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Paglia, Kimberly – My Life in Family Vacations
My Life in Family Vacations
I’m regretting it more and more all the time that I didn’t get more of these when I had the chance. This looks like a perfect series to just sit back and read on some lazy afternoon, and at the end of that afternoon I get the feeling that you’d know an awful lot about Kimberly, which is what good autobio comics are all about, right? This one, obviously, is about various vacations she has taken with her family when she was a child. Washington DC, Niagra Falls, wax museums, camping, a ferris wheel, and trying without success to get to Hershey, PA. You can probably tell by the samples that this isn’t the most gorgeous artwork in the world or anything, but man are these fun to read. Contact info is up there, again only $.75!
Paglia, Kimberly – My Life in Scars
My Life in Scars
That’s only a tiny bit smaller than the actual size of the comic, just so you can get a comparison. Kimberly has done a series of “My Life In” comics, telling all kinds of stories about various parts of her life. You can get a better idea of her comics at her website, and if you look around there you’ll see that she’s done a whole lot of comics in a short time, and after reading this one I’m really wishing that I had gotten more at FLUKE. This one, obviously, is about scars that she has gotten over the course of her life. There’s her brother stabbing her with a pencil, spilling a pan full of boiling water down her legs, getting a piece of slate stuck in her forehead… This girl has a lot of scars and she tells you all about them. Me, I’m a sucker for a good autobio comic, and this certainly is that. It’s tiny, but there’s a lot of content here and she has a vast body of work. This is only $.75, here’s that website I was talking about…
Paglia, Kimberly – Kick in the Butt #11
Kick in the Butt #11
Dammit, I really wanted to like this one, especially after loving the “My Life in __” comics. Then there’s the fact that even getting to #11 in a series impressive in comics (it looks from the website like this made it to #13, put out on a mostly monthly basis, before vanishing). But when large chunks of a tiny book look rushed and sloppy and when only a few of the strips were genuinely funny, well, I’d have to say you’re better off getting one of the “My Life in ___” books to see what Kimberly’s really capable of. Unless, of course, this was just an off-issue, as she was moving and GW Bush had just been reelected (which removed all hope in the world from a lot of people). Comics in here deal with said election and her response, her dog, moving, trapeze artistry, turkey, Erkle, cold weather, and barfing. I did like the slowly accumulating mound of dishes, that was done very well over the course of a daily strip. Other little bits also made me chuckle, like her boyfriend (husband?) dreaming about puppets and her take on a Marilyn Monroe movie. All in all she’s done better work, and I’m hoping that the sudden stop of these has more to do with her not updating her website than giving up on comics altogether. $1.50
