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Hogan, Meghan – Startled Maggie #1
Startled Maggie
Well, this book took a turn for the better when I found out that this was actually all about Meghan as a kid and not about the early days of her child (if she has a child, which she may or may not, how should I know?). It deals with the first few years of life of a young girl, her various utterances (it’s tough to call them conversations) and happenings. It seemed almost too cute if it was about Meghan’s mythical child, but learning that it was about Meghan as a kid and that she’s doing this series to document the nature of memory and early life makes it a lot more interesting. This wouldn’t be the case if I had a kid of my own and/or shared the belief of all parents that their children and their children alone are precious little snowflakes, but alas, that isn’t the case. It’s irrelevant, as these are all stories told to Meghan by her parents about her very early days. I’d be curious to see a comparison after this is finished between her own memories and the memories that she depicts here. Are they largely the same? If not, where do they differ, and what does that say about everybody involved? This has the potential to be a downright fascinating series when all is said and done. I have no idea how long she’s going to depict this (it would lose some of the point if she kept it up through her teenage years where, if she was like most other teenagers, her parents lost touch with exactly what she was up to on a daily basis), but I am very curious to see how it all shakes out. $6
Various Good Minnesotans – Good Minnesotan #4
Good Minnesotan #4
I’m in a bit of a pickle here. You see, the Good Minnesotans responsible for putting this anthology together sent a collection of minis that make up GM #4, all bundled up in a lovely slipcase. However, they recently had a successful fundraiser that will let them print this whole pile of comics in (what I believe to be) one volume. So my righteous rant about how silly it is to put a table of contents with page listings when there are no page numbers in the comics can’t go anywhere because they will probably have that problem fixed in the final edition. That’s fine, there’s no reason to focus on the negative with a pile of stories like this anyway. It will also make my selection of a sample image from each of the 5 minis seems a little excessive (and guys, if this is too many for you let me know and I’ll take most of them down), but I’m trying to give a flavor for the whole thing here. I was also going to break this down into five sections, one for each mini, but as they aren’t numbered in any way I’m just going to go with my usual clumpy review. Tales in here include some creepy microscopic organisms by Justin Skarhus, The Poo Lagoon by Lupi (sadly, it seems to be a true story), is it a caraway seed or a rat turd by Sarah Julius (I think), Nic Breutzman as a child watching his neighborhood being built and marveling at the quiet at the end of the day, Kevin Cannon’s recap of the men who tried to be the first to reach the North (and South) Pole, a pile of creepy and moody photographs by Buck Sutter, planting mama with the onions by Anna Bongiovanni, Renny Kissling’s silent tale of an alien being tortured,Meghan Hogan’s adventures of crocheted animals, Martha Iserman with the adventures of her stuffed parrot-beaked puffer fish, and some food thievery by Raighne Hogan. There is one mini that stands alone as a complete story, by both Justin Skarlus and Raighne Hogan (each taking half the book) about a terminator-ish creature that doesn’t seem to have much of an ability to stick with one target, but that’s probably because I’m imposing that idea onto that character. It’s a bizarre pile of transporting vaginas, submachine guns, brain-eating and quiet contemplation. You’d love it! So, at the end of the day, I don’t know what the final version of this comic is going to look like. I hope they can keep the front and back cover of the slipcase, and I hope they manage to number the pages to go along with their table of contents, and I hope it’s clear that I’m not even commenting on about 1/3 of the stories in this to leave some surprises for you people. If you’ve seen the past issues of this series you know that “Good Minnesotan” is a mark of quality, and they didn’t disappoint this time around.
Various Good Minnesotans – Good Minnesotan #3
Good Minnesotan #3
These people just keep improving the design scheme of these anthologies. This one can go right on your bookshelf, what with the spine and all. If they keep this up #4 is going to have one of those gold-embossed covers that the big companies were using for a few years back when I cared about such things. How about the contents? I’d say this is their strongest issue yet, or at least certainly their most consistent. Not a bad story in the bunch. I should note that all these stories have brief bios of the creators before the stories as well as contact info and your best place to get all that is either through their website or by buying the book, as I’m far too lazy to list all that stuff here. Noah Harmon has a piece about a squid trying to communicate an idea, Toby Jones details his ethical and practical struggle with mice, Madeline Queripel sums up a courtship in one page, Meghan Hogan has the start of a graphic novel about great horned owls (and she might want to avoid dark text against a dark background, but other than that it was fascinating), Justin Skarhus & Raighne Hogan tell the tale of a day of vari0us inescapable sexcapades, Ed Moorman details a year of firsts in one night, Abigail Mullen wants a small house, Anna Bonguivanni eats a baby (and wins the prize for the most gorgeous artwork in the book), Reynold Kissling helps demonstrate why even starting a relationship is so difficult, and Danno Klonowski has a stream of true nonsense from the local crazy person. I left two stories out, mostly because they could have been comics in their own right. John & Luke Holden spell out an utterly directionless life just about as well as I’ve ever seen, as a total lump of a man loses his last job and wanders around trying to barely not be homeless, and Nicholas Breutzman shows us the ongoing war between desperate meth addicts and people who live in secluded homes. This is the best work yet from pretty much everybody listed (that I’ve seen anyway, as a few of them have some pretty extensive credits listed before this book) and it does an excellent job of keeping the reader engaged for its 100+ pages. Send them some money and/or start thinking about beginning one of these anthologies in your own neck of the woods, why don’t you? $12
Various Good Minnesotans – Good Minnesotan #2
Good Minnesotan #2
Huzzah for a second issue! Even better news is that this was actually sent to me months ago and I’m just now getting to it, meaning that the third issue is almost out as well. That level of productivity is never a bad thing. OK, so the first review was mostly gushing due to how I impressed I was at the concept, so this time I’ll stick more to the content. It’s the same cast of artists with a few new people thrown in. First up is Back Pages by Ed Moorman, a fictional (?) conversation with a confrontational Bob Dylan in 1966. Thoroughly engaging and sharp, and it’s certainly not hard to imagine that conversation taking place with Bob Dylan. Next is Halloween (Revisited) by Gail Kern, and I have to apologize for using the last page of her story as the sample for this issue. Regular readers of this site know that I hate spoilers, but that image of the headless horseman frantically trying to save his head is going to be lodged in my brain for weeks. Meghan Hogan is up next with a bit of poetry about wanting to fight a shark, followed by a surprisingly mournful tale of growing old with someone and the mistakes they made along the way. Next is an untitled piece by Joseph Nixon, a mostly impressionistic “origin story” on how he knew he wanted to be a painter, which is probably at least a little bit more interesting than most. Raighne Hogan & Alex Witts team up next to tell the tale of a dictator, his methods and the inevitable conclusion. Luke has a long but tiny (if you see the pictures you’ll know what I mean) story about… oh crap, a wordless story I have to interpret. OK, there’s a bird chirping a story to a human about a large monsterish creature going for a walk, playing with its shadow and jumping out of a car. Yep, that’s why they pay me the big bucks. Finally there’s The Ripoff by Nicholas Breutzman, possibly the highlight of a collection of solid pieces, involving a pierced penis and the very literal usage of the title. If you like your anthologies diverse and thought-provoking, you could do a whole lot worse than this. The $12 price tag may scare a few people off but this thing is packed, and I didn’t even go into all the extra sketches and images at the back of the book. Worth a look.
