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There is Nothing!

Oh mini comics time machine, why can’t all comics come from you?  Ok, maybe I’m not THAT in love with all old mini comics, but nostalgia is a powerful thing.  I vaguely referenced the fact (in an older review for Marc) that I wasn’t all that fond of this comic, but reading it again now I have no idea why that was the case.  There are a couple of pieces that aren’t great, granted, but this is a hefty 38 page book.  It reprints strips from back in the day when Marc was doing weekly comics, a format that is sadly lacking in quality these days (or at least it is in most of the papers I see, online is a different story).  It’s difficult to sum up Marc’s work if you aren’t already familiar with it, as the Shrimpy and Paul collection (while a masterpiece) came out ages ago, and there’s a generation of comics folks now that may not have seen it.  To put it succinctly: he’s absurdist, funny, ridiculous, insightful, nihilistic and gooey, while being none of things a good chunk of the time.  He’s a damned unique voice in comics, and it’s a shame that I haven’t seen more from him over the years.  It’s an even bigger shame that I can’t find a single place online to buy his comics, although you could still find copies of that collection.  This is mostly to bring his name up again, and to point out that if you do see his comics anywhere in your travels, buy the hell out of them.  Stories in here include fighting against nothing, cutting the sausage casing, making a list of things to do, a house getting up and going, smashing something loved and the guilt involved, angry friends and a relentlessly happy worm, a piece of sheer beauty in tiny tiny panels, poor poor Big Boy, The Sensitive Sausage trying to go about his day amidst all the ugliness in the world, humping and mustard, a beautiful day ruined by cheating, one hell of a centerfold, a tale of Hercules, getting a head off your head, losing your mind and getting it back by washing dishes, rock & roll being dead, drunkenly trying to get noticed as a writer, an enviro suit, a zine writer’s crush destroyed, Sweet-Cakes, Ol’ Simp, a free box, and being freed by orange juice.  That’s some of the goodies in here anyway, I’m leaving out some surprised in the hopes that you can track this down.  If you can it’s only $4 for all this…