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Dwyer, Brad – Get Into COmix

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Get Into Comix

Brad mentions in the letter that he sent along with his comic that this contains the whole “Get Into Comix” story, complete with earlier pieces that were first published in his regular series, but that he didn’t feel the need to mention that in the comic because those old minis are out of print anyway. So just in case you did listen to my earlier advice to read Brad’s comics back in the day, this has pieces from “Epic Tales of the Mundane” #6-9 along with a new chapter to finish things off. Just so nobody feels like they’re “cheated” by having the whole story in this damned nice package, because I know how weird some people can get about this stuff. Anyway! I’ve already talked about a good chunk of this in previous reviews, so you can read through those if the mood strikes you. This comic is really a origin story of sorts for Brad, as he talks about learning to draw from comics as a young kid and how he was constantly pushing himself to improve in the hopes of impressing his older brother. Then puberty struck, which diverted his attentions in a big way. It’s also rare that you get a chance to see the exact moment when a shy kid turns into a surly asshole, and Brad does a nice job of documenting that here. His life rolls along until he finds himself by himself at a Denny’s after yet another terrible hangover, where he sees a comics store across the street. He doesn’t have much cash and it’s been years since he’s seen any comics, so he wanders around trying to decide which issue to buy until the guy working there takes him on a little tour. He eventually shows Brad the minis, including a comic that he (the clerk) drew, which ends up being a revelation for Brad, showing him that anybody really could make comics. They don’t get enough recognition, but cheers to all the comic shop workers who have taken the time to point out the good stuff to people. It must get annoying to them, because I’m sure they get dozens of blank stares for every success story like Brad, but they’re essential to the process. This is a really solid story and it’s bound to remind people reading it of their own journeys so yes, you should really check it out. After all, if you’re reading these words there’s a damned good chance that you went through a similar journey yourself… $5

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Dwyer, Brad – Genetically Modified Punk Rock Pandas

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Genetically Modified Punk Rock Pandas

Oh parody comics, you are the proverbial red-headed stepchild of the small press business. Sometimes they’re a ton of fun, sometimes they improve on the thing that they’re trying to parody and show us something new, and sometimes they just exist. This one goes under the “fun” category. There’s no “#1” listed on the cover, which is probably for the best, as this would get old in a hurry. But 8 pages of these punk rock pandas beating the crap out of some cops is just good clean fun. Well, not “clean,” as there’s puke all over the place, but you know what I mean. Things start off with our four heroes facing off against the cops. They pull their weapons out (switchblade, bat and chain) while the last panda has had too much to drink to be much use in the fighting. Or so they thought, because as it turns out puking all over some cops can really throw off their game when they’re trying to shoot/fight you. Mayhem ensues, cops are beaten up, pandas run from cop reinforcements, and we’re left with a pretty funny final page. Whether or not you should seek this one out should be obvious to you from that title and the sample, but if this is something that sounds like fun to you, trust me, it is. $1

Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #8

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #8

Since I generally write glowing reviews of Brad’s comics, I thought it best to start this one off with a complaint about mini comics in general and this comic in particular. Yes, this is nit picking, so skip ahead a few lines if you don’t care for such things. Why do some comics folk repeat the cover as the first inside page of the story? Or is it vice versa, where they use first page of the story as the cover? Either way it’s a little ridiculous and seems like a waste of a perfectly good page. I’m talking about the comic now, just in case you skipped ahead, and this issue continues the “origin” story of Brad Dwyer. Is it really considered an origin story if the lead character doesn’t end up with any super powers? The story isn’t over yet, so maybe I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. Anyway, the rambling bug clearly has taken me over today, and this comic has two big stories that continue his comics history although, oddly enough, no comics history has been mentioned yet in the actual comics. First up is the story of Brad’s early days in various punk bands and how the lot of them eventually found a place in the desert where they could play without being hassled by the cops. For a while, anyway, as cops do have a tendency to ruin good things like playing music under the stars, far away from the noise of a city. Next is Brad’s slow descent into alcoholism (and almost sleeping pill abuse), as he’s able to marvel from a distance of years at his behavior, both towards himself and towards the ladies he dated. He’s also able to get some comfort from the fact that his friends were even crazier/more destructive than he was, so at least there’s that. I’m eagerly awaiting the first mention of comics in a story called “Get Into Comix!”, but it’s most likely a slow build with some payoff to come. Right? $3

Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #7

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #7

Between this and the recent mini comics from Max Clotfelter this is starting to feel like nostalgia week around here, as Brad was another one of the earlier people to consistently send me review books. Or my sense of time is all wrong and I’m mistaking the number of books he’s sent for the time period in which he sent them, which is a distinct possibility. But enough about website history, who cares about that in as disposable a medium as the internet? This comic is the first one that Brad produced in a couple of years due to financial troubles and life in general, and most of the material is from 2008 and 2009. Still, self-loathing three panel strips are pretty much timeless, and there aren’t enough topical references to make it dated. The bulk of the book is the three panel strips, with a the first part of a short story in the end that, to me, was the highlight of the comic. It dealt with the moment in high school when Brad went from being a painfully shy and awkward kid to a kid who used hate as a shield. Getting called out by a girl that he had previously rejected (after Brad’s acne flared up in a big way) was the final straw, and the reactions from all involved were authentic as could be. I’m intrigued as to where this is going next, assuming he keeps it going. Sure, I could just peek at the next issue that he sent me to figure that out, but then where is the mystery? As for the three panel strips, I might be the only person on the planet who thought his strip where he was trying to decide if he was doing three panel gag strips or a diary strip was funny as hell, but it won me over. Other subjects include what he should have said to specific questions, how his life was going (what with being newly married and sporadically employed), cats, trips to the doctor, geeky stuff and how awesome his wife is for appreciating it all. Worth a look if you’re already a fan, if you’ve somehow never heard of the guy you might want to go back to the earlier books to get more of a sense of who Brad is, but this one is just fine as a stand-alone comic. $2

Dwyer, Brad – Crimson Cloak

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Crimson Cloak

It’s times like this that I wish I had some sort of an organized filing system.  Or, frankly, an organized way to deal with submitted comics at all.  I really should get on that one of these days.  See, Brad sent this comic along with #6 of his regular series.  I love his regular series, as anybody who scrolls around this page will soon learn.  In the letter with the comics he mentioned… something about this comic.  I got them months ago, I have no idea what he said, and a dig through all the stuff on and around my desk did not reveal this letter.  What that means is that I have to review this comic as if I just found it in a store, or it just came all by itself without a letter, and that’s a shame.  Why?  Because this issue kind of sucks.  Granted, it’s OK for what it is, but a straight up superhero story just isn’t my thing these days.  This is the story of a scientist who is trying to develop an enlarging ray to help with world hunger.  The scientist’s assistant is actually a villain in disguise and he ratchets the ray up to full power, making a gigantic super pig.  After this villain is hilariously dispatched, the friend of the professor (secretly the Crimson Cloak, of course) spends the rest of the issue trying to defeat the pig.  It had a funny moment or two, but Brad mostly played it straight, and that included the use of an absolutely ridiculous amount of exclamation points.  There’s no reason to crap all over this, as I enjoy his other series and look forward to #7, but there’s not much in this issue that makes me want to recommend it to anybody else.  Pick up some of his other issues instead, you’ll love them.  As for this one, if you love superhero comics this might be for you.  As for price, I have no idea, as it’s not listed on his website, but let’s say $2.

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Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #6

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #6

If I had to pick one thing that I liked about Brad’s comics (other than the fact that the worst stories in them were still at least consistently entertaining) it would be the fact that he seems determined to cram as much comic as possible into each mini container.  Between the random shorties and all the strips (taken from his website, and it looks like he puts up another one every few days or so) you’re going to have a hard time finding a mini with more content.  That wouldn’t make much difference if the content sucked though, and this time around: no sucking!  This starts with a wonderful tale of playing an intimidating biker bar, getting drunk to compensate for feeling out of place, and having the night end with a brawl… but not that brawl you would expect.  Next up is a long chunk of mostly three panels strips, and these are distinct from most three panel strips in that the vast majority of them are funny.  I know, I couldn’t believe it either.  That should ensure that these comics will never be published in a newspaper.  Topics include the perfect evening, giving in to the iPod, worrying about life, bitching on the phone, the joys of camping, vomiting cats, raking in the dough from comic sales, the anime cock block, new glasses, drinking to help others and shark attack videos.  The rest of the comic starts to tell the Brad Dwyer origin story, as his older brother reads comics to his before he can read for himself, he spends his early years trying to make his art look like comic art, and eventually ditches the glamorous cartoonist life for a band and all the fun of puberty.  This is only the first part of the story though, and we all know how it turns out in the end.  I’m still curious to see how he gets there though.  It’s hard to get more bang for your comic buck (literally, as they’re still $1).  Buy his stuff and make him slightly less poor!

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Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #5

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #5

Brad’s taking a break from telling epic tales of his life and uses this issue to tell the tale of Brandon Huigens.  Or, more accurately, Brandon uses this issue to tell that tale, as he is the listed writer.  Brandon tells his story from a small child through getting constantly harassed at school to joining the military to get away from everything (and from how he describes it, joining the military wasn’t a bad idea) to quitting the military and ending up back home.  Not much in the way or happy endings or life lessons here, which is fine with me, as I hate those damned things.  Brandon also uses the extra space to get into a bit of his history with his grandparents, veering almost into adorable territory for a minute, but hey, it’s a true story.  Good stuff all around, as it’s an interesting story and Brad does a great job with the art.  You can tell Brandon has a lot to learn about this mini comics business though, as the pros can whine about their unhappy childhood for issues and issues before running out of material and Brandon took care of the whole thing in a single issue.  Still only $1, still worth checking out.

Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #4

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #4

If I can put my cynical hat on here for a moment, web comics have been a tremendous boon to the mini comics artist. After all, if they haven’t put a book out for a few months (or, depending on who we’re talking about, a few years), it’s easy enough to take the internet content and cram it into a mini, right? Not that I’m taking Brad to task or anything, the guy already has 5 minis out (#5 will be up here in the near future). And it’s not that I’m saying it’s a bad thing, I often don’t dig around into the online content of the people I like, so the “web comix” books are usually new to me. Actually, I have no idea of the point I was trying to make there, but it’s best to leave all this rambling up to show the world how my brain “works”. This comic is, as indicated, mostly stuff Brad has made for his website. In his letter with the books he says he doesn’t think they work in this format, but I thought they were fine. Granted, I can’t remember seeing two panel comic strips before, and that’s mildly odd, but not a bad thing. It’s more of a diary strip type setup than anything, so instead of one or two mundane days over the course of a comic we’re treated to more like a month of mundane. Brad goes to shows, drinks, hangs out with his girlfriend, tries to work up the energy to go to work, and attends a literature class with a Trekkie. More than a few funny bits in here and the man keeps his books cheap ($1), so it’s definitely worth taking a look.

Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #3

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #3

Here it is, that epic tale he was talking about in the title. Only one story this time around, and it is epic, and it is mundane. This is the story of the last night of work for Brad at one of the major box stores (probably Wal-Mart, as it’s always Wal-Mart, but people seem to think that Wal-Mart scans tiny mini comics and never use their actual name). He gets woken up by his alarm at 8pm, gets invited to drink with his friends (as the fun is just starting for most of the waking world at that hour), gets accosted by not one but two homeless drunks on his way to work, and finally figures out what a colossal waste of time the job is. Not that most people don’t figure out that working at a giant box store is a waste of time, but eating and paying bills tends to obscure that fact, longer for some people than for others. It’s a great story, something that everybody who has worked nights (or a really shitty, hopeless job) can easily relate to. From his website it looks like he’s up to #5, and I’m really curious to see what he’s done lately, as he sure seems to be getting better with each issue. $1

Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #2

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #2

More mundane tales from Brad, and this time around he’s stuck to mostly longer pieces. He still throws in a few shorties to mix things up, dealing with a drinking problem (and it is a problem, just not what you’re probably thinking), a crazy Jesus freak, and standing in the wrong line at a gun show. The meat of the book is in the longer pieces though, the first one being a continuation of his story from the last issue about how he’s sure to die in a fiery car wreck. More odd coincidences occur but, as the guy is clearly still alive, it’s bound to have a bit of a anticlimactic ending. Not that I wish him ill or anything. The bulk of this issue deals with Brad and a couple of friends jumping a house-sitter, their varying recollections of the event and the revenge that the jumped guy swore on all three men. Brad is nice enough to show what happened when the guy ran across the three assailants later, so all the loose ends are nicely tied up. It’s a pretty interesting read, all told, the only real issue I have with it is that the recollections of the fight get a bit jumbled towards the end, and I’m still not entirely sure how it all “really” went down, assuming it’s a true story and all that. Quite possibly an error in reading comprehension on my end, but thought I should throw in at least one complaint. Still, $1 for this many stories is hard to pass up.

Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #1

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #1

Brad certainly goes with truth and advertising here with that excellent title, although I think he sells himself a bit short with that sample image. Most of the stories in here are a bit more nuanced, although there is a bit of fecal humor if that’s your thing. This starts off a bit awkwardly with one page stories dealing with the tedium of work, brushing too hard, a dead ex and the medical effects of nicotine and caffeine, but Brad quickly builds a rhythm here once he gets to the longer pieces. In those he gets to tell us about the night before an extended period of abstinence (with more than a few of the gory details left to the imagination), crapping in a nasty toilet and having two car accidents happen right in front of him in a matter of days. It’s an interesting read, which is all you can ask for with these sorts of things, and Brad was nice enough to send a few more issues along, so I’ll be making a more informed opinion later. As for now, while there may not be a whole lot to separate it from most other autobio stuff, it’s done well and it’s cheap, with a bit of room for improvement. $1