Monthly Archives: May 2014
Update for 5/30/14
A surprise deadline at work prevented this week from being as productive as I had hoped, but there’s always time for another Towerkind (#5, by Kat Verhoeven) review!
Verhoeven, Kat – Towerkind #5
Towerkind #5
Another issue, another chance to get a bit more clarity on a few of the characters involved in this opus. Am I allowed to call this an opus if it’s a series of mini comics? Eh, it’s my website, I can potentially misuse words if I want. Anyway, this time around we get some solid information on a couple of the kids that have been hanging around in the background, Duk and Daniel. We see them playing jacks outside until some jerk almost runs them over as he’s leaving the parking garage (with the way this series is going, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if whoever is driving that car factors into things too). One of them gets a cut on his knee, which leads the other one also mysteriously getting a cut on his knee. The rest of the issue is spent with the two of them exploring how far this connection of theirs goes, with another decidedly odd thing ending the comic. Oh, and these two kids are not related, just in case I didn’t make that clear. Kat even explained a bit of her thinking on the inside back cover, which has been illuminating every time so far. I’m thoroughly enjoying watching her build this story up brick by brick, and it may have taken me a few issues, but these covers are really growing on me too. I initially thought that they were just piles of junk that might be found around any tenement, but there’s a lot more going on in these images. They’re also wrap-around covers, so you’re only seeing half the picture. Buy the comics and see the whole thing! Or look around more online if you want to be cheap about it, I’m sure the complete images are out there somewhere…
Update for 5/28/14
New review for Darkest Night #2 by Hayden Fryer, and huzzah for getting this posted before the inevitable power outages start to hit with all the thunderstorms!
Fryer, Hayden – Darkest Night #2
Darkest Night #2
For whatever it’s worth, I was completely wrong in my guess of the direction that this series was headed. Which is the best thing in the world about reading a series, frankly. This was too big of a spoiler for the last review so I didn’t reveal it (and you should know better than to read a review of a second issue if you still have interest in being surprised by the first), but Caleb’s parents died in an accident in the last issue, not long after he’s dumped by his longtime girlfriend. This issue starts off with the funeral, with his ex (Callie) making the questionable call of bringing her new boyfriend to the funeral. I get where she could use the comfort, but the day really wasn’t about her, and it causes a few problems down the line. Caleb is having some troubles getting through the eulogy, and seeing Callie there doesn’t do him any favors. From there they all move to a smaller gathering, and at this point the boyfriend tries to stay in the car but Callie needs him with her, so they go in together and the new boyfriend tries to introduce himself to Caleb. It’s awkward, as he points out, and at this point a friend of Caleb’s literally barges into the conversation to try and break things up. Since I’m still guessing what’s going to happen here, I’d have to call that guy the hero of the story so far. Caleb slowly gets back to his life, but how do you recover from a series of tragedies like that? This is all shaping up to be quite a third issue, and I’m looking forward to getting my expectations subverted yet again. Hayden has done a really excellent job of showing some of the less talked about angles of a breakup, including how it all plays out when it happens right next to a family tragedy like this. There were more than a few heartbreaking moments in here, like poor Caleb waking up and sleepily asking his mother for painkillers. Hayden was also nice enough to send along a collection of his entire Billy the Demon Slayer series, and I’m looking forward to reading that all at once to see how it all comes together. Within the next couple of months if all goes well…
Update for 5/27/14
New review today for The Washington Tragedy by Robert Hendricks. It seems like every time I promise a certain number of reviews for the week it ends up falling apart, so let’s leave this week a surprise!
Hendricks, Robert – The Washington Tragedy #1
The Washington Tragedy #1
Just a note to clarify things before I get started: Robert has NOT given up on his “Stranger 2 Stranger” series, he’s just taking a break to work on this story. And hey, I’m all for artists trying new things, so long as my own personal preferences aren’t affected in the slightest and that they eventually go back to that thing they did that I already know that I love. Some slight exaggeration there, but I’ll bet at least a few of you agree with that completely. Anyway, this time around Robert is trying something completely different, as he tells the tale of Daniel Sickles, his wife Teresa and their life together. Daniel takes a crooked path to the top, being accused of being a shady lawyer and hanging out with prostitutes (well, one prostitute in particular, and he practically seemed monogamous with her). As is often the way, all this corruption eventually led Daniel to become a Congressman, and he moved into a house right across the street from the White House, with frequent visits from James Buchanan. Have I mentioned that this is set in the 1850’s? That’s pretty relevant information. Anyway, Daniel further scandalized this easily scandalized world by marrying a young woman of 16, with the general assumption being that she was knocked up when they got married. Teresa had the baby quickly and was often seen at social gatherings when possible, but Daniel was still perfectly happy to travel with his favorite prostitute and wasn’t particularly subtle about it. A friend of Daniel’s tragically had his wife pass away, and he gradually started spending time with Teresa (she had a lot of free time with the small children and Daniel away for work). This may have started out innocently but it did not stay that way, and rumors started swirling before eventually getting back to Daniel. I love how the cheating of the men is always just part of the deal in these old-timey stories, but if the woman is even possibly involved in anything even slightly untoward, look out. The rest of this comic details the search to determine the truth of the rumors, and Robert is going to be wrapping this story up in the next issue. He telegraphs pretty clearly where all of this is going on the first page, but I won’t ruin the surprise if you haven’t picked it up yet. I’ll withhold my judgment until this short series is done, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first issue and am looking forward to seeing what happens next. Granted, I have a pretty good idea, but that’s just a guess and I’m not going to spoil it by checking with the actual history of the event. $5
Update for 5/22/14
That’s right, I actually haven’t given up on the website. New review today for Towerkind #4 by Kat Verhoeven, although even that one is shorter than my rambling usual. That’s probably it for the week, then I won’t be around for the holiday weekend, then in theory next week might even be back to normal. Hey, if I say it enough times, it’ll end up being true eventually…
Verhoeven, Kat – Towerkind #4
Towerkind #4
This time around we finally start to get some hints that Tyson (the king of the tenement from past issues) may be a human being after all, although it’s still hard to shake the sense that he’s not a very good one. It turns out that he either has a girlfriend (Maha) or a girl that he is interested in, but he clearly has no sense of how to talk to her. That’s OK, as it’s also clear that she has no idea how to say no to the creep, and I can’t see this ending well. Maha is also fascinated by a couple of kids blowing bubbles beneath her window, as these bubbles contain images of life of other people in the tenement (odd but not terrifying) and a large meteor heading straight for them (terrifying). The sense of magic and/or things hiding beneath the surface is stronger than ever this time around, and I am slowly losing my struggle to keep these reviews more or less weekly and am in serious danger of just finishing the whole thing in a chunk. Hey, it’s Kat’s fault for telling such an engaging story.
Update for 5/8/14
Did I really think that I’d be able to put up a regular schedule of reviews this week? That was remarkably stupid of me. New review today for Alone Forever by Liz Prince, but it would be downright shocking if I manage to get another review up this week.
Update for 5/2/14
New review today for Beach Girls by Box Brown (with a story by James Kochalka). There’s an election on Tuesday so probably no review that day, but if all goes well there will be reviews for the other days. Happy weekend everybody!
Brown, Box; Kochalka, James – Beach Girls
Beach Girls
Ah, girls going to beaches for vacation. Why are they there and what does the local population think of them? I suppose neither of those questions is a big mystery, as they’re mostly there to let loose in ways that they can’t at home, and the local population thinks of them as either easy marks or obnoxious invaders to their town. This comic digs a little deeper into both of those things, as it wouldn’t be much of a comic otherwise. We’re introduced to the three girls first: the unnamed (or I missed it?) leading lady and her two friends Ducky and Katy. Our hero would like to be like Ducky (uninhibited) and Katy (gorgeous), but she also wants to make her own way and is more than a little annoyed at the two of them in general. On the other side we meet a muscle bound oaf and his friend. The oaf is thrilled that the tourist ladies are coming to town, while his friend just wants to surf and work at his skateboard shop and is most than a little annoyed at these intruders. Along the way we see various little interactions in the town, the nightlife options, how our lady heroine decides to spend her vacation time and how it changes her (and how it doesn’t). It was, simply, a damned near perfect representation of a vacation spent in a strange town, all of the days blurring together with all of the booze and marijuana. If you’ve ever been on one of those trips (or lived in a town where those people visited), good luck reading this without getting hit with some serious nostalgia and/or general memories and regrets. There’s also a story in here by James Kochalka, and I have to admit that I’ve lost touch with his work (other than Superfuckers) after he started aiming his comics more at kids. He has a pretty funny story in this one, as two… mushroom people? Whatever they are, they follow a trail of empty beer cans until they run into a passed out lady. The elder mushroom dude leaves when she starts to wake up, but the smaller one (Dweeb) starts yelling at her that she’s a pretty princess, and in her still-drunken state she takes this as her boyfriend from the night before making up with her (it doesn’t seem like she ever opens her eyes to see this little monster). So hey, there’s two solid stories in one comic for you to enjoy, all for the reasonable price of $6. What a deal!
Update for 5/1/14
New review today for Towerkind #3 by Kat Verhoeven. Tomorrow I go for the (recently) rare feat of three update days in a row! Ridiculous, I know…
Verhoeven, Kat – Towerkind #3
Towerkind #3
More new characters are introduced this time around, and the line between reality and the perception of these characters continues to be as blurry as can be. In this issue we’re introduced to an unnamed woman who finds a dead bird outside on the apartment grounds. She strikes up a conversation with this bird, asking it how it died, and gets an uncomfortable (but plausible) answer. She also asks it if it wants a grave, and what type of grave it would like to have if it does. This leads to a conversation (with herself) where she remembers another burial and the lengths she went to to keep that creature company, but then the king of the apartment complex shows up and ruins things, as he has a tendency to do. That kid is quickly becoming one of those characters where some kind of comeuppance is going to be required to make things right. Unless the story is going in an entirely different direction, which is entirely possible, as I still have another 10 issues to read before I find out. Three issues in and I’d say that it’s safe to recommend this series, and I’m once again debating whether or not to step up the pace of these reviews so I can see what happens next. If the story keeps humming along like this I won’t be able to help myself.
