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Poland, Jason – Robbie and Bobby Volume 2: Bottomless Coffee and Candy Cigarettes
Robbie and Bobby Volume 2: Bottomless Coffee and Candy Cigarettes
So let’s say that you’re somebody who read the first volume of this series and enjoyed it, as you are a human with a sense of humor. If you were tragically born without a sense of humor, I meant no disrespect, but that’s about the only way that I can picture somebody reading this without enjoying it. Anyway, let’s say that that’s true, but still you’re wondering if you should pick up this second volume instead of, say, stopping at a Starbucks and getting coffee a few times this week. Skip the coffee, buy the comic. Simple enough? This is another collection of strips with subject matter that’s all over the place, and once again it’s funny as hell. That’s assuming that hell is a funny place, which is the assumption I always go with. There’s also a little girl who pops up very occasionally, so the cast is expanding ever so slightly. Not that the stories need it, but she is still a welcome addition. Subjects include (and I’m going to do this in the vaguest way possible to keep away spoilers) flying toasters, puppy cones, God’s grenade launcher, a glitter vaccine, book fights, Bobby getting lost in a supermarket, a pizza car, the ghost in the machine, sad games, fart stencils, hammock revenge, a benevolent tumor, a selfish monster and ghost dinosaurs. That’s a small sampling of the many strips in here, which once again includes a few strips from other artists, and they seem to have universally captured the magic of this strip. I’ve said it many times, but collections of strips like these often trend towards being mediocre, usually for the sheer number of strips involved, as some of them are bound to be stinkers. This has not been the case for either volume of this series, as damned near every strip either had me laughing, vaguely creeped out of both. Read this and laugh! $10 (ish)
Poland, Jason – The Flying Castle and Other Tales
The Flying Castle and Other Tales
Just a general note to the universe: if Jason isn’t filthy rich in ten years from now after illustrating a series of children’s book, something is seriously wrong with everything. Or maybe he decided that that wasn’t the way to go, but that’s the only reason why it shouldn’t work out. Hell, the only real objection to his current books being marketed that way could be due to the fact that they’re too “weird,” but try making that objection after watching any of a number of successful cartoons. Anyway, tangent over, what about the actual content? Less substantial than his previous book (purely in terms of page count), but it’s still damned funny and full of those little moments that completely won me over the last time around. The title story alone is a masterpiece of “what-the-fuckery” (OK, maybe he could switch over to making children’s books, but he may have a hard time using any quotes from me), as Bobby and his friend accidentally smash a window while trying to master kickball. Said window belongs to a floating castle that appears just as the ball is flying through the air, which makes it hard to place too much blame on the youngsters, but logic is for the weak! From there (without spoiling anything if I can help it) there are blood magnets, a giant eyeball that takes the glasses from one of the characters, the drunken ghosts and their lack of a corkscrew, the eventual discovery of the owner of the castle, and everything that happens after this fact, which I mostly can’t mention due to those spoilers. There are also two other stories, one about Bobby and his cursed bike that doesn’t let him ever get bored (and the reactions of his friends to this happening) and the introduction to the universe of two talking bears (“He is boring garbage” being the line that almost got me in trouble at work). It’s ridiculously entertaining, he uses color rarely but appropriately, and I’ve already established the fact that this guy should be rich and famous. Maybe buy that last volume if you want a more varied collection of his work, but after you do you’ll be scrambling to check out his other comics, so you’d really be better off buying all of his stuff at once. $12.99
Poland, Jason – Robbie and Bobby
Robbie and Bobby
It took me a lot of years, but I’m officially starting to regret not paying any attention to web comics for this long. Sure, I’m relatively busy keeping up with printed small press comics (which is also why I’ve ignored text zines for years), but great stuff does exist out there that I’ve never seen. Luckily people like Jason occasionally send me a copy of their first book, so at least I can get caught up on it after the fact. If you’ve never seen any of his strips and are about to run away after seeing a picture of a kid and a robot on that cover, don’t panic: this is some uniquely strange and funny stuff, and adorable kid poses will not be found in this volume. In fact, Bobby (who is the boy, not the robot, in case you were wondering) doesn’t seem to have any kind of authority figures in his life outside of Robbie, and it’s very much up for debate whether or not Robbie is even supposed to fill that role. Instead these two get up to all sorts of (mostly) good-natured trouble that may or may not be wrapped up by the end of the strip. Unless one or both of them end up dead, but that little problem is always corrected by the start of the next strip. So what’s it all about? Bobby is a young boy whose main interests seem to be pizza, Robbie, taking part in whatever adventure crosses his path and occasionally trying to impress a girl. Robbie… is. We don’t get an origin story and we really don’t need it, but he’s always there, either taking care of or taking advantage of Bobby. Some of the many subjects tackled in this mammoth (120+ pages) book include Robbie’s awesome power form, some seemingly sweet birds taking some of Bobby’s hair, the most terrifying strip I’ve ever seen involving a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Science Cat calling for help, the war against math users, marrying a pizza, and turning into a Netflix envelope to win hide and seek. Strips range from the very occasional three panel format to several pages long and damned near all of them either made me chuckle or at least smile, which is fairly remarkable in a book this varied. There are also some of his college strips in the back (which could maybe all come together in a single volume if this one is successful, hint hint) and a few pages done by guest artists which also managed to be hilarious. Maybe you’re like me and you don’t really read webcomics, but it would be a good idea to bookmark his site now and go back through it at your leisure. You’ll thank me later…
