Blog Archives
Reints, Matt – Against the American Dream
Against the American Dream
Most of the time I’m just fine with artists going from story to story without holding the hands of the reading audience. More often than not we can tell when the story changes so, you know, do your thing! However, sometimes comics like this happen, where the story bounces all over the place, and in those cases slowing things down a bit is not a bad idea. A lot of this is me guessing, but I’ll try to walk you through this. The comic is, overall, a collection of wrestlers and a wrestling manager talking trash about (the recently deceased) Dusty Rhodes. I know this because I recognize Jim Cornette, one of the more famous former wrestling managers. But I’ll bet that lots of other people don’t know that, and he’s not identified anywhere by name. There are also quotes from three other wrestlers, and my best guesses for those are “Superstar” Billy Graham, Mr. Fuji (manager, I think, but maybe he wrestled too?) and… some other guy. You could have a table of contents on one of the inside covers, or you could list who they are in the same panel, but it’s mean to not identify them anywhere, and bad storytelling. Other stories interspersed with these speeches include three explorers who try to go to Area 51 (but the story peters out before we learn what happened, if anything), a dreamy piece on wishing for a better life, and photos of Lake Street in Minneapolis. That last one baffled me, as it didn’t seem to have much of a point, but it’s also entirely possible that I just missed it. Overall this comic was kind of a mess, which is a shame, as a comic based on people trash talking Dusty Rhodes had all kinds of potential. Luckily Dusty Rhodes had famous feuds that lasted years, so there could always be other issues with this basic idea.
Reints, Matt – The Van
The Van
There are times when I’m not sure if something is meant to be funny or if I’m just taking it too seriously in general, and this is one of those times. This comic deals with a summer job that Matt had fixing wiring. There was a 50 mile drive every day to get to the jobs, and they were always driven by the same guy who seemed to have boundless energy. You may be able to see where this is going, but eventually the company mechanic discovered cocaine in a pack of cigarettes left in the van, but the guy who was asked about this was good friends with the driver, so they blamed some other poor schmuck, who seemed to have his life more or less ruined by his failing a drug test. I’m curious if the guy failed a test for cocaine too or some other drug, but that was never addressed. Anyway, overall this is a lighthearted story about working a summer job with a bunch of pranksters, but then I had to go and get all serious all over it. The art looks a little sloppier than the last issue of his that I reviewed (then again, I have no idea of the order in which he made these comics), with some odd blotches and scratches here and there. Like maybe the art being copied a few times? Hard to say. I just flipped through it and noticed that he copied a panel on two pages, which strikes me as a bad idea for an eight page comic. Anyway, I guess it’s clear that I was underwhelmed overall, but hey, I did like his other comic, so maybe you should check that one out instead.
Reints, Matt – Dusty-isms
Dusty-isms
One tiny complaint to get things off on the wrong foot, as I liked the actual comic: more Dusty-isms, please! Dusty Rhodes was (and probably still is) a quote machine, and you can’t use a title like that and then only include three quotes. Oh, and if you don’t know who Dusty Rhodes is (old school wrestling legend) and are thinking that Matt draws him like a monster, well, the guy kind of looks like a monster. Which he played up back in the day by wearing a skin tight black and yellow polka dot outfit, and the guy wasn’t exactly svelte. Anyway, the three quotes are golden, so I’ll just leave those for you to discover. Other stories include a very long trip in a very short period of time (featuring much drinking, and as a guy who is careening through his late 30’s I would have loved to have seen an age group that pulled off the drinking feats depicted here), how an office environment compares to the world of pro wrestling (it’s closer than you’d think), and a surprisingly insightful tale of how little and how much things have changed over the last 60 years or so. It’s a little heavy on the wrestling references, but that shouldn’t be enough to scare you away, as Matt went to great lengths to make them relatable to everyday life. Give it a look, eh?
