Blog Archives
Various Artists – Vagabond Comics #2
The theme for this anthology is foods (and drinks, technically), which is maybe obvious from the cover, at least until you examine more closely what exactly is in that jello. First up (by Sequoia Bostick) is a story about the joys and obvious effects of drinking too much coffee, told so lovingly that it was impossible not to enjoy. Unless you hate coffee, I guess, but if that’s the case then how do you get through the day? No, seriously, I really want to know. Next up (by Clare Holat) is the confession of a former pie blogger, and she was nice enough to use an actual pie recipe if you’re interested in baking a pie. Zach Sabatino has the next piece, about the quest for the mythical Starburger and the lengths that people will go to to get it. Julia Simmons follows that up by showing us the horrors of a vegetable and fruit platter from the perspective of the sole surviving member. And if plants really do have a rudimentary intelligence like recent science (that I may or may not have read correctly) suggest, good luck vegetarians! Luke Grabber then has one of the longer pieces in the book, an extended story about the quest of a young man to get just one bite of candy out of the candy bar of a stranger. Lindsey Bryan follows with the shortest story in the book, a literal tale about her ability to make a mean burger. Fabienne Duteau is next with the efforts of a vampire and her friends to make a soup of some kind, helped along by using some potions. Possibly these were anime characters that I didn’t recognize, or possibly they were Fabienne’s own characters, in which case never mind; it’s just that I didn’t know their story. Anyway, it turns out that using potions in making food can get a bit tricky, but I should say no more than that. Finally there’s a tale (by Salem Powell) about the workaday life of a pigeon and his family. I’ll confess that this one didn’t do a lot for me, but then again maybe I’m still suffering flashbacks from recently watching that awful HBO show “Animals,” the one about the pigeons in particular. Either way, it’s just my opinion, and I’m often wrong. Overall it’s still a solid mix of stories, and this comic was nicely put together in every possible way. $10
Bostick, Sequoia – Snow Day
Snow Day
It’s sometimes tempting to read way too much into a comic. For example, the premise behind this one is pretty simple (and I should point out here that I have no idea if this is fiction or not). A little girl who may or may not be Sequoia takes advantage of some rare snowfall to have a fun day of it with the other kids and ends up making a snowman. Which is delightful, and it would have made an adorable comic if it stopped right there. But nope, she then went home for movie night with her mother, and the movie in question was Jack Frost. Which, for those of you who didn’t watch terrible horror movies as a kid, is a frankly ridiculous horror movie involving a sentient, evil snowman. Granted, it’s not so ridiculous to a small child, and it naturally caused her nightmares and to see the actual snowman she’d made in an entirely different light. The mom was oddly blase about the movie, so either it’s less grisly than I remember or the mom just had a high tolerance for gore. Either way, an odd choice for family movie night. Still, it makes for a pretty engaging comic, and it led to a delightful afternoon of me wandering around Sequoia’s website looking at her artwork, which I recommend that you do too. This comic is also available for free up there, but I’m guessing she’d rather you sent her a dollar or two for the comic (no price is listed) instead.
