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Carroll, Michael – Unplugged (with Derek Currant)

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Unplugged (written by Derek Currant)

It’s many, many months after SPACE now, and this one only shook itself loose with my recent move.  This is a series of four panel strips of household appliances chatting with each other, usually ending in a punchline.  Yep, they’re “gag” strips, something that generally doesn’t do a thing for me, and it’s at this point that I should point out that plenty of people in the world like this format just fine (as the continued existence of countless unfunny newspaper comics would argue) and, if you’re one of those people, or even if you don’t have my exact brain, you may like this just fine.  As for me, I smiled a couple of times but there was never an actual chuckle.  I should also point out that there are only 6 strips in this tiny thing, so it’s not like there was a huge opportunity to win me over.  Gags in here include a stinky fridge, a staring contest between a toaster and a can opener, a toaster that always ruins the good stuff, and an inexplicable strip with a vacuum hacking up something that was important to the can opener.  It was a nice touch for the back cover to have the names of all the characters though, and it might have upped the funny a bit if I have seen that before reading this.  Eh, this is funny enough, I’m probably just cranky.  If you like the sample, as always, you’ll probably like the book, and it’s certainly cheap enough…  $.50