Jackson, Rob

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Great Deeds Against the Dead #1

The man does have a knack for excellent titles, doesn’t he?  A scroll down this page will confirm that for you, in case you don’t believe me.  This issue is the projected first half of this story, which is a creepy tale of haunting, lost love and hopelessness.  An old artist (Tisdale Carnegie), devastated after the death of his wife, gets a house as far away from civilization as he can.  The neighbors are curious, as the house has been empty for years, but we don’t see much more from them quite yet.  The agent for said artist, needing some signatures, goes to visit Tisdale and is appalled at the state of the artist, but is unable to leave due to a sudden rainstorm and mudslide.  He is forced to stay for the night but gets the undeniable impression that the house wants him out (possibly because he hears it say “there’s something wrong with this house” three time) and even hurls shingles at him when he goes outside to close the gate.  Curious, the agent looks into the history of the house when he leaves, and runs into a pair of people who are also trying to discover more about the house.  The agent, being delightfully human and utterly uninterested in wrapping this story up neatly, gets a call from another (more profitable) client and runs off, leaving the pair of “psychic adventurers” to check out the place for themselves.  Letting this thing unravel is half the fun and it ends on an utterly bizarre cliffhanger, so no more info from me.  I can’t wait to see what happens next, and to see if that creature on the cover plays any role in things.  There are also two shorter pieces in the book, a silent story about graffiti, a fight and a floating man that flew right over my head and a one page strip on the back cover that details why Rob loves comics.   It’s getting hard to keep track of all the series this man has going, but this one sure looks like a keeper.  $4

Great Deeds Against the Dead #2

As you can probably guess from that cover, that mysterious creature from the cover of the first issue does indeed come into play this time around.  This is also the end of the series, so all my questions from the last issue are neatly wrapped up.  That creature with the giant gumball head is the most evil toy ever, made after a the residents of a frat wake up hung over, send their dopiest member to pick up the toys needed for a school project (if they don’t finish right away the dean will throw out their entire fraternity!), and he accidentally picks the box marked “evil toys”.  They’re all melted down, poured into a mold, and form into that thing in the front of the train.  This thing gets sent back in time (after which the experimental time machine blows up), so he/it has had plenty of time to set some evil plans in motion.  I’m trying not to ruin anything again this time around, but if you look closely at that cover you’ll see one half of the psychic adventurers, the artist Tisdale Carnegie and his lawyer (strapped to a board).  So clearly they all end up together eventually, but the fun is in the journey, right?  Bits in here that I feel OK giving away involve the psychic adventurers being trapped in a funhouse (and being forced to stand around all day in costume to earn their daily meal of hot dogs), Tisdale’s agent running into the lawyer for that creature (with disastrous results for the agent’s friend), and Tisdale building a box out of his dead love’s picture (which is the only thing that lets him see).  That’s just scraping the surface of the insanity in here, but Rob does an excellent job of tying up all the loose ends and bringing it all home, even managing to end on a (darkly) funny note.  There’s even a tiny strip on the front and back cover dealing with the early days of the evil gumball machine creature.  The story is wrapped up, you can get the whole thing in two easy installments, and I think it would be an excellent idea if you did so.  $2

The Pasty Anthology (edited by Rob Jackson)

A note to the American readers who have never watched any tv shows or read anything from the UK: pasties look like calzones, but with (I’m guessing here) fruits and cheeses inside.  They look to be a bit much for a breakfast food, assuming that’s all they are, but what do I know?  This is an anthology, with all of the stories theoretically dealing with pasties.  First up is  a story by Steve Butler which relates a conversation between two friends.  One of them is going to get a pasty, the other has been told by his girlfriend that he has to lose some weight so goes off to get something healthier.  Without giving anything away, it has an excellent ending.  Next up is a piece by Francesca Cassavetti about… chewing gum.  Nope, no pasties in that one.  It’s still a great story, dealing with being told as a child that swallowed gum always stays in your stomach and eventually kills you.  Jim Medway is next with a unique perspective, as he has a week in the life of a pasty clerk told through the faces of the recurring customers.  The next piece by Dave Hughes deals with an obsessive young man, making his pasty and having everything planned out just so, only to have it all ruined by gravity.  Our hero Rob Jackson has the central piece in the comic, dealing with the Greggs and their role in inventing and then improving pasties over the years.  As I have no idea how much of this is historical I’m just going to leave it alone, but it’s an excellent story either way.  Next is… hey, who put a text piece in here?  There’s a three page story by Anthony Mercer called Devil in a Blue Tabard and, as a sucker for the hard-boiled stuff, I loved it.  It’s all about a pasty shop, a missing young woman, a grimy detective and a very shiny worker.  Dave Hughes has another piece next, this time dealing with a pasty festival, a pasty eating contest and the effect this contest has on the wife of one of the contestants.  Finally there’s another text piece, this time by Matt Badham, dealing with the Japanese equivalent of the pasty (sort of), the natto.   It took me a second after reading this to get the catch of the story, and it’s wonderful in an anthology like this, so there’s no way I’m going to ruin it.  Good stuff all around, which is more than you can ask for from anthologies.   I think it should also come with a free pasty so we can get an idea of exactly what they’re like, but I have no idea how that would work in the real world.  No price, but I’m guessing it’s around $4.

8 Stories

Hey, guess how many stories are in this one?  Rob has to be one of the more prolific small press folks out there, which is a good thing as he always has something interesting to talk about.  First up there’s the story that covers the bulk of the comic, written by Shonagh Ingram, about a city by the lake that falls in love with a reflection of itself.  As you can probably guess if you’ve read the fable about the dog that sees another dog in the lake that is also holding a bone and tries to grab it, things don’t end well.  Next up are a series of short pieces, one about Rob’s rules of life (part 6 in a series where the first five parts are mysteriously missing), the comic sampled below, a story about Rob finally climbing a small mountain near his home, a disgustingly hilarious piece about the Math-Ro-Mancer, and a shortie detailing something that a lot of people already know: kayaks are horrible, horrible things.  Things go off the rails a bit in the last story, as Rob details his night out seeing a favorite band from his past, apparently drawing the story at the bar, if the quality of the art and the handwriting is any indication.  There’s also the lovely fact that the copying was off for this story, so bits of text are chopped right off of every page, which is probably for the best as it’s mostly illegible anyway.  Exceptions to the lousy art and handwriting are in the story, but overall it’s better skipped, as that still leaves you with 7 great stories.  Oh, and there’s also the one on the back (which I almost missed until I scanned the comic) about a vending machine and its dream of taking over the world.  OK, so it’s not a perfect comic, but anything that’s 7/8 fascinating still has a lot going for it.

Bog Wizards

I do believe that this is Rob’s first attempt at fantasy, in this case the story of a young man, a curse, a fake wizard, a demon and some bad bargains. Things start off with the father of the young man dying a slow, painful death, and telling his son about an awful thing he did years ago, something that he’s still paying for, something that caused a curse that only the son can remove. From here the story is full of zigs and zags, as most of the attempts to fix things make matters worse. I’m keeping this as vague as possible to avoid giving things away, as per usual, and because of the simple fact that Rob kept me guessing throughout this story, always the hallmark of a good fantasy story, or a good fiction story in general. Oh, and Rob describes this as kind of like a 24 hour comic, but done over the course of a month instead. Good stuff, unless you hate all wizards, demons and curses, in which case everything else on this page is probably a bit more realistic and more to your liking. $1.50

Bog Wizards #2

I had a few doubts about this story coming out of the first issue, wondering a bit if it could hold up over the long term.  All doubts have been smashed into teeny tiny chunks with this issue.  First off, just look at that cover.  That’s brilliant.  Things pick up where they left off in the last issue, leading up to the second page of the story, and it’s the one I sampled below.  Go ahead, take a minute to check it out.  The reaction from the giant was hilarious, as was the reaction from our hero.  The giant makes a deal with our hero in exchange for not eating him (even though this giant doesn’t eat people anyway), which causes our hero to remorselessly mess things up for everybody else to get himself out of trouble.  So what gets him back on the side of right?  The possibility of getting with the fairy queen, of course.  From here we get some fantastic fight scenes, and here’s where Rob really shines: his depiction of the various monsters.  Two full pages introduced the monsters a bit earlier (I particularly loved the vaguely Mr. Potato Head looking monster), and great glee is taken in taking these creatures out.  There’s more, a lot more than you may think with a mini comic,  but I’m gushing here, and I do have to save some praise.  Why?  Because this issue comes with a Bog Wizards board game.  How is it possible to include a board game with a comic?  Rob has broken the game down into two large color pages, along with three pages of cards to use in the game and a page of characters.  If you wondered about the names of any of the monsters from the comic, the mystery is solved here (my favorite is called Yogblog).  All of this comes in a plastic bag with simple instructions, ending with the following disclaimer: “Have cautious fun.  Don’t expect too much.”  I think the man’s selling himself short.  This whole thing goes for about $6, and the arbitrary pricing system in my brain says  that is just barely too much for a comic (even one that’s this good), but is a steal when you factor in the board game.  He didn’t skimp on the details for it either, it looks gorgeous.  Buy this from the man, we should all do our part to make Bog Wizards a phenomenon.

Train to Shanghai

Here’s a great travel mini from England. Well, technically it might from Shanghai, but I’m not sure if this is from Shanghai or just from it. Does it matter at all? Anyway, this is the story of Rob losing his job in Hardin, China, and ending up deciding to look for work in Shanghai. This book is mostly about his train ride to Shanghai, as well as everything that was going through his head at the time. It’s a neat little story, although the art was a bit rough in places. Just looks like he needs to maybe study some anatomy, work on some of the more awkward poses and positions in the book. Hey, I have to throw a suggestion or two into these reviews every now and then to break up the rambling, right? Anyway, this is probably a buck or two and you can always send him an e-mail.

To Nail the Killer With All Efforts

Well, at least there’s a really great title. The story isn’t bad in a lot of ways too; there’s an interesting story involving a robbery gang that’s buying vacuums for some reason (yes, it is made clear in the comic). The art’s still rough (check out the sample to see what I mean), and for some reason the main villain in this talks in rhymes, which is incredibly annoying. Still, it’s an engaging story, with all its flaws, although I’d really recommend getting his other book first and checking this out later if you like his stuff. Let’s say it’s $2, contact info is up there!

Cafe Le Guillotine – The French Revolution

OK, I’ll admit it. I don’t remember much about the French Revolution. Typical American, I guess, but there you go. This is a recap of sorts that comes across as strangely breezy and light-hearted, considering the fact that I’ve probably never seen this many decapitations in a comic before. I’m not going to recap all of the historical data in here, as you either already know that or you don’t, and if you really want to learn it without buying this comic I’m sure you could find everything you need to know on at least one of the internets. The art remains a bit rough, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t charm me completely this time. The panel with Robespierre trying to talk with half of his face blown off in particular was priceless. So, if you like your comics to be fun and still have a bit of actual historical information, this is a pretty good place to start. I think this one is $4 (sorry, I have trouble converting from pounds), contact info is up there and he does take paypal, if you’d like an easy way to buy…

A Km of Dummy Torpedoes

You’re not likely to see many comics that are more of a labor of love than this one. There’s nothing resembling a story, instead there’s 28 pages of random drawings. Some are in full, stunning color, other are black in white, with various stages of complexity involved. Every copy has the order of the images altered, with different ones thrown in, so every issue would be different from every other issue. I’m guessing that every issue isn’t hand-drawn (it just doesn’t seem possible) but this sure LOOKS like it was drawn on paper and pasted on the page. It’s impossible to review as there’s no story and whatever story there might changes with every issue, but it’s a truly gorgeous book to have laying around, I can say that much. It’s listed at 2.50 euros, so kudos to you if you know what that means in American dollars…

Random Journeys #1

Could it be that this is actually the start of an ongoing series? I hope so, for one simple reason: Rob is one of those rare people who does autobio comics that actually travels all over the place. Meaning, essentially, that there are always good stories to tell. The first half of this book is the story of an explorer, his daughter and a crew of vagabonds (which I say mostly because I wanted to use the word “vagabonds”) who go to try and find a lost city that was indicated on an old lost map. Great job here, as everybody has an established personality in the few pages they’re allowed and it even ends on an excellent cliffhanger, to be continued in #2, unless of course he’s just kidding about the whole continuing series idea. Also included in this are the strip I sampled about the birds, the story of Rob’s first day or work in South Korea and various tales told by various folks on allotments. Again, kudos on keeping the autobio stuff interesting (far better than plenty of the navel gazing stuff from this country) and art seems to be improving by the issue.

Random Journeys #2

Well, this should put to rest any doubts I had about this being an actual continuing series. The story of the archaeologists continues in this issue, and it’s even going to bleed over into the next one (at least). The team finds themselves trapped in an ancient ruin (although the escape is fairly anticlimactic), then run into another team that is even less ethical than they are. I enjoyed the characters more last time around; I guess at this point they’re supposed to be established so it shouldn’t bug me, but the character of Professor’s daughter seems almost wafer thin in this one. Still overall a good story, and it ends on another cliffhanger. Then there’s a wordless story called “The Swirling Vortex Of Doom” about, oddly enough, a swirling vortex of doom. We see the destruction rage through an underground cavern and suck up everything in its path, so if you like some good mayhem, well, here you go. Finally there’s a science fiction shortie that’s my favorite of the bunch. A man goes to a remote satellite to focus on his writing, and of course space madness sets in from there… or does it? I loved the subtle touches to make this seem otherworldly, like the pleasure planet (that looked kind of creepy) and the fact that the alien on the satellite drags around a cart filled with snouts and cakes. Another solid issue, and yet another case when I’m not sure how the currency settles into American dollars. $3 maybe? Let’s go with that…

Random Journeys #3

Here it is, the exciting conclusion, and the whole issue is dedicated to the story this time. Who gets to keep that dagger? Is the Professor’s daughter going to get killed for it? This is told from the perspective of the Professor giving a lecture, so we know some of the things that aren’t going to happen right away. Let’s see, how should I talk about this stuff without giving anything away… Well, it’s the end of the series, so things are wrapped up in a more or less satisfactory way. We get to see one of the actual people in the Professor’s fantastic version of events, and he’s not happy with the way he’s portrayed. Oh, and a group of guards in the jungle are tricked into eating some psychedelic mushrooms. I thought things were wrapped up nicely, with the possibility of more in the future, but not so much that things are left dangling here. I’m liking the art more and more, and I love Rob’s version of sweaty nervousness. Worth a look for those of you who like archaeological stories mixed in with plenty of human errors.

On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal

If you’ve ever been interested in taking a walk through a town in England, learning about its history along the way, but have lacked the resources necessary to go there, this comic is perfect for you. Rob takes a walk through Bolton, his home town, stopping to go into the history of various places along the way. The sheer range of years described here is impressive to me, a history-deficient American who would rarely be able to trace the history of any given town back farther than a couple of hundred years at most. He even provides directions, just in case you ever make it to Bolton, to follow along his path and see everything he describes. It’s a great book all around, and makes me want to get the hell out of this country for a bit even more. $4