Update for 5/15/12
New review today for First Fight #3 by Bryan G. Brown. One of these days I’ll have time to post two reviews in a day again…
Brown, Bryan G. – First Fight #3
First Fight #3
I have one suggestion to make to Bryan before I get down to the reviewin’: please consider putting some sort of timeline in your books. Granted, that may eventually make the comics look dated if you can’t keep up a consistent publishing schedule, but I’m genuinely curious to see how long he wasn’t fighting, how long it took him to get back into shape, etc. Just a thought. So! This issue starts off with Bryan and his wife moving into their new home. He has some friends over, so he mentions to them that he’s looking to get back into the MMA fighting, which comes as a shock to them, because Bryan has put on a big chunk of weight over recent months and they wonder if he’s really ready for the training that would have to happen. Bryan chuckles, says he will be ready, and later that night he steps on the scale (which is something he had been avoiding for months). Well, it turns out that he was about 30 pounds off in his estimate of his own weight, and it was in the wrong direction. Hey, who hasn’t been there? Bryan makes a vow then and there to finish 30 push ups, which he does (eventually), and from there he fully gets back into training. I think, anyway, which is where my request for a timeline comes in. I guess it would be boring to see Bryan riding a stationary bike for an hour or so a day to lose weight, but if that’s part of his training it should be in here somewhere. The rest of the comic shows Bryan’s experiences with a jui jitsu class, the humiliations involved in repeatedly getting beat by teenagers, and using those skills to show up an uncle who was making fun of him. But in a harmless, all-in-good-fun kind of way (he didn’t choke the guy out is what I’m saying). It’s another thoroughly engaging comic and it looks like Bryan is going to pick up his publishing schedule in the coming months. I for one can’t wait to see how it all turns out. $4
Update for 5/14/12
New review today for Euni the Unicorn #2 by Kris Lachowski. Sorry about the sporadic last week of reviews, I’ll try to write a few extra ones this week to make up for it. What can I say, life does interrupt these ramblings of mine from time to time.
Lachowski, Kris – Euni the Unicorn #2
Euni the Unicorn #2
If you are a scholar of comic art and wonder why that cover looks a little off, it’s because it was done by Eric Adams (of “Lackluster World” fame) and not Kris. There’s even a little mini crossover inside too, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Kris sent me this because I missed him at SPACE this year (come to think of it, I somehow missed Eric too). Next year, seriously, I’m going on Saturday instead of Sunday. No that that’s your problem. So how about this comic? This is the first thing I’ve seen from Kris in a few years, and it does meander a bit, but that’s bound to happen when there’s a crossover involved. Things start off with a young man flipping channels until he gets to a show about the upcoming apocalypse. Panic sets in, the young man runs out into the street, and runs right into Euni the unicorn. Which would be a little shocking on your best day, but this dude is already freaking out. What follows is a ridiculously hilarious screaming fit by that man, in which the unicorn calmly tries to talk the guy down. That doesn’t work, and suddenly there’s a four page Lackluster World crossover. Well, it’s almost certainly not considered part of that story’s official timeline (if it has such a thing), but it did make me want to dig out those issues and read them again, so the crossover worked. Finally there’s some advice given by the unicorn to that guy about the apocalypse, but I don’t want to risk ruining that brilliant final page. It’s another pretty solid book from Kris, although I’d like a very slight uptick in mayhem for the next issue. No, there’s no way to quantify such things, but I’m always up for more mayhem. And he’s still managing to keep these books at $1, even with the full color crossover in the middle…
Update for 5/10/12
New reviews today for Flesh and Bone by Julia Gfrorer and Romantic Mayhem Pocket Book by Various Irish Artists. Sorry about the lack of reviews yesterday, I was scrambling a bit and never got the chance. But hey, two reviews today, so it’s not all bad.
Various Irish Artists – Romantic Mayhem Pocket Book
Romantic Mayhem Pocket Book
OK, I’m only assuming that everybody involved is an Irish artist, and those assumptions never end well, but I’ll no doubt be corrected if I’m wrong. Which I probably am. Moving on! Romance is a ripe environment for parody. Granted, some of these stories almost play it straight, but it’s an inherently ridiculous concept that is clung to by otherwise well-meaning people well past the point where it makes any kind of logical sense. But it’s romance, so logic rarely plays a role. But enough about me, how about these stories? It starts off with a story by Paddy Brown and Gar Shanley that nicely plays up the internal dialogue bits that overtake so many romance stories. In this case it literally does just that, as the thoughts of the smitten young woman completely overtake whatever the man is actually saying, with a conclusion that manages to be both hilarious and inevitable. Next up is a piece by Cathal Duggan about a young woman from fancy pants breeding that falls in love with the pool boy. The way she picked the last word or two of what the other young suitor said as her questions was brilliant. That sentence will make perfect sense if you’ve read the book, otherwise not so much. Ian Pettitt has a nice piece about jealousy (done in brightly colored romance comic style), John Robbins’ story deals with taking a virgin through the three necessary steps to become a woman, Davy Francis and Gar Shanley have the life’s story of a woman who has the hots for god (that’s the sample below, and the last thing said in that sample may well be my favorite thing in the book), Alan Nolan has a quick story about a woman whose super power is to change into any outfit that she wants (while then picking up the skills associated with that outfit), Deirdre De Barra and Gar Shanley mix an astrology lady with a scientist man with unfortunate results, Ronan Kennedy wins the the prize for the creepiest story that I don’t want to spoil even a little bit, and the zipatone is all the last story by Archie Templar and Gar Shanley, which deals with a woman who waits by the phone for her lover to call all throughout her life. There are a few other bits as well that I’ll leave as a surprise, like those fantastic fake ads or a few other short pieces. Overall it’s a pretty damned solid anthology, with only a piece or two that I’d qualify as “meh.” For an anthology it’s always amazing to me when at least one story isn’t actively bad, and there were no such things here. As for the price, I have no idea. I’ve seen it listed for digital download for around $4, but then I saw another site where the actual comic was going for something like $30. So who knows? Maybe I’ll get that cleared up when I figure out if listing this under “Various Irish Artists” was literally true.
Gfrorer, Julia – Flesh and Bone
Flesh and Bone
It’s not easy to pull off being hauntingly dark and funny in the same book, but Julia has pulled it off. On a fundamental level, this comic is about a young man who decides to ask the local witch (?) to reunite him with his dead love. It’s actually much deeper than all that, as he doesn’t want to go to hell for killing himself to be reunited, and it gets into the price the witch has to pay to accommodate him, and the sheer despair that the young man feels seemingly at all times. And have I mentioned that it’s more than a little unnerving at times? It really lingers on him lying on the grave of his lover and how broken of a man that he’s become. I don’t want to dig too much into it for fear of spoilers (and because all of you reading this should really give it a look if you’re a fan of comics), but moments in it that really stood out for me where the initial forest ceremony, the pattern in the tea leaves, his despair, the comment of the witch when she finally sees the man’s lover, those poor kids who wander into the witch’s house, and above all the witch’s conversation with a demon/patron/whatever that thing was. All of the man’s parts were a raw, exposed sadness nerve, while the sections with the witch were… damn, I don’t know what you’d call that. All-knowing but willfully ignorant of certain things? Whatever it was, the whole comic was utterly engrossing. $6
Update for 5/8/12
New review today for Relics by Whit Taylor and Oak & Linden #1 by Pat Barrett. I do have proof that the Google Checkout thing is working, just in case anybody out there was having problems trying to order comics through my store.
Taylor, Whit – Relics
Relics
This comic deals with a theme that a lot of people can relate to: grabbing for a chunk of stability in a world when it seems like everything around you is going to shit. Whit has had a tough year, with (according to her list) her grandpa dying from “a medical mistake in a routine procedure,” her cat of 19 years dying, her parents getting divorced, and her being forced into a career path that she didn’t really want due to the crappy economy. Her solution was to take her boyfriend to the Museum of Natural History in New York, which is where she would often go on field trips as a child. They take their time going through every part of the place, talking about the various things that they’re seeing and what they think might have happened to them. It’s also made clear to them multiple times that the things that we worry about so obsessively don’t seem like that big of a deal when compared to the vastness of the universe, or how the dinosaurs were wiped out in the blink of an eye, or even the many different kinds of minerals found underground. In a way it’s a trip to make sense of the world, but in another way it’s Whit coming to terms with the utter lack of sense in the world. Or that’s my interpretation anyway, your opinions will no doubt vary. It’s a hell of an impressive book regardless, as she avoids the pat answers that sometimes accompany stories of this nature. She also mentioned in her note with the books that she’s taking time off from auto-bio stuff for a while to focus on other things, and that sentence always sets off alarm bells in my head. If she means it literally, sure, it’s sometimes a good idea to get away from the whole genre for a bit, or to try your hand at telling a mystery or a science fiction story. But she’s too damned good at this for that to mean that she’s going to focus on her real job for a while instead. Not that I have any say in the matter, but she’s been increasingly onto that elusive “something” with her comics, and I’d hate to see her stop now. Hey, maybe if everybody reading this buys this comic she’ll change her mind! It’s worth a shot. She still doesn’t list any prices, but this thing is huge, so… $6?
Barrett, Pat – Oak & Linden #1
Oak & Linden #1
I should mention right off the bat that I reviewed the fourth issue of this series a few weeks back and that it’s just about never a good idea to go and review earlier comics from an artist after you’ve already read their later, more polished work. Right away there’s an element of “why weren’t you as good at the beginning as you were after you’d had a few years to polish your skills” about the whole thing that’s just not fair to an artist. That being said, the guy did send me a whole pile of his comics, so what am I going to do, not talk about them? And with that kind of set-up you’d probably think that this comic was horrible, when instead it was just mixed, which is what you can expect with most first issues anyway. There are four stories in this one, and I did like how Pat listed them all on the cover. First up is a piece about a time traveling Abraham Lincoln, taken from when he was a young man in 1832. If you like zipatone then you’ll love this one, but in terms of a story it’s pretty thin. Still, there are a few funny bits if you like over-the-top hyperbole between two brightly colored foes. Next up is a story “from the future” about a hip-hop robot and his rapid rise and fall. Hey, such things would be a bit of novelty act, even in the future. Another OK story, but again nothing to really fully hold your interest, unless you’re extremely interested in a hypothetical hip-hop robot in the future. Next is easily the best story in the comic about a petrified girlfriend. Well, she doesn’t start out that way, but she’s increasingly telling her boyfriend that she’s cold and that he has to warm her up soon, but the boyfriend gets to her too late and she ends up petrified. Hey, anybody who has ever dated somebody who’s extremely susceptible to cold has wondered if that was possible. The boyfriend takes advantage of the situation to finally show her Star Wars, but years pass and things move on for the boyfriend. I’ll say no more to avoid spoilers but I did thoroughly enjoy that story and apparently it was continued in future issues. Finally there’s a silent piece about a man with an old film projector for a head and his dream about playing in a baseball game. I did like the ending for that one, but overall it was another OK story. So if I had read this one first (instead of #4), would I have been so “meh” about it? Probably not; the potential of both the art and the writing is pretty obvious here, and we already know that he put it all together a few issues down the road. If the man becomes a small press comics god then you might want a copy of this one to see where he came from, if not then it looks like there are plenty of better, later comics of his available, so maybe you should stick with those. $6
Update for 5/7/12
New review today for Habitat #2 by Dunja Jankovic. I only have time for one review today, but should be able to get at least a few double review days in this week. Just not today…
Jankovic, Dunja – Habitat #2
Habitat #2
There are a fairly large number of comics out there that deal with the various hardships of work and the problems associated with jobs, but this is one of those rare comics that reminds you of an awful fact: we don’t all get to relax at home. In this comic, that’s mostly because all of the little things of life add up to a picture of madness that should get just about anybody down. Hey, what can I say, screw reviewing an upbeat comic on a Monday. Oh, and this is a sequel to Dunja’s “Department of Art,” in case you were looking for the first issue of this series. The first one dealt (obliquely) with life at work, this one just deals with life and all of the seedy bits involved with it. As it’s damned near impossible to summarize this quickly, I’ll just mention some bits in it and you can put it all together in your head. There’s the horror of the landlady (and her quivering chihuahua) demanding the rent as soon as our hero walks in the door, a conversation about how the rent is collected (apparently tenants are required to collect rent from other tenants based on location), getting a song stuck in your head, being unable to fully submerge in a bathtub, and then things break down completely, as our hero is transformed while in the bathtub into… ah, I’ve said too much. Another notable bit of the story is the focus on the creepy crawlies in the apartment complex, as we see the secret lives of mice (turns out that there’s a lot of fucking involved) and follow an ant for a bit while he’s going about his day. The second half of the book is altogether different, and I’m sure you’ll be delighted to discover that difference for yourself. I’m not going to mention the ending at all, but the fact that this will still be continued into another issue blew my mind. I’m not sure how much further it’s possible for this sad sack to devolve (or evolve?), but we’re apparently going to get a chance to find out. Don’t worry if you missed the first issue, this one stands up just fine on its own. And it’s bigger than the first one, so you get a more substantial sense of unease this time around. $9
Update for 5/4/12
New reviews today for Freddy Stories by Melissa Mendes and Trigger #2 by Mike Bertino. Say, these double reviews aren’t that hard. If I’m still unemployed next week maybe I’ll do this again. Hey, a crappy economy may be bad for me, but if it gets more comic reviews out into the world then it can’t be all bad, right? Also, RIP MCA.
Bertino, Mike – Trigger #2
Trigger #2
There aren’t many comic artists out there who could make a story about a man with sentient pants and have it be downright moving. The first story in this comic is called “Goo Pants,” but it’s not going where you might be thinking. These pants were given to our hero when he was eight by a hippie aunt, who claimed that they were made by elves. She choked on a “vegan chicken bone” before he was ever able to get a real explanation out of her, so our hero grew up with these pants. As they were magic pants they fit him no matter what, you see. Anyway, the pants became sentient when he (or anyone else) rubbed them, leading to more than a few awkward situations, and he tried to get rid of the pants a few times over the years but was never able to go through with it. Finally the man gets a job and is trying to make a good impression when somebody spills coffee on his pants, and things go quickly downhill from there. That ending is a thing of beauty, as it takes it into those few precious moments past the usual fade to black at the end of a story to show the toll this has taken. Next is the second part of his “Grown Ups” story, which will one day be collected into a graphic novel that makes Mike famous. I’m just putting that on the record now, so that all of the riches coming from accurately making that prediction will be mine, all mine! In this installment the teacher is still trying to connect with his students while combating relentless cynicism from other teachers about his prospects. The students are also a little wary of a teacher taking so much of an interest in them, and the teacher seems to be causing far more problems than he’s fixing so far. More to come in this story, so who knows overall, but it’s gotten off to a hell of a promising start. Finally there’s “The Biggest Banger!,” a science fiction story that deals with a civilization trying desperately to find a habitable planet as their ship slowly breaks down. Also starring humans as disobedient pets! There’s plenty of mayhem and gore in this one, just in case you were lulled into a sense of normalcy by the previous two stories. Once again Mike has put out a fantastic comic, and once again all of you people should buy it. There’s something in here for everyone to love, after all, and even if you somehow hate all of the stories in here (which could only be caused by your lack of a soul, I’m sorry to say), than nobody in the world could hate the full page drawings that bookend this comic. Spend your $5, you won’t regret it!
Mendes, Melissa – Freddy Stories
Freddy Stories
Is it OK to admit that I don’t really like kids? That’s a blanket statement, sure, but I mostly don’t care for the ones that I’ve met (as an adult, obviously). That being said, if all kids were like Freddy in this comic, I’d probably be surrounded by a gaggle of the little critters as we speak. Well, technically if they were like Freddy then they’d be off entertaining themselves and I’d still be doing exactly the same thing that I am now, which sounds fine to me. This graphic novel tells the story of Freddy, her uncle, her mother, her neighbor upstairs, her neighborhood friend and her dog. While there are doubts with some “all ages” comics on whether or not it would be appropriate for little kids, make no mistake: this comic would be be PERFECT for little kids. The world of grown-ups is told from a decidedly child-like perspective (and that’s actually a huge compliment, as it’s not an easy place for most adults to access creatively) and everything pretty much works out for Freddy in each individual story. Oh, and those stories include an average night with her uncle, her being a kid around a group of old men who are sitting outside and smoking (maybe my favorite piece of the book, as I loved how that entire group was unwilling to break that stony masculine silence to acknowledge her insanity), a day at the beach (where she never removed her hoodie, even in the water), the simple logic involved in seeing a series of dug holes and offering to help dig more (without having the slightest idea of or interest in what they were for), finding a star in one of the holes and trying to get it back into the sky, sneaking into her uncle’s apartment to borrow some flour while he’s sleeping (only to wake up startled when she slams the door to leave), and I’m in danger of just telling you all of the stories here, when really you should be discovering them for yourself. If your general opinion of kids is similar to mine, you might not enjoy these stories. You probably will, but I’m well aware of the fact that there are depths of cynicism to which I still haven’t sunk. I’m pretty damned cynical, but these stories were just so sweet and heartfelt that I may have to go read some political blogs for a few hours to get some of that cynicism back. For people with kids, this is an excellent “gateway comic” to try and get them interested in the genre so that you can someday show them the more adult comics. She has a ton of mini comics available too, but give this one a try. It’s a hard book not to love. $10
Update for 5/3/12
New reviews today for Clam Juice #1 by Carrie Q. Contrary and Monkey Squad One #9 by Doug Michel. All this time reviewing this week and I still haven’t gotten to any of the many new graphic novels that I have laying around. Coming soon, I guess…
Michel, Doug – Monkey Squad One #9
Monkey Squad One #9
It was damned tempting, but I managed to not sample the page that revealed what that giant shadow was from the cover. Which, come to think of it, makes no sense at all with the characters depicted, but hey, Marvel and DC cheat with their covers all the time, so why not the little guys? This is the final chapter in the three part zombie story, and I have to say that it has a disappointing number of zombies in it. I guess the last two issues were chock full of them, so a little drop-off was to be expected. Things start off here with the team dealing with the fact that Logan was bitten at the end of the last issue. Then the boss of the group reveals that he has had secret super powers all along by throwing the other monkey squad at the nuclear missile that was heading towards them. The conclusion to that makes no logical sense whatsoever, he says while reviewing a comic about a zombie invasion that came about when the saddest song ever written was sung. Anyway, the missile is taken care of, Logan gets some advanced treatment (with an unexpected side effect), and Doug (in the comic, not the artist) gets his old band back together to sing the sad song needed to lure the zombies to their death. Re-death. Whatever. There are still a few solid pages of zombie mayhem, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that Doug set the bar a little higher with past issues on that front. Which, come to think of it, probably explains why he didn’t want to draw page after page with hundreds of zombies on them for this issue. It’s a nice satisfying wrap up to the story, there are plenty of funny bits sprinkled throughout and we even learned a tiny bit more about the driving force behind their team. I’m hooked and can’t wait to see what comes next, which is a far cry from my initial reaction to this series. Which is just a reminder to you people out there who don’t care for one of my reviews of your work, as it’s more than possible to win me over. Likely, even, if you keep at it and stick to your vision. Oh, and another possibility for that shadow just occurred to me, so maybe Doug wasn’t cheating after all. Or at least he has a very plausible alibi if he was… $2.50
Contrary, Carrie Q. – Clam Juice #1
Clam Juice #1
I know I’ve asked this before, but is there any way to review porn comics? Or is it wrong to call them porn comics, and should I instead call them “people having sex a lot” comics? And am I mildly prudish just to ask that second question? Damned if I know the answer to any of those, but I’ll soldier on regardless. See, for most comics I’d get to a little bit of a plot synopsis, but in this case it just doesn’t seem all that relevant. But out of a lack of anything better to say, why the hell not? Stories in this one include a young lady who’s shoved into a vulnerable position on a bus and seems to quite enjoy all the attention she’s getting, some sexy librarian poses followed by sex with a bespectacled young man, a tied up sex slave, and two young ladies who agree to study with a male friend. That last one was funny because it didn’t go the way that young man was probably planning, but everything else leads to where you’d probably think based on the set-up. The art does vary a bit, as the sexy librarian stuff looks like it was shrunk down (or lifted off a computer) for the sake of this comic, and the two studying girls has more of a manga feel to it. And yes, in case you were wondering, that title does come into play more than a few times. If you’re looking for an in-depth character study then you can move right along, but if you’re looking for a whole lot of fucking then you’ve come to the right place. $4
Update for 5/2/12
New reviews today for Smoo #4 by Simon Moreton and Veggie Dog Saturn Special by Jason Young and all sorts of other artists.
Moreton, Simon – Smoo #4
Smoo #4
Hot damn, I think he’s done it. I think Simon has created the perfect comic about growing up in the suburbs, the little rebellions that you take along the way to try and keep things slightly interesting, and the shock of feeling exactly the same but finding yourself several years older, with irrefutable physical evidence of that fact. Now, “perfect” is a word that’s hard to quantify in much of anything, let alone a comic, and this is obviously my personal opinion (note: that fact is usually given away by the fact that I’m the one writing the review). But every single note of this felt like it was spot on, with no cutting of corners and no fake happy moments thrown in. I don’t want to ruin anything about this (even though I probably already did just by describing it), so I’ll go with some generalities. There’s the actual picture of Simon’s friends when they were younger to go along with the hazier drawn image of those friends several years later. There’s the fact that this house that 11 year old Simon moved into was mostly just a collection of angles and “other people’s carpets.” There’s remembering how every single thing that happened in the time when he was growing up was crucially important. Not “seemed” important, which is a meaningful distinction, but actually WAS important, which has to ring true for anybody reading this who has grown up. And every step along the way there are Simon’s drawings, sparse images against a field of white, that show how insubstantial the whole thing seems now. I’ve liked Simon’s previous comics, don’t get me wrong, but it feels to me like they were all leading up to this. I also have #5 here, and how it tops this issue I have no idea, but if you’re curious about Simon’s work, start here and work your way back. $5 (?)
Shopping Cart
Your shopping cart is empty
Visit the shop
