Kressbach, Karl (editor) – Hoax #2

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Hoax #2 Now Available! $1

My ridiculously late review of these anthologies continues, sort of in reverse order, except when it’s not. I’m here to bring chaos to the world, what can I say?  This is another collection of work from mostly the same people listed below, and Karl comes right out and says in the intro that he would prefer that this book be placed in all lavatories and used for toilet paper. I thought it was a pretty solid issue, but I suppose if you’re big on recycling it could be used both ways. Stories include a do-it-yourself suicide booth by Lydia Gregg, Nate Neal’s struggle to quit smoking (as he knows full well that his death by smoking is exactly what “the man” wants), Karl’s piece on how G.W. Bush being unable to tie his shoes leads to a nationwide red alert, Karl’s other, quieter piece about riding a bus after having it be overrun by birds, a mystery author’s piece on the vicious circle of being an artist, Ben Carrico and Karl Kressbach’s strip on weeding out the bigots, Nate Neal’s anti-globalization piece, Truckhead trying to kill himself (by Nate Neal), K. Throope’s plea to walk more, and Lydia’s Umbilical -Baby for little girls. There are also the usual array of stories from Ben Carrico, dealing with how stupid everybody is for believing the lies, how Viacom owns everything, and Wal-Mart and its ruination of all small towns. Lydia also has a text piece in here dealing with the evolution of art, accompanied by a strip on her dealing honestly with criticism. Assuming that’s her, I have no idea what sort of stuff she did in art shows. Anyway it’s another solid issue, if a bit dated, and that should be fairly obvious from the cover. Still, at least these people were dealing with the political issues of the time, so many comics folk just never address (or gave a shit about) any of it. They deserve some praise for that. #1