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May, Ted & Wilson, Jeff & Reddy, Mike – Injury #4

Website (Ted May)

Alternative Comics

Injury #4

Before I say a thing about this comic, I need to make a very important thing clear: this comic marks the return of Alternative Comics, as they’ve been absent for the last 4 years, and that is a damned good thing for small press comics. Not that this was 100% published by them, as Kickstarter and Ted were involved in the publication too, but an established company like them will make it easier to get these books out to a wider market. I have to admit right off the bat that I haven’t seen the first three issues of this series, but it doesn’t seem like they contain any crucial information for enjoying this one. The bulk of this comic deals with a group of boys getting stoned and having detention, and it has to be the most pitch perfect representation of such a thing that I’ve ever seen. Jeff (writer) and Ted (writer/artist) really let this piece breathe, as we get several pages of the kids silently passing a joint back and forth, reminiscing about an Iron Maiden concert, before they go inside to take their punishment. Once they all sit down for their enforced quiet time one of them realizes that he’s way too high and paranoid hijinx ensue. The other big story was “Blade of Grass,” and this one felt distinctly like a continuation of an older story (and it’s “to be continued” this time too). Still, it’s a fairly self-contained story about a party clean-up and a few conversations that were mostly lost on me. I’ve yet to see Ted make a bad comic and this one is no exception, but it may take a collected edition for this story to make sense to me. Still, it’s worth it for that main story alone. Buy this comic and support the rebirth of Alternative Comics! And the people who are making this comic, obviously, but you know what I mean. $6

Wilson, Jeff – Sap #6

Website

Sap #6

Well, that alien invasion you’ve been waiting for (if you read the last issue that is, and if you don’t count the benign aliens that have already invaded) happens here. Worms all over the place, people getting all kinds of goofy with all the sap that’s laying around… mayhem galore. And, strangely, very little about the characters who seemed so central to the last issue, or at least they seem central to a brain that hasn’t read the last issue in a couple of years. Dan Zettwoch also did a backup story for this one, basically a public service ad about the dangers of sap, and Ted May is the one who put this issue together, so we at least know that he has great friends in the comic business. Good stuff again, although this one is desperately lacking the synopsis that made the last issue so easy to pick up and follow…

Wilson, Jeff – Sap #5

Website

Sap #5

OK, right off the bat it should be obvoius that this series has a pretty hefty collection of characters. Mostly slackers of some kind of another and a few different species of aliens. The story here is that there are aliens growing underground, causing massive earthquakes all over the place, and it’s only going to get worse. The earth is doomed, in other words. Meanwhile there’s a hallucinogenic substance that comes from the alien underground that making the rounds through the group of friends and the aliens are trying to remain undiscovered. I’m still only scratching the surface of what’s going on here, as there’s quite a backstory on the first page (always a good idea, especially when there hasn’t been an issue of this for 4 years or so), but I’m curious to see what I missed, and what happens next. In other words, a job well done. The art and the writing are both great, so here’s hoping #6 comes out before the next presidential election. It’s only $2 for a pretty big book, send the man an e-mail at wormcomix@aol.com.