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Slab Comix Deluxe Edition

If you’ve been reading this site for a very, very long time, you probably remember the wonderful world of Slab.  If not, well, that’s why I keep all the old reviews on this site, and you can go check out the old issues of Slab now if you like.  Not a thing in the world is stopping you.  This is supposed to be the collected edition, but I have to start off on a sour note: my favorite story from the first issue of Slab, the tale of some workplace drudgery, isn’t in this volume.  Ah well, nobody is ever really happy with a “best of” collection, somebody always has to bitch and point out that it doesn’t have THEIR favorite story.  Today, I am that guy.  Luckily there are still plenty of great stories in this one, including Slab Rogers (in which our hero crash lands onto a planet and it attacked by all organic life on said planet), A Brief History of Slab (the history of the world told by Slabs, at least my second-favorite story of Slab made it to this collection), Slab Marlowe in “The Big Slab” (and you haven’t lived you’ve seen Slab Marlowe talk about how well a woman Slab is built), and Bruce Slab: Enter the Slab (exactly what you might think, it’s a martial arts battle between two Slabs and a genuinely wonderful thing).  Every one of these stories is up at his website, so it’s the easiest thing in the world to form your own opinion about the guy.  As for me, he sent me his books way back in the early days of the website, and I missed the world of Slab.  It looks like he’s moved on to different things (I’ll get around to reviewing the other book he sent in a week or so), but the Slabs will always rule.  Maybe if I bug him enough he’ll put my favorite Slab tale up on his website too.  No price, but I’d say $6 because it seems like a good random number for this sort of thing…

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Slab Comix #1

There’s something inherently beautiful about a comic done completely at work, using Microsoft’s Word and Paint programs and done with almost all “liberated” materials. That’s where this book came from. And there are times when that shows, when a book is crappy but it’s OK to like because it was done with so much spirit, but this book doesn’t have that problem. It’s the story of a, um, slab as he goes through his daily routine. As John says in his letter, it’s a tale of drudgery and failed romance. There were almost too many poop jokes, if that’s possible, but that’s the only mild complaint I have with the book. This is one of those where the word balloons are filled up with pictures, so no dialogue is ever actually spoken. It doesn’t matter, and honestly I can’t picture this story being told another way, so that’s a great compliment to John. This is well worth the $3 to check out. Here’s hoping he keeps that crappy job for a while so he can put out more comics! E-mail him for details or send money to: 66a Settles Street, London E1 1JP.