Blog Archives
Sharp, Jeff – Flummy (art by Scott Mills)
Flummy (art by Scott Mills)
Here’s a mini by two people I like a fair amount. Strangely enough, this one didn’t do much for me. It was a long way to go for a pretty predictable (and stupid) punchline. Still, I’ll bet it was fun for them to do, and maybe it was just obvious and stupid to me. It’s all about Flummy (the alien on the cover) wandering into a business office by mistake. Hilarity ensues, in theory. Ah, it was OK. Check out the website, I’m guessing it’s $2 or so…
Sharp, Jeff – Caesar
Caesar Now Available! $2
You know, I have a much more positive of Jeff Sharp’s work in my mind than what comes across in my other reviews. He has a cute style with some of his stuff, granted, and I guess it either caught me in the wrong mood before or this one caught me in the right mood. In other words, I liked this one. It’s the story of Caesar (you can probably see on the cover that he’s a lizard) and him going about his day, basically. He runs into a grasshopper a few times that’s trying desperately to get eaten and just generally enjoys his simple, easy existence. It’s cute, I love the color of the cover (which my crappy scanner almost captured, but not quite), and have I mentioned that I liked it? That’s about the only kind of reaction you can have with something this short, and mine ended up being positive. Check out the website, wander around, chances are you’re reading this at work and you have some time to kill anyway…
Sharp, Jeff – First Semester
First Semester
Don’t people say the oddest things sometimes? That’s kind of the concept behind this book, as Jeff was apparently an art teacher for a semester (or for a long time, I’m not sure) and took up the project of chronicling the bizarre statements of his students. The arts OK, kind of sketchy but it’s mostly just him drawing people, and it’s more about what they’re saying than the art anyway. As for what they’re saying, well, some of it is cute and clever, granted, but a lot of it is statements of the “you had to be there” variety. Kind of an interesting book and the packaging is great, but that great packaging also makes it $6.95, which makes it a bit much for this sort of thing in my book. Contact info is above, check it out and see what you think.
Sharp, Jeff – Flummery 10th Anniversary Edition
Flummery 10th Anniversary Edition Now Available! $3
How does some of the stuff for the online store sit here so long unreviewed anyway? It’s almost like I’m making this site up as I go along. Flummery was started in 1995 by Scott Mills and Jeff Sharp. 11 issues later, Scott got big and famous (sort of, at least for small press comics) and Jeff gave up the ghost… until now. Or, more accurately, then, as this was put out in 2005. There’s a whole pile of short pieces in here, some longer than others. The highlights to me are the story about Jeff playing Civil War as a child (always as accurately as possible, at least until they got a couple of historically incompatible props), a true story about a man putting his stamp on one of the first things the US shot into space, Jeff’s story from his Uncle Leon on how he almost ran over General Patton, a creepy tale about cutting the heads off some pesky turtles and how said heads could live for days, and the story of how Jeff (as a small child) ruined his new pants and how he covered it up to his mom. That’s a lot of highlights, considering there are only a few more stories in here. Those are fine too, I’m just mostly ambivalent about them while the stories I mentioned had a tendency to resonate a bit more, for whatever reason. This thing has a gorgeous package too, what with the purple cover and the gold print and all. Worth checking out for fans of the old Flummery series, or just for people who like a good autobio story every now and then.
Sharp, Jeff – In A Lonely Place
There’s a fine line for me between a comic being cute and interesting, and cute but so cute that it’s almost unbearable. Unfortunately, and even with the sadness throughout, this one falls in the latter category. It’s the story of a snail and a slug going through life, each one of them alone and sad. They meet each other by chance, have a great time, and I won’t spoil what happens next. I like how the book looks, both in production and art, it’s just annoying to me sometimes to spend $3 on a book and be able to read it in about 1 minute. Well, I guess it’s obvious that this didn’t do anything for me. Neat idea, kind of depressing though. Check out the website. All kinds of stuff there to see, also some stuff from the fantastic Scott Mills.
