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Pohl, Martin – Sportsbar, New York Part II

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Sportsbar, New York Part II

The saga continues! OK, maybe not a saga, but a story, certainly. Well, probably. I mean, it follows a linear progression of event, more or less, although the ending kind of… eh, you know what? Unless you read it you won’t get it. This time around we spend most of our time with the two rabbits, as they take acid, get away for awhile and then get even further away as they’re sent into space. This evolves (devolves?) into a series of gags about the instruction manual for the ship, which you may or may not find amusing, I don’t know the kind of stuff that makes you laugh. Also included are a few strips about our other characters and their attempts to prevent (or induce) suicide, based on their feelings on irreparable innocence. There’s also a series of probably fake quotes, and another introduction by a fictional CEO who is not the same fictional CEO as the first issue. It’s a pile of weirdness, that’s for sure, but I got a kick out of it. Probably $5 like the last one, but it’s not listed in his store yet for some reason…

Pohl, Martin – Sportsbar, New York Part 1

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Sportsbar, New York Part 1

18 years into this reviewing gig and I can still get baffled by a comic. It’s what keeps me going, folks! Long time readers should know by know that “baffled” is not synonymous with “disgusted;” it’s much more likely to mean “delighted but confused.” This one starts off with a long introduction that is damned clever and funny. Takes the reader on quite a journey before even getting to the comic. That’s after a table of contents that I almost used as the sample page because of its sheer absurdity: chapter 1 is on page 1, chapter 2 is on page 2, all the way to chapter 28 on page 28. And both the pages and the chapters are numbered on every page! Boggles the mind. Anyway! This is a series of single page strips, which built up into a decent narrative when all was said and done. Initially it seemed like it would be a series of mildly amusing punchlines, but then things got weird. Our heroes, theoretically, are two rabbits who have some anger (and boredom) issues. They watch a show called Two Morbid Pigeons (which is basically like watching themselves on television), suspect that they’re being watched by some agency (and they’re right), and sometimes there are humans involved. In their own strips, that is. Unless the rabbits have become human? Nah, I’m probably overthinking it. It won me over by the end, that’s for sure. $5