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Granofsky, Jai – The Wee Days
The Wee Days
So what’s the best way to judge something that proclaims proudly on the cover that it’s supposed to be funny? Does that mean that everything has to make me chuckle, or just smile contemplatively? Anyway, think about it, because I have no earthly idea. Only one of these strips made me laugh out loud, so it’s the one I sampled below. As for the other ones, Jai deals with sarcasm, punching, pot, beer, and disemboweling. There’s also a five page story in the middle here that takes WAY too long to set up a completely unfunny joke that’s only saved (slightly) by it being a visual gag instead of just told at a bar. His dream strips were probably the highlight to me, just because they were all over the place and genuinely fascinating. Oh, and of course the squirrel strip I sampled here, which was only mildly amusing until the punchline. As for what I thought, I may have to punt on this one until I see more strips. It’s a cop-out, granted, but I really liked some things (sarcasm, squirrel and dream strips), really didn’t like some other things (five pager, or at least most of it) and was somewhere between on the rest of it. Oh, and $4 is way too much for something this small. Why, back in my day blah blah blah you know the drill. Give me more so I can get off this fence!
Granofsky, Jai – The Wee Days #2
The Wee Days #2
You know, the good thing about the long wait between issues of most small press comics is that at least the artists involved take their time and get future issues right instead of just rushing them out. It’s either that or that people like Jai are so insanely talented that they can just crank out an issue in a few weeks after not doing anything with it for a few years, but that possibility hurts my heart so I’m discounting it immediately. This is another collection of short pieces with one long story, and the short pieces hold the whole thing together nicely. There’s the fantastically awkward The Transaction, dealing with a highly loaded deal for extra pudding. Then there’s the short pieces about the Russian sandwich shop/mafia front, an angry man with a moustache, taking the genitals out in the nice weather, teaching yourself poker, fitting the most G.I. Joe figures in your armpit, destroying weed for the good of the country, neutrality and amnesia as the result of severe head trauma. I’ll leave the dream comics alone as they’re better experienced than gabbed about by me, which leaves only the bulk of the comic, a story dealing with a crappy summer job spent excavating a stinky basement and inventing the filthiest phrases possible to keep said job sane. It’s a long way to go for an excellent punchline, but there are more than enough funnies thrown in to keep it amusing. It’s well worth checking out, probably around $5.
Granofsky, Jai – The Wee Days #1
The Wee Days #1 Now Available! $3
Well, I wanted more from this guy to make up my mind, and here it is! Conclusion: I really like his stuff. This is a mountain of a comic (at least in height), full of various one page strips and others that are slightly longer about all sorts of things. His dream strips are still great, dealing with watching a movie in the side of a theater and Star Wars: The Play. Many, many other strips in here (maybe he has a weekly strip that I haven’t seen?), including some fallout from Brokeback Mountain, a strip about his father, the sad story of Forest Whitaker, sarcasm (maybe the same one that was in the mini, I can’t remember), what word he is trying to think of, and getting locked out, among others. The longest strip in the bunch is Lara The Boring, going into minute detail about a girl getting stoned and hopping onto an instant messenger. This whole comic was either funny or insightful in some way, so I think that means you should buy it and check it out. Of course, I have no idea how much it costs, but I’d guess $5. How can you beat that cover? And you haven’t even seen the back cover yet…
