Monthly Archives: February 2013
Update for 2/27/13
Feeling oddly unmotivated this week, which happens from time to time, but there’s a new review today for An Army of Lovers Will Be Beaten Volume One by Bernie McGovern. Which may have broke me out of that funk all by itself…
McGovern, Bernie – An Army of Lovers Will Be Beaten Volume One
An Army of Lovers Will Be Beaten Volume One
I reviewed the first issue of this series years ago, and Bernie was recently nice enough to send me the first two collected editions, making up the first six issues of the comic (that’s assuming he’s even putting them out in single issues any more, as he may have decided to just put out the collected editions for financial reasons). In my first review I mentioned that it’s projected to be 12 issues, which may or may not still be true, but these two books should give a solid impression of the series regardless. Right away I have to warn you: if that title strikes you as whimsical, that you might get a lot of chuckles out of a series with that title, that will not be the case. Unless you’re a remarkably morbid human being, I guess. Things start off with our hero Buckeley trying to get some distance from the war he’s fighting. The journey is told in grim but exacting detail, and we see him immediately being sickened by the town he’s arrived in. Bernie didn’t skimp on the level of detail at all here, as even the individual people in the crowd scenes are distinctly individual people (unlike lots of people who draw a few faces in the crowd and leave the rest of it an indistinct mess). Buckeley eventually makes his way to what he thinks is a peaceful place, only to discover that bombs are landing in his resting area. I don’t want to go into too much detail, as this series should be read by any person with an interest in the quiet moments of a pointless war, but from there we get to meet some of the nastier (and nicer, and sadder) inhabitants of this town, Buckeley’s wife (and what she is now doing for a living, not to mention who she’s living with), and various other residents of this town. The third issue is set entirely in a bar (outside of a few flashbacks) and it’s absolutely riveting. We get to see how this war affects people and creatures from a few different walks of life, including the reason why everybody thinks Buckeley is a war hero (and the real story behind the heroism). The details of this universe are laid out bit by bit, with plenty of things still left to be uncovered. I apparently wasn’t fully convinced just from reading the first issue of this series, but reading the first three issues in this collection washes those doubts away. The quiet, deliberate nature of the revelations draws you right in and keeps you there, and I think I’m going to break my unwritten rule about not posting reviews about the same person on consecutive days and will read and review the second book tomorrow. So for long time readers, that should give you a better indication of how much I liked the first book than anything I could say here. $10
Update for 2/21/13
Two new reviews today, both from Lutefisk Sushi E: In Between by Jacklyn Hedlund and Tits! The Spiny Northern Maid by Caitlin Skaalrud.
Skaalrud, Caitlin – Tits! The Spiny Northern Maid
Website where you can buy Lutefisk Sushi E
Tits! The Spiny Northern Maid
Ah, mermaids. Disney ruined how monstrous those creatures could be years ago, but Caitlin is doing her part to right that wrong. Not that’s she portraying mermaids as monstrous necessarily, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The idea behind this book is that a mermaid has been captured and has been held for the last 20 years (mermaids live for hundreds of years, so this isn’t considered to be all that long). There are five other types of mermaids, but the rest of them have been hunted to extinction over the years and most of them don’t look all that human anyway. We learn all this through a class that’s being taught by a woman, and the mermaid falls for this woman right away. While she’s dreaming about this woman later on strange things start happening outside and the playing field is leveled a bit for this captive mermaid. I can’t say much more without ruining things, but this book was nicely done all around, from the behavior of the captive mermaid to the guy feeding her calling her “tits” because yeah, it would probably be that crude. I must be getting close to reading half of this Lutefisk Sushi E collection by now, and the vast majority of them have been well worth reading.
Hedlund, Jacklyn – In Between
Website where you can buy Lutefisk Sushi E
In Between
OK, this is a really clever comic. It’s another one from the Lutefisk Sushi E box, and as such it’s damned short, but it didn’t need to be long to make its point. You know all of those stories involving some lone hero on a quest of some sort, how all we usually get to see is a straight line from A to B? This line can be long (like the Lord of the Rings trilogy), but it’s still going clearly from A to B. This comic takes the hero from one of those quests and shows what happens when he goes off track a little bit. He’s still completely self-assured, but his asking a question about “the one I am looking for” to a random stranger makes him seem a little crazy, as it so obviously would. There may or may not be a larger story attached to this and, oddly, for once I don’t care. This is a perfect little moment all by itself, and another fine example of the kind of comic that fits perfectly into a large grab bag of mini comics like this.
Nall, Alex – Morbid Dork #1
Morbid Dork #1
Note to all reviewers: it doesn’t hurt a thing if you include an illustrated letter with your comic explaining your reasoning for sending me your comic. It doesn’t technically help either, as I do try to review everything that comes to me eventually (and if I haven’t reviewed your book it’s because it’s at the bottom of a pile of comics that I think have already been reviewed, or it fell behind my desk, or it might have never gotten to me at all). This comic is mostly about three college kids who are living together, but this is almost certainly not the comic that you’re expecting from that description. We see right away that these people don’t like each other all that much, and to simplify things they’re called “Asshole,” “Pussy” and “Psycho” respectively. We see the psycho in his day job working at a grocery store (he seems to like stabbing people in the face, and he likes mentioning this fact to everybody he meets), the two “evil” roommates thriving on the misery of others, a discussion on the merits of having a kid (including a nice slow mellowing to that fact by the psycho (Coop), which is tempered by the reality of the situation a bit), and the first meeting between Coop and Jamie (the asshole). Odd that Jamie seems to have grown limbs and a body since those early days, but hey, it’s good to include it for the sake of the longer story. Alex has some odd usages of space in here, as the story about the possibility of having a child has vast open spaces in the middle of the pages and a couple of stories just generally peter out, but overall it’s a damned funny comic with nary a spelling/grammatical error to be found. Both good things in my book! Alex sent along a few other books and I’ll be getting to those in the coming weeks to get a better idea of what this dude is capable of, but so far so good. $3
Update for 2/19/13
New review for California #1 by Rob Jackson. Hey, why aren’t there any small press comic conventions in the winter? Too much of a chance of poor weather, so why risk only a few people showing up? That’s a good point. Nice chatting with you!
Jackson, Rob – California #1
California #1
Spoiler alert: we never get to see California. This one starts off a lot like “The Grapes of Wrath,” with a family losing their farm and heading out to California in search of better times. They get into an accident on the way (well, an accident on their part; the truck that runs them off the road doesn’t seem to care about them one way or the other), the dad hurts his ankle and is unable to work, and one of the sons ends up taking a job to pay for repairs. While this is going on another one of the sons has taken to wandering off constantly, into the creepy local woods, and generally seems to have trouble concentrating or helping the family. This daydreaming son (Jake) somehow gains the ability to heal people, so he heals his dad and convinces the family to keep on going to California, leaving the other son (Billy) behind so that he can keep paying off their debt. Jake gets noticed by some religious folks in California, the family earns enough money to pay off their debt and get Billy back, and I’m on the verge of describing the whole book to you. We do start to see some very brief hints of what might be happening in that creepy forest, learn about the very human problem that also exists in those woods, and generally have things nicely set up for the next issue. Out of how many issues? Who knows, but Rob has proven in the past that he’s more than capable of juggling a few different series at once. Worth a look, and Rob has already made enough interesting/ridiculous/fantastic series that I’m on board with whatever he wants to try. And yes, I’ll be here to point it out if the whole thing goes off the rails…
Update for 2/15/13
It’s a Friday extravaganza! New reviews for Prologues by Mark Allender, Kick Flip by Britt C.H., and Hide & Sheik by Matt McMillan & Lindsay Kremply. Prologues is not in Lutefisk Sushi E, the other two comics are. Happy weekend everybody!
C.H., Britt – Kick Flip
Website where you can buy Lutefisk Sushi E
Kick Flip
If you just look at these comics in Lutefisk Sushi E as samples for bigger works from the individual artists, this comic worked great. It’s a fairly simple story about an animal that digs up a grave and is captivated by the skateboard that it finds (without knowing what a skateboard is). It’s mostly just this creature doing tricks, with some shenanigans at the end that I won’t spoil, because what’s the point of spoiling a nine page comic? The intriguing parts are that the creature doing the digging looks like a doe with one of those pod coffee makers strapped to its head, and the other creature that comes into the picture later looks vaguely like a black gargoyle. All this caused me to check out her website to see what else she’s done, while I probably wouldn’t have done that if this was just a comic about some dude doing skateboard tricks, so mission accomplished! Oh, and it turns out that she’s done plenty of comics and has something much bigger coming out early this year, and the art in this mini was fantastic, so maybe keep an eye on her, why don’t you?
Allender, Mark – Prologues
Prologues
What a great idea for a comic. Mark, you see, has a much longer story he’s working on called “Kill the Wizard” (so you can get a sense of the genre he’s working on, just in case this cover didn’t give it away), but he wanted to practice on the characters and backgrounds a bit before he really got rolling. So he did a prologue story for three of the characters that are going to be involved in the big story, turning it into a mini comic. Not that Mark is the first guy in the world to do a prologue to a planned longer story, but this comic shows that he already has a pretty good handle on these characters (on their appearances at least; as I have no idea where his big story is going to go I have no way to know about the big picture). The stories in here include a snake trying to sneak up on a gnome, a demon worshipper who succeeds in bringing a demon into the world, and a veteran returning from some undefined battles to an indifferent king. Each of these pieces does a great job of setting all this up, as we see exactly what the gnome is capable of right away, the demon has something that he is obviously looking for, and the jaded veteran has an obvious connection to it. Oh, and did I mention that this whole comic is silent? I don’t know how that would play out over the course of a graphic novel, but it’s perfect for this. The art looks great too, so there’s no reason in the world Mark can’t get going on that bigger story right away. I do have one small complaint, and it’s a nitpick: the creature (and what an odd creature it is!) that gets stabbed by the veteran in the third story? In one panel the veteran is stabbing upwards into its neck, and in the next panel the sword is sticking out of its neck pointing downwards. Don’t forget to pay attention to detail while crafting your epic!
Update for 2/13/13
New review today for The Adventures of White Cat Volume 2 by Ben Rosen. I rambled a lot in that one! As opposed to the rest of the time when I am so very concise.
Rosen, Ben – The Adventures of White Cat Volume 2
The Adventures of White Cat Volume 2
Finally, a super hero parody that’s sure to please everybody. Well, such a thing is technically impossible, and that’s not even getting into the vast majority of the population that will never even see this book, but I’m already getting distracted. I just don’t see any way that a human being who had any interest in comics at all could read this and not be overjoyed. My only tiny complaint is that I really wish that there was a recap of the last book at the start of this book, but my universal edict on this subject has still not been taken up by the comic producing public. Ah well, at least the occurrences of “your” and “their” being used incorrectly seem to have dipped in recent years. Anyway, White Cat is a fairly humble guy who’s not at all sure of his place in the universe (that “aw, shucks” cover being a damned near perfect representation of that fact, along with a good way to highlight the massive cast of characters), and I’m still not clear on his super powers, other than using his punches to solve problems. This book is a series of shorter stories, maybe from the internet, maybe from mini comics, who can tell? Stories in here include White Cat’s efforts to get his musical hero changed from a dinosaur back into a human, trying to unravel the mystery of why the latest album from his musical hero is terrible (going to great lengths to avoid the obvious “maybe it’s just bad” hypothesis), a fresh take on the “our bodies have been switched around!” storyline (which I didn’t think was possible, but his discovering new powers while being in Colonel Spectacular along with many other things I don’t want to spoil here were handled very well), learning the limitations of a cell phone charge while taking a space flight to test napping, and his battle with his own insecurity about a lack of money and the future of his relationship (which materializes itself in the form of a yeti). Each one of these is densely layered, and that’s not even including some of the thicker pieces. There’s the White Cat, his casual use of a time portal that goes back to the 50’s to get a replacement typewriter for a reporter friend, the advice he gets about how to woo a lady from his mortal enemy (who is utterly fantastic in his own right), and the mental breakdown that Barracu-Dan has when he can’t get anybody to take him seriously. Or there’s the one where he gets captured by Fratboy Scientist and injected with the secret ingredient in Four Loko, while his theoretical lady love learns exactly what her current boyfriend thinks of her, and the hints of an overall evil master plan at the end of it. Or the nostalgia bomb story! That one was utterly packed with goodness, from people being forced to relive moments from the 90’s, the douchebag music critic, the robot half-brother of White Cat’s girlfriend who is the only other creature who isn’t affected by the nostalgia bomb, and the overall solution to the problem, among many other things. I’m gushing a bit here, sure, but comics are supposed to be fun, dammit, and this one was nothing but pure fun. What more could you ask for?
Update for 2/12/13
New review today for Jerry’s Journal #2 by Neil Fitzpatrick. Yes, I know that I’m running behind on reviews again, but I should be able to catch up as the week progresses. Or not! You know I like to keep it unpredictable around here…
Fitzpatrick, Neil – Jerry’s Journal #2
Jerry’s Journal #2
How much of this comic is autobiographical anyway? There’s no way to know, and Neil makes fun of that fact in his brief epilogue. But the fact remains that Neil got his heart broken while he was making this comic, and the second half (and then some) deals purely with “Jerry” trying to come to terms with it. This comic is a series of one page strips, dealing mostly with life, trying to get some meaning out of it and the horror of dealing with a breakup. It’s pretty clear where this breakup happens, as things get grim in a hurry. Still, plenty of that stuff will look familiar to other people who have had their hearts broken, or everyone. Unless you’re one of those assholes who only breaks hearts, in which case shame on you, aren’t you aware of the trail of devastation you leave in your wake? Those looks aren’t going to last forever, you know. Anyway, there are still plenty of genuinely funny moments, as Neil is a master of that sort of thing. But this one also gets a bit more “real” than past issues of Neil’s comics. Or not, as Neil has always been about finding some meaning in the universe, and what’s more real than that? If you like his stuff I can’t see why you wouldn’t like this one, and if you’re not familiar with his stuff, where have you been these last 10 years or so? The man’s a comic producing machine and you should be reading his stuff. $5
Update for 2/7/13
New reviews today for The Horror #2 edited by Eric Schuster and It’s Cris Carver’s Fun Time! I think you can figure out who put that one out. Both from Lutefisk Sushi E, still going strong.
Schuster, Eric (editor) – The Horror #2
Website where you can buy Lutefisk Sushi E
The Horror #2
Hey, wait a minute, this isn’t an anthology! That “edited by” credit on the cover threw me right off. I guess an argument could be made that this IS an anthology, as around six other people contributed to this, but it’s a trick. The bulk of the story is the first chapter of “Dog Boy” by Eric Schuster, and everything after that is a full page spread of various assorted creatures. Is that an anthology? I need a ruling from a judge over here. I don’t think it counts. But hey, I can always review the actual comic part. The comics in this Lutefisk Sushi E box have mostly been self-contained so far, and that’s a good thing, but I can see the wisdom behind putting part of a continuing story in this box, as it’s basically a small press sample platter. Anyway, what we see so far is a young man going outside for a smoke break and getting into an altercation with a, well, dog boy. Or werewolf, or whatever it is. Oh, and the werewolf is riding a bicycle. The young man gets bit, as there wouldn’t be much of a continuing story otherwise, and things end with him getting a mysterious visitor at his door. It’s an intriguing start and I’m curious to see where it goes from here, but the danger that it becomes another cliched werewolf story is high. That mysterious visitor at the door is what’s keeping hope alive, as I do wonder what was up with that man. The full page spreads are pretty good too, with my favorite being “Surprise Minotaur” by Nathan Anderson. Yep, another good one in the mini comics box, another reason to buy the whole damned thing.
Carver, Cris – It’s Cris Carver’s Fun Time!
Website to buy Lutefisk Sushi E
It’s Cris Carver’s Fun Time!
When you’re dealing with a box of 30+ mini comics, all sold in the package called “Lutefisk Sushi E,” there are bound to be a few comics in it that are… insubstantial. Plenty of them are tiny, as there would be no other way to fit them all into the box, but some of them make more use of their space than this comic does. Not that it’s terrible, it’s just kind of there. This comic is the story of a joke, told to another character that doesn’t want to hear it, and the joke isn’t funny. The person being told the joke reacts appropriately, the end. The art is erratic and more than a little sloppy (I wouldn’t be surprised to hear something about this being a 2 hour comic, if that was a real thing), as your characters have to remain the same from panel to panel no matter what story you’re telling. So yes, it turns out that there are comics in this box that aren’t all that great. I would have been shocked if everything in here WAS great, and the success rate is still pretty damned high, so my opinion on the entire comic set remains the same. If you find this individual comic sitting around at a comic store in the future, unless you have the corniest sense of humor in the world, it’s pretty safe to skip it.
