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Anderson, Chris – Try Adventure #1

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Try Adventure #1

More often than not “#1” in the small press world means “the only issue ever”.  I’m really hoping that’s not the case with this one.  Chris sent me a pile of comics, so you’ll be seeing plenty more of his stuff in the weeks to come, and the pessimist in me says that there’s no way they’ll all be this good.  First off, kudos on the package, as he left a nice illustration on the envelope and, just as I was about to start raging about a lack of contact info, I saw an envelope marked “secrets”.  Well, I won’t go into all the details of what was inside, but it also included two websites.  Really, he already won me over with the packaging, making the first comic I grabbed out of the pile amazing was just a bonus.  This mini has three adventures, each more awesome than the last, except for the fact that the middle story was the best.  First up is the tale of a rogue chronomancer who travels through time doing… something.  He spends most of the story (after our hero gets shot and tended to by a nurse from olden times) explaining who he is and what he does, and Chris managed to make the whole thing more of less make sense before ending the story.  Next up is Lady Girl, the story of a mild-mannered librarian who can turn into a superhero who happens to be a homicidal lunatic who still talks like a mild-mannered librarian.  Her confrontation with the boss behind the big bank robbery is a thing of beauty and pretty much everything she says is both hilarious and horrifying.  Finally there’s the tale of Barry the Barbarian, who goes to the rescue of the local village (with his giant bunny steed) mostly so he can talk to this girl he likes who is seeing another man.  Awkwardness ensues, and really, who does call themselves Michael and not Mike?  All told it’s an excellent issue, Chris does some really expressive work with faces considering that the artwork is overall a bit minimalistic.  No price, but let’s say $2 and I can’t wait to get to the rest of the stuff in this pile…

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Everything #2 (with Mark Hensley)

I can’t tell you how happy I am to discover that this is an ongoing series.  Oh, I knew there was a second issue, I just figured that it would be a completely different story, as how could they follow up that first issue?  Quite capably, as it turns out.  Things start off this time with you trying to relax (still in your ankylosaurus form) after a successful concert.  Naturally, there’s too much action in your life for relaxation to be successful, and somebody takes a shot at you.  The bullets, however, are liquid bullets, and you know exactly who tried to kill you.  This leads you to seek out Dr. Jambo, as he can tell you what the story is behind your amulet.  Still, you have to make it to him, and the people hijacking the plane have their own plans.  Again, this is the first half dozen pages or so of the story, and again, I can’t bring myself to spoil much more.  OK, a few more things: your father (Mike Tyson) returns from the future to settle the score, and you also go into the internet.  Physically, that is.   I forgot to mention in the last review that Chris and Mark are taking requests, as this is the comic that has everything, so any suggestion you send along may very well be in the next issue.  And oh, there will certainly be a next issue if that cliffhanger is any indication.  There’s still no price, I still think $2 sounds about right, and I still think that if any rich people are reading this they should give them $2000 instead in exchange for them making more of these forever and ever.

Anderson, Chris – Everything #2

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Everything #2 (with Mark Hensley)

I can’t tell you how happy I am to discover that this is an ongoing series.  Oh, I knew there was a second issue, I just figured that it would be a completely different story, as how could they follow up that first issue?  Quite capably, as it turns out.  Things start off this time with you trying to relax (still in your ankylosaurus form) after a successful concert.  Naturally, there’s too much action in your life for relaxation to be successful, and somebody takes a shot at you.  The bullets, however, are liquid bullets, and you know exactly who tried to kill you.  This leads you to seek out Dr. Jambo, as he can tell you what the story is behind your amulet.  Still, you have to make it to him, and the people hijacking the plane have their own plans.  Again, this is the first half dozen pages or so of the story, and again, I can’t bring myself to spoil much more.  OK, a few more things: your father (Mike Tyson) returns from the future to settle the score, and you also go into the internet.  Physically, that is.   I forgot to mention in the last review that Chris and Mark are taking requests, as this is the comic that has everything, so any suggestion you send along may very well be in the next issue.  And oh, there will certainly be a next issue if that cliffhanger is any indication.  There’s still no price, I still think $2 sounds about right, and I still think that if any rich people are reading this they should give them $2000 instead in exchange for them making more of these forever and ever.

Anderson, Chris – Everything #1

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Everything #1 (with Mark Hensley)

I said in the review for Try Adventure that I doubted that all of Chris’s comics would be as great as that one, as it was a pile of undistilled awesome.  I would like to happily report that, as of my reading the second comic in this pile, I was wrong.  Sure, it’s possible that some of the ones left to read are going to suck, but at this point I highly doubt it.  This is the story of, well, everything, and it boggles my mind that there’s so much crap in the movie theaters over the summer when somebody could just get the rights to this comic and have the biggest summer blockbuster of all time.  This is going to be a tricky thing to review, as I don’t want to give away a single thing about this comic.  The real joy of this issue was in seeing what Chris and Mark were going to come up with on each page.  Still, I do have to give a few things away, don’t I?  I can’t just tell everybody to go out there and buy this and expect to have it happen.  OK, fine.  The comic starts off with you (yes, you) waiting for your estranged father to meet you for dinner.  Your ex is serving you, and you can tell she wants to get back together with you.  Your father arrives, and he turns out to be Mike Tyson.  Sadly, there’s very little time to enjoy your meeting, as the kitchen staff is trying to impregnate a gorilla with human sperm.  This leads to a kitchen brawl, as you turn into an Ankylosaurus (thanks to your amulet) and Mike Tyson (who wears his boxing gloves wherever he goes) obliterates the doctor.  You swat another doctor with your tail, knocking him through the window, into space and directly into the sun.  Sadly, it turns out the gorilla’s intentions were pure and  he wanted to be just like us.   I have just described the first five (5) pages of this 28 page comic.  I haven’t even mentioned the lizard men, your concert or the fact that every woman in this comic would clearly love the chance to sleep with you.  I’ve said it before, but only when it’s been completely true: it’s comics like these that keep me happy to sit down and work on this website every day.   If you have a sense of humor you’re only hurting yourself by not checking this out.  No price is listed, I’d guess $2, but really any price he asks for this is more than fair.

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Anderson, Chris – The 12 Hour Man

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The 12 Hour Man #1 (art by Scott Longo)

Go ahead, take a guess on what this comic is about.  I’m sure there’s a list of possibilities racing through your mind after seeing that title.  And the winner is… a one man wrecking crew working for a shadowy arm of the government!  Yep, in this case the 12 hour man is someone who drops into an area, clears out all the bad guys in it and goes home in under 12 hours.  Basically it’s an excuse for Chris & Scott to draw some serious gore and mayhem, and I’m here to tell them that they don’t need an excuse for such a thing.  As there’s not much of a story to speak of, it leaves me, as a reviewer, with a bit of a blank spot in terms of things to talk about.  The art is wonderful, with some brutal (but never horrific, somehow) violence.  The writing, well, all Chris has to do is throw in a few instructions from the mysterious man guiding the 12 hour man and the occasional shouted threat, but he does this admirably.  My appreciation for the work of this man should be obvious if you scroll down this page a bit, and this comic does nothing to lessen that.  Start with the “Everything” series (as it does, after all, contain everything), then work your way over to this one.  No price, as usual, but I’ll guess $2

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