Blog Archives
Stiehl, Mike (editor) – Bomb Time For Bonzo #5
Website (where you can buy a few of these at least)
Bomb Time for Bonzo #5
The folks at Comixwerks sent me this last week, probably because they saw that I ran across the second issue of their series several months ago. I missed the ones in between so I’m not sure how much they improved in the other issues, but this one is significantly better than the second one. Layout, content, overall look… great stuff. Here’s a list of who’s in it and you can decide for yourself: Onsmith, Dylan Graham, Paul Hornschemeier, John Hankiewicz, Benjamin Chandler, Henry Ng, W. Lantz, and Matt Kapolczynski. As John Hankiewicz is my reigning favorite for the last few months, it follows that I’d have to love this book, right? Well, for once, yeah. There’s one page in the book that didn’t do much for me, but even that one was more of an “eh” reaction than anything actively negative. No, I’m not going to tell you which page. They still have at least a few more issues to go before they can challenge Toenail Clippings for best current anthology, but I can see how they could get there eventually. What are the stories about? Well, besides the samples, there’s not listening to your brain, dinosaurs sinning, a preacher, 9/11, and a living gingerbread man. It’s $2.50 and well worth a shot. Check out the website for ordering info. They’ve updated the site quite a bit lately, all kinds of samples and an interview with John Porcellino. What are you waiting for?
Kapolczynski, Matt – Marbled Up: Instant Comic
Marbled Up: Instant Comic
I always love the follow up issue, especially when it comes out years after the first one. What’s the artist been up to? Was the promise/crappiness of the first book fulfilled? Well, I liked this one too, but a lot of it wasn’t even done by Matt. Seth Tucker, Mark Paulsen and Walter Piper all contributed stories, making this feel more like an anthology than anything else. Matt seems to have gone through a lot of changes since the last issue came out, giving him a chance to get some perspective on how things really are. I’m usually a little irritated when the author makes a comic directly addressing the audience, but Matt had an awful lot of good points about life so I can’t really be annoyed with him. It’s even more of a hodge-podge than the first issue, but it’s still good. The fancier cover makes it $3 this time around, but check it out, it’s worth it. Contact info is above, or you can send him money at: 145 N. Park Ave. Lombard, IL 60148.
Kapolczynski, Matt – Marbled Up #1
Marbled Up #1
Ah, a local (central Illinois) boy. There aren’t too many of these around here. Something about the water that prevents people from doing quality comics, I don’t know the real reason. Anyway, this is a collection of stories, and it’s pretty good. There are times when he gets a bit preachy and it borders on the cliche, but overall the book keeps up a pretty good pace and the parts that are supposed to be funny actually are. Lots of frantic, anime-style stories with little punctuation and constant action, and a few introspective stories thrown in as well. It’s not all perfect, but most of it works and it’s worth a look. He seems to have a command of the English language as well. I might have seen one spelling error and that was it. E-mail the guy to see if he’s done anything else (I should also mention that this was his first comic, so he can only get better) or just send him a couple of bucks at: 145 N. Park Ave. Lombard, IL 60148. Try the e-mail first though, this book is a couple of years old and he might have moved…
