Juresko, Josh – Bad Breath Comics #4

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Bad Breath Comics #4

Is it still OK to give advice if it’s totally useless? No? You’re right, I don’t think so either. That being said, her’s some useless advice for Josh: his covers could use some work. Now here’s where it gets useless: I don’t have very good advice for the guy on how to make them better. I don’t care for the plain white borders on the covers, and keep the self-deprecation to the inside of the comic please, as you never know who’s going to be instantly turned off by that cover saying that there is no creativity in this book. That being said, his method enables him to sell these comics for $2 each, which is a damned good way for him to get people to pick up his books, and people should be reading these. That sample is brilliant, and part of its brilliance is the fact that nothing else in the comic is remotely like it. He has a nice wide range of topics in here and sure, they’re not all brilliant, but I love the fact that he’s trying so hard in so many different directions. First off there’s the intro and outro by Stepbrother Scary (kind of a Crypt Keeper-esque character), and I’m always a sucker for those bad puns. Actual comics in here deal with such subjects as a singing masked cowboy band rescuing a clothed platypus, fake covers from old comics, a two pager about “Satanama” that flew right by me, why a CD that you hate upon the initial listening can sound fantastic a few years later to you, and a continuing (?) story dealing with a young woman going home from work for the weekend and a creepy guy on the bus with an obvious hidden camera. There are also two longer pieces that I loved in different ways about History vs. America (featuring an obvious Bill O’Reilly stand-in and dealing with the need to have some idea of the historical relevance of current events) and taking a walk on a Saturday afternoon and seeing all of the televisions on inside with nobody watching them and nobody else outside on such a nice day. That second story actually managed something of a happy ending, even though I’m not supposed to mention such things. This whole review is a long-winded way of my saying that I love the vast majority of this comic (and of this series that I’ve seen so far) but think that a better cover would help it out. That being said, I should at least mention that I loved the sheer ridiculousness of that back cover, so make of that what you will. $2