Blog Archives
Blair, Josh (editor) – Candy or Medicine #5
Candy or Medicine #5
#5? Hasn’t Josh heard of the law requiring me to monitor the progress of all mini comics, great and small, and ramble about them on this website? Of course, it is possible that that law exists only in my brain. Regardless, this is another solid issue, and I think Josh has the cadence of an excellent anthology comic just about down. Cayetano Valenzuela has an adorable piece about his daughter, Shannon Smith confesses to killing rock and roll, Maggie Morrill gets the sampled piece so I don’t have to explain it, Ed Moorman has an adapted Craigslist “Missed connection” (and I’ll have to take his word for it that such a thing exists), Rob Moses has a silent piece about a spider luring people into its web using candy canes (that I’m probably misinterpreting horribly), Sarah Orchard retells an awkwardly honest conversation, Andrew Goldfarb lets us see a few more of the thousand sorrows that are still to come, Daniel Olson has a ten minute comic about the heartbreak of balloons (and it looks like he was serious about that ten minute thing) and Steve Rack has a maze on the back cover for the kids. Seriously, a buck for a range of talent like this is all you can ask for out of an anthology. Contact info is above, I’d be willing to bet that Josh is still looking for contributors, especially as he seems to be sticking to a schedule here and it must be tough to get a dozen or so people to get their stuff in on time for each issue…
Blair, Josh (editor) – Candy or Medicine #2
Candy or Medicine #2
Well, Josh was looking to put together a good mix of people for the second issue of his anthology, and there’s no doubt that he pulled it off. You can see it on the cover: 10 creators from 6 states and 3 countries is not bad at all for a second issue. Generally speaking, it’s a pretty decent pile of work. Rob Moses is the sampled page, as the octopus strip made me laugh out loud, so why not? Domen Finzgar has a piece of airplane art, Katie Haegele has a wonderfully absurdist piece about a mime and another about taking a request for local news too seriously, Erin Griffin has a helpful tip for how to make that favorite toothbrush last, Matt Feazell (yes, THAT Matt Feazell) has a few sketches, Richard Cabeza has some relatively awful puns, Josh Blair has a quiet piece about the moon, and Liza Miller has a silent conversation/dance/extravaganza. The only piece I didn’t enjoy was Ricky Glore’s piece about George W. Bush because really, after 7+ years of living with that asshole, there are significantly funnier jokes to be made. Oh, and Emily Puccia and Yves Albrechts did the front and back covers respectively. Keep sending the man contributions everybody, this one could be going places if Josh keeps it up. $1
Blair, Josh (editor) – Candy or Medicine #1
Candy or Medicine #1
Right off the bat, everybody should know that Josh plans on making this a quarterly anthology and he’s looking for contributors, so anybody who’s interested in taking part should click up top on that website or just send the man an e-mail. How about the actual comic, as that is theoretically what I’m supposed to be rambling about? The art is a little rough in places (still trying to puzzle out some of the images used in word balloons), but overall it’s an amusing book. The bulk of it is taken up with an artist’s interpretation of conversations with old people, and he uses different images for their favorite topics: health, weather, neighbors and gas prices. I think that one picture is of dentures but it’s hard to be sure… Also in here is the world’s worst “wanted” poster, a piece on the back cover where he pretends like he’s Donatello, and the page I sampled below, which was referenced mostly for the mullet. Josh still has some work to do, namely less use of the same images over and over and at least an attempt at a background somewhere, but far be it from me to discourage somebody who wants to put together a quarterly anthology. Check his page out, all you unmotivated artists out there! $1.50
