Blog Archives
Lindo, Sara – Super Lobotomy
Super Lobotomy
Have you ever wondered about the domestic life of a walking, talking brain and the piece of itself that was cut off in a lobotomy? You haven’t? Lucky for you, Sara is on the case. The basic story here (and it will be difficult to do this madness justice) is that the vast majority of the brain has no interest at all in household chores, and instead chooses to focus on daydreaming and loafing. Maybe the portion of its brain that was removed was the part that controlled such things? Eh, I’m thinking way too literally and scientifically here, and I apologize. Anyway, the brain sends away for a “hero cape,” it finally arrives in the mail and the brain proceeds to go into town, looking for various ways to save the day. It’s likely that I wouldn’t want to live there, but this world would be a fantastic place to visit. Sentient waffles, one of the ghosts from Pac-Man (purely guessing here) as a criminal, a pineapple parking enforcer, a piece of toast working as a hot dog vendor (would it be unethical for a piece of toast to sell hot dog buns, as they might be related? Yet another thing that I had never considered before reading this comic), and an ice cream cone and a gumdrop playing together. Why does the gumdrop only have one leg while the ice cream cone has two? It’s probably best left to your imagination. My only minor complaint is that, as a silent comic, there are a couple of moments when I had some difficulty following the action. But it always made itself clear in a panel or two, which is why it’s only a minor complaint. This is a pile of fun, and good luck not chuckling at least a few times. $5 (guessing again, as it’s not listed on her website as being for sale yet, but it totally is)
Lindo, Sara – Carl Finds Love #2
Carl Finds Love #2
Wait a minute, this is a comic for little kids? It had honestly never occurred to me before, but Sara puts a few cut-outs towards the back of the book and suggests that kids “ask the closest responsible adult” to help them out. Granted, there’s no cursing, nudity or anything else that would prevent kids from reading this, but it is all about the quest for love of one man, and I’m thinking that pretty much everybody is cleared to use their own scissors before they care about such things. Unless she was kidding, in which case please don’t mind my denseness. Anyway, this time around our hero decides to get some ladies to like him by himself, which leads to the fantastic scene that I sampled with him giving away flowers to random ladies. This page also really showcases Sara’s visual inventiveness, and that along with several background scenes really help the book feel… meatier? Thicker? More substantive, that’s what I was looking for. Any work that you can go back in and pick up several things you missed the first time around is OK in my book. After our hero passes out flowers he gets some advice on this tactic from his friends (who basically tell him that people in cities aren’t used to such things) before getting him to agree to going on a few blind dates. He gets a bit more advice (and a lucky coin) from a pizza man, then the issue wraps up. So apparently there is going to be at least one more issue if that title is going to end up being literally true. I’m enjoying it and am curious to see what happens next, and once you’ve won me over on those two fronts I’m generally good for the long haul. Granted, the haul is rarely very long in small press comics (the Cerebus epic notwithstanding), but I’m still in. Even if the story hits a sour patch there are still all the random “people” populating the landscape to look forward to… $3
Lindo, Sara – Carl Finds Love #1
Carl Finds Love #1
Ah, love. Judging from the pink store displays it is almost that time of year again where you are legally required to be dating somebody or else be considered a hopeless loser. Sara tackles the question of what it is that ladies like in this issue, which is kind of odd as she is a lady, but hey, I’ll take useful advice wherever I can get it. Um, I mean wherever the reader can get it. Anyway, things start off with what is almost an accident between a construction worker with a traffic cone for a head (or is it only ON his head?) and a car driven by a man with a tomato for a head. Oh, and the whole thing is witnessed by a walking, talking screwdriver. I know that Sara is dating the frantabulous Steve Seck (you know, those “Life is Good” comics that you are all reading), so now I have to wonder if they both decided to depict their characters as living inanimate objects or if it was their mutual preference for such characters that got the two of them together in the first place. There’s some pretty rough perspective work on that second page (a nearly wrecked car should not be smaller than the doors for a nearby establishment, and the traffic cone head guy should not tower over the vehicle as he walks towards it), but that’s the only error of that nature that I noticed. From there the guy with a tomato for a head offers the pair of gents some advice about the ladies: complimenting them on their appearance so that they know that “all that time they spend in the bathroom doesn’t escape our notice.” This man then walks up to a couple of ladies and uses one implicit and one explicit really bad pick-up line, and they both work like a charm. This confuses our two heroes (the traffic cone head guy and the screwdriver guy), but after seeing it work they decide to try it themselves on their lunch break. The result of their attempts are depicted below in the sample, and the rest of the comic is them talking with friends in a restaurant about their failed attempts and what it is exactly that the ladies like. Left unsaid in that conversation was the thing that flummoxed me: if the ladies hate that type of behavior in guys who were asking them out, why did the two ladies that the tomato head guy talked to give him their digits so readily? There’s still another issue to go that might explain that part that made no sense to me, but overall it’s a pretty fun comic with some pretty terrible advice on how to woo the ladies. Which, I believe, is kind of the point. $3
Lindo, Sara – Lobotomy
Lobotomy
There are times when a silent comic needs a few words of explanation, and this is one of those times. Or it’s possible that all the cold medicine that is still coursing through my system (along with the actual cold itself) is making me stupid and I’m just not getting parts of this. Actually, I’d bet on the latter explanation. This is the story of a smaller chunk of a larger brain that has taken over the whole brain and, well, lobotomized it. Sort of, anyway, as the larger part is still capable of independent thought. Why don’t I just flip through this again in the hopes of making this review at least slightly coherent? Small brain chunk wakes up and goes about its daily business. Then it wanders over to the larger brain and hooks it up to something that is clearly hurting it. The small chunk then rides the large chunk throughout the day like a steed, while the large chunk is clearly miserable the whole time. Once the small chunk goes to sleep the larger chunk takes off for its own adventures, and I’ll just tell you the whole comic if I’m not careful. Maybe my confusion is due to the fact that a lobotomy is permanent and I’m taking the title too literally. It’s a fun little story regardless, although the ending was a little confusing to me, but again, that’s probably the cold medicine talking. $2
Lindo, Sara – Ike the Cat in Wall Street Cat: Money Takes Naps
Ike the Cat in Wall Street Cat: Money Takes Naps
Hey cat haters, you soulless monsters you: get an early start to your weekend, you’ll find nothing to enjoy here. For the rest of us people with actual human feelings, you’re in luck. This is the fictional story of a real cat who seems to have a job on Wall Street, although it appears from the story that his job is really just to listen to people complain. Anyway, Ike starts his day with some canned food, rides the subway to work (making friends along the way), listens to several people tell him their problems and calls it a day. It’s pretty much all sweetness and light; even the conversation with the H.R. lady went swimmingly. This probably won’t win any awards, but it has a cute story and it was the perfect heft and tone for a Friday afternoon. My only real complaint has nothing to do with the story and more to do with the cat. Ike in the comics is depicted with an “M” on his forehead, and his picture at the back of the book seems to confirm that. Why in the world would you start the name of such a cat with an “I”? Crikey, at least call him “Mighty Ike” or something to take advantage of that natural branding on his head. Use your imagination, cat owners, but he’s just crying out for at least a nickname. Sara sent along some other books too, so I’ll have a few chances to look at comics that aren’t all “look at the cute kitty” (not that I have much of a problem with that), but I like the art here and had no problems with the story. Worth a look, at least unless you hate cats, and I thought I told you people to leave at the start of the review? No price listed on her website, so I’ll go with… $5!
