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Jakes, Adam – A Smaller Hell
A Smaller Hell
Why in the world isn’t this a regular numbered series? I can see from the past issues that it started off as one, but then it turned into a series of individually titled comics. Granted, Adam does a nice job of recapping what came before at the start of the comic, but even that could have been made better if he had mentioned which issues to read to get a fuller story of the recap. I’m bitching mostly because he sent me two new comics to review and I’m still not entirely sure that I’m reviewing them in chronological order, and there’s no reason for that to a difficult question to answer. Anyway! This comic continues the story of Floid, Guedo and Madlenka. If you’re not familiar with any of those characters, check some of the other reviews under Adam’s name. Or maybe buying some of those comics would do the trick. Floid is bored silly after the woman he was supposed to be protecting was killed, and Guedo finds him and gets him to help find Madlenka. With a few fight scenes thrown in, of course. So they both go into her brain (a special trick of Floid’s), but their timing is terrible and she gets distracted and stabbed just as they go in. Oblivious to this fact the two of them go about trying to undo Madlenka’s brainwashing, but they only have a finite amount of time to do it and she may very well be dead by the time they’re finished regardless. Here is where Adam shines, as the creatures inside her brain were creepy as hell and the dialogue continues to make this book. In a lot of ways it would be easy for my to hate this, what with all the punch-’em-ups and such, but that dialogue is so often brilliant (and the art isn’t half bad either) that I can’t help but be drawn in. Once there’s some easy way to keep track of the order of these things I’ll have no problem with them at all. Guessing $6, mostly because it’s huge.
Jakes, Adam – Simpler Times
Simpler Times
Huzzah, an e-mail address! It’s still not a website but at least it’s a quick way of contacting the guy, as if you check my review for his last comic you’ll see that he only listed a postal address. One quick complaint before I launch into the praise: more fat people please! I don’t mean obese, but every character in this book is full of bulging muscles with 0% body fat. Granted, we learn in this issue that these people have exceptionally long lives and 20 years of solid training would make you pretty buff, but at least some fans of small press books have a natural aversion to their character being too muscley. This book is way too funny for people to not even give it a chance because everybody looks ripped. Now that I have that thoroughly ridiculous complaint out of the way, this is one great comic. Well, maybe parts of the story seem a bit rushed, but a little bit of funny goes a long way, and this book has a lot of funny. The one-liners are fast and furious and the vast majority of them hit the mark; I even laughed out loud a few times, which remains a rare occurrence while reading comics. Crap, I should get to the plot. This comes after the events in “Dark Dreams” (which was apparently also known as Floid #4, with this one being Floid #5), which I learned thanks to the handy comic listing in the back. No recap this time around though, although the comic did a decent job of that on its own. So Guedo is still stuck in time, fighting whatever looks like a good fight, and as he dozes we get to see his origin story. He trained for decades with his sister, their teacher was coerced into graduating them before he thought they were ready, they meet up with Floid, and I don’t want to spoil any more, sorry. The story wasn’t always the most complicated thing in the world, but the constant humor propelled it past any weak spots. It’s well worth a look if you’re not scared off by too many muscles. I’d be interested in seeing the early issues just to check if he honed his art or his humor over the years, or if it’s possible that he was this polished when he started. No price again but it’s another hefty offering, so $5?
Jakes, Adam – Dark Dreams
16 The Brauche
Maulden, Beds
MK45 2DR Englang
Dark Dreams
Well, this is a novelty. A comic without a website. That’s not the strangest thing in the world for a tiny homemade mini, when it’s clearly the first comic a person has produced, or when they’re doing something under a pseudonym and don’t want to get in trouble. But this comic is as professional in appearance as they come, even with that minimalistic cover that sucks you right in. Things start off with the winner of the recap Olympics, if such a thing existed any place other than my head. Anyone out there trying to write a decent recap of your series for your inside front cover, hunt this comic down and study it. We learn about Suzi, how her subconsciousness manifests itself in physical (and violent) form whenever she is threatened, how two agents of Order were sent to eradicate this manifestation (named Floid), how one of those agents turned on the other when he felt Floid deserved a chance to live, and how things have been calm for an undefined period of time. Then Suzi took a vacation, got in a bus crash which led to a coma, Floid pushed himself to the surface to wake her up, and Floid has been dormant ever since. That’s a recap! Bravo. It does make the fact that there seems to be no way to order past issues without actually mailing the guy a little inconvenient, to say the least, but at least we know exactly what led up to this issue. This issue begins with Floid coming out for the first time in years, as Suzi is drinking more and more these days after a breakup. Floid sees an odd creature nosing around the apartment, which sets off a chase and a chance meeting with one of those former agents of Order (Guedo). They track the creature down and Floid is tricked into the subconscious mind of a human who is something of a testing ground for other creatures like Floid, which has led to a disintegration of this guy’s sanity. Meanwhile, Guedo takes up the slack by protecting Suzi (as anybody who kills her kills Floid), and winds up going back in time after chasing another attacker. The book follows them both, as Floid’s world gets increasingly bizarre inside of that guy’s head and Guedo struggles to make it back to his own time without being exactly sure how to do so. Actually, that’s a running theme for both of them, as Floid only has the vaguest idea of what he’s doing (but knows he has to do it to get out). So if you like your comics wildly inventive, you’re going to love this one. But wait, there’s more! This comic is funny. Seriously funny, which I wasn’t really expecting to see. Sure, Floid occasionally falls into that British habit of sticking with the “bum” humor a bit past the point where it stops being funny, but overall both characters get more than their fair share of zingers, even though I hate the word “zingers”. If I had one complaint it would be that the action scenes often feel flat, like we’re just looking at a series of poses and not an actual battle, but that’s often a tricky thing to depict. I have no idea how much this costs, but it’s at least 60 pages long. Maybe the fact that it’s all black and white keeps the prices mildly reasonable? Who knows. If I can find the letter that came with this and if it gives more current contact info I’ll change it, but at the moment it looks like you’ll have to dust off the stamps (and make sure it’s the right amount, they raise it all the time) and send the man a letter. Maximize that sample and you should get a pretty good idea if this is up your alley or not…
