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Martin, Dale – Watusi the Talking Dog #23
Watusi the Talking Dog #23
Wow, there’s been a slight gap in coverage of this book over the years, wouldn’t you say? I’m instantly impressed when a book gets as high as #23, even if, in this case, Dale is more of a ringleader than the sole force responsible for putting the book out. OK, he is the one who does that, but his main job is to get people to finish their panels and get everything back to him. All of these are four panel strips, Dale always has one panel (usually the first one to get the ball rolling), and in this issue Tom Cherry gets the last panel. In between you get Mark Morehouse, Larned Justin, Chris Garrett, Jennifer Hachigan, Michael A. Carroll, Matthew Corrigan, Dan Lauer, Keith O’Brien, David McGhee, Drew Boynton, Steve Willhite, Greg Gildersleeve, Owen Egan, Ryan Curran and Joyce Curran. Topics in here include inventions, China, late night, time travel, a barking contest, the lottery, Watusi’s sister, aliens, a flood, and health food. Tom only goes to the “it was all just a dream” well once, which is good, but overall this thing is more than a little uneven. Hey, it’s a jam comic, I think it’s supposed to be uneven. There are a few funny moments, even more unfunny moments, and a whole lot of confusion in between. Still, what Dale is doing here is admirable, and some of you artist types reading this should try putting together your own Watusi strips with a couple of your friends and see what happens. I doubt that it’s as easy as it looks… $1
Martin, Dale (editor) – Watusi’s Doghouse Funhouse
Watusi’s Doghouse Funhouse (edited by Dale Martin)
I’m not allowed to review this one. Why? Because it’s not a comic! It’s something completely different, and something that is meant purely for children: an activity book. Remember those from being kids, where you’d fill in the mazes, do the word puzzles, check which images were exactly the same, those sorts of things? That’s what this is. Oh sure, there are comic stories in here by a variety of folks, but this one is really meant for the kids, and I’m far too much of a childless curmudgeon to do it justice. Stories in here include a family coming up with their own endings to a movie when their DVD player craps out (by Dale Martin & Tom Cherry, and remember when VHS tapes would skip until they stopped? They didn’t? Oh yeah. Huzzah for modern technology!), Mark Morehouse showing different snowmen, Dale & Ivan Martin with the highlight of the comic (a short piece about the cyclical nature of time travel), Drew Boynton’s tale of some kids trying to find information on Bigfoot, Bill Hook & Mike Sullivan’s Thunderdawg, and assorted short pieces. If you have a kid who likes this sort of thing, you should pick this up. It’ll train them at an early age to appreciate comics (and the soon-to-be-extinct concept of paper), and there really is a ton of activities for them in here. For us crusty old adults who just prefer a good story, it’s probably best to move on to something else. Or I suppose lightening up is an option… humbug! $3.50
