Monthly Archives: April 2014
Update for 4/30/14
Well, at least I had a good excuse for the gap between updates this time: I haven’t had a functioning internet since last Friday. Two new reviews today to make up a bit for lost time. A Voyage to Panjikant by Marguerite Dabaie and Darkest Night #1 by Hayden Fryer. More later in the week! Tomorrow probably, assuming this new cable modem holds up…
Dabaie, Marguerite – A Voyage to Panjikant
A Voyage to Panjikant
It’s usually a good sign when my main complaint about a comic is that it’s not long enough. This felt more like a preview to this series than the first comic of the series, but I’m not the boss of Marguerite and she can release these however she likes. This series is historical fiction based on the Sogdians of the 7th century and their travels along the Silk Road. This issue specifically deals with a merchant and three of his children (although we only see two of them). It is mostly told in the form of a flashback, as the father explains to his daughter why one of his sons is being punished with cleaning the stables when that is usually the job of the other son. It turns out that this son, despite studying Buddhism for over two months, was still unable to satisfy some Buddhist businessmen, which led to some real problems for his father. Marguerite was nice enough to include a little afterward in which she explains that there’s lots more to come and that these characters will be fleshed out more as she goes, which means that she has plans for this series. Which is a good thing, as I’m already intrigued to see more of this world and time period. This is also one of those cases where her having the ability to color the story (I’m assuming that it was her, as nobody else was credited) transforms it into something greater than your average mini comic. It still would have been an interesting story in black and white, but the colors turn it into a gorgeous work of art. Take a look at it, you won’t be sorry. Oh, and I don’t usually mention other art projects from the various comics artists I talk about, but Marguerite also makes and sells pillows based on Tang dynasty Chinese motifs, and they are ridiculously beautiful. Buy the comic, read it while reclining on one of her pillows! $5.50
Fryer, Hayden – Darkest Night #1
Darkest Night #1
This series is off to a promising start, which is always a welcome sign when somebody sends along their entire series so far for me to review. Things start off with a couple breaking up, as the guy gets home from work (?) only to find a text from his girlfriend breaking up with him. I think he’s meant to be the scary creep of the pair, but breaking up with somebody via text already made me dislike the girl a bit. We see them both at school the next day (they’re in high school, when all relationships are the end of the world), and the girl seems to be taking things a lot better than the guy. Oh fine, the girl is Carlie and the guy is Caleb. Anyway, her friends seem to be thrilled at the concept of Carlie being single along with them, while Caleb is brooding and not ready to listen to his friends call Carlie trash and that he’s better off without her. Things move along from there (some timeline would have been helpful here, but I’m guessing this takes place over the course of a few weeks), with Caleb getting moodier all the time and Carlie moving on, as she even takes tentative steps to start dating again. At this point I had a suspicion that I knew where all this was heading, which makes Hayden’s next move even better, as I did not see the tragedy that does happen coming. My only complaint so far is that a little backstory would have been helpful to know why this breakup had to happen and why it was seemingly only a big deal to Caleb, but Hayden sent along two more issues that might explain that more clearly. Like I said, this is an intriguing start to the series and I’m curious to see which direction this goes from here. This is $10 Australian money, but I’m a dumb American and have no idea what that translates to over here in North America. It’s worth contacting him to find out!
Update for 4/23/14
New review today for Get Over It by Corinne Mucha. That’s two new reviews in a row, which shouldn’t be noteworthy, but I’m well aware that it’s been sporadic as all get out around here lately. Cautiously optimistic that I can make it three days in a row tomorrow!
Update for 4/22/14
New review today for Towerkind #2 by Kat Verhoeven, which will probably be a fairly regular occurrence until I work my way through her series. More to come this week, unless things get crazy at work again, which does tend to happen around election season…
Verhoeven, Kat – Towerkind #2
Towerkind #2
Two issues in and I’m already starting to think that I’m going to have to review these issues more quickly than just once a week. Or maybe just review more than one of them at a time? I’ll figure something out, but it’s clear already that things are going to happen slowly and that it would probably be a more rewarding experience if I read this series in bigger chunks. That being said, what’s going on this time around? Our hero from the last issue (the kid who was reading and wouldn’t bow to the “king”) slinks away from his confrontation in tears. He runs into a German priest (who is speaking German, so I have no idea if he tried to give advice or was just talking about the weather), then goes back up to his apartment. A tin can comes down to him as he sits on his balcony, and he starts chatting with a neighbor girl who isn’t allowed to use a cell phone. The rest of the issue is them going off on an adventure, once again raising the question of what powers the people in this complex actually have and how much of this is the illusions of kids with plenty of imagination and a lot of free time on their hands. I’m clearly enjoying this quite a bit, as it’s not like I’d be clamoring to review something more often that I was hating, but I still have no idea where it’s going. Maybe that’ll end up being a letdown, but it’s always hard to tell this early, and either way it looks like the ride is going to be a blast.
Update for 4/16/14
New reviews today for Number 1 by Box Brown and Wicked Chicken Queen by Sam Alden. Also I missed SPACE this weekend, due to the second worst stomach bug/food poisoning I’ve ever had. That’s what I get for not just going on Saturday, I guess. I’ll contact the people I usually talk to over the next few weeks, but I really hate not getting to see the great new stuff that I’ve never heard of. If you went to the show and have favorites, please let me know!
Brown, Box – Number 1
Number 1
Most people probably have that moment as a kid when they learn that something that they believed to be real isn’t actually real. Mostly this is because our parents have lied to us (about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or “work hard your whole life and good things will happen to you”), but in the case of this comic this comes about when our hero meets a wrestler and learns about “kayfabe.” In wrestling terms, this is the acting out of the story, where the winners and losers have already been pre-determined, and pretending that this is all real life and they’re making it up as they go along. Once our hero learns of this it’s impossible for him not to apply it to the rest of the world around him. For example, when the anti-drug people came to his school and sprayed something that was supposed to smell like marijuana at them, he couldn’t help but notice that he had also smelled the same thing when he went to visit his father at work. From there the kayfabe theory spread into everything, and the only thing he had left to do was to start a magazine explaining his theories and the proper way to view the world at large. The rest of the comic deals with chasing his hero, expanding the business (by learning how to properly exploit the dopes who were willing to pay for it in the first place), and learning how wrestlers “blade” so that they can properly have a crimson mask for certain matches. It’s a damned fascinating mash-up of the hopefulness of starting a new business mixed with the bleakness of starting that business to tell everybody that the world is all bullshit, and the uncomfortable reality that a hero of his who inspired the entire thing can easily be forgotten by the world at large. There are also two one page strips at the end, showing a documentarian who goes about his daily life while not being entirely clear on how to interact with humans. The inside back cover showed that Box was working on the life story of Andre the Giant, which will be required reading for any human once it comes out. I don’t know if the full story of Andre has ever been properly told, but the idea of it coming from Box sounds just about perfect to me. As for this one, it’s well worth a look, but Box’s name alone should have been enough to clue you into that fact… $6
Alden, Sam – Wicked Chicken Queen
Wicked Chicken Queen
You know that part of the comic where things need to get wrapped up in some fashion, and you’re left wondering what exactly the creator was going for with that ending? Well, without giving anything away here, that’s where I am with the end of this comic. It seemed like the events of the end of this were going to get a bit of an explanation, then the comic literally just faded away. Boy howdy am I ever getting ahead of myself with this review, but that’s the last part that I read, so it’s the first part on my mind. This one starts off with a race of people relocating to a new island. They find a giant egg pretty early on, and it becomes a crucial event in the development of their society. The egg eventually hatches and the giant chicken is adopted by the king, eventually taking over as ruler of this land (as you may have guessed from that title). The chicken queen marries her best friend, they reign happily for many years, and her friend eventually dies of natural causes. From there the queen becomes different, mostly showing this by being more distant, but the violence does come eventually. While I may not have been totally happy about the ending, the individual pages were fantastic, as there’s plenty happening on every page. Each page is one panel, and they each show basically the entirety of the island and many things that are happening on it. I did like the bit towards the end describing the inability of the townspeople to communicate with the chicken and why that was the case, I was just a little underwhelmed with the ending. To me that still makes this a comic well worth reading, as I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and several little touches along the way. If you’re the type who has to have a completely satisfying ending to make it all worthwhile, maybe you should move along. Of course, there’s always the chance that other people will have a different opinion of the ending than I do. Shocking, I know! $5
Update for 4/10/14
I’m scrambling a bit to make up for lost time, so here are two new reviews, for Towerkind #1 by Kat Verhoeven and The Great Moments in Western Civilization Volume 5 Issue 1: Chicago by Caitlin Cass. Or at least I think that’s the title; I got a bit lost in all those words on the cover. More tomorrow probably, everybody go to SPACE in Columbus Ohio this weekend!
Cass, Caitlin – The Great Moments in Western Civizilization Volume 5 Issue 1: Chicago
The Great Moments in Western Civilization Volume 5 Issue 1: Chicago
Ah, Chicago. This comic is all about how Chicago came to be a city, including all the gory details about their attempts to build a sewer system and their inability to get the meat packing plant to quit flushing the heads of pigs into said sewer. Oh, and this also talks about the fire (you know the one), while delightfully leaving off any speculation that it might have been started by a cow. I grew up about an hour south of Chicago and I didn’t know most of this, so huzzah for learning more about my heritage! Well, not really my heritage, as I didn’t grow up in Chicago, but it’s easier to just say that I’m from near Chicago when meeting people instead of telling them about my hometown of about 3,000 people. The bulk of this comic is done as a large fold-out page, with one side dealing with the origin of the town and the other dealing with the fire and the attempts to rebuild/the gifts received from well-meaning but sometimes unhelpful foreign dignitaries. It’s gorgeous and often funny, and probably should be taught in schools, if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s pretty unflinching with its depiction of the meat packing plant. Granted, they are horrible places, and they were significantly more horrible back in the day, but kids are probably not allowed to see such things in school, because why trouble their heads with unpleasant facts? Check it out, learn something about Chicago why don’t you!
Verhoeven, Kat – Towerkind #1
Towerkind #1
Have I mentioned that I love it when people send me entire series that they’ve already completed? Because if that’s a position that you find yourself in (with a finished or mostly finished comics series), you should maybe keep that in mind. Mostly because I’m always happy to have a theme day, so for the next three months I’ll be doing weekly reviews of this series. Unless I get really caught up in it and end up reviewing it in bigger and quicker chunks, but my plan is weekly for now. Anyway! All that rambling and not a word about the actual comic. This is a series about a group of young teenagers living in an overcrowded clump of high rises. In this issue one kid declares himself the king and asks the other kids to bow to him. This goes pretty well until one kid defies him, which leads to what can only be described as an act of super strength (unless dumpsters are insanely light in their neighborhood). It’s an intriguing start, especially because the violence does not go at all in the way that you might suspect after that act. These are a bunch of kids, after all, and most kids aren’t used to the consequences of any kind of violence. Lots more to come about this series, and it’ll be interesting to see which way this one goes. So far it looks like only subscriptions are listed at her website and not single issues, but I’ll check into that to make sure…
Update for 4/5/14
Of course I’d get really busy with work/life just as I said that reviews should get back to normal around here. My fault; I was asking for trouble to say something like that. Anyway, new review today for Picnic Ruined by Roman Muradov. Next week should be… nah, better not jinx it. Either way SPACE is next weekend and I should be able to pick up all kinds of new comics to review there. If you live in or near Columbus you should go too!
Muradov, Roman – Picnic Ruined
There are times when I have to admit that I have no idea what I can contribute to the conversation about a comic. No, this isn’t me getting all self-effacing and “aw shucks” about this website, as I think that I do contribute meaningful rambles about comics every now and then, or at least point at books that deserve more attention. It’s just that when I run across somebody like Roman, with his ridiculous list of credentials and clients, it’s clear that the guy is operating on a different plane than me. That’s the basic reason why I barely ever bother to review the new Dan Clowes book, or anything by the Hernandez Brothers, those sorts of things. They know what they’re doing, anything I say would be nitpicking, so why bother? So instead of treating this comic like that, I’m just going to treat it like any old comic and see what happens. This is a comic of shadows holding images and images holding shadows, thoughts that trail off into jumbled messes or moments of insight, thoughts of self-doubt turning into rueful acceptance and/or tolerance of the way things are and maybe even getting to a perfect moment. Or it’s about a guy who wanders aimlessly through his evening, including literally running into a tree while not paying attention. Or both! Things start off at either a really boring porno shoot or a naked art project, which leads our hero to wonder about what things in the world have a foreskin and what things should have a foreskin. Right away Roman has introduced something that I’ve never thought about, which was quickly followed by wondering why I never thought about it, so kudos to him for that. From there our hero flees out of fear of being photographed at this event and into a bookstore, where things get messy in a hurry (with a delightful curse thrown in). The rest of the comic deals mostly with his thoughts, his conversation with somebody who isn’t into indulging him on his shit, and dealing with his self-doubt. In other words, not the sorts of things that are easily reviewed, or are even helpful things to review. On an aesthetic level this is gorgeous, as you can take the linear approach or just follow the lines of dialogue to see if you can spot every random thought that pops into his head but is written down too quickly to be understood. If you’re looking for people punching each other to solve their problems then this book won’t do you any good, but if you’d rather wonder about the universe while wondering if that wondering is itself pointless, maybe you should give this one a shot. $6
