Blog Archives
Teagle, Jack – The Unmentionables
The Unmentionables
Do you like wrestling? If so, you’re going to love this comic and could save yourself some time if you just went ahead and bought it now. If not, hey, it’s a free country and all, but this comic is still a pile of fun and you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t at least look into it a bit. Hey, let me help you with that! So this one starts off with two lady wrestlers in the ring. The good guy is Lizard Woman and the bad guy is Vulturella. Eh, let’s just go by “face” (good guy) and “heel” (bad guy), OK? There, now you learned something about wrestling terminology, which sometimes also works very well in real life! Anyway, as these two are fighting the face learns that the heel is fighting for real even though the face has been scripted to win. She’s breaking out of holds, punching much harder than she should be, and ignoring all of the usual cues to play along. After a lengthy battle the face wins the match and heads backstage. At this point there’s just the promoter and one other wrestler around, as it’s the end of the night, and the promoter actually thanks the face for putting on such a good show. While they’re chatting they learn of a crime going on: a crew of heel wrestlers has robbed a bank and, as they are basically superheroes, the cops are unable to put them down. The face, the other wrestler and the promoter all set out to confront them, and it occurs to me that I have told you enough about the plot. From there it’s one big fight scene, ending with a pretty great scene of the “team” picking a name. It’s a fun book from start to finish, has plenty of respect for wrestling while still not being stupid enough to think that it’s for real, and has a distinctive cast of characters that could certainly be explored more fully in future issues. Assuming that there will be future issues? There’s no “#1” on this that I can see. Still, I live in hope, as this was a blast. $6
Various Artists – Hic & Hoc Illustrated Journal of Humour Volume 2: The United Kingdom
The Hic & Hoc Illustrated Journal of Humour Volume 2: The United Kingdom
Hey look, anthology reviews on back to back days! Readers in the future, never mind about that comment, but for today I can compare the two, and I’m happy to say that this one got every single little thing right that made me cranky about the last one. Clear and legible table of contents, the pages are numbered, and most of the strips had the name of the artist on the bottom of the page. Yep, my only complaint here is that they managed to put together an anthology of U.K. cartoonists and left Rob Jackson out of it, but maybe he lives somewhere else and I’m just confused. OK fine, so they got the basics right. What about the quality? Pretty much top-notch all around, which is always at least slightly rare for an anthology with this many people in it. Highlights include a chopsticks dilemma by Luke Pearson, putting all of the eggs in one basket by Lizz Lunney, the wisdom of using egg whites instead of cream by Philippa Rice, the fantastically destructive Skull Force by Jack Teagle, one seriously destructive romance by Luke Pearson, a great example of a comic about nothing that ends up being pretty damned great by James Downing, a horror show called Dream Leader by Joe List, an excellent way to turn the tables on door to door salesmen by Joe Decie, deciding who you would like to survive the apocalypse along with you by Stephen Collins, video game monster advice by Dan Berry, judging someone from their shoes by Lizz Lunney, “I Was Attacked by some Naked Children” by Isaac Lenkiewicz, being stuck as a conscious fossil by Kristyna Baczynski, terrible story ideas that Gareth Brookes has been given over the years, and the Death Train by Lizz Lunney. Huh, I seemed to like Lizz Lunney’s work quite a bit, but there’s a pile of great stuff in here. Check it out, support both Hic & Hoc and the idea of getting more international anthologies going over here in the U.S. $12
