Monthly Archives: January 2016
Webber, Georgia – Dumb 1 & 2
What would you do if speaking caused you physical pain? Suddenly, today, you woke up and found out that it hurt to talk? I’d imagine that most of you would do what Georgia did for quite a while: tell yourself that you were going to take it easy on the speaking, only to find that it really wasn’t possible in daily life. She was still going out to (loud) bars, still working her job at the (loud) cafe, and the problem kept getting worse. Finally she was able to make an appointment to see a doctor, but she even had to wait more than a month for that, meaning that by the time she finally saw somebody she had been dealing with this problem for about six months. It turned out to not be all that serious (relatively speaking, meaning no cancer), but the therapy needed for her to get better basically meant she had to completely change her life. Generally I don’t give out spoilers, which I guess is what you could consider that description, but these are only the first two issues of her series (which is up to #10 according to her website), so you need a little backstory to get started. That was most of the #1 right there, and #2 deals with her taking the steps needed to get better while also making enough money to live, and all the while fighting with herself to change her life as little as possible. I really liked the way she conveyed her thoughts and feelings about what was happening to her with wordless chatter and little expressions of pain while doing normal daily things, and how all of it kept getting gradually worse. This collection is clearly only the first part of her recovery, but I’m curious to see how she handles all these changes over the long run. If this collection is any indication it will be a fascinating read. $8
Update for 1/25/16
New review today for The Amazing Cynicalman Volume 2 by Matt Feazell, who has been making comics for a very long time.
Feazell, Matt – The Amazing Cynicalman Volume 2
The Amazing Cynicalman Volume 2
For everybody out there who has ever wanted to start a comic or comic strip but has figured that it was impossible because of their lack of artistic talent, I give you Cynicalman! It’s not a completely fair comparison, granted, as it’s clear that Matt could put more detail into his strips if he wanted. But he’s managed to build up a distinctive cast of characters over the years, and they’re all stick figures. This collection covers roughly 2008-2012, so it’s a fun peek pack into how much everything was effected by the presidential election of ’08 and was compelled to comment on it. Other than that Matt’s strips have stayed apolitical as far as I can tell, and even then he didn’t expressly endorse anyone or any particular viewpoint. But in those glorious days, the entire country understood that George W. Bush had messed up on a colossal scale and that it would take a miracle to put everything back together again. And if you think I’M biased, the dude had a 22% approval rating when he left office. That is tough to do! Anyway, mini rant over. What are these strips about? There’s a league of amateur superheroes that doesn’t seem to do much in the way of saving people (or maybe we only see them in their weekly meetings), Stupid Boy and his hilariously stupid happenings, random coffee shop conversations, various assorted jokes about office life, snow hijinx, Maw and Paw Headbanger (about an older couple whose hearing was destroyed by loud rock music in the 70’s), the artiste Marlene Brando and her efforts to get a film career going (and the reactions of the people to those efforts), and countless strips on the foibles of daily life. This is a nicely rounded collection, never sticking with any character long enough for you to get sick of them. These are also all six panel strips and, as is always the case with such strips, some of them are funnier than others, and your opinion on which is which will vary from person to person. If the idea of jumping right into a collection of Matt’s work alarms you, he has plenty of mini comics from his many years in the medium, so you could always start there. But screw it, go for the collection, that’s what I say. The man has been doing mini comics since the early 90’s at the very least and possibly since the 80’s, support his work and get some laughs in the process! $15
Update for 1/22/16
New review today for the DoubleThink Spring 2015 anthology which, granted, may be a little late. But comics are timeless! Happy weekend everybody, stay off the roads if you live anywhere under that ugly looking snow blob that all the newscasts are talking about.
Various Artists – DoubleThink Spring 2015
I have rarely been as divided in my opinion of the contents of an anthology as I am with this one. They’re mixed bags the vast majority of the time; that’s just the nature of putting a bunch of artists in the same comic together. And my problems with this one have nothing to do with the content of any of the stories, which I really enjoyed overall. But roughly half of the stories in here have no resolution, and that’s just a flatly annoying thing to read in an anthology. For example, the first story (by Matt Aucoin and Holly Foltz) is a great tale of empowerment and having a bully finally get what’s coming to him. But it ends with the introduction of a new character and is clearly going to go on in some other venue. Which would be fine if there was any indication that this was meant to be a sampling of work from different artists, or if I could figure that out because all of the stories were “to be continued.” But that’s not the case here, which makes the whole comic a maddening read, as I never know if there’s going to be any resolution until I finish the story. Maybe that was the point? I don’t know, but since I like the content of the stories a bunch I’m just going to comment on that from here on out. Other stories include David Yoder time traveling with himself (in a continuing story that tricked me because it continued later in the anthology), a great piece on Skeleton Girl by Denis St. John (or the first chapter of it), the origin story of a band with a bad name by Ryland Ianelli and Marisa Chapin (or the first chapter of it), a hilarious story on the true mission for a giant space robot that comes to the planet by Joseph Hewitt, Jarod Rosello’s fascinating story of a boy who tries to make friends with a monster and the characters that are egging him on to attack it (all while commenting on the nature of friendship and humanity), and a small piece of a Kevin Kilgore story (along with an interview with the man) that did get me intrigued about his story but couldn’t be called a complete story here. The highlight of the book was Fight Hero Fight by Matt Aucoin, which is probably a lot funnier if you’re familiar with the Zelda lore but works either way. A young adventurer gets his quest, but he has to fend for himself when it comes to gear and money and has no idea of the skill levels of the various enemies he encounters in the wild. Way too many great touches for me to point them all out, but trust me, any gamers will think it’s hilarious, as should most other people with a sense of humor. So overall it would be impossible not to recommend this anthology for that last story alone, but don’t expect everything to be self-contained. It’s not the worst thing in the world if these pieces of larger stories lead to people tracking down these artists, I just wish that had been indicated somewhere in the book. $9
Update for 1/21/16
New review today for Dump #3 by David Robertson and a gaggle of other artists, which marks the end of the Dump saga. If you don’t know what that is, you have some catching up to do!
Robertson, David (With Various Artists)- Dump #3
Dump #3
RIP to Dump, as David says in the afterward that this is the last issue. But he is starting off another comics series and is going to put out the collected Berserkotron, so if you’re a fan you have nothing to fear. If you’re not a fan, why hello there, allow me to try to convince you that you’re missing out! This is a collection of stories, all written by David, with roughly 2/3 of them illustrated by David too and the other 1/3 illustrated by other artists. The final chapter of Dump and the experimental story “November” take up about half of this hefty comic, but I’ll get to those in a minute. Subjects of other stories include whether or not you give a fuck, the consequences of spying on people at 3am, an excellent closed loop of a nostalgic time travel story, running into the former most popular kid in high school many years after the fact, an orb, whether or not it is good to feel pain, that thing you sense in your room while you’re sleeping, being attracted to a random stranger on tv, the Bum Monster, dreaming of teeth, making a wish, playing the music festivals, the decline of sales of televisions and wishing to be enveloped by another human. That’s all suitably vague and enticing, right? Nothing to alarm anyone with possible spoilers. I thought the Dump story had a damned fine ending to the overall story, but my memory of continuing stories in comics that only come out every few years can be hazy, so who knows? It worked just fine on its own regardless. Finally there’s November, which is a collection of strips from November (duh) that I really wanted to like more than I did. Oh, I liked the content of them just fine; the one about his old cat, the Garfield parodies, being trapped in a car with a farter, how Do The Right Thing is just as relevant now as when it was released, etc. The problem is that all the strips were done in pencil (undoubtedly to make it easier to meet the requirements of a strip a day), which is just plain old uglier in collected form, especially compared against the other stories in the comic. Still, some slight aesthetic problem I have with it is no reason to scare anyone else away, as if you can get past that the actual strips in that section were thoroughly engaging. It’s a fine end to a fine series, and David really might want to consider giving this series the collected treatment too in a few years. In the meantime, enjoy the finale! $5
Update for 1/20/16
New review today for An Entity Observes All Things by Box Brown, and I blame the crappy weather/a dicey car battery on the lack of reviews this week. So far, anyway. Any reviews I miss the next two days are most likely my own fault.
Brown, Box – An Entity Observes All Things
Who’s up for a good old fashioned science fiction anthology? If that’s not then you’d better move along, although I can’t imagine why you’d rule this out because of that. For one thing it’s Box Brown, who has a hell of a track record with the quality of his comics. Also “science fiction” basically means “any sort of fiction that also has science, real or imagined, in it.” That covers a lot of ground, even though it’s a definition I just made up. Anyway, this is a collection of a bundle of different stories from Box, covering a wide range of topics. The highlight is probably the cover story, because it so nearly wraps itself up by the end, but I can’t dig much more into it without spoiling it. Other subjects include a mysterious pizza tattoo, what happens when you forget your entertainment while piloting a mating giant robot, reliving a painful moment of your life through science, the essence of god on a waffle, being disconnected while taking comfort from the familiar, taking the long view on the effects of social media interactions, a good old fashioned quest, and getting yourself remade after your ego is destroyed. Not a single one of these stories is as simple as I made it appear through that synopsis, so I’ll just retreat to my fallback position of wanting to spoil as little as possible from this comic. Every single story made me either rethink an aspect of my perception of reality of feel all or some of the feelings, sometimes both at the same time. That seems like the best possible recommendation for reading a book, so why not do so? If you’re already familiar with Box’s work then you shouldn’t take much convincing. If you’re not, that’s a situation you need to rectify, and an anthology like this is the perfect place to do it. $12
Update for 1/14/16
New review today for The Portable Not My Small Diary, edited by Delaine Derry Green and featuring literally every mini comics person you’ve ever heard of. Go on, look through that list, see if you think I’m lying.
Derry Green, Delaine (editor) – The Portable Not My Small Diary
The Portable Not My Small Diary
Hey kids, or anybody who has started reading comics in the last few years? Are you interested in the history of mini comics, why they’re such a source of passion for so many people? Well, maybe not in numbers, but in level of interest and dedication in following certain artists? Your answer is this volume. If you have no interest in the history, away with you! This one can be for the old timers. This is a collection of the best of the “Not My Small Diary” anthology, and if you read small press comics in the 90’s and 00’s, you will recognize plenty of these names. In fact, good luck not getting lost in a Google hole or trying to figure out what so many of these people are up to these days. Notable names include (but are not limited to) Jeff Zenick, Dan Zettwoch, Patrick Dean, Raina Telgemeier, Jesse Reklaw, Carrie McNinch, Sam Spina, Roberta Gregory, Kurt Wolfgang… you know what, there are just too damned many names, and they’re all in the tags, so check that part out. If any of those names made you say “hey, I wonder what they’re up to these days” then this book is for you. These are mostly snippets of stories, but they’re all complete by themselves. Sometimes the stories follow a theme, like notable dates or moments in their lives, but really they’re all over the place. If it seems like I’m avoiding getting into specifics, that is entirely the case. If you were around for all these artists when they first started, you’re going to get lost in this instantly. If not, this is an excellent way for you to figure out what the big deal was about these people all along. I guess it’s possible that it’s the nostalgia talking and that people might not connect to these stories now, but screw that. These are tales of human weakness (and occasionally triumph), and those stories are universal and timeless. Most of the original issues of this series are out of print, so this is your best option all around. The book itself is $7.50 if you see Delaine at a convention, but if not $10 should be enough to cover the shipping, and I really can’t recommend this enough. It’s rare for any anthology not to have a weak story or two, but these are all golden.
Update for 1/13/16
New review today for Electric Transit #3 by Danny Ferbert. More reviews tomorrow, then I’m taking a very long holiday weekend. Just in case you were planning your week around these things, which would be very strange indeed.
Ferbert, Danny – Electric Transit #3
Electric Transit #3
Can you read the title of that comic from the cover or was it just me who was completely unable to make it out? The back of the book mentions the previous volumes, otherwise that title was going to remain a mystery. And I don’t know if the pages were shrunken down from a larger source or if they just came from a terrible copy machine, but there were several places where this was just completely unreadable. It took me back to the days before computer printers or the several other options available for putting out your book. Maybe you’re nostalgic for those days, but I’m not. Wow, look at that pile of negativity to start a review for a book that I didn’t hate! I didn’t love it either, but I get unduly annoyed when the basics aren’t covered, and that’s with me leaving out the spelling errors on the first page. Anyway, there are several smaller stories in here and one larger story. It’s probably my fault that I had a lot of trouble following it, as that’s what happens when you jump into the third book of a series first, but a synopsis somewhere never hurt anybody either. That larger story deals with two people who are hitchhiking their way… somewhere. We learn eventually that they’re going to New York, or at least that’s where they end up at the end of this story. Um, spoiler alert? They met up with some interesting characters along the way, but this was also the section of the book that suffered the most from bad copies/shrunken images. Other stories are usually either a page or less than that, but subjects include being forced to socialize, a new baby, porkratamus, a zombie dog, non-organic chicken and a complete lack of the giant robot that was promised on the cover. Overall I’d put this one in the “so-so” category, although it probably would have been upgraded if I could have read the whole thing. Here’s to #4 being more legible!
Update for 1/11/16
New review today for Revolt to What? by Daniel Landes & Karl Christian Krumpholz. Once again, the call is out for review comics, if you have any you’d like to get the tiniest bit more attention.
Landes, Daniel & Krumpholz, Karl Christian – Revolt to What?
Revolt to What?
OK Americans with no interest in history, bear with me on this one. Also please note that I am not assuming that no Americans have an interest in history, and particularly the people who read websites about small presses tend to have more eclectic interests than most. But the dumb American is a valid stereotype. I also know that lots of people from other countries read this website… ah, enough already. Remember when the Czech Republic formed in the early 90’s? I was a young student back then, so I knew the Soviet Union fell apart, but the details were hazy to me. Anyway, even if you did know the history and what came from it, this is still an entirely new perspective. Why? Because it’s based on a conversation set in a bar among a group of dissatisfied former revolutionaries who are more than a little sick about what came next. There’s a fair amount of philosophical chatter, and the question of how things could have turned out perfectly in any case lingers over the whole conversation, but it’s a fascinating chat involving stereotypes, the behavior of the victors, how quickly it all fell apart and the strong, constant state of drunkenness of much of the population, with no hope of any further positive steps. Still, the bar scene covers the gamut; I had no idea that the frat bros type was something that anybody else in the world actually aspired to, although it’s nice to see that it’s mocked universally. It’s a fascinating chat and it makes me wonder what else these two creators can do, so it’s a good thing for me that they were nice enough to send along another book for me to ramble about later. $5
Update for 1/7/16
New reviews today for Monkey Squad One #14 by Doug Michel and A Story For Desmond by Jason Walz. Also I found out today that there’s an “Optical Sloth” page on Facebook that isn’t done by me, but is instead for a made-up optometrist in Champaign, IL which uses an old address and phone number. Which is just odd. Anybody know how to get in touch with the complaints department in Facebook, annoyed non-user edition?
Walz, Jason – A Story For Desmond
A Story For Desmond
This one says on the back of the comic that it’s “the (sort of) epilogue to the Eisner-nominated graphic novel ‘Homesick,'” so if you haven’t read that yet, maybe do that. Also kudos to the man on the Eisner nomination, as it was very much deserved. I wrote my review for Homesick three years ago, so some of the details are a little hazy to this sad excuse for a memory of mine, but the heart of it stayed with me, and this is a sweet, perfect little epilogue to that story. And, like the best epilogues, the original story still works fine without it, but this unabashedly sweet story is the perfect capper to Homesick. If you haven’t read that, and are stubbornly avoiding it for reasons only you can understand (seriously, you could borrow a copy from most decent libraries, you cheapskate you), this comic still works just fine on its own. The story here is basically Jason trying to calm his very young son down during a crying fit. Nothing he tries is going any good, until Desmond spots a picture of Jason’s mother on the wall, which inspires Jason to tell his young son a story of what his mother left behind for Desmond and how that will help him get through life, all told in a way to appeal to a very young kid. Like I said, this is an excellent final chapter for the original story, optional though it may be. The only even slight issue I have with it is that the cover makes it seem a lot more grim and dour than it actually is (although the back cover of the toy monkey mitigates that quite a bit). Anyway, parents of young kids especially will enjoy this, but it’s really one of those rare “all ages” book that actually can be enjoyed by people of all ages. $5
Michel, Doug – Monkey Squad One #14
Monkey Squad One #14
Oh Monkey Squad One, I am clearly going to need to spend an afternoon reading you all in a clump to set everything straight in my head. The series has been getting more, well, serialized as it goes on, with this issue being the second part of a (projected) six part storyline. Various characters are scattered, other fake versions are around, some heroes are underground and robots have taken over St. Louis. Oh, and their occasional Hulk is reluctant to even try to hulk out again. Welcome to the world of Monkey Squad One! Doug does put a synopsis at the start of each comic (and three cheers to him for doing it), but even with that it’s tough to keep track of all of the characters at this point. Anyway, this issue features a few single or even double page spreads, which is going to look fantastic in the completed edition but is a bit maddening when the story is coming is small bits like this. But hey, I can complain about just about anything, so don’t mind me. The story this time mostly deals with the robot invasion and what life is like for the remnants of Monkey Squad One (the ones who aren’t on the planet made up entirely of ladies). And, yeah, that’s most of what I can cover without giving important bits away. I loved the little throwaway gag of one character cheating in a video game while the other character’s back was turned; that doesn’t give anything away! And those full page spreads did have a story purpose, as they showed the vastness of the hideout and some of the things in the hideout, so it’s not like Doug was just killing pages with all that. As has been the case for several issues now, I recommend this series highly, although you’re better off buying a chunk of them. Actually, looking at their website I don’t even see an area to buy comics, but I do see that most of the older comics are available for free by clicking on the cover, so just do that I guess.
Update for 1/6/16
Well, based on that last update, I’d say things didn’t go as planned around here for the holiday season. Two new reviews to make up for it a bit, with Buffalo: High Hopes & Dead Elm Trees by Caitlin Cass and It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time #1: How to Draw Trevor by Trevor Waurechen. Should be back to normal for a bit, whatever that is around here. Also if you have new comics out this year or coming out soon, send them my way for review! Since it’s an election year there will certainly be gaps in review times, but a goal for the new year is to do more reviews. After all, it’s the 15 year anniversary of the site in August. Yes, kids, some people who had a website 15 years ago are still at it…
