Neufeld, Josh – Keyhole #2

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Keyhole #2

It’s funny how some series can fly right by me while they’re going on. I don’t remember ever seeing this as it was being published (this issue is from 1996 but is still available here, along with a few of the other issues of this six issue series) but it’s exactly the sort of thing that I would have bought whenever I saw it. It’s a hodge-podge of the works of Dean Haspiel and Josh Neufeld. Sometimes they write and draw their own stories, sometimes one writes while the other draws, and sometimes guest writers are used. Anyway, this is a great issue and it makes me wonder why, if there were six issues of this series, this hasn’t been collected into a graphic novel of some kind. I guess a lot of the Dean Haspiel stuff has already been collected into Billy Dogma books or something, but Josh deserves a little bit of love too. All kinds of stories in here, including Josh and his wife (or girlfriend) traveling through Southeast Asia, Billy Dogma vs. The Human Bar Code, and a story of Dean’s from when he was a child listening to his parents fighting. Throw in a few one or two page strips scattered throughout and you have a solid comic. The more I see of Dean the more I wonder how I could have missed him for all these years, and Josh looks pretty great too. I know I’ve seen his artwork here and there, maybe in anthologies or those Big Books, but his autobio stuff is well worth reading. Check out a few issues of this series or go fill in the holes in your collection if you already have a few. Unless the other issues got a whole lot worse it looks like those of us who missed these really missed out. I just checked his website and he has all kinds of comics out there. That’s it, I have to quit all future jobs just so I can keep up with the artists who are worth following out there…