a whole lot. As for the rest of you, who knows? If you’re in your early 20’s and just discovering pot then you’ll probably love this, and his art is always nice enough to look at, but there’s not a whole lot to recommend this for the rest of us. I should also add that there’s a fold out cover (comprised of what is essentially four comic pages) for the song by Carlton Livingston, so if you do love the song then you can get a very nice poster about it for buying this comic. #5
Update for 1/25/12
New review for One Accord by Bill Quick. Hey, have I missed putting “12” up there yet? I think I may have accepted the new year.
Quick, Bill – One Accord
One Accord
Whooo boy. This probably isn’t going to be pretty, so I should at least highlight the things that I liked about this book. $.75 is a great price for a comic of this size and it never hurts to mention on the cover that you also take trades. I also thought he did a pretty nice job on the coloring and the art was mostly pretty good. Here’s the thing though: this is a religious comic, and I think religions as a whole are pretty damned silly. If you’re of a generally Christian persuasion, maybe you could find something in here to love, I don’t know. But I’m not (although I was raised that way, so I mostly know the Bible enough to talk about it), which means that I have to review this purely on its merits as a comic, and by that measure this comic is mostly annoying. Oh, one more good thing: at least it’s not a hateful religious comic. Well, in ways it is, but nothing bad is said about gay people, which seems to be a prerequisite for most religious work these days. The story starts off with our hero reading the Bible. That’s the first page, at the end of which he absorbs the book into his chest. Then Neal has a vision (not a dream, as he’s standing up the whole time) about a young woman who is in trouble at some kind of anti-religion rally. I thought they were at church at first, but then why would the pastor be doubting the existence of god? Anyway, Neal prays for a bit and god shows him his special armor: Aquaman’s costume, Captain America’s original shield (but intangible), a sword and a really dorky bike helmet. OK, those weren’t the names he gave for those things, but it’s quite an assemblage when it’s all done. So then the bad people decide that they’re going to eat the harlot (who somehow got tied up with a ball gag put in her mouth), but our hero chases a bunch of them off. Even with this comic I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I already mentioned that this is an overtly religious comic, so what do you think happens at the end? The last few pages are “answers” to a few difficult questions that people might have with references to Bible verses. So what’s my problem here overall? The woman-as-a-helpless-bystander bit has been old with me for years. What exactly did she do wrong anyway? Is a halter top a sign of demonic possession? And is it really OK for our hero to kill a good number of the people who were chasing them? Aren’t all people capable of redemption? Granted, he mostly just hit them with his thrown invisible shield, but he was hitting them all in the head. And those joke hymns at the bottoms of most of the pages… oy. Listen, this comic was just not intended for godless heathens like myself, so in all honesty I can’t review it for its intended audience. The art is nice enough (although some of the faces get a little wonky) and he really did do a great job with the coloring. I just no longer have any patience for or tolerance towards being preached at.
Update for 1/24/12
New review today for A Smaller Hell by Adam Jakes. See, I can occasionally post updates on Tuesdays…
Jakes, Adam – A Smaller Hell
A Smaller Hell
Why in the world isn’t this a regular numbered series? I can see from the past issues that it started off as one, but then it turned into a series of individually titled comics. Granted, Adam does a nice job of recapping what came before at the start of the comic, but even that could have been made better if he had mentioned which issues to read to get a fuller story of the recap. I’m bitching mostly because he sent me two new comics to review and I’m still not entirely sure that I’m reviewing them in chronological order, and there’s no reason for that to a difficult question to answer. Anyway! This comic continues the story of Floid, Guedo and Madlenka. If you’re not familiar with any of those characters, check some of the other reviews under Adam’s name. Or maybe buying some of those comics would do the trick. Floid is bored silly after the woman he was supposed to be protecting was killed, and Guedo finds him and gets him to help find Madlenka. With a few fight scenes thrown in, of course. So they both go into her brain (a special trick of Floid’s), but their timing is terrible and she gets distracted and stabbed just as they go in. Oblivious to this fact the two of them go about trying to undo Madlenka’s brainwashing, but they only have a finite amount of time to do it and she may very well be dead by the time they’re finished regardless. Here is where Adam shines, as the creatures inside her brain were creepy as hell and the dialogue continues to make this book. In a lot of ways it would be easy for my to hate this, what with all the punch-’em-ups and such, but that dialogue is so often brilliant (and the art isn’t half bad either) that I can’t help but be drawn in. Once there’s some easy way to keep track of the order of these things I’ll have no problem with them at all. Guessing $6, mostly because it’s huge.
Update for 1/23/12
New review for Bad Breath Comics #4 by Josh Juresko. Who else knew that Jeffrey Brown had a movie out at Sundance? Or the fact that it starred the most ridiculously attractive woman on the teevee (Alison Brie from Community)? It was news to me…
Juresko, Josh – Bad Breath Comics #4
Bad Breath Comics #4
Is it still OK to give advice if it’s totally useless? No? You’re right, I don’t think so either. That being said, her’s some useless advice for Josh: his covers could use some work. Now here’s where it gets useless: I don’t have very good advice for the guy on how to make them better. I don’t care for the plain white borders on the covers, and keep the self-deprecation to the inside of the comic please, as you never know who’s going to be instantly turned off by that cover saying that there is no creativity in this book. That being said, his method enables him to sell these comics for $2 each, which is a damned good way for him to get people to pick up his books, and people should be reading these. That sample is brilliant, and part of its brilliance is the fact that nothing else in the comic is remotely like it. He has a nice wide range of topics in here and sure, they’re not all brilliant, but I love the fact that he’s trying so hard in so many different directions. First off there’s the intro and outro by Stepbrother Scary (kind of a Crypt Keeper-esque character), and I’m always a sucker for those bad puns. Actual comics in here deal with such subjects as a singing masked cowboy band rescuing a clothed platypus, fake covers from old comics, a two pager about “Satanama” that flew right by me, why a CD that you hate upon the initial listening can sound fantastic a few years later to you, and a continuing (?) story dealing with a young woman going home from work for the weekend and a creepy guy on the bus with an obvious hidden camera. There are also two longer pieces that I loved in different ways about History vs. America (featuring an obvious Bill O’Reilly stand-in and dealing with the need to have some idea of the historical relevance of current events) and taking a walk on a Saturday afternoon and seeing all of the televisions on inside with nobody watching them and nobody else outside on such a nice day. That second story actually managed something of a happy ending, even though I’m not supposed to mention such things. This whole review is a long-winded way of my saying that I love the vast majority of this comic (and of this series that I’ve seen so far) but think that a better cover would help it out. That being said, I should at least mention that I loved the sheer ridiculousness of that back cover, so make of that what you will. $2
Update for 1/20/12
New review for Flying Creature by Rob Jackson. Hey South Carolina voters, do you know what would be funny? If you voted for Herman Cain in the primary tomorrow. Why? Because that really means that you’re voting for Stephen Colbert, and who in their right mind wouldn’t want to do such a thing? And you do know that any and all registered voters can participate in this, right? So go vote!
Jackson, Rob – Flying Creature
Flying Creature
Ah, a comic as a newspaper. I’ve seen a few of these recently and love the idea, but hate the fact that I can’t scan anything off of the damned things and always have to end up using the sample images from the creator’s own website. And, in this case, that sample looks like total crap. Oh well, luckily Rob has a huge backlog of comics, so chances are that you probably already know whether or not you enjoy his work. Anyway, this comic starts off with a man having some quiet time by himself before this is rudely interrupted by a chase scene between a cop and a gangster. There’s a crash, the quiet old man tells the cop that the gangster has been killed but secretly fixes up the gangster because he’s not a big fan of the police. Our hero lets the gangster rest up but doesn’t want to return to that life (we’re left with the impression that he gave that life up for the peace and quiet many years ago), so he agrees to take him close to the city. On the way there they stop and stumble across a plot to take over the world involving angry caterpillars with wings. Hey, they’re not moths yet, so what else would you call them? From there we get a longer chase scene with some caterpillars that have an interesting method to increase their numbers, a peek behind the curtain to what’s really going on, and an absolutely fantastic finale. Sure, you could kind of see it coming, but it was still nicely done. I’m clearly getting older and crankier, as I used to love comics of odd shapes and sizes, but these days I’m mostly annoyed that I don’t have any place to keep them (too big for comic boxes, too awkward for a shelf). Still, I’ll take a great story over an awkward presentation any time, and this one fits the bill for that. That and a newspaper comic left laying out of a coffee table is always guaranteed to confuse even the friends who slightly understand the world of comics, which is always fun. No price listed, I’d say at least $6 from the sheer size of this.
Update for 1/19/12
New review today for Carl Finds Love #1 by Sara Lindo, which would have been up yesterday if it wasn’t for my website being down all afternoon. Anybody else having problems with that or was it just me?
Lindo, Sara – Carl Finds Love #1
Carl Finds Love #1
Ah, love. Judging from the pink store displays it is almost that time of year again where you are legally required to be dating somebody or else be considered a hopeless loser. Sara tackles the question of what it is that ladies like in this issue, which is kind of odd as she is a lady, but hey, I’ll take useful advice wherever I can get it. Um, I mean wherever the reader can get it. Anyway, things start off with what is almost an accident between a construction worker with a traffic cone for a head (or is it only ON his head?) and a car driven by a man with a tomato for a head. Oh, and the whole thing is witnessed by a walking, talking screwdriver. I know that Sara is dating the frantabulous Steve Seck (you know, those “Life is Good” comics that you are all reading), so now I have to wonder if they both decided to depict their characters as living inanimate objects or if it was their mutual preference for such characters that got the two of them together in the first place. There’s some pretty rough perspective work on that second page (a nearly wrecked car should not be smaller than the doors for a nearby establishment, and the traffic cone head guy should not tower over the vehicle as he walks towards it), but that’s the only error of that nature that I noticed. From there the guy with a tomato for a head offers the pair of gents some advice about the ladies: complimenting them on their appearance so that they know that “all that time they spend in the bathroom doesn’t escape our notice.” This man then walks up to a couple of ladies and uses one implicit and one explicit really bad pick-up line, and they both work like a charm. This confuses our two heroes (the traffic cone head guy and the screwdriver guy), but after seeing it work they decide to try it themselves on their lunch break. The result of their attempts are depicted below in the sample, and the rest of the comic is them talking with friends in a restaurant about their failed attempts and what it is exactly that the ladies like. Left unsaid in that conversation was the thing that flummoxed me: if the ladies hate that type of behavior in guys who were asking them out, why did the two ladies that the tomato head guy talked to give him their digits so readily? There’s still another issue to go that might explain that part that made no sense to me, but overall it’s a pretty fun comic with some pretty terrible advice on how to woo the ladies. Which, I believe, is kind of the point. $3
Update for 1/17/12
New review for Epic Tales of the Mundane #7 by Brad Dwyer. Three cheers for very tiny hail!
Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #7
Epic Tales of the Mundane #7
Between this and the recent mini comics from Max Clotfelter this is starting to feel like nostalgia week around here, as Brad was another one of the earlier people to consistently send me review books. Or my sense of time is all wrong and I’m mistaking the number of books he’s sent for the time period in which he sent them, which is a distinct possibility. But enough about website history, who cares about that in as disposable a medium as the internet? This comic is the first one that Brad produced in a couple of years due to financial troubles and life in general, and most of the material is from 2008 and 2009. Still, self-loathing three panel strips are pretty much timeless, and there aren’t enough topical references to make it dated. The bulk of the book is the three panel strips, with a the first part of a short story in the end that, to me, was the highlight of the comic. It dealt with the moment in high school when Brad went from being a painfully shy and awkward kid to a kid who used hate as a shield. Getting called out by a girl that he had previously rejected (after Brad’s acne flared up in a big way) was the final straw, and the reactions from all involved were authentic as could be. I’m intrigued as to where this is going next, assuming he keeps it going. Sure, I could just peek at the next issue that he sent me to figure that out, but then where is the mystery? As for the three panel strips, I might be the only person on the planet who thought his strip where he was trying to decide if he was doing three panel gag strips or a diary strip was funny as hell, but it won me over. Other subjects include what he should have said to specific questions, how his life was going (what with being newly married and sporadically employed), cats, trips to the doctor, geeky stuff and how awesome his wife is for appreciating it all. Worth a look if you’re already a fan, if you’ve somehow never heard of the guy you might want to go back to the earlier books to get more of a sense of who Brad is, but this one is just fine as a stand-alone comic. $2
Clotfelter, Max – Wing Man
Wing Man
Crikey, it’s been years since I’ve seen one of Max’s comics. Well, at least I think it’s been years, as I’ve found that website time does not necessarily correspond exactly to actual time. Good to see that Max is still loving drawing the representatives of the lowest rungs on the societal ladder, and you’ll be happy to know that any preconceptions you might have from that title are completely and totally wrong. This is the story of an amorphous blob of a man and his young son. Well, that and the fantastically creepy way that the older man hugs his son. The older man tells his son to look after “Maw” and goes away for 20 years. When he returns he discovers that “Maw” has either died or gone missing in his absence, so they both go to a local bar to… find her? Exact revenge? Share a drink to her memory? I’m pretty sure it’s not the last one, but other than that I’m not sure. Maw is never seen in this comic, so it’s all up to your imagination as to what happened to her/exactly what she is. It’s a great finale either way, with the final line explaining the point of the title. If you knew what it was you’d be laughing too, but you probably still need to buy the comic and I’m not going to ruin it for you. Max was nice enough to send along a few other recent minis, so he should be up here a few more times in the coming weeks. The man has been putting out quality comics for years (if memory serves, which it probably doesn’t, he was one of the first people to send me some minis for review when I started this thing up 10+ years ago) and he just keeps chugging along. No price, but e-mail the man and you could probably get a copy for a buck or two.
Update for 1/12/12
New review for El Diablo by Luis Echavarria. Hey, snow! That’s right, it’s supposed to be winter. Good thing that the climate change stuff has basically eliminated seasons. Makes it much easier to decide what to wear…
Echavarria, Luis – El Diablo
El Diablo
This book just might have my favorite comics intro of all time. Luis talks about how this book is based on a song called “NeoSatan” from an Argentinian punk band. He then tries to explain that it isn’t as dark as it sounds, that the song is actually just off-beat, before clearly realizing that he can’t possibly explain all the nuances on the inside front cover of a tiny comic and just leaves it up to the reader. Yes, you’re right in thinking that there is only a very small list of people who would even notice something like that much less love it, but that’s why I’m here. Anyway, the comic is the story of the devil sitting at a bar and remarking on how far he’s fallen, how he’s not even capable of scaring people any more. It is upbeat in an anti-devil kind of way, but the devil himself is clearly having a miserable time of it. Oh, and there’s also a kid involved that helps set up more hilarity for the devil before the book opens up (it’s one of those minis where you can unfold it into one giant final image) for the finale. My only problem was that the art seemed kind of uncomfortably cramped at times (it looked like it might have been shrunken down from a larger comic), but it’s still a great story. Which makes, what, everything this guy has sent me so far? There are still a few left to go, maybe there’s still a stinker waiting to be found. No price, but due to the size of this thing I’d say you could probably get a copy for a buck or two.
