Optical Sloth Products

Tick Tick Boom by Lisa McDonnell

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

I should probably put a little disclaimer here: if you have ever had any serious issues with ticks being attached to any part of your body and you’d care to forget all about it, it might be best to avoid this comic. That’s OK, there are two good ones right below this to choose from. As someone who has had to deal with a tick before, seeing the bloated creature in this comic was more effective than any horror movie. This is the (if there is any justice in this world fictional) story of a gigantic tick, how it is discovered and how it meets its maker. There is a man who had a traumatic experience with a tick as a young boy, and he nurtures that hatred until he is able to get a job as a tick inspector. Upon arriving in the park he sees a queen tick (again, I can only hope there is no such thing in real life), and it has sucked the life right out of a small, hairless dog. This tick inspector manages to capture it and puts it in a box to the Guinness record committee, but he uses some unfortunate word choices on the box, and well, that title is an appropriate description for more than just ticks. This also has a handy chart of the tick life cycle, and some subtle (if pointed) commentary on tv news anchors. Like I said, as long as you’re not scarred for life from some childhood tick trauma, this is a pretty great story and you should probably check it out.

Abadzis, Nick - Sunspots

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

I didn’t think that Nick only did children’s books, but this range of stories was a very welcome surprise. You have a man telling the story of the life he would like to live (my favorite in the bunch, it involves him living in hotels and having sex with the fattest prostitutes he can find after his band plays), a man who floats, an agnostic dog, a sheep with an identity crisis, a lighthouse named Eric, and two men who are on very different life paths. All kinds of great stuff in here and this is well worth checking out, especially for anybody who’s read all the Mr. Pleebus stuff and thinks they know what Nick is all about. Send the man an e-mail and see what other things he’s done. Oh, I should also mention that these are all from the early to mid 90’s, so I’m not sure where his focus is these days.

Time Warp Comix #8 edited by Dan W. Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

This comic immediately passed one important test for me, and probably only for me: it was tough to pick out only one sample to use, and for an 8 page book that ain't bad. It's a quick blast of a comic with nothing lasting more than a page, with the usual cast of characters. Artists, that is. There's Richard Krauss with the sampled strip below (I just love that constantly widening perspective), Jim Siergey with the legally required strip with the bad puns, Bob Vojtko (how do you pronounce that name anyway? I'll bet he's long since tired of answering that question) has the dark side of the nursing home, and Bill Shut closes the book with a bizarrely wonderful drawing. Dan Taylor gets 4 pages, as he is the one who puts all this together, dealing with buying a comic he used to read as a kid and marveling at the technical changes, the realities of putting out a physical comic versus counting hits on a website, and another age joke at his expense. It's another solid, tiny, cheap collection of strips, so why won't you buy it already?

Pork Belly #1 by Dan W. Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Folkomix #1 by Brad W. Foster

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

1985! That's when this comic came out. The answer to this would probably depress me if I knew it, but how many of you were even alive in 1985? Sigh. Anyway, I picked this to review from the pile of Brad's comics more or less at random, and he was nice enough to send in a whole bunch of mini comics from the 80's and early 90's. How well do you know your comics history? Were you aware of the recent Fantagraphics collection of minis from the 80's? Maybe you should look into this stuff, get in touch with some small press roots. This comic is a response to a critic that apparently told Brad 25 years ago (christ) that he couldn't draw a fly. He made his style as simplistic as possible and drew a comic that is essentially a family portrait of yokels, including the farm animals, tractor and the family sitting down for supper. He even threw in some flies on the back cover, just to show that he could, in fact, draw them. There will be very many more of these minis gracing these pages soon enough, don't you worry about that. As for this one, it's short, fairly amusing and cheap. There are worse combinations.

First There Was The Scribble by Brad W. Foster

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

The Eternal Conflict by Brad W. Foster

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Cat in a Box by Brad W. Foster

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Welcome to Camp Skiffy by Brad W. Foster

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Late One Night by Brad W. Foster

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Syndication edited by Nik Havert

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Ah, the anthology. Practically always a mish-mash of good and bad, but it is one of the few places where you find new voices (or, in this case, new teamings) doing different things. To me a 75% success rate in these things is all I hope for, and I define "success" as either a genuinely great story or something that looks like the people involved have some serious potential. This one, I think, cleared that hurdle. It starts off with a genuinely thoughtful introduction by Ben Avery, in which he honestly lays out all the reasons why anthologies aren't popular and don't "work" (but why he loves them anyway) and then follows up with a peek into the basic contradiction at the heart of most artists. Note to anthology editors: an intro like this works wonders, as I was curious to see how these people worked together after he described some of the issues in getting these pieces in and how some of these people will probably work together in the future... and some of them certainly won't. First up is a piece by Jedediah Walls and Gloria Hollier, dealing with the nature of narrative sequence and comics as art. Things get much more traditional from there, as mostly everything else is monster or superhero-related, starting with The Ballad of Dr. Ecula by Alan Schell and Jamie Hood. This is a surprisingly moving piece about two foes and their constant struggle, and how the villain deals with it after he finally gets the upper hand and kills the hero. Kelly Heying and Ron Schell Jr. are up next with a fairly standard piece about a former crook turning hero after his child is born, which is followed by a piece by Nik Havert and Ryan Sargent (in what is probably the best looking piece of the bunch) dealing with a young girl and her quest for revenge. This shows her first time out on her own, trying to kill 6 Spaniards in the early 16th century. Ben Avery and Mike Murphy follow this with a confusing piece (probably because the format shifted to sideways art and the binding of this book makes it tough to see tops of pages that way) about trying to kill what appears to be an alien. Jon Kulczar then has a thoroughly random two page story where his characters mostly complain about the tiny amount of pages they get and can't seem to figure out what to do with it. Christopher Penzenik and Joey Allen are next with a story about a man who sacrifices himself for his tribe and in the process becomes a giant evil monster... who still seems to have pieces of the good guy left. Finally there's Tim Kelly's Bunnyman, which was thoroughly baffling. I tried flipping through it again, but there's a hero (Bunnyman), a princess who's in some sort of distress (who is saved by induced vomiting (?)) and a monster that seems giant in certain panels and the same size as Bunnyman in others. Seeing all these stories laid out like this it's possible I was too optimistic in thinking this passed the 75% test, but it's close if it didn't quite make it. Bonus points for that intro too, so I'll give it to them.

Gag-Hag #4 edited by Onsmith

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

This reviewing thing is, at times, the easiest thing in the world. Dan Zettwoch, Ivan Brunetti, John Hankiewicz, Jeremi Onsmith, Chris Cilla, Ted May, David King, Bryce Somerville and Johnny Ryan contributed to this collection of one-panel gag strips. So what you have here is some of the funniest people around and probably the best title for a collection of this type imaginable. What, you’re still reading this? OK, I’ll also mention that I had a really hard time just picking one sample, but I’m trying not to give too much away for free here. It’s $4, as you can see, and it’s available here, as you can see. What’s stopping you? Don’t you like to laugh?

My Cat is Satan by Edgar Castro

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Anybody who reads this site on a regular basis knows that I have the same view of cat comics as that of a stereotypical middle-aged woman: I love them. I start from that position, and unless the comic itself is terrible that's usually where I end up after reading it. Just wanted to make that perfectly clear, in case anybody out there thought I was capable of being professional and objective while reviewing this one. This story (which was apparently done online first, in a page a day type of thing) is about how Satan decides to force people to reborn as pets for their punishment, but all the people rise up and throw him through the pet portal instead. Satan as a cat is, oddly, not much different from many cats I've known and loved. He (although the cat ends up being a sh, much to his chagrin) latches onto the ceiling, barfs his acidic puke on his owner, stabs the guy in the head and is just generally, well, evil. Other stories (not so focused on the cat) include playing Mario to the exclusion of all else, a religious guy stopping by, the owner blowing all his money meant for the vet, and of course the actual trip to the vet. It's a pretty funny collection, all things considered, but the guy still has some serious trouble with spelling. And there's still some minor trouble with the copier, but at least you could eventually figure out what everything was supposed to say this time around. It's worth a look and has some potential as a series, which is all you can ever ask out of these things.

Nathan and the Land of Robots by Matt Dye

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Hey look, a self-contained mini comic! Granted, a good number of the ones that use numbers end up being self-contained too, but that's not on purpose. This is all about a young boy who, being unable to sleep, decides to wander around outside for a bit. It's a very short walk, as he is abducted by a giantRobowl in a hurry and taken to, as you can probably guess from the title, the land of the robots. This sets off a series of events, all centered around Nathan trying to get home before his mother wakes up. The robot who ends up helping him seems fairly ambivalent about the whole thing, but he ends up unwittingly getting dragged along on this adventure. Matt has excellent descriptions of the cast of characters at the back of the book, as there isn't much time to learn about them during the journey but they were all unique enough to make me curious. The book looks great (that cover shimmers, if you can't tell from the scan), and the man is clearly very comfortable drawing a wide range of robots. Might I suggest skipping the humans entirely the next time around and going nuts with the robots? Just a thought. There are also no spelling errors or misprints that I could see, and I shouldn't even have to mention that, granted, but I thought the people who do things the right way could use a little encouragement, just like the lazy people who don't care could use a little rage. This is also one of those all-ages stories, as kids could read this as easily as adults. It's probably aimed a bit more towards kids, but it could go either way, depending on your current level of cynicism and/or interest in robots. It's worth a look, and I'm curious to see what else Matt comes up with over the years.

Zeek the Martian Geek Full Color Special #2 by Brian Cattapan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

First things first: that is one fantastic cover. Seriously, just sit back and enjoy that for a second. As for the rest of the comic, yes, there were plenty of funny bits this time around. The main story in here is a long piece about Zeek falling into the, er, "Zone" (because apparently he couldn't legally say Twilight Zone) and confronting an evil cat . This piece has more geek references in it than you could shake that proverbial stick at. Go ahead, read it and see! Bonus points if you get them all, or should I say shame points, as that would confirm you as a total geek. Other stories in here include the two of them going camping, bowling, playing matrixfrisbee and discussing the true origins of the earth. This is a bit "inside baseball" as it were, but Brian also wins the prize for "mailing most likely to survive a nuclear explosion". One thing about his comics, they always get here wrapped in a ball of tape so thick that I have to cut into the package o' comics (hoping that I don't chop anything vital), and when I get inside they're usually wrapped in three layers of bubble tape. It's a good precaution, as my mail carrier usually takes "do not bend" warnings as a personal challenge, but maybe one less layer of everything the next time around? Sure, you could call that rambling that is utterly disconnected to the comic being reviewed, and you'd be right, but it's good to know for people who are going to be sending in comics, and they might be reading this, right? Right. Anyway, there are more than enough funny bits in here to make this worthwhile and really, kudos again on that cover. Oh, and I know this should be down at the bottom of the page with his other full color special, but do you know how big this entire page is at this point? I'm going to have to change the format of how pages are done one of these days purely because Brian makes so many comics.

Ink Weed by Chris Wright

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

If there's one thing I can complain about in regards to doing this site (and even this is probably a bit of a stretch), it's the fact that great comics can fly right by me and I never seek out anything else from that artist. You can see from the review below that I loved the mini I saw from Chris, but that was at least 5 years ago and I haven't seen a thing he's done since. It's odd that I would follow people I liked more closely before I had this website than I do now. Somebody should really speak to management here and get that fixed. I'm going on about it because this book is a thing of brilliance, another one of those books that should be on the bookshelf of everyone who loves comics. From the consistently rich and textured art to the sheer poetry involved in the writing of damned near every panel, you're not going to find a more completely rewarding comics experience. This is a collection of short pieces, most likely former mini comic, and plenty of original art in between the stories and at the end of the book. First up is The Unmerciful Gift, in which an aging artist paints masterpieces that only he can see while never quite understanding why it's happening. Next up is Tapestry, and another old man watches the stars and lives his life with an attractive young assistant. Ach! Even in generalizing these things to a ridiculous degree, I feel like I'm giving away too much. Other stories in here involve smoking out of a "toilet bowl", an attempt at reconciliation going as wrong as it possibly could, a senile sea demon unexpectedly finding love, and quite possibly the best story of drunkenness and the consequences that I've ever seen (and yes, I am aware that there are many contenders for the title). It's all wrapped up with a few short pieces, an excerpt from a new book (?), and a series of new individual pieces. The truly haunting parts of this book are best left out of a review, but believe me, they're there. That image in the bedroom, the tiny gun, what Simon is driving at... It combines to make pretty much a perfect comic. If you haven't seen his work yet, this really needs to be picked up toot-sweet.

Rock That Never Sleeps by Olga Volozova & Juliacks

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

Ah, interpretive comics. The perfect chance for me to look like a complete doofus trying to interpret them. There are two stories in this comic, and both of them deal with memory loss. Olga is up first with the story of a town that is slowly losing its memory, the woman who put on the puppet shows in the town, and how said puppet makers go about trying to get their memory back. Honestly, it's less a comic than a children's book, although the line is blurry. I demand at least one word balloon to call it a comic, although I do realize that I'm alone on that one. I do love her use of words, how phrases and concepts float through the panels, and the totally unique way that she draws throughout her text boxes. Oh, and I just flipped through the story again and saw that there was one word balloon, so I'm happy to call this a comic and kill off this controversy that I started a few sentences ago. The other story is by Juliacks, and it cycles into this story in an odd way. This story happens in 2196, has flashbacks to slightly older times and is much more subjective than the previous story, meaning that I'm still having trouble unpacking the damned thing. The art is much more open that Olga's. The pages just feel bigger somehow, even though that makes no sense at all. Both stories obviously deal heavily in memory, what holds memories together and what makes them true, so if you've ever had any interest in the subjects (and who hasn't?) you'll probably find something thought-provoking in these pages.

The Airy Tales by Olga Volozova

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:14 +0000

If you were one of the 100% of people who saw that title and thought, "Huh, that sound like 'fairy tales'", give yourself a pat on the back. This is essentially a book of fairy tales, but told in Olga's unique, um, airy way. It does too make sense! Everybody and everything in these stories seems to float along, sometimes literally so. This is broken down into chunks, and those chunks are broken down into smaller pieces that make up the chunk, but almost any short piece in here could be read all by itself and make perfect sense. Stories in here include the only man who is able to see the strings guiding all our choices, a man who lives in and is made out of rain (and his meetings with various people who come to him for help), a small town that lives on giant leaves from a tree and how they rise or fall based on what's on their leaf, a man who comes to town with only a rooster on display and the attempts of the townspeople to make sense of it, the birds that control the strings mentioned above (also what they're made of and who's in charge of them), a man made entirely out of ice cream and the reaction of his doctors, a sad man who finally gets a smile but has it worn down by people asking him why he's so happy, the relationship between a crow and a lamp, a snow hat, a man who is always losing everything, and a series of one page pieces in the back that shall remain a mystery. Briefly describing each of these stories doesn't do a thing to convey the constant sense of wonder and innocence that pervades this book. It really is a children's book in the strictest sense of the term; I can picture kids being fascinated by the utter unreality of many of the stories in here and the breezy art that accompanies them. That man made out of ice cream desperately trying to save himself from all thelickers , the way that the crow and the lamp are both determined to prove that they are more than a number, the sad man who is finally happy getting beaten down by society, there are some brilliant touches in here. I was afraid after her other comic that this might be a meandering mess, but that's far, far from the case. It's a damned near perfect book of modern fairy tales and is one of those rare "good for all ages" books.

Danny Dutch by David King

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This is the sort of book that describes any sort of easy analysis, so if you're not a fan of me hemming and hawing for a chunk of text, it might be best to move onto something else (after you've at least checked out the sample, of course). This is a 4 panel strip that David does weekly, and he admits in the afterward that he has no clear plan for the strip in the long term, it's just something he does to see what kind of comic he can get done in a week. As such, the subjects are all over the place, with the strip I sampled belowone of the few examples with what you'd call a punchline, because that's the mood I'm in today. Other strips deal with utter abstractions that are impossible to summarize, or at least damned difficult, without draining all the joy out of them. OK fine, subjects in here include a man's first suit, being too attached to things, a rock-thrower, freedom to draw, a dead body, an abandoned boat and, of course, vapors. I feel like you probably understand this book less now than when I started, so let me make this easy on you. You can find a pile of these strips right here and read a bunch for yourself. I applaud what he's doing, just wandering around and seeing what he comes up with (while still keeping in the four panel format, at least so far). Maybe some of his other stuff is more "accessible", whatever that means, but this one deserves support, and I'm curious to see where he wanders off to.

The Hot Breath of War by Alixopulos

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I don't know if it's my rapidly approaching senility or my bizarre work schedule, but I would have sworn that I reviewed Mine Tonight 6 months ago, tops. Turns out that it was more like 18 months ago. An irrelevant detail, unless you're thinking that I'm some sort of authority at, well, anything. This is less a coherent graphic novel than it is a collection of 6 pieces, but they do have elements of war and its aftermath tenuously holding them together. First up is We Are Defeated, an at least mildly zany take on war, our national "strategy" of winning hearts and minds, the language barrier and the utter insanity of it all. Next is Data Recovery, as a young man who thought that data recovery would be an exciting job gets a jolt of reality, then tries to remember if there's anyone in the world he cares about. There's A Monkey On My Back follows, telling a story from the perspective of a child about war and how he no longer knows where to run when he's scared. Valadolid 1936 tells a short but fascinating story of prisoners facing a firing squad, and if it's a true story it's even more fascinating. ...And His Breath Is Hot, if you want my opinion (and if you don't you should have stopped reading ages ago), is the best story in the book. It's all about a young girl who meets a "victorious" solider while going out to bury her mother. Their conversation and their collective brutal honesty says all about war that ever needed to be said. Finally there's A Journey In Time, in which three characters with distinctly different goals for the evening meet up by chance, with two of them going home together and one of them getting one step closer to going insane. It's not a spoiler as long as I don't tell you which one, right? Writing all this out, it occurs to me that these pieces are more closely related than I first thought. Even the last piece had a disabled bar owner who looked to be struggling to survive. It's easy and understandable to have war fatigue in this country, even if our national media mostly either pretends the wars don't exist or they try to fluff them up for one political party or the other. This works goes around all of that and just tries to quietly tell the story of people involved at various stages of war. It's a damned thoughtful book, and it's making me rethink my policy of writing a review right after reading a book. I get the feeling this one is going to be percolating in me for a while to come...

Goddess Head by Dash Shaw

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I never know quite where to start with something like this. Dash has put together a book of short pieces, and if you're seen anything the man has done over the years you know that he's in a league of his own. I'm sure he's made a few crappy comics in his day (who hasn't?), but I've yet to see one. From the bombastic introduction to the quiet, silent, repetitive day in the life of a young woman, it's like you've been taken, blindfolded, into the woods, spun around a few times and left on your own. That's not a bad thing, just a chance for you to discover everything for yourself, but if you're left behind nobody is going to help you out. Stories in here include Goddess Head (a casual breakup turns into a heartbreaking tragedy, and you're never going to see a more honest depiction of loss from a banana), Always Seek the Truth. Devote Your Life to Truth. (a convoluted and brief murder mystery with the perfect ending), Teach Me the Guitar (involving a dank basement, young children and a backwards message), Time Travel (juxtaposing two pairs traveling in crates, one talking about their future and one (after fucking) talking about their pasts), Heart-Shaped Holding Cell (about a small female prison in South Uganda, why they got there and how they communicate), Operation: Smile (a mildly whimsical tale that ends in terror and confusion), and Echo & Narcissus (the one piece that mostly went over my head, but with striking enough visuals that it'll probably stay with me anyway). There's also an afterward by Tom Hart, which says what I'm going for but puts it all together to make sense. Errors in interpretation are mine alone, as always, and for anyone who's in this comics business for the sheer variety of voices out there, Dash is a necessary part of your bookshelf. A quick look around his website should convince you of that.

Windy Corner Magazine #3 edited by Austin English

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It's good to be reminded on a regular basis of just how wrong I can be. I've been bitching lately about the lack of readable contents pages for anthologies and how I just want to know who did which strip. This issue starts with a remarkable series of images by Lille Carre and goes seamlessly into a table of contents drawn by Molly Colleen O'Connell. There are no page numbers, the actual information is strewn about the page... and I went away from the pages knowing exactly who did what and where. Kudos. Granted, once you get past those first few pages there are fewer contributors this time around to keep track of, but it's nice work all the same. Austin gets most of the, um, page time in this issue, as well he should. First up is part 3 of the Francis story (and I am going to go back and review the first issue soon),which deals this time only with Francis' mother and her life. After this Austin has a couple of short pieces dealing with Austin's formative years drawing and a trip to the museum between a father and his daughter (mostly dealing with their relationship). Sakura Maku is up next with a series of vibrant pieces about a brassiere museum, dying and being turned into a tree and a guy who was briefly married to Janet Jackson. In other words, you'll need to read it for yourself. Jason T. Miles then draws a letter to the magazine from Jesse McManus, which is mildly odd because Jesse could certainly draw it himself, but Jason has a unique way of interpreting it. Finally there are the text pieces, as Austin talks about Garth Williams (an illustrator who influenced him greatly growing up), Frank Santoro has a review of Garage Band by Gipi (reminding me once again that what I do here is a poor substitute for actual, in-depth reviews), and Vanessa Davis interviews Carol Tyler. I'd probably pick up #2 before #3 if I just had $10 to spend, but there's plenty in both of these issues for all comics fans. Unless you just hate Austin English for some reason, but I don't see how that would be possible.

Windy Corner Magazine #2 edited by Austin English

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Why on earth would you put out a magazine like this (as it contains brilliant and vibrant colors throughout) and give it a black and white cover? Sorry, I just felt the urge to get my one tiny complaint about this issue out of the way early. This is more of an anthology than a traditional magazine, if that makes any difference to any of you. There are two pieces here that are full of text, one of which is Austin discussing the art of Lois Lenski at length and the other is an interview between Onsmith (interviewer) and John Hankiewicz (interviewee). This interview is absolutely priceless, as who in the comics world would you want to see interviewed than John? OK, it's possible that there are people you'd rather read about, but John's work contains so much in every panel and every issue that it was greatly informative to see him break down what he's doing (or trying to do, in some cases), how he manages to put that level of detail and crosshatching into every panel and how his creative process has evolved through the years. Then, of course there's the comics. This begins on the inside front cover with two short pieces by Mollie Goldstrom (contemplative pieces on the outdoors) and quickly moved to three stories by Austin. There's a trip to the Planetarium as a child and his innocent and wide-eyed reactions, the second part of a series called Francis (and I really should have read the first issue before this), and the memory of a trip to the movies with his parents as a child. For anybody who complains about the price of these magazines, and they are a bit steep in these times, the fact that Austin's work is able to be produced in color because of it is worth the price of admission. That still leaves two comics: a piece by Fiona Logusch about the entanglements of relationships and how hard it is to get free and an autobiographical piece by Dylan Williams about his mail relationship with Alex Toth, what he learned from him and Dylan's own progression as an artist through the years. As a whole it's damned near flawless, assuming you're a fan of the people mentioned above, and why on earth wouldn't you be? Even if you're not, picking this up and reading this will make you a fan. Don't take my word for it; a glance around this website will show you work from everybody in this issue, then you can make up your own mind.

Department of Art by Dunja Jankovic

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

How was your work day? Did you explore the office at all? Have you ever? This comic takes some preconceived notions of working and office life and makes them do back flips. This comic starts with a seemingly average office worker, hard at it in his cubicle (which is inside of an extensive maze), who is soon interrupted to make sure that he is working hard enough at his art. Hey, at least he gets to make art all day. Along the way he tries to avoid the usual distractions, then eventually has to make his way to the break room. After a brief conversation he takes a smoke break, using an air vent to get some privacy. Once he's in the air vent he decides to go exploring, and that's where the fun really starts. This is probably about as misleading of a review as I've done, as for all you know from that description this is all about Dilbert. Dunja makes this comic all about the visuals, and the claustrophobic sense of being constantly trapped is palpable. The main character seems to mostly be trying to get by, not particularly looking for adventure, which doesn't prevent him from getting stuck in awkward situations. This is one of those comics that has to be seen and not so much talked about, and at least this is one of those cases where the website has plenty of various comics to help you make up your mind.

Blue Fuzz the Hero by Jesse Reklaw

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I'm taking a guess on whether "Blue Fuzz" is one word or two, but as it looks weird all lumped together I'm going with two. Another fascinating glimpse into the things I actually think about! This, clearly, is the story of Blue Fuzz, who just so happens to be a hero. He fights evil, or perhaps people who spill his beer, but things start to go wrong for him when he overhears some people badmouthing the king. Blue Fuzz, being a hero and also being unfamiliar with general griping, kills the king, and this gets him in all kinds of trouble. He chased out of town by an angry mob, has a chat with a fire he builds (the fire goes on to tell him the history of how people first got fire), descends deep into a mountain and has all kinds of adventures, cross-dresses (but for a very noble reason), tries to figure out a decent gift for the old gods and eventually lives happily ever afterish. I'm OK with spilling this large amount of beans because it really doesn't matter. The joy in reading this comes from Jesse's offhanded descriptions of the heroics, the full page color illustrations before and after each "chapter" (the look on his face as he stabs the king in full color is worth the price of admission) and the general awesomeness of the comic. Yeah, it's a cheat for any reviewer to just say that a comic is great, but screw it, this comic is great. Fantastic and wonderful even. Not a bad piece or illustration in here is what I mean, and the writing is perfect for these little adventures. Buy it already!

Sausage Hand by Andrew Smith

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Do you like mayhem in your comics? Not just a little bit, but a whole lot of it? Do you also like, along with the mayhem, the occasional deep philosophical musing about heaven, hell, and the costs/benefits of dealing with other people? Well, then you're in luck! You might be thinking that those things don't really go together, and you'd be right, except for the fact that this comic exists and blows that preconceived notion of yours right out of the water. There are two stories in this one, assuming that the first one can properly be called a story. It's all about a bloody fight between two brothers and, not to spoil the ending or anything, nobody wins. That's a small piece though, the meat of this thing is the next story, in which Sausage Hand, after working up the nerve to face the world, eats a rancid pork burger. He falls into a deep coma (thinking at first that he might be dead, which leads to his philosophical ramblings), meets the other side of his brain and almost makes a human connection with his waitress. This piques his curiosity about death so he does some research, which again renders him unconscious, and this time he meets his inner child and a strange invader in his mind. The whole thing reads like a more demented version of a Tex Avery cartoon, with characters growing and shrinking based on their confidence and mood, and with them all being able to pull whatever they need out of their throat at a moment's notice. It's not for the squeamish or humorless, but for everybody else, you're in for a treat.

Jin & Jam #1 by Hellen Jo

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Are you one of the many comics readers who constantly thinks "these little books of words and pictures are fine, but what I'm really looking for is a big old fight scene involving pair of teenage conjoined twins"? If so, you have finally hit the jackpot. This issue seems to be basically an introduction to the characters, and it's a very honest way of showing this without ending up being pretentious or sappy. Jin is hanging out with her friend Hank outside of a church, smoking and eating. There's a lot of eating in this comic, now that I think about it. Anyway, Jam is in the church and decides to get some air. She runs into the two outside the church, she tells them they can't be there, a cigarette is offered (and snuck into a Bible) and a friendship begins, although neither of them seems to be aware of this fact. Later they run into each other at school when Jin hears about a fight and comes down to check it out. It's Jam versus the conjoined twins, and it a knock-down drag-out type of thing. I've already said way too much about this comic, but, speaking as a boy, it's a fascinating peek into a world I know next to nothing about. That being said, these two becoming friends isn't much different from what I experienced growing up, so I am quite possibly full of it. Either way it makes for a good story. Here's hoping there's more to come with these two. Oh, and if you're as weird as I am and noticed the extra "L" in Hellen's name, you'll be happy to know that she's well aware of that and played it up a bit with her website. Go on and click it, you know that made you curious.

The Shortest Interval by David King

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

One of the most fascinating scientific unknowns in our history is, to me, what happened between the instant of the Big Bang and the point when everything started rapidly expanding. David tackles that idea in this fantastic comic, although I should point out his disclaimer at the back of the book: "The author is not a scientist and does not understand physics or anything. Use this comic book as an academic source at your own risk." I also feel obligated to point out to any functioning adult who still believes the Earth (and the universe) is 6000 years old to please sit quietly while the grown-ups discuss a scientific theory. So what happened? David says that this interval was 10 to the 34th power seconds long (if I'm even reading that right, which should tell everybody all they need to know about my grasp of science), and proceeds to give a number of theories as to what might have happened during that time. I picked my favorite for the sample. As this is a tiny thing and I have no interest in ruining any of the other theories for readers, I'll just say that he does bring more than a little bit of science to this as well as explaining who the period is named after. Making science funny can also be a tricky thing, but he pulled it off beautifully. This is well worth checking out if you're at all curious about that undefined period of existence and how everything came into being. And who isn't curious about that?

Neptune by Aron Nels Steinke

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hey look, it's another fine example of that rarest of comics: a kid's book that's also fun for adults. OK, I have no idea if this was technically meant as a children's book, but as it's the story of a fifth grade girl, her third grade brother and their newly-found dog, what else would you call it? It's not like Aron made it all dark and gritty to appeal to cynics like me, and it's occasionally damned near adorable. And that "damned" is as close as you're going to get to adult themes. Things start off with the fifth grader (Erika) being introduced to her new class, as her family has recently moved. Aron does a stellar job of drawing out the awkwardness of being introduced to a class of strangers and being asked to "tell us a little bit about yourself", lingering on a few mostly silent pages of confusion. Erika decides to tell the story of how she and her brother (Patrick) got expelled from their last school, and here's the traditional point in a review when I start wondering how much I should give away, as I've always thought that most of the joy in reading comics was being taken for a ride. Um, I don't mean that in the "cheated" sense, I mean it in the "sit back and enjoy" sense. I'll just say that Erika's story involved waking up to find a new dog in their kitchen (and being unsure if it came from their parents or just wandered in), reluctantly walking to school (as slowly as they can) after missing the bus, and being joined by their new dog on the road. THEN things get interesting. Aron does a great job of capturing both the conversation of children and their unwavering belief in things that are easily proven false, and then there's that art. Just about every page has the same level of detail as the cover (minus the color, of course), and the occasional silent bits are allowed to stand out because of it. It really is that rarest of all things: fun for all ages.

Reich #6 by Elijah Brubaker

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Things are getting a little tense with this issue (covering 1933-1937), as Wilhelm and his family struggle to get away from Germany without being recognized. Oh sorry, I just jumped in there, assuming that anybody reading this would be familiar with the past 5 issues of this series. Why else would you read a review for #6? Anyway, while the Nazis might not know enough about the good doctor to recognize him in person, they were well aware of his work (as depicted by a crowd of them burning his book) and it was a harrowing journey for him and his family to find relative safety. Still, it's not like the whole issue is a chase scene, as we also see Wilhelm talking about sex to his daughter (age 12), learn about his early time spent in brothels (and his unfortunate habit of trying to "save" the prostitutes), get his father to a place that could theoretically help with his "galloping consumption", and hear about the death of Sigmund Freud. I've so far managed to avoid the temptation to look the man up on the internet and find out how it all ends (even knowing the brief "spoilers" Elijah gave away in the intro to the first issue), but it's been tough. Here's hoping you're all reading along and giving this guy as much money as possible, he's one of the many artists out there who should have complete freedom to do whatever the hell he feels like.

Reich #5 by Elijah Brubaker

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Ho-hum, another excellent issue. OK, maybe I'm not actually bored by excellence (as you can tell if you notice the short amount of time between updates to this page), but I'm running out of superlatives over here. In this issue Wilhelm basically lets his marriage dissolve (as would make perfect sense if you read about his general theories on this sort of thing in past issues), gives Freud a thorough listing of what he'd like to accomplish with his sex education (and oh, what a better world we'd be if we'd listened to him back in the 30's), and chats with some colleagues at a bar. Oh, and Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany. There's a cliff-hanger for you! Wilhelm has to decide whether to stay and fight or leave, and this is all on top of the Communist party (who he had allied with) essentially disowning him for his views. Sadly, very few places are as progressive with his views on sexuality as he was even now, 80 years later. If you're not already reading this series, pick it up already. I don't know how I can convince you. You read comics, or you wouldn't be at this website. You prefer the good ones, or you wouldn't be digging through the piles of small press stuff available here. Here it is! One of the good ones you've been looking for! And yes, I would be saying that if I wasn't selling it. Buy it from the Sparkplug site for all I care, but it deserves a huge audience.

Reich #4 by Elijah Brubaker

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I can see that it's been just about a year since I updated this page, but Elijah has clearly been working the whole time, putting out three new issues. In the world of small press comics, that's an avalanche of issues, and it remains one of the most fascinating series out there. In this issue we learn that Wilhelm's mother cheated when he was a young boy (and we see how his father would alternately nurse her back to health after her suicide attempts and beat her when she was healthy enough to take it), we start to see some of the political unrest of the time with a huge protest and a massacre by the police, and of course we get more conversation about Wilhelm's theories of sexuality and how to become "genitally healthy". Elijah does take one liberty in this issue, as Wilhelm gets involved in a confrontation on the street between a one-armed beggar and the police (that never, theoretically, happened), but it helps frame the riots later in the issue. This series has the potential to be mentioned in the same sentences as some of the greats of the genre if Elijah keeps this up, as this is the sort of thing you could show anyone and have them get instantly engrossed. It's really not to be missed.

Hoju #2 by Edgar Castro

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I can't really figure it out. Am I allowed to say I like something "just because"? That's the kind of quality review work you people have probably come to expect here over the years. Really, there's all kinds of reasons not to like this. "Your" in place of "you're" is really fingernails-on-a-chalkboard annoying for me, and Edgar gets it wrong almost every time. It was used correctly in one panel and it was shocking. The lettering is sloppy and often crammed into tiny word balloons, with him occasionally having to draw a little addendum balloon just to finish his sentences. The stories often go nowhere at all, and he thinks "poop" is far too funny. And yet I was smiling throughout this issue and did manage to get a few genuine laughs out of it. Maybe he's just benefiting from my Friday mood. Stories include a gangsta God greeting an annoyed young man in heaven, Hoju getting his first soul (and finding out how to deal with the ladies), the little creature in Hoju's head telling him the secrets of the universe, Hoju going to New Orleans searching for answers (and, of course, hitting Mardi Gras), some serious mayhem involving ghosts and making new ghosts, and Hoju chatting with his good and evil sides. Again, you'd think that all the flaws would have me hating this, but it really was a blast. Now if he could get all those spelling errors worked out he'd really be onto something...

Hojuween by Edgar Castro

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Well, at least the price is appropriate. Don't get me wrong, this comic has more than a few fun moments and I actually thought the coloring looked good. The trouble is that (with the odd exception of the page I sampled) most of the text looked like he filled it in on the way to Kinko's. Words are way outside the bubbles, errors have just been scratched out, you can even see him scratching out a letter on the cover! I'll never understand why people who spend so much time on the art (and in this case color) can't spend an extra half hour or so to make sure the simple things work. OK soapbox, you can leave the room now. The story is a simple 6 page thing which involves the gang, of course, going trick or treating. They threaten a neighbor, Hoju runs into an evil clown and a good time is generally had by all. I probably shouldn't be so hard on him, as this is from 2002, but it's such an easy fix: make the word balloons bigger. Ta-da! Still, it's not bad for the price and kudos to him for coloring this thing. In other words, if you like his other stuff, splurge a little and get this. If not, try some of his more recent work first.

And Then One Day #7 by Ryan Claytor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

If you thought the discussion about autobiography from ATOD #6 was definitive, well, Ryan did not agree. This issue is the start of a new story arc (is it a story arc if it's autobiography? I didn't think so) in which Ryan has a lengthy conversation with a university professor who has his own ideas on autobiography and its nature. It is, at the very least, going to be continued in the next issue, so if you miss Ryan drawing big mutant fight scenes (which only happened in your own head, you weirdo), you might want to take a break until #9. Ryan does manage to make the subject fascinating, even though it's entirely possible that they're never going to come up with a definitive conclusion on a subjective thing like this. My main complaint with this issue is that he could have chucked the 3-5 pages of small talk, but then you have a completely dry story with very little evidence of humans being involved, so I probably would have complained either way. He's also stepped up his art a notch or two. It was a never a problem to begin with, but there's an impressive amount of detail once the story moves outside to a lunch conversation. So what do they talk about exactly? The background of the professor, whether or not autobiography (or even history) is more truthful than fiction, the benefits of autobiography that manages to help people while not being completely truthful (he uses that "recovering drug addict" from Oprah to make a good point), and the difference between objective and emotional honesty. I loved it, but then again I'm immersed in comics on a regular basis, so your mileage may vary. If you prefer his funnier stuff there are plenty of options on this page, if you like a good intellectual discussion there's plenty to love here.

The Machinist by Ryan Claytor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

My head is all clogged with a miserable cold, so my reasoning may be a bit more suspect than usual here. Of course, it's possible you always think my reasoning is suspect; I just wanted to throw out a warning. This book is the story of a Detroit machinist who, after being laid off after working at a tool and die factory for 20 years, drinks and wonders about the future of the town and America as a whole. It's not preachy but it is an honest and at least mildly heartbreaking take on the state of things, and it has one of more genuinely sweet endings that you're likely to find. After this wonderful story is a 5 page afterword with more of the factual details, as Ryan moved to Michigan in the summer of '08 and has watched things go from bad to worse. It's a useful piece for people who haven't kept up with the situation, and a nice summary for those who haven't... and I don't think it worked as an afterword for this comic. Like I said, I have my doubts about being able to articulate this clearly at this point, but the story by itself was brilliant. It encapsulated the despair at the state of things while still holding a genuine love for the way things were, and it frankly didn't need an afterword. The fact that the afterword was done well and contained factual information is almost besides the point. Maybe it would have worked better as a text forward, as I get that some people really don't know what's going on in Detroit and some background probably was necessary. I think what I'm using far too many words to say here is simply this: sometimes less is more. This shouldn't be taken as a knock on the comic, and I'm hoping that's perfectly clear. Ryan's work is better each time I see a new issue. A minor tweak would have suited me just fine is all.

Blood Orange by Justin Giampaoli & Grant Lee

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It's always mildly demoralizing when I see a review quote on the back of the book that's miles more insightful than anything I'll ever say. Ryan Claytor (yes, that Ryan Claytor, the one with all the books for sale on this site) nails this book on the back cover, and I'm going to do the best I can to ignore that quote and press on. This is, essentially, a childhood memory. There was a week when Justin (at least I'm guessing it's Justin, what with him being the writer and all) ate nothing but oranges. They had a tree in their backyard, his parents had had a check bounce and there was no margin for error for such things. This brief comic follows the progressing mortification of his parents, even as Justin admits to it not being all that bad at the time. Of course, he was a small kid who went along with it being "just a game" to eat oranges all week, but outside of not being able to avoid thinking about it whenever he drinks orange juice, I think he came out OK. It's even timely, what with the current recession and everybody cutting back on non-essentials. It's worth a look, and as they sent along some extra copies for the store just to get a little exposure, here's hoping that cheap price will convince some of you people to check it out.

Hoju #1 by Edgar Castro

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Random submissions are always a crapshoot, and this one started off a bit rough. If you look up at that top right corner you'll see the issue number chopped off by the copier; a minor thing until you see that the first story (after an introduction of the characters, which is always a good thing) suffers from the same problem and is damned near unreadable because of it. Luckily you can still see most of it, as it turns out to be the origin story for a few of the regular characters. From there things pick up considerably, with the only noticeable errors being spelling and grammar. Seriously, if this website can do anything for the comics world, I hope it's to relentlessly point out the difference between "your" and "you're", "their" and "they're", etc. Don't just guess and throw one of them in there, take a half a second and find out which one is right! It's probably just a pet peeve of mine, granted, but I always feel like the people who get it wrong just aren't taking this seriously, which is quite possibly a legitimate position when you think about career opportunities in this field, but if you're going to spend weeks (if not months) drawing something, can't you at least fix the easy stuff like that? Yes, I am in fact always good for a rant on that subject, and Edgar didn't have mistakes in every panel or anything like that. He just consistently got it wrong. As for the content, it got funnier as it went on, and he has a strange enough cast of characters that this could be the start of a very good thing. Stories in here include waiting to ambush the taco man, sadness about beingfugly , turning down a date due to excessive cynicism, taking your creature for a walk in the park, the dangers of windows to a talking bird, finally confronting the real taco man, and finding out the real story of the lonely "taco man". Finally there's the one long piece of the comic, dealing with an accidental zombie outbreak that was oddly confined to only a few people... that they know of. All kinds of potential here if a few minor things are tweaked. Oh, and another tip to you youngsters: write your words before the word balloons. Crazy, I know, but it saves all that word cramming later. I bring these things up because I care, you know, and because there are enough things that can go wrong in making a comic that it's good to at least have a firm grasp of the basics. Also, my lawn was doing just fine before you damned kids started walking all over it. My curmudgeonly nature aside, this is worth a look.

Vampires Need Love Too #3 by Brian Cattapan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This comic, like the last two, is comprised of daily strips, so the story kind of comes and goes. At times he seems to be focusing on a larger piece, then it stops abruptly and veers off in a different direction. There are still a few funny bits and a few groaners (nature of the beast with the pun-oriented strips), but the funny does outweigh the groaners and I like the new zombie roommate. Subjects in here include having the Grim Reaper as a friend, moaning about a lack of love life, a stoner/drunk turned into a zombie and his friends being unable to tell the difference (that one was a bit heavy-handed), being in a blues band, what's really in your coffee, the difficulty of giving death gifts, stalking vs. courting, and being stuck with a vampire stereotype. I should also mention (in case I never have on this vast page) that Brian has been getting other artists to do representation of his characters for a while now, and this time around gets Graham Annable and Matt Metzler to do some damned impressive work.

Doctor Leviathan #1 by James Matthew Banks Jr.

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Sometimes my willingness to accept anything for the store gets me in trouble. Looking at that cover, I was already willing to trash this, as blood n' guts generally isn't my thing in comics, which is odd, as I'm all about it in movies. Anyway, right away this seemed different from the norm. The first five pages are giant splashes of a large group of villains standing around, looking menacing. This could be awful, granted, but there was enough distinction between these characters that made me sit back and give it a chance. The story is that a young girl has been kidnapped by a group of villains, led by a villain who apparently can't die (and doesn't mind bugs crawling all over his face), Siege. It turns out that Siege wants revenge for the death of three of his men, who were put to death after killing around 23,000 people. No, the man does not skimp on the details here, going into graphic detail of what a giant and anElectro clone (who looks like Mysterio , oddly enough) could do to a town if they were lunatics. Siege, after telling that story, sets his men on the girl and they tear her apart... but she doesn't die. In fact, nothing that they do seems to kill her, and what follows then is a pile of sheer carnage. This, finally, is when we're introduced to our hero Doctor Leviathan, but then only briefly, and we're left with a heap of questions. Look, if you're not into this sort of thing you probably stopped reading when you saw the cover. If you're willing to keep an open mind, there is potential here. Granted, James will have to work past his obsession with having everything going on in front of a featureless white background, and some of that dialogue is downright dopey. Still, his website says that he has eight (!) issues done already, so there should be plenty of chances to see where this goes from here in the near future. It may turn into a Faust clone, or it may get repetitive in a hurry. There's also the minor fact that most of that fascinating array of villains was gutted (um, spoiler alert), so I guess he's going to have to come up with a new pile of bad guys. Judging from the imagination shown in those first five pages, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The Collected Zeek the Martian Geek by Brian Cattapan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This graphic novel collects the best of Zeek #1-7.

Zeek the Martian Geek #8 by Brian Cattapan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I mostly liked this one, as I do enjoy it when he puts out the longer stories. About half of this book is one big story, and it's all aboutZeek and Nurdy falling into a place in space called The Zone and yes, it is an homage to Twilight Zone, as there are things floating through space andNurdy breaks her (brand new) glasses upon landing. There is also a cat in a spacesuit who shows up to get revenge on Zeek for all the cats he's eaten over the years, and then the story degenerates into a series of pop culture references that eventually ends in an explosion. Sorry, did I give away the ending? Well, in this case I didn't mention it it wouldn't have made any sense when I praised how the eyeballs of the creature who exploded managed to stay in the exact same place when its head exploded. The rest of the comic is mostly a bunch of one page strips, dealing with computer humor, matrix-frisbee, getting away from civilization, extreme bowling, learning from a child, and trying to find their way through the wilderness. Good stuff, although I'm sure everybody on this website knows by now whether or not this is for them. If it is there's also a brand new collection of the first 7 issues available, so you should probably keep that in mind...

Important Comics: A Collection of Unquestionable Merit by Dina Kelberman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

One of the things I love about comics is that you don't have to have a great command of anatomy or conveying reality to make a great comic. Some of the best comics out there are minimalistic in one way or another, and this looks like a welcome addition to that pile. Don't get me wrong, it's clear from the layout, coloring and stories that Dina has some serious artistic skills, and for all I know she can paint a mean Sistine Chapel ceiling if she were so inclined. For what she's doing here it's irrelevant, even if she does draw an excellent hamburger. This is a collection of strips from her website, all done in color, mostly involving the utter banality of everyday life as related through a series of creatures that mostly resemble odd shapes, but occasionally reveling in absurdity. The sample should give you some idea of what I'm talking about (although a lot of her strips are bigger than that), as it's going to be a bit hard to explain. The strip on the page opposite the sample page, for example, has two blue creatures (man and wife? boyfriend and girlfriend? who knows), and the male one has snuck off to eat a blue hot dog. His wife/girlfriend/landlady comes across him eating the hot dog and demands to know why he's not using a hot dog bun. That is the kind of thing, for those of you who want a peek into my very odd brain, that I absolutely love. As for the rest of the mostly glorious comics included in this collection, I still recommend checking out her website, but I'll give explaining a few of them a shot: there's a politician with nothing to say, why leaving the house is a bad idea, a small cowardly sandwich, no fucking way, pointy water, being a jerk, your new pal the cloud, schizophrenics having a smell, books taking too long to read, going a whole day without the internet, and a roommate leaving all their crap. Confused? Then you clearly haven't gone to her website yet. Why won't you listen to me? The art is simplicity itself (and perfectly suited to the stories), a number of the strips passed the all-important "did it make me laugh out loud?" test, and I even noticed at least one strip I didn't see the first time through due to tininess. I think this woman should be rich to pursue her dream (that I just made up) of never leaving the house again and putting out these comics. Won't you please help?

Lackluster World #5 by Eric Adams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hey look, an origin issue! Granted, it's a little annoying after the cliffhanger ending of the last issue, but in the grand scheme of things it's crucial to have these people as fleshed out as possible. In this issue we get to see the reason for Fahrenheit's hatred of Kelvin and yes, he does have a damned good reason to hate the guy. We also get to see Fahrenheit at scholl and how much crap he had to put up with due to being an albino. And the parents! What origin story would be complete without at least a little bit of influence from the parents? Another solid issue, and another crucial piece of the puzzle. Now all Eric has to do is get working on #6, as it's just plain mean to get people hooked on a series and then make them wait forever to see what happens next...

Lackluster World #4 by Eric Adams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You'd never guess from that cover, but this is the issue where everything comes to a head. Fahrenheit is revealed as the vandal, his siblings find out and try to take him out, and two competing mobs (pro and con Fahrenheit) wage a bloody battle in the streets. Nothing Lackluster about this one, I'll tell you what! Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Eric has made a ton of excellent points in these first four issues and I get the impression that they're going to gel nicely as a graphic novel. The virtual reality bits from #3, the barely controlled chaos of this issue, all combined with setting everybody up for a fall in the first two issues. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the multiple cliffhangers at the end of this one, or the prospect of the siblings meeting each other again in prison. Uh-oh, I may have said too much. Luckily I got #5 at SPACE also, so it won't be a mystery to me for very long. As for you, this series has been a blast so far, so I'm not entirely sure what you're waiting for.

Lackluster World #3 by Eric Adams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This time around Kelvin and Celsius take things to another level when they plug in their non-believer brother, Fahrenheit, to a virtual reality religious converter. Oh, you should really look at the other reviews before starting in cold with this one, it won't make a bit of sense. The bits inside the brain of Fahrenheit are priceless, and let me run down the cast of characters that try to convert him: a fireman, robot, talking bear, missionaries, cats, and Jesus. And of course, maybe my favorite background character ever, a smiling cross with three little smiling nails resting on its arm. Sheer genius. The rest of the comic deals with Fahrenheit's partner showing up late for work again (although he at least manages to save the day) and Fahrenheit killing Jesus 88 times in an effort to get out of his virtual world. I've been liking these a bit more each issue, and this one continued that trend by being my favorite of the bunch. $3.95, maybe some day soon there'll be a nice graphic novel for all of these issues, but for now it's worth it get it piece by piece.

Lackluster World #2 by Eric Adams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Any doubts I had about this series just being another "the whole world sucks and here's why" gripefest vanished after this issue. Oh sure Fahrenheit still has plenty to complain about in the world, and rightly so, but this issue is more about his siblings, a mysterious graffiti artist and, oddly enough, fighting. One regular fight in a movie theater and one all-out brawl at a bar, to be specific. Throw in another intriguing ending (with potentially the best box in comics ever, depending on what is inside of it) and you have me really wishing that I had splurged at the con and got #3. Oh well, one of these days. In the meantime this does a good job of continuing to set up these characters and it still looks great.

Lackluster World #1 by Eric Adams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

What's the first thing you think of when you see that cover? For me, I figured this would be a gothic comic of some type, probably about vampires or other bloody, silly things. Nope, it's all about a man named Fahrenheit and his disgust with the world and most everyone in it. In this issue (the first of a projected seven or eight part mini series), Fahrenheit gets talked into a birthday party with his siblings who, believe it or not, are named Kelvin and Celsius. At the party they try to talk him into accepting Jesus as his savior (which apparently happens a lot) and he runs into some drunken co-workers, who make fun of him for a bit before wandering off. Oh, did I mention that he's an albino? Look, comics where the main character thinks he/she is a whole lot better than the rest of the world are a dime a dozen in the small press comics world, and it's hard to say from one issue whether this comic will just be another addition to the pile or something that really stands out. I was fearing for the worst before a genuinely intriguing ending, but it's still tough to say where this is all going to lead. It's enough to keep me interested in a future issue or two, which is all a first issue of a series really has to do.

AAAA Action Team #1 by Pat Lewis

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I'll say one thing for Pat: I don't think I've ever seen him at a SPACE without at least one new book available. The fact that they're all pretty much excellent books doesn't hurt a thing. This is the story of two aliens who make a bet, as one thinks that our planet will last longer than ten years before destroying itself, the other thinks it won't be that long. The "defender" of the Earth, in an attempt to win his bet, assembles a team of heroes based on alphabetical order, and their abilities consist of being able to function on 4 hours' sleep, an affinity for burning things, a former forensics expert and a dog given an alien chip to allow it to speak. As you can see, only one of those things is all that useful, which makes for one awkward superhero team. In their first test a giant robot is set loose on their town and they have to figure out how to stop it. It's assumed that the robot is set loose by the alien who wants the planet to end before the ten years are up, but that's never confirmed in this issue. I love the fact that there's no grand plan here. The aliens either want the planet to live or die based on the equivalent of $3.96 but have no malicious or benevolent intent, and the humans (and dog) pick up the hero gig mostly because none of them have anything better to do. Funny stuff, and well worth a look.

Exiled Here On Earth #2 by Brian Cattapan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

More illustrations from Brian (see the above review and all sorts of other places around this website for my general views on sketchbooks), but with a twist this time: some actual comics are thrown in. The illustrations (it's really not far to call them sketches) cover characters we've already seen in various Cattapan minis doing various things: Nurdy doing yoga, Zeek with a lightsaber, Nurdy as an actual girl, the two of them bowling, a vampire/zombie conversation, a zombie bride, and a sad zombie, among other things. The comics deal with food regret, absorbing knowledge, bowling, the sad love life of a vampire, and a crazy bat. I'll say one thing for it, it's a hefty pile of comics. I still, in my old fashioned way, prefer regular comics to this sort of thing, but if you're a fan of Brian's work there's plenty to like here. If you're just trying to check out Brian's work, you might want to check out some of the other minis on this site and work your way up.

Cattapan Comics #1 by Brian Cattapan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Sorry about that fuzzy cover image. I was going to remove the buttons (and did I mention that each issue comes with those buttons?) and scan the regular cover, but that man did some serious stapling, so I left it alone. Everybody reading this gets the basic idea that humor is subjective, right? What's funny for me is not necessarily funny for thee? OK, good, because this book was almost completely unfunny. The vampire bits in particular were painfully bad, even worse because they're puns seen coming a mile away (in the landscape of the four panel joke strip). The Zeek strips were a little better, but most of this stuff has already been published in his other books. I guess this was just an attempt to sell the buttons with a sampler of his work, which is an OK idea but would have been better if he'd gone with some of the funnier stuff. If you love his stuff and really want these buttons, I'd say this is worth getting. If you're just looking to find out who this guy is and what he's all about, scan around this page for a cheaper sampler platter. And just so there's something positive here, as I do appreciate the work Brian has put in over the years (he was one of the first random submissions I got, way back in the day): I do like the buttons.

King Cat #69 by John Porcellino

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This has to be the cheeriest King Cat I've seen in ages. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that as an insult, but it's hard not to feel like you know John a little bit from reading his comics (probably stupid to think that, but it's still hard not to) and it seemed like a lot of things were going poorly for him. A return to cheeriness means, to my addled brain, that maybe he's doing better in his real life, and that's always good news. Stories in this issue deal with John telling an origin story of sorts of his taste in music, John and his wife getting two new cats (and many shorter pieces detailing their adventures, John's trademark (is it trademarked yet? The man should look into it) ability to see the beauty in the quiet moments, and the piece that made me laugh out loud, Comb-Over. As always with this man, checking out his latest work shouldn't take prodding, it should be a requirement for any thinking person who likes these funny books.

Blink #4: Barefoot in America, Breakfast in the Park by Max Ink

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hey, I'm the official online retailer for Blink Books! Sorry, I just noticed in the back of this issue and had no idea. Well, OK, some idea, as I am selling them... Oh this thing with selling comics, it's like a constant revelation to me. Max says that with this issue he's going to start focusing on the lives of the main characters Blink, Sam and Hank (you may or may not have known that that last one was a main character) by going to the full issue stories rather than the 4-8 page bits. I could and have argued both sides of that particular argument, but it looks like he's going to occasionally put out shorter minis anyway, so it's the best of both worlds. This issue is essentially a conversation in the park between Blink, Sam and Hank, as the two women run across him playing Supertramp by himself. The relative merits of their music is discussed, as well as Hank's woefully inadequate knowledge of blue's music. The conversation is all well and good, as Max has a great handle on dialogue, but the highlights to me were the quiet intro (animals running around) and the conclusion, with Hank running into a friend and telling the guy not to be a pig in describing Blink and Sam. It's a great way to start this idea of telling the story of their lives, by not having everything begin and end with their conversations. All told it's another solid issue, if you haven't figured that out already...

Jack Rabbit #5 by Jeff Zwirek

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Well, here it is, the last issue of Jack Rabbit, due to (as Jeff calls it) “popular disinterest”. Well, that sucks, but it also happens quite a bit in this business. So how’s the last issue? Are all the storylines wrapped up? Does that dog ever get his revenge on that turtle? No and no. Jack has a long, revealing conversation with his brother and gets slashed and beaten up, and tries to have a conversation with Sandy. A lot is revealed in this last issue, granted, but a lot is also left up in the air. Is that for other stories in other places, or just so it can be left permanently open-ended? Who knows? I’d prefer some sort of giant explosion or alien invasion on the last page, but then, I’m also a very lazy storyteller. Here’s hoping that he goes on to bigger and better things, as there’s some serious comic talent here. Contact info is up there, get yer issues now before they become collectors items! Hey, it could happen…

Jack Rabbit #4 by Jeff Zwirek

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Here’s another one of those series that I really need to read all in a row. Of course, Jeff did get married recently, so he certainly has a good excuse for being a bit late. This one is mostly a sting operation (and the synopsis at the start is essential) along with some scenes on the tour bus of Jezuz Diablo. If you’re reading the series you know who he is, if you’re not reading the series then why are you reading a review for #4? Shame on you! Anyway, this is another good issue. I’m looking forward to the graphic novel (if such a thing is even remotely possible economically for Jeff) so I can pick up on all the little things he’s doing for the sake of the story.

Jack Rabbit #3 by Jeff Zwirek

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hooray for a website! Due to my total lack of memory I have no idea when the last issue came out (I’m guessing around six months), but the art in this one has improved by leaps and bounds. Not that the other issues looked crappy or anything, this one just looks a lot more solid. No awkward anatomical impossibilities or anything like that. The story continues here, obviously, and three cheers for the synopsis at the start of the comic of the last two issues. There’s a whole lot going on here, which would probably be easier to follow if there was more of a regular publishing schedule, but what are you going to do? The humor was cut down quite a bit this issue, with it primarily focusing on Jack’s depression and his “shaking down” his prostitute girlfriend for information without letting his partner know that they know each other. Another solid issue, definitely worth checking out.

Jack Rabbit #2 by Jeff Zwirek

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Sorry about that cover scan. It’s supposed to be yellow, my scanner just couldn’t handle it for some reason. It’s starting to look like I need a new one… Anyway, I like this book. It’s official. More mayhem, including a great car chase (and those are hard to come by), and the plot thickens. That turtle and his dog are hilarious too. The stuff that happens with them isn’t necessarily as funny as the anticipation of watching the commemorative plate with a sundae balanced on top of it while the dog is all hopped up on caffeine. This is definitely worth a look.

Jack Rabbit #1 by Jeff Zwirek

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Ah, I love the random submissions. Doesn’t matter if they’re good or not, it’s just nice to open something up and not have the slightest preconceived notion of what I’m about to read. This one is pretty good, even if I really don’t like the name. The first two thirds or so of the book read like a frantic cartoon. All the little sounds and things were done perfectly to mimic fluid motion. Granted, that’s not the thing that a lot of comics are necessarily going for, but it’s nice when it’s done right. It trailed off a little at the end, but that has a lot to do with the story. The story so far is that Jack woke up with a bra on his head and no idea how he had spent the previous night. Throw in an angry boss, an enigmatic (so far) partner, a prostitute girlfriend and her pimp, and that gives you some idea of the book. I liked it, well worth a couple of bucks to check out.

Black Star #2 by Jeff Zwirek

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This issue is, by a wide margin, the best thing that Jeff has done. I don’t want to crap all over his other books (he does that plenty in this one), as I thought they were fun comics, if maybe not a grand literary achievement. This one puts all the feelings I had about him having better stories in him and crams them all in one hefty book. The first story in here is about comics, their incestuous nature, getting past the superheroes and trying to find meaning in it all. It’s obviously influenced more than a little bit by Hicksville but, as that’s probably the best comic ever done ON comics, there are worse things in the world to look to for inspiration. That story alone, especially for anybody out there who wonders why they even keep buying comics when so many of them are so similar (even in the independent scene), is required reading, worth the price of admission right there. Then he goes on to a story about a Supergroup of musicians made up of Bono, Mick Jagger, the angel of Elvis, zombie Kurt Cobain and the Jedi ghost of John Lennon, who get together to rid the world of venereal diseases before another Supergroup threatens to destroy what they’ve done… but it’s left as a cliffhanger, so I’ve already probably said too much. Next is a story of a group of messiahs born when Mary, after visiting a fertility clinic, gives birth to 5 babies, all of whom are the son of god. The last story in here is called Saddle Shoes and it’s about chasing a girl, but obviously there’s much deeper meaning here and a lot more going on, but I’ll leave the analyzing to other, more qualified folks. But wait, there’s more! After all the stories are done, there’s an interview with Jeffrey Brown, and if you don’t know who he is, shame is too weak of an emotion for you to be feeling right now. All this, I should also mention, is a measly $2. RIP Jack Rabbit, we hardly knew ye. But if the death of that comic means that he’s going to move on to books like this one, good riddance!

The Comics Interpreter Volume 2 #2 by Robert Young

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

The Comics Interpreter Volume 2 #1 by Robert Young

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It’s things like this that make me wonder if I’m wasting my time writing reviews. I have fun rambling about comics, sure, and I like to think that I’m at least giving enough information away about something to make people interested in a book, but the way this guy writes reviews… He’s informative, funny, and intelligent without crossing that “Comic’s Journal” line of being overwhelmingly pretentious at times. Granted, it’s still not a magazine that any random person could pick up on my coffee table and enjoy, but it’s impossible to make a magazine about comics that fits that criteria. Looks like this issue finally got printed, which is great news, and it’s $6. In here are plenty of reviews that put the words on these pages to shame and two hugely entertaining interviews, especially when you consider that I knew nothing at all about Hans Rickheit and Paul Pope before this. There’s also a section where readers weigh in on the most interesting person in comics, and did I mention the reviews? Check this out, give those people at Fantagraphics some competition!

The Comics Interpreter Volume 1 #6 by Robert Young

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You know, I wasn’t sure if I should give this its own page or not. It’s not an issue of whether or not it deserved it, because I enjoyed both of these. It was just because it isn’t a comic, it’s a zine about comics. Then I remembered that my decisions only have to make sense to me, so here it is. This one has an interview with both of the Hernandez Bros, which is worth the price of admission right there. The rest of the issue is a tribute to them, with all sorts of people commenting on their place in comics and what the Bros’ contributions to the field have meant to them. And, while I never really got into him, there’s also an interview with Jamie Delano. You might be better off going with #5 if you’re shooting for more of an overview of mini comics, as the theme for this issue is pretty specific. As for the actual layout of the zine, there are a couple of things that I could nitpick about, but I just don’t see any reason to. If he keeps this up we might get a viable alternative to The Comics Journal after all. Well done, and everybody out there should send him money so he keeps it up. We’d all be a lot better off if this zine does well…

The Wang: The Big One by Stan Yan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Well, I’ve been looking for something meatier from Stan, and this certainly qualifies. It’s broken up into four different chapters, all about the same size (individual issues of a comic maybe?). The first one deals with Eugene trying to juggle college, his mother and his girlfriend, and has one of the more disturbing endings that I’ve seen, although done in a humorous way. The second chapter is about Eugene entering the workforce and trying to get by as a telemarketer. The third and fourth are both about Eugene dealing with his mother and ex-girlfriend, trying to start a little romance with a crazy person and having an open mind about some self-help charlatans. It’s a funny book, no doubt about that. One thing that really sticks out for me is the lettering. I know, how often do you hear that, but it’s true. His letters bounce all over the place, while still being perfectly legible, so it adds tons to the impression of constant chaos that his bouncy artwork also conveys. Not sure if it’s intentional or if he’s just a spaz, but kudos. I think every single male in the book has a name that’s a pun about a penis, which gets old after a little bit, but the rest of the book is funny enough to make up for it. It’s a world that’s easy to get sucked into, and I could see this guy going far if he can get any publicity for this book, as this is something that could be enjoyed by just about anyone who reads comics.

1 Block Down by Stan Yan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

How can something be in my store for almost three years without my reading it? However it happened, there’s some fun to had here in this giant sized “mini” comic. First up is a movie review duo, dubbed 40/40, as the reviewers drink 40’s and review movies. Kids, ask your parents what that means, if your parents only drink the cheap stuff. The reviewers are a regular old black man and another man who dresses and speaks like Yoda, apparently all the time. They go into it about The Phantom Menace, with the guy dressed as Yoda (Frank) defending the movie and the other reviewer (Lavar) crapping all over it. “Too many puppets” indeed. Next up is the story of a watching people, women and men, from their balcony, giving them all nicknames based after snacks. It’s funnier than it sounds, but it does drag on a bit. Then there’s the highlight of the comic, the “true life” story of Gojeera, a monster who had his moments in the limelight before eventually falling into drugs and porn. There’s some seriously funny stuff in that one, worth the price of admission alone. All told it’s a pretty solid comic by Stan and Kieran. Maybe not as consistently funny as The Wang, but still worth a look.

Reporter: Little Black by Dylan Williams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

If you thought that things were starting to come together after reading the first four issues of the Reporter series but hadn’t seen any of the scattered smaller stories, you haven’t seen anything yet. This book touches on just about everything that’s important, further fleshing everything out. Every time I read any of his books I want to read the other ones right away just so I can see how everything is coming together. The character guide at the start of the book is invaluable too. Usually I just ignore things like that, with this book I found myself constantly referencing it to make sure I knew who they were talking about. We get to see a lot more of Sylvia, find out what The Sloth’s story is, see the bandaged men in a quiet moment… There are all kinds of wonderful little stories in here. Some are as short as a page, the last one in the book is almost a full length comic at 17 pages. Look, just buy them all. Otherwise you won’t know everything that’s going on, and I get the feeling that you really have to know everything.

Reporter #6 by Dylan Williams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This seems to be a page full of rants, doesn’t it? It’s purely because I see this as something that has serious potential to be read over and over again, something that rewards careful reading… and something that doesn’t come out nearly often enough for this impatient brain to deal with. Just wanted to make that perfectly clear. This issue is essentially a series of philosophical discussion, done with a new hire, Adam Jones, as he wanders around an office party. He manages to annoy everybody he talks to, but the conversations along the way are fascinating, dealing with making a living at what you love (and how, if you can’t make a living, it must be because you’re not any good at it), religion, and politics. And yes, I probably should be more descriptive, but when a book a series of conversations, detailing the exact direction of those conversations kills more than a bit of the mystery. I have no idea how this fits into the grand Reporter picture (although Dylan does insist on the inside cover that it all does fit together), but it’s a fairly compelling book on its own. I noticed looking around the page that I never got around to reviewing Reporter #1. Maybe in a few weeks (which sometimes translates to “a few years” around here) I can get around to that, read the whole series for the first time in years and get a more complete picture of where this might be going. Hey, this page is already fragmented enough, why not have a complete series review under the first issue?

Reporter #5 by Dylan Williams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You know what I miss about reading comics? Being able to go to the store every month and reading a new installment of a story. Granted, that was back when I was reading mostly genre crap, but dammit, I knew that every month (give or take a week) I would be getting another installment of Quasar or whatever the hell it was. The list of people in the small press world who keep anything remotely approaching that kind of schedule is tiny, and it’s something I don’t think about all that often, to be honest… until I come across something like Reporter. The last time I read a new issue of this was three years ago. Granted, this didn’t JUST come out, and it’s my fault for not reading it when it did, but even so, I’m not seeing any new books on the website either. Look, if you have a potential epic like this, I know there are plenty of things in the world to distract you from doing another issue, but have a little sympathy on the poor readers you’ve hooked into really enjoying this story. OK, rant over, and this isn’t just about Dylan (obviously, as he’s running Spark Plug Comics along with putting these out and living some sort of, you know, life), it’s just a pet peeve I have with the small press books in general. Oh yeah, the comic. This is the story of an African-American group of soldiers in a war of some kind. It’s never explained much more than that, and this is basically them walking through enemy territory. An OK issue on its own, it remains to be seen how it fits into the big picture, which could always make it a much better issue. Still, not much to latch onto as my only dose of Reporter in so long, which explains the bitch-fest above.

Reporter #4 by Dylan Williams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Note from 7/7/02: I’m a moron. I read some of the other issues and this issue makes perfect sense to me now. I’m just going to leave this review up in case anybody out there thinks that I know what I’m talking about. This should disprove that theory… If there was one name that was repeated to me over and over again from all corners of the small press world, it was Dylan Williams. Everybody said that I just had to put him on my page, that his Reporter series was possibly the best mini going (depending on who you ask). So, naturally, I had extremely high expectations for this, and I’m sorry to say that they weren’t met, at least not in this issue. It’s the story of an armored car robbery, with a slight twist: it’s a silent issue. The previous silent comics that I’ve seen were pretty slow and the silence accentuated the mood. It’s a bold move to make an issue about a robbery silent, but it just didn’t work for me. I read it twice today and I still don’t know exactly what happened. I think I finally figured out where everybody involved is now and some of what happens, but it’s still kind of a blur. Were parts of it flashbacks? Which parts? There aren’t any breaks, and it’s really hard to tell what’s happening when. I feel like there’s one simple element that I’m missing to bring the whole thing together, but until I figure that out this issue is going to remain a disappointment. Keep in mind, though, that I’m still going to buy the other issues of this series, mostly because everybody thinks so highly of him. And, I feel obligated to point out again that I’m the only person out there who doesn’t think of this guy as the Jesus of the small press scene, and that’s based on one short, silent issue. To say that he’s not worth checking out is ridiculous. All I’m saying is that this isn’t the issue to start with. If I experience a moment of absolute clarity and this whole thing comes together, I’ll let you know and apologize for being a moron. Until then, go with one of the earlier issues and see what you think.

Reporter #3 by Dylan Williams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Remember back in my review for #4 (which, in my defense, was the only issue that I had) when I said that I just didn’t see what all the fuss was about? Well, I was thoroughly, completely and utterly wrong. This story is what they call a rich tapestry. It looks like everything is eventually going to come together and make sense, but I honestly don’t even care if it does because the individual issues are just a blast. #1 was a great setup for some of the characters and what’s going on. I don’t have #2 yet, but #3 tells the story of what happens after the robbery in #4 (and you wonder why I was confused) and Adam’s role in it. The whole thing was wonderfully done, right down to his internal dialogue when he finds… um, at some point in the story. Trying not to give anything away here, OK? This one is a bit pricey at $3, but has that ever stopped you before? Seriously, I guess it probably has on a few things, but this is well worth it. I’m going to get #2 as soon as I have enough money to buy some stuff from USS Catastrophe and I can’t wait to see what all the short stories are about, how they all tie in with everything else. I’m thoroughly hooked now. Dylan Williams, get to work!

Reporter #2 by Dylan Williams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Is it OK to call something a rich tapestry if it’s only a few issues old? Well, if it is, then that’s what this is. This issue is the one that I’d been missing in the series, and it really didn’t fill in any holes like I thought it would. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. This is all about two people meeting and getting to know each other. The thing is that one of them is a ghost, and I don’t think I’m giving anything away by telling you that because that’s basically the description for the issue on the order form inside the book. It’s possible that I wouldn’t even know that if I hadn’t read said description, as it’s very subtle and understated. Anybody who’s read one of these knows that they’re all essential, right? For everybody else, this is a wonderfully self-contained issue that barely hints at the much larger picture. My only complaint is that the dialogue seems a bit forced at times, but this is about a couple of teenagers. It’s $2.50, do yourself a favor and get the whole bunch of these at once so you can see them how they’re meant to be seen.

Reporter #1 by Dylan Williams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

For fans of comics reviewed in chronological order: or the page for this author, forget it. I think I reviewed #4 first, then #3, then #2, then maybe the Little Black book, #5, #6 and now back to #1. Oh, and #3 occurs after the events in #4. So really, just forget it and enjoy them as self-contained stories for the moment. When #7 comes out I'll read all of these in a bunch and give my thoughts on the whole deal, for now I'm just going back to the beginning. It's instantly obvious that Reporter has its own niche, as the first page has a man, wrapped in bandages, slam his hand in the car door. Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened, and we're taken (without explanation) right to a diner. At this diner a conversation between two writers is happening, one of whom is interviewing the other. The interviewee has been recording everything going on around him for years, to the point that he now has a home full of notebooks detailing everything, from every angle, that has been going on around him for years. The bandaged man comes back into the picture (after a brief, unexplained appearance by the ex of the interviewer), and it turns out that he had given the interviewer a story, as the interviewer had trouble coming up with his own story ideas. The bulk of the rest of this comic is the story he was given, a tale about a giant underwater statue. I'm sure I've said it before on this page, but I love the fact that this is so clearly a complete puzzle in Dylan's head and he's only giving us the corner pieces. As long as it makes sense in the end and the stories are compelling in the meantime, I have something approaching limitless patience for this sort of thing. If you don't, well, there are plenty of self-contained graphic novels and the like all over this website, check those out. For those of you who don't mind taking your time for an eventual big reward, I can't recommend this series highly enough.

Zoomorphic Funnies #1 by Joey Weiser

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Who loves one page strips about animals in various situations? Well, I do, as long as it’s this funny. This is a bit of a shortie, but for $1, who cares? In here you have a racist space monkey, Ugly Elephantingston, Electric Fish God, Raymond Roadkill and a pig who just can’t seem to be a hero. I don’t know his name but he tries over and over to rescue the damsel in distress, even though it gets him into all sorts of trouble. No, I’m not going to tell you what sorts of trouble. That’s called a “tease”. A couple of the comics in here are available on his website, including the largest one in the bunch about that pig flying during a war. Like I said, it’s only $1, and there’s more than enough funny in here to make it worth your while.

Tales of Unusual Circumstance #3 by Joey Weiser

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Joey has decided to go with one big story and a couple of little ones in this issue, which has led, sadly, to a slight drop in the funny. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of great stuff here, including the opening story about a man giving a survey to a room full of baby seals and the last bit about The Unremarkable Tree Frog having his fragile ego crushed yet again, this time by the guy working at the local comic shop. The meat of the issue, though, is Peach Boy, a story based on the Japanese Motomaro legend. There’s a bit of a problem with the demon population (who live on an island filled with garbage) and the locals over who gets day-old bagels from a local shop. This escalates into some serious beatings, so Peach Boy decides to go over to the island and teach the demons a lesson. Along the way he picks up a hungry dog, a cowardly pigeon and an angry monkey. If I tell much more there won’t be anything left to the comic, but it’s safe to say that a lesson is learned by all. Still a great comic, don’t get me wrong, I just have this irrational personal insistence that people who can be funny should be funny as much as possible in their given field. Stupid, as it’s not like artists are vending machines where you can just pick “funny” every time out, but I am occasionally stupid, what can I say.

Tales of Unusual Circumstance #2 by Joey Weiser

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Should I be disappointed because there isn’t an actual scene in the comic involving Caesar fighting Wolf Man? I am just a little bit, even though that punch on the cover is all that you really need to make the concept funny. On to the stories! There’s a surprisingly adorable tale about dinosaurs finding a magic lamp millions of years ago, an old man who steals vision and hearing from people while they sleep, Joey’s dark vision of his own future if he ever gives up on comics, and the Unremarkable Tree Frog running into his crush, Thievery Girl, and actually having a decent conversation with her. This one is also traditional mini comic size, not the wee things that were #1 and his other shorties on this page, for those absolute nerds who really need to know this kind of thing, if you do in fact exist. If you enjoy the funny, this man is certainly a good place to go to get it.

Unlovable Fat Pack by Esther Pearl Watson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Unlovable #5 by Esther Pearl Watson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Here is possibly the best issue yet (in a long list of good issues) of this series. What sets it apart? The descriptions of the various social groups in high school, disposal methods for boogers, getting dressed in gym, hurried preparations for a car ride with a cute guy, and trashing a Debbie Gibson tape due to peer pressure. Esther also found an old high school yearbook (I’m guessing it’s not Tammy’s, as that would be too good to be true) which has some of the most perfect examples I’ve ever seen of 80’s hair. Girls or guys, it’s all equally awful. Great stuff again, as who can’t get into awkward high school stories?

Unlovable #4 by Esther Pearl Watson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

The saga continues here, as the seemingly endless supply of material from this found diary continues. In this issue Tammy gets drunk and passes out under a car (and ends up getting left behind at a party), sets up a shrine to a guy she has a crush on, mourns the death of The Smiths, cuts a rug, takes a joy ride in a huge truck (while sitting in a lawn chair on the passenger side), goes to an amusement park, steals some stuff at a Halloween store and deals with a lengthy and awkward hug from a creepy guy. And did I mention the centerfold in the middle where you see nipple? Ew. If you’ve been following the story for this long it’s not like you can stop now,and if you haven’t seen any of these yet, the good thing is that you can jump in anywhere and still enjoy it. It’s not like it follows a noticeable linear story or anything.

Unlovable #3 by Esther Pearl Watson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Christ, what a horrific young woman. “Unlovable” indeed. Granted, these stories are all taken from a diary that Esther found in a rest stop and probably didn’t have pictures for us to figure out exactly what she looked like, but Esther really would have a hard time making her any uglier. In this edition Tammy gets repeated prank calls, attends the winter ball while only shaving the lower half of her legs, “deals” with her best friend spreading rumors about her, watches a crazed classmate talk to himself in a mirror (even though he knows she’s there) and pukes after drinking too much spiked punch at the dance. Oh, and the poetry, how could I forget the poetry. I’m still hoping this diary is 1000 pages long, as this is nothing but endless, mean-spirited fun. I do wonder though: has anybody ever tried to contact Tammy Pierce, if that is her real name? She appears to be in late middle school in 1988, so she’s an adult now. What the hell is she up to and what would she think about this diary being reproduced like this? Sounds like a good idea for a sequel if all this material ever dries up…

Unlovable #2 by Esther Pearl Watson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

More tales from that stolen diary are on display here, in another fat $5 book. This one deals with her infatuation with Ken, getting caught wearing boy’s underwear in gym class (after her mom forgot to do laundry), being fat and a test for head lice. I love how this is so thoroughly grade school. Every little thing that happens at school, every thing that anybody says about her, is absolutely life and death drama. This diary was quite a find, that’s for sure. I don’t know how much more material there is in here, but it’s mesmerizing. Maybe it wouldn’t be after a few dozen issues, but I can’t see myself getting bored with this stuff any time soon.

Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I may resort to gushing in this review, which I apologize for in advance, not because I’m sorry I like the comic so much, I’m just sorry about the gushing; it’s unseemly. This whole issue is dedicated to the story of the Jacks from the previous issue. They deal with crushes, friendship, reality and when exactly it’s time to leave a town. One of the Jack’s is set on leaving, while the other has known for a little while that he doesn’t want to go (mostly because of a crush on a girl) but hasn’t made that information known. Gah, every time I think of a point I want to make I realize that it’s ruining something about the comic, and I enjoyed this so thoroughly that everybody should be able to read it without much of a preconceived notion, or so the logic goes in my brain, anyway. Francois bemoans the fact in the back of this that it took almost a year to get this issue out, but sometimes that’s a good thing. There are layers and layers of meaning here and the art has made another leap forward. There’s also a pretty through synopsis to start things off, so it’s not the end of the world if you missed the last issue. Absolutely, positively essential reading.

Tea by edited by Sean Duncan

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You can see the names on the cover, right? I always feel like these reviews are a waste of time, because anybody who reads the site on a regular basis and/or knows mini comics knows that it would be tough for a collection like that to be terrible. So what’s good? The story from Clutch, about a woman going on a first date with a guy she likes and having to break down and tell him that she really doesn’t like tea, Dave Kiersh getting grabby, Dan Zettwoch revealing a secret recipe, and Scott Mills talking about his mom. Nothing particularly bad about this at all, although I think I liked Garlic better. Probably just the subject matter.

Swell edited by Peter Conrad

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Another day, another random mish-mash of an anthology. I really had high hopes for this one too. It’s edited by Peter Conrad and here are just some of the names in it (don’t you hate it when people do that? You know that they’re always leaving off the lesser-known people for no good reason): Sam Henderson, Neil Fitzpatrick, Jesse Reklaw, Keith Knight, Carrie McNinch, James Kochalka, John Hankiewicz, David Lasky and Ted Rall. It’s an OK book, but very few things stand out when you get done reading it. The Sam Henderson and James Kochalka stories weren’t even funny, and those are usually a sure thing. Keith Knight, John Hankiewicz, Neil Fitzpatrick and Ted Rall were the highlights for me. Everything else was somewhere between pretty good and unremarkable. It’s cheap at $7.95 and you can’t beat that lineup, but… eh.

Orchid edited by Dylan Williams

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

And to think that I was regretting saving this one for last. After that Bogus Dead book in the middle of the week I was pretty sure nothing else was going to touch it, then along comes this book. In my opinion. there are two ways to make a great anthology. You can either have a lot of pieces, fast and furious, and you’ll come away with a good impression of the book as long as the majority of them are solid, or you can have a book with only a select few, long pieces. Orchid is comprised of seven long tales adaptations of gothic stories. The only one that didn’t do anything for me was Poe’s “The Raven”, and that’s mostly just because I’ve seen so many adaptations of it at this point in my life that I just don’t want to see it again. A personal problem of mine, granted, but that doesn’t change the fact that everything else in here is creepy and good. Kevin Huizenga (the back says that he “used to do a comic book named Supermonster”. Please don’t tell me that he’s done, that’s one of the best series out there and I only just found out about it!) has the longest piece, a disturbing tale about the power of visions. Here’s a list of the other names, and let me know if you need and more convincing: Lark Pien & Jesse Reklaw, Ben Catmull, T. Edward Bak, David Lasky, and Dylan Williams. It’s only $8 and I couldn’t recommend it more highly. Get this and Bogus dead and your anthology needs for the year should be pretty much met.

Hoax #5 edited by Karl Kressbach

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

The late 2009 reviewing of these Hoax issues continues, wildly out of order and for no good reason other than the fact that I somehow missed reviewing them all these years, and these comics frankly deserve better. This one is especially interesting in that it essentially has origin stories for other comics available in the store, or at least early attempts at those stories. There's the story of the family from Chromosome Crossroads (namely how they got their start and how they weren't always an interbreeding mess) and an early version of the guy from Cannibulimic, which I still contend is the best title in my store. The title itself, that is. It's a pretty great comic too, but there's a whole lot of competition in there. Other pieces in this issue include Nate Neal with a Mexican adventure, Ben Carrico with a text piece telling us to use cash to avoid detection, Nate Neal with Truckhead reading his fortune, Karl with a short piece (all I'll say about it is the title: Plop N' Scrub), Ben Carrico with another text piece (this time about his personal view of the ghetto from his apartment and the cycle that keeps them all there), Nate Neal resurrecting Bill Hicks for his take on the current state of things (and, while it was tacky to do it, he sure seems to have come up with an accurate portrayal of the guy), Karl with a short silent piece on the wonders of life (and if you've read even a bit of Karl's work you know that's sarcasm), Nate with another Truckhead piece (where he's haunted by commercials in his dreams) and a longer piece on various conspiracy theories. There's less variety in this issue at least in terms of the number of creators, but the pieces are stronger and you can tell they're all really getting a handle on their various characters. It's a shame that none of their individual series seem to have been kept up, but it's entirely possible that I just missed them and they're still out there chugging away. Either way this is a fun issue, and that's a lot of comic for $2.

Hoax #4 edited by Karl Kressbach

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hoax #3 edited by Karl Kressbach

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Does it make any sense at all to review a comic made in 2002 as my first book of 2010? I'd have a hard time justifying it, if I had anybody to justify it to. Luckily it's a dictatorship around here and I don't like having theseunreviewed comics sitting around. I reviewed #4 and 5 before #3, keeping with my usual higgledy-piggledy style, and the good news is that they worked a lot of bugs out for those two issues. The bad news is that those bugs are mostly still present here. This is a giant newspaper of a comic (in size, but there are only 12 big pages), so no samples from me. Stories in here include serenity during a plane crash, the struggle to find a clean toilet in the men's room, the hilarity of a piano falling out of the sky and the new erotic doll series (by KarlKressbach ); the last straw in regards to men and another funny horoscope (by Lydia Gregg); and accepting the dullness of life, an alcoholic's take on the rabbit and the hare, Truckhead' s troubles with women and how to quit smoking (by Nate Neal). Ben Carrico has a series of text pieces as well, but those are so horribly dated that it seems unfair to even comment on them. After all, we must have all our terrorism and civil liberties problems worked out by now, right? Anyway, I prefer the later, more comic-heavy issues to this one, but your mileage may vary, or maybe you just want to see some of these artists in their early years.

Hoax #2 edited by Karl Kressbach

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Just to make this clear to readers in the future: I'm reviewing this in late 2009. It was made in 2003 and I believe it was edited solely by Karl, although that's hard to tell. I'm spelling this all out because, as a monthly regional magazine/anthology, there are going to be pieces in here that are damned near irrelevant 6 years later. For example, the center of this book is made up of an interview with Nathan Neal about his film "The Naked Eye Will Be Shot". Good luck finding anything about that now, although it does sound interesting. Luckily comics are timeless (mostly), and there are some great ones in here. Nate Neal gets things started with a simpleton just barely taking the easy way out instead of facing nuclear war, and is this the Nathan Neal from before? He wouldn't list his comics under Nate in here and then do the interview under Nathan, would he? That seems needlessly pretentious, if true. K.Throoper (whose art sure looks like Karl's) is up next with a brilliant piece about drive-by religious services , and the baptism is about what you'd expect. Lydia Gregg is up next with the highlight of the issue, a story of pussy versus pussy. A man takes a woman home for the night, and she remarks on how cute his cat is before it attacks her. The rest of the night involves an escalating series of attacks from the cat, culminating in something that made me laugh out loud. As the proud owner of a cat who is also an asshole, this piece really made my day. Karl is up next with a mildly baffling piece about love and abduction, which is followed by Lydia's sampled piece about how we're just a pit-stop between product and feces. Lydia then put together a funny fake horoscope (and yes, it is important to note that it's funny, because many of the fake ones are not) along with a short piece on the dangers of talking on your cell phone while on the treadmill. Finally there's an utterly baffling piece by Karl involving a stopped bus and a hitchhiker, and it's all capped off with a funny Halloween piece by Nate. There are also a couple of mildly paranoid rants by Ben Carrico , in case the comics weren't enough for you. For some reason I never reviewed any of these books, but I plan on correcting that in the weeks to come. This one is worth it for the cat story alone. .

Hoax #1 edited by Karl Kressbach

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

How do you scan something that’s the size of a newspaper? Anyway, this is a collection of essays and comics about government and conspiracy theories. If you think somehow that Bush is a wonderful man (and please let me know how on earth you could think that), chances are you won’t like this.

Delusion Dispatch edited by Karl Kressbach

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I’m honestly not sure if it’s fair to review this now. Today is 3/5/09, six years after GW Bush started one of the dumber wars in history, and this comic has a fair amount of strips that are from that early time period. Making fun of GW was still considered a mildly subversive thing to do (instead of something every sane person did) and it was easy to rail at the inaction of the completely indifferent population. So let’s just leave it, huh? The strips are between funny and mildly amusing, but they’re of more use as a time capsule at this point. That still leaves a fair amount of comic that isn’t quite as political to go over, so how about it? The first strip (for students of comic making only) deals with a character and his dog challenging the boundaries of the panel and failing miserably. Next up is a brief strip about a man who makes a comic to try to help starving people, but nobody reads comics. A couple of shorties follow (and I’ll leave them as a surprise so I don’t ruin absolutely everything), then a strip about a man, at the end of his rope, walking off into the distance. Very slowly. No, it didn’t do much for me. All told there’s more than enough funny stuff in here to warrant $1, and if you prefer your GW bashing a little quaint then you’re not going to want to miss this.

Flip-Tard by Mark Todd & Esther Pearl Watson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Have you ever wanted to see Skeletor wearing a bikini? Or perhaps Michael Jackson with a robot body? Your dream has come true. Here’s the basic premise of this book: there are four panels on each “page”, cut separately. There’s artwork on the front and back of each panel, with all sorts of different people, animals and things involved. It goes about the way you would expect, with a head up top, a torso below that, legs below that, and ending with some variation of feet. And yes, there’s even text here and there, just in case you need that for this to qualify as a “comic”. This either sounds like a blast to you or it doesn’t, probably depending on your opinion of the previous work of Mark and Esther, but I liked it. It’s on that short list of comics that would be good to have hanging around your apartment if you were hosting a party, as drunks could have hours of fun with this thing.

Cartoon Characters! by Mark Todd

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Were you (or are you, I suppose) one of those kids who made up their own cast of heroes and villains while in school? Usually it would happen in lulls in class while you were supposed to be doing something else, or at least that’s how it worked for me and my friends in school. Chances are those notebooks are now long gone, but lucky for you Mark Todd seems to have not thrown anything away from when he was a kid. This is a fat book of poorly drawn oddballs, with a few thrown in here and there that still manage to be awesome. Giraffey, Splopy, Wobbler, Trylox and Sloth are some of the many highlights, but the stats accompanying all the characters are the real prize. Who are their friends and enemies? What are their special powers? How about their overall rating and strength level? If you’re looking for a coherent story, obviously this isn’t the place to go. If you’re looking to kick back with a bit of nostalgia and/or have kids, this book is a blast.

Bad Ass Pack by Mark Todd

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Take-Out #5 by Raina Telgemeier

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I think this issue was a bit different from her other Take-Outs, as this was basically a travel diary from 12/23/02 to 01/02/03 while the the other issue I read (#4) was a hodge-podge of unrelated stories. The diary format is done pretty well here, even though some of it seems a bit sentimental. It’s about Christmas and being with her family though, so I guess that’s what the holidays are about. Take-Out seems like an all-ages title from what I’ve seen. She has a great cartoony style that would be perfect for a daily strip, even though I’ve said time and time again that I hate that format almost all of the time. These are only a buck on her website, quick reads but worth getting. She’s supposed to have something new at all of the big conventions this year, so it looks like there will be a lot of new stuff soon…

Take-Out #4 by Raina Telgemeier

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Back to the time capsule again, as I'm reviewing this mini from 2002 all the way in 2009. She's gone on to bigger and better things, illustrating adaptations of Baby-Sitters Club (it seems like those were a big deal but I'm not sure), illustrating a book for Slave Labor with Dave Roman and continuing to work on her Smile story. OK fine, she's moved on (mostly), but it didn't hurt a thing that her minis were so good back in the day. There are a few shorties in here, my favorite is the one sampled, and I just smile every time I see that strip. Other stories include getting distracted and eating an entire box of Cap'n Crunch, just missing the subway (once by being late, once due to cockroaches), and how humidity makes her hair impossible to deal with. It may sound trite, but trust me, she makes it funny. A really great pile of stories, and I'm honestly a little surprised that there has never been a collection of these minis. Get your copies of the originals while they last, I'm sure that she'll manage to get all these collected one of these days...

Take-Out #3 by Raina Telgemeier

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You know, looking back on it, boys pretty much had it easy in middle school. Sure, there was enough general awkwardness to go around, but compared to what girls had to go through, specifically the story Raina describes in this comic... This is the tale of a slumber party and what comes from it. A group of girls are invited to a slumber party (also the 12th birthday party of the girl) and spend the night playing ouija, chatting, and eventually giving "advice" to a girl with a crush. This advice is designed to do nothing more than completely humiliate the girl in question, telling her that the only way this boy will notice her is through a complete and ridiculous makeover. Naturally, she believes this group of "friends" and follows their advice, with disastrous results. Raina might have made up the story, but it sure has a ring of truth to it to me. Good stuff, and who doesn't like a tale of complete social humiliation for a buck?

Teardroppe Comiques Spectaculare #4 by Matthew Teardrop

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It never ceases to amaze me how comics can get lost on this site. I got this four years ago (it’s 4/4/09), but somehow I never manged to ramble about it, not even a little bit. So, with the distance of time, how does it hold up? This mini had its moments, granted, and with the tiny price tag of $1 I suppose that’s all it had to do. Subjects in here include dealing with the consequences of escalating a war on a fly, life being miserable over the long run, hilarious child abduction, business etiquette, getting advice from Charles Manson, and the immortality of the brain. The bulk of the comic is an extended story dealing with a young man who sets a genie free, but finds out to his horror that he’s actually the one who has to give the genie three wishes. Hilarious all the way through, and Matthew even manages to end it with quite a punchline. Other than that this book also has a fair pile of funny three panel strips, still something of a rarity in my experience. Ah, no reason to be harsh to this comic at all. Plenty of bang for your buck, the good far outweighs the bad or mediocre.

Teardroppe Comiques Spectaculare #2 by Matthew Teardrop

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

More funnies from Matthew, and if you’ve read this page a few times you probably already have a fairly good idea whether or not you think this kind of thing is funny. Lucky for me I do, so I’ll just work from that. In here you have the new mini by the Grim Reaper, more from The Square and The Egghead, a robot hair salon, Old Mr. Tree, being a “player”, a brief commentary on The Scream, President Monkey, the Porno family, Bernard the Bumbling Terrorist, and one really crappy party. Oh, and more than a few newspaper style strips, most of which are pretty funny. That fantastic cover by Barry Rodges wraps around as well, but it’s hard to capture that sort of thing in a scan, and shame on you if you don’t know who that is.

The New Adventures of the Spit by Matthew Teardrop

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I’ve been asked to not pull any punches here, so I’m going to go right for the jugular: this book is hilarious. There, take that! It’s all about Manny Spitowski before and after he realizes that his saliva in contact with another humans skin will cause them to explode. So instead of some grand adventure about a superhero determined to right wrongs, this is all about Manny getting even with a bunch of people from high school who picked on him in high school, annoying people, and random folks who just happen to be standing around. Hilarity ensues. If some of you don’t believe that, or just don’t think that concept could be funny, take a look at the lower right corner of the sample. Could anybody who draws Osama bin Laden like that be all bad? The great price mystery continues, but let’s say it’s $3 and move on. Contact info up there, you should really get ahold of some of these books if you like funny.

Mr. Ugly by Matthew Teardrop

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hooray for a children’s book! This one (unlike “Hey Kidz! It’s Poopin’ Time With the Big Ol’ Bear!”), actually IS a children’s book, which is another good chance for him to show a little bit or range. As such, the story is pretty simple. There’s an off-panel character who keeps asking Mr. Ugly why he hates everything, and starts naming things off one by one. Mr. Ugly always has a reason why things are bad. It’s tiny and an incredibly quick read, but it’s funny and his constant rage against things that are mostly not so bad is inspiring.

The Wonderful Year #7 by Rebecca Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This time around I got the idea that the book is a bunch of one page comics with something of a continuing thread, unless, of course, the thread doesn’t continue. One thing’s for sure, though: I’ve run out of things to say about her comics. I like them, and she’s definitely one of those people whose comics are best described as “their’ book. You know, like if you want to describe a Sam Henderson book but run out of words you just say “You know, it’s a Sam Henderson comic”. You’ll be able to say the same thing about her very soon, to everybody I mean, because you can already say it to people who’ve read her book. The main theme in here is aging, or maybe it’s being used, or it could be not wanting to dance. Who knows? There may yet come a day when I sit down with all of these and try to make some serious sense out of them. I hope not though, because what would be the fun of trying to interpret something if I had it all analyzed into a corner?

The Wonderful Year #6 by Rebecca Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I think I get it now. I blame the sudden bolt of discovery on drugs. It’s snippets of her life, mostly. Things that she overheard in the day, or thoughts that she had at certain times, or people that she knows, or events that have happened to her or somebody she knows during her life, all thrown together in a comic. Sometimes it stays linear for a while, sometimes it doesn’t, but there’s a definite sense to be made of the whole thing and I’m fairly stupid for not seeing it before. This issue is about her sister, an old friend, growing up, sleeping in, falling, and painting. Other things too, but it’s well worth the effort to discover for yourself. The art was always solid, but I’d swear it’s better this issue than the last. This book is steadily climbing my list of books that I most look forward to, so why not send her a couple of bucks to check an issue or two out?

The Wonderful Year #5 by Rebecca Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You know, I was fairly undecided on this comic before. Becca was kind enough to send me all of the issues that I didn’t have of this series, and now I know what an amazing thing it is. The comics all contain certain elements, which is just about the only thing that holds them together as a series. They all have random quotes, dreams, conversations and overheard dialogue, mixed together in a way that makes it hard to follow in any kind of linear way, but who needs linear? It’s a joy to see snippets of dates that may or may not have happened, conversations which may have been expanded a little bit from reality, and the general chaos that is this comic. If this sounds like it’s a bit too willy-nilly or something, well, you don’t have to buy it. If you like things that make you think (but might not make much “logical” sense to you even after you’ve thought about it), then check it out. It’s only a buck, you know…

The Wonderful Year #4 by Rebecca Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

What an absolutely incoherent comic. I mean that in the best possible sense, as it was fascinating every step of the way, but I can’t say that I understood much of it. Anybody who’s a fan of John Hankiewicz, and shame on you if you aren’t should check this comic out. It’s about, um… I’ll just tell you what’s in it. There’s a man who keeps saying “There’s a party in my pants”, screenprinting, baby birds, a woman with a shaved head, relationships, cats, harassment, and slapping. Maybe I’d have a better idea what was going on if I had seen any of the previous three issues, or if there was any information at all about the author other than an e-mail address. Still, it takes some work to get through but you’re rewarded with a remarkable sense of disquiet and uncertainty about the world.

Weird Muse #3 by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

More tiny fun from Dan Taylor, this one a wee tale of the history of Muses and their troubles with Sirens way, way back in the day. It’s hard to do dig too deeply into these tiny things, and it’s a fun little light story, if you want to leave it at that. So naturally, I’m going to start picking. Typos always bug me, and even more so in little books like this (where there’s so much less to proof than, say, a graphic novel). In this case it’s even an italicized word (”Godess”), so it’s hard to see how it could be missed, but still a minor thing that most people probably just gloss over. Also, while the second half of the story looks gorgeous, bits of the first half (like the eyes on the Muse on page 3) look rushed and a bit sloppy. Just my two cents, as always. It may be a bit sloppy at times, but it’s still fun, so there are certainly worse things in the world.

Weird Muse #2 by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This mini (or at least half of it) is about a subject near and dear to my heart: where the hell does all the time go? A perpetually naked older lady asks this question, noting that Sonic Youth is pushing 50 (!), but also getting some joy out of the fact that the hot starlets of today will eventually be broken down old crones like everybody else. Well, I guess old men are called “fogies” more than “crones”, or at least they are in the 1920’s bubble I live in. Also in this issue is an interesting story about wishful thinking in an abuse victim, and a really, really awful pun in the story on the last page. Seriously, just let your eyes skip over that page if you don’t want to groan loudly. Other than that it’s a pretty solid issue though, and I was thinking that I had already gotten around to reviewing #1 of this series...

Weird Muse #1 by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I think it was SPACE 2008 (or, sadly, maybe even 2007) when Dan asked me if I was ever going to get around to reviewing the first issue of this series, the one that "brought him back" to mini comics. Seeing as how SPACE 2009 is coming up in a few days, that served as a helpful reminder that I STILL hadn't gotten around to it. And the verdict is: this is one solid comic, and I see why it (in part) convinced him to get back to making comics on a regular basis. Hell, a more than regular basis, if you look around this page and then check around to see how many other creators have this many books on their page. It starts off a little rough, with a really awful pun about fishing (at least to somebody who mostly doesn't like puns, so what do I know), then gets great in a hurry. Dan quotes from a series of newspaper articles involving odd stories like a nine year old suspended for sexual harassment, an angry pack of chihuahuas attacking a cop, a man dying right after bowling a perfect game, terrorists kidnapping an action figure and an odd story about airport screening. With each of these stories is a funny comic panel, as these stories are crying out for some feedback. Next there's an obituary for Clay Geerdes, (a small press pioneer), some tips and recipes and a collage covering the center spread. Finally there's the big, um comic in this comic. It's a conversation with two people, one of whom is convinced that he has all kinds of freedom, and one of whom manages to convince him rather easily that that's not the case. Three cheers for Dan being pissed off about the absurdity of mandatory seat belt laws too; I've been thinking I was in the minority in being annoyed about that. If I don't mind flying through my windshield if I ever get in a wreck, why should police? This is well worth a look, clearly, and probably a good starting point for anybody who wants to check the man out and is a bit overwhelmed with all the variety on his page.

Time Warp Comix #5 edited by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This is easily the best "you damned kids, get off my lawn!" comic I've ever read, and it manages that feat while being a tiny thing. The tone is set right away with the cover, then there's a one page story by George Erling (which doesn't have anything to do with the theme I mentioned but is still a fun shortie), then there's the gem of the book. Jim Siergey details the origins of mini comics, including things I'd never heard of, and I like to think I've at least kept up with this sort of thing. After two solid pages of learning, Jim goes off the rails with a delightful rant about how young cartoonists reading this aren't going to learn anything anyway as "history to this generation is what happened 10 minutes ago". Brilliant, and sadly true. Bob Vojtko has a one page story up next about how conventions have changed in the last 30 years, and the book is rounded off by David Miller and his 8 tracks. Not a single thing to complain about here, the whole thing is just good clean fun.

Time Warp Comix #4 edited by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Here’s another anthology by Dan and some of the “old school” mini comics guys. Things this tiny (an 8 page mini) generally defy any sort of detailed analysis, but let me make one request to Dan: please list the contributors somewhere in the book. You’re killing all my street cred of being some sort of a mini comics expert (and I hope nobody thinks that anyway) when I can’t place Strauss, Vojtko and D. Miller. Anyway, there are some funny stories in here. D. Miller has a great two pager about a baby getting the hang of things, Vojtko has a funny piece about an old retired mini comic artist, and Krauss does a good job of taking some whippersnappers apart when their questions get too personal. All told, it’s well worth a look if you like old, cranky cartoonists who still have a sense of humor.

Time Warp Comix #3 edited by Dan Taylor, art by Brad Foster

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

OK, technically this is a Dan Taylor production (as this is a series of anthologies he’s working on) but, as this issue is Brad Foster only, I thought it was a good chance to get the man a page on this site and have his links be more readily available. Brad has been doing comics for as long as I can remember reading them, even if I’ve mostly missed his stuff when it was out. I do remember that he did an adults only comic many years ago (the title has gone down the memory hole) that led to me realizing that it was possible to see naked ladies in comics and not have parents or authority figures pester you about it because they were, after all, just comic books. This is a shortie and the story is mostly Brad bitching about how much better things were in the old days, when people actually had to draw their own comics and wait by the mailbox if they were�trying to put together an anthology. Trust me, it’s much funnier than it sounds. It’s only a buck and this is somebody you kids today should know about, if you have any interest in the history of mini comics…

Time Warp Comix #2 edited by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I hope nobody out there is trying to read these reviews sequentially. Once again, I read them way, way out of order, although now that only #3 is left to review I will be reading #2 and 3 in order. Whoopee! This time around the comic is half one-page pictures, meaning no story of any kind for those bits. In order, for the curious, those are an interpretive blot by Bill Shut, something utterly fantastic by M. Roden, a real mystery by… somebody (seriously, is there no space for some sort of tiny table of contents?), and a monkey with Frida Kahlos by Jim Siergey. You could take those or leave those (although I particularly enjoyed the Frida Kahlos), but then there’s still the comic story to consider, and it’s fantastic. It’s a three page tale by D. Miller about a burned-out artist trying to come up with fresh gags for a magazine about tits, dicks and balls. Comic versions of tits, dicks and balls anyway, and this artist is at the end of his rope in terms of being able to come up with anything else remotely funny. It’s a great piece and makes the whole comic damned near unmissable. Check it out, or go nuts and just get a pile of these cheap things.

Time Warp Comix #1 edited by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It's sad that it's just now occurring to me that I should have read this series in order. Oh well, live and learn. And forget, and repeat the same mistakes. This is the issue where Dan explains his plans for this series, basically that he'll put out the 8 page comic every time he has enough art to fill it. It started out as a tribute of sorts to Clay Geerdes, someone who was active in the 70's and 80's and was instrumental in getting the word out about all kinds of mini comics. The first story (by Jim Valentino) in here tells the story of Clay for those of us who are culturally illiterate as to how the mini comics "movement" started. There's only one other piece in here, a two pager by Bob Vojtko of two old geezers pining away for the old days when they could make mini comics. The love for Clay is palpable here, it makes me wish I had actually seen something from the guy. Actually, chances are that in the piles of minis around my house there must be something with work from the guy in it, but I have no idea where that would be. Kids, you should read stuff like this, get a little sense of history. And for those of you old enough to remember the early, early days of mini comics, well, a little nostalgia never hurt anybody, right?

Ten Itty Bitty Shitty Pieces of Art by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It is almost completely pointless for me to review this book. There, now that I've hooked you all in with that cliffhanger, I'm free to ramble about this comic for a bit. This is, as you might have guessed, ten pieces of art. "Shitty" refers to the show at which these things were introduced to the world, as apparently it's a regular thing, although I have no idea if there were more shows after this one in 2007. Dan left his pieces art there to "find their own way around the world". Some of the detail of these pieces has been lost when they were transferred to the mini comics format, unless that was how they were originally presented. Pieces in here include (and this is with my complete knowledge that briefly describing pieces of art, however shitty, does them a disservice) the artists, black goop, a collage piece about commerce, a three part profanity series, marshmallow flowers, a self-portrait, sunflower art and an instructional collage. Hey, I'm in this comics business for the stories, so this doesn't do a whole lot for me, but it does serve as a nice contrast to the rest of Dan's comics. Check it out if you're already a fan and want to see what the man works on when he's not drawing comics.

My Crow Comics #1 by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Ah tiny comics, you are at least always easy to talk about. This one all about the short life and dreams of Shrimpy, a ghost shrimp who only lived to 20 (days), ate fish poop and dreamed of better things. It’s funny, the art is great (especially considering the odd creatures in a fish tank), so what more could you ask for from a tiny thing like this? Dan sent another mini along too, so I’ll get more of an idea of his work then, but for now I’m impressed.

The Cloud by Dan Taylor

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hey look, a fable! This is the story of Cyrus Helton, a sad man who has terrible luck, and a literal raincloud that follows him everywhere he goes. Cyrus has no luck at work, with his landlady, at cards, and has no illusions about anything ever changing. Which, of course, means, that something has to change. Cyrus wins the lottery, which dispels his cloud... but change isn't always a good thing. I've probably said too much, as this is a tiny thing and it's hard to say anything about it without giving the whole thing away. Not exactly a shocking moral to the story, although Dan maybe could have spent another panel or two setting up why exactly change isn't a good thing in this case. I get what he's trying to do, but it's still a bit much to see Cyrus pining away for the bad old days. Still, it's a decent little story, and as a wise person once said "those who can, do; those who can't, complain about those who can". Or something like that, I always get all the good quotes confused. Point is that yes, I am aware of how silly it is for me to request that the artist add a few panels to their story to make it come together just for me, but hey, that's the nature of having a website all about the mini comics.

Krunk #5 by George Tautkus

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Another short one from George, although I should point out that I got a much, much larger issue from him at SPX this year and should have a review up of that within the next few weeks. For anybody reading this in 2008, today is 12/4/03. Was I telling the truth about that review thing? Anyway, he won me back with this one. Not that I ever left, I just wasn’t sure after #4. This is about a man who, like many men, graduates with all the possibilities in the world awaiting him. He starts feelings years and years older every month, and decides that, as people value solid chocolate bunnies more than hollow ones, he’ll fill up his house to make it more valuable. I’ll say no more so you can discover a few things for yourself, but it’s brilliant.

Krunk #3 by George Tautkus

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Three cheers for somebody putting their contact info all over the cover! It looks kind of gaudy, sure, but it sure is easy to find. Two main stories in this one. The first, It’s Your Fault, is about a man as he yells to some people on a bench about how much he hates their clothes. Then God comes down and another man has a powdered milk sandwich… I have mentioned that George is very much in his own world and that’s one of the nicest things that you can say about people in comics? Good. The second story is about a man who’s lamenting the fact that his town doesn’t have a football team and that the factory is the highest that anyone can hope to go. Insightful, entertaining stuff, and it’s definitely the start of the career of a unique voice in comics, assuming that he keeps going.

Krunk #1 by George Tautkus

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

As someone who hates most four panel newspaper comics, I have to say that this was fantastic. I’ll let George take it from there, as he has a few words. This (along with Krunk #3 and #5) are all available for $1 each, either now or once I get the distro officially started. Here’s George: :The very beginning of the Krunk story. The beginning of a series that will continue until George Tautkus dies.”

Writer's Block by Diana Tamblyn

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This is the last of the three books that Diana sent me, and this one makes it a clean sweep. They all have something to offer. My only problem is that the main problem with the book (I don’t think I’m giving anything away here by saying that the main character has writer’s block) gets resolved a bit too quickly and neatly. Can’t really go into more detail about that without giving the whole thing away, as it’s fairly tiny, so you’ll have to take my word for it. The story is about a man who has a wildly successful first novel but finds himself unable to come up with anything for a new novel, despite the fact that he’s already spent his advance. Anybody who writes at all can find plenty to relate to in this one. The art’s tremendous, as always, contact info is above and it’s $3.

Duty Must Be Done by Diana Tamblyn

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It figures that Time named SPX 2002 as one of the years ten best graphic novels and I thought it was the probably the worst of the bunch. Of course, who knows what other nine books they put on the list? Yes, I know they were probably all great. Why am I bringing this up? Well, besides my innate tendency to ramble aimlessly, this mini is a story from said anthology. It was one of the stronger pieces in the book, but that’s not why I had a problem with the book. This book is about Frederick Banting, the man mostly responsible for insulin and a tireless scientist who just wanted to be an artist. He’s apparently something of a national hero in Canada, and for good reason. Here’s another book from Diana that I liked, mostly because her artwork is tremendous. She obviously takes a lot of care in making everything look just right, although I did have a problem with her depiction of the plane crash. Not that I’ve ever seen a really great plane crash in a comic, but her three panels were pretty bad. First a nervous pilot, then a plane in the snow, then (what looked like, although I knew from the context that it wasn’t) a peacefully sleeping pilot. Still, a minor gripe, it’s just one of those odd things this brain of mine retains while writing a review.

Aprendiz #2 by Adam Suerte

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

More tales about learning to be a tattoo artist, with this issue focusing mostly on the dues he had to pay to get anywhere near a needle. It’s fascinating stuff, and it’s a side of things that I’ve honestly never given much thought to. Who goes into tattoo places? How often are people just there to kill time, and how many stupid questions does the average person who works there have to deal with in the course of a day? It seems that no fat women ever come in his store though, just skinny ones with enormous boobs. Hey, maybe he just likes drawing boobs, there’s no law against that. He also tells about his woes of trying to market the first issue, as this was his first comic venture on a large scale. It’s disheartening to see how many quality books are just ignored these days. It must be especially tough for something like this, because most comic people (not all, and I’m speaking generally here) aren’t the type to get a bunch of tattoos, so they probably can’t relate to a lot of this. Hey, why do you need to relate? The man is telling an interesting story about something that a lot of people have never given any thought Like I said before, the art is awfully easy to look at too. Maybe one of these days I’ll find him at a con and get a tattoo, he seems to offer them as a promotional thing.

Aprendiz #1 by Adam Suerte

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Here’s another random comic that I got through the mail, and it’s another good one. It’s all about the author and his early days as a struggling artist. Actually, the point of the series is to tell about his time as a tattooing apprentice, but this issue is all about him trying to find his niche after college and trying to get on as an apprentice. Kind of takes some of the suspense away when you know how it all ends, but it’s not a major thing. I like his art a lot… it has a loopy, whorly style that would be just great for a tattoo, if I ever got one. There’s no website that I can find, but feel free to e-mail the guy and he can get you a copy of this, along with whatever else he has available (it’s $3.95). If anybody out there thinks that I gave away the ending or something, he has his two teachers write a little something each in the back of the book and has a couple of pages of telling about himself too, so there’s really no mystery of where this is going. But hey, the journey is most of the fun anyway, right? He says he’s been doing comics forever, so I’d have to think that a new issue of this will be out pretty soon.

Mint On Your Pillow #4 by Rebecca Strom

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hooray, I now have all of Rebecca Strom’s comics for sale! For anybody who’s interested, I said all those nice things about the other issues before they were for sale here, in case people think I’m just talking up the books that I sell. Just to clear up any confusion, however, all of the nice things I’m saying about future issues are going to be with the knowledge that I’m selling them. All clear? Good. Here’s another fine comic from this woman. About the only negative thing I can say about these is that they bear no resemblance to a coherent narrative, but that’s not the point (as far as I can see) anyway. Her books are a collection of thoughts and moments from her days, some memorable, some not so much. This one has snippets of waiting in line, wet socks, late night coffee, a fender bender, a bruised butt, the mob, changing the sheets after a breakup, and a few more things, but why spoil all the surprises? This one’s a buck, contact info is up there, unless, of course, you’d rather just buy some of her comics from me…

Mint On Your Pillow #3 by Rebecca Strom

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Wow, if I had any doubts about whether or not my new scanner was worth the money, compare the samples to #3 for the rest of the issues on this page. Of course, the cover is really orange and not yellow, but I’ll take that over how bad the other samples look. I plan on re-scanning everything eventually, by the way, probably when I get my legs chopped off and I can sit around scanning stuff all day. Wasn’t I supposed to be reviewing something? Oh yeah. This is another solid issue of Rebecca’s book. She says in here that she thinks Jeff Brown is cute, so I think they should get married and have kids that do the best comics in the world. Hey. I’m thinking long term here. In here are stories about family, Halloween, Thanksgiving, writing letters, kitties, salt in coffee, and Elf World. I think her books manage to be insightful and adorable at times, which is an amazing balance in my book. I’m guessing this is still $1, and if you haven’t checked out anything from her yet, it looks like she’s committed (hey #3 of a series is impressive these days). She’s got some serious talent, so buy some of her comics!

Mint On Your Pillow #2 by Rebecca Strom

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It’s usually not a bad sign when the worst thing I can say about a book is that it’s too short. Well, I suppose I could also complain about the fact that it’s a bit hard to read in places but, as it’s a sketchbook at times (and obviously shrunk down for the format), that’s a minor thing. More of Rebecca’s musings and going about her day. In here she gets a new haircut, attends MOCCA in New York and takes an art history class. Again, these kinds of things might sound dull, but that’s just because I’m describing them. Give Rebecca a chance and you’ll see that’s not the case. The pages of this are yellow, in case you were wondering. I just decided that my scanner probably couldn’t handle it and you’d probably be able to see the sample better in black and white, so here you go.

Mint On Your Pillow #1 by Rebecca Strom

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

See? I told you I’d get around to this one sooner or later. Of course, you could probably find dozens of pages on here with some kind of a “I’ll review the rest of this stuff later, I promise” only to find that I’ve never updated it again. But enough about me and my laziness, this is about Rebecca’s other wonderful comic. I’m a sucker for the quiet ones, what can I say, and this one fits the bill. There’s a short story about letter boxing (just go here to find out what’s it about if you’re curious), plenty of stuff about how crappy work is and, boredom and random observations. She has an eye for noticing the simple and true things about the world and her comics are a perfect example of this. This one’s only a buck, I think you should get both of the comics she has available but, if you can only get one, get this one.

Becky in the Big Apple by Rebecca Strom

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Stupid crappy scanner… There’s all kinds of autobio stories out there, and plenty of them are dull because they tell you way too much of a fairly dull life. Rebecca’s stories are remarkable because of what she leaves unsaid more than anything else. Her comics are a collection of flashes of her day. Just a little thing here or there and you don’t even realize the picture she’s painting until the book is done and you’re left with the much larger whole. The art is kind of scrunched in places, but that is my only very minor complaint with this. I thought this was an incredible book and I’m really hoping that she does more comics in the future.

Entering Joanne by Angela Stork

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Mind out of the gutter, people! There’s a perfectly logical, non-sexy explanation for that title. This is the story of a colony (assuming that’s the right word) of spiders, and an attempt by Angela to explain the disgusting statistic that an average person will eat 8 spiders in his or her lifetime while asleep. Come to think of it, based on my completely limited knowledge of spider activity, I’m pretty sure she used an ant colony here and went with spiders instead, but it’s such a great story that artistic license is easily explained away. She weaves between the story of these spiders and their tyrant queen to the rocky relationship between the sexually frustrated Joanne and her boyfriend Kenny to other people in the building and other spiders in the colony effortlessly. And come on, how often do you see a book that’s about 3/4 drawings of spiders, some with comical feminine eyelashes and/or a silly moustache? Great stuff all around, really really great if this is a first effort (first one I’ve seen from her, anyway). And I’m always a sucker for a lack of resolution in an ending, so kudos on that as well.

The Bone Closet by Robert H. Stevenson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hyberbole alert! This guy, after an admittedly short sample size, looks to me like a possible heir apparent to the legacy of Edward Gorey. If you don’t know who that is shame on you, as moody, atmospheric comics of all stripes owe a serious debt to the guy. Granted, Robert needs to beef up his shadows a whole bunch to match Gorey’s work, but luckily it’s already clear that he’s making his own mark on comics with these first two issues. There are three stories in here, all various degrees of perfection. First up is a tale about a young boy trying to deal with an infestation of zombies at his school, eventually finding out that carrying a creepy doll with a big head is the best way to keep the zombies away. Next up is the story of a young man getting told bedtime stories by his father, who has a disturbing secret. Any more than that and you’d probably figure out what that secret was, so let’s move on. Finally in this one is Russel, a story about a man who needs young women in love with him to voluntarily turn into trees so that he can live as a human. Really, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book for anybody who loves a good gothic tale, and even if that’s not your thing you might find yourself loving them after reading this one.

Herman Belquest by Robert H. Stevenson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Join Herman, if you will, on a mostly silent journey to the lowest place of his existence. The basic premise of this book is “Herman just lost [blank]“. The book goes through a steady progression of Herman losing his wife, job, and house, before things get a bit better before the end. In the meantime Herman deals with a cranky baby, a dishonest hobo, and a severely unsympathetic boss, among many other pitfalls. I loved how the only real dialogue was in Herman’s dream of a land of fudge, and even there he had to fight for his life. It’s a great comic from somebody entirely new to me, and it keeps the track record of the Short Pants books at an even 100% for sheer entertainment value. Well worth seeking out, and I have another of his books to put up here in the next few weeks for an even more informed opinion about the guy…

Toxic Comix #8 by Barry Southworth

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Slowly this story is starting to take shape, and the minor characters from past issues seem to be coming back and gaining some prominence. There’s still a misspelling or two which, as I’ve said over and over, drives me batty, but the little things seem to be falling into place. In this issue we meet a past boyfriend of Trinity, who regrets both abandoning her to join the “cool crowd” and not helping her when she was getting killed. We also get to see what Trinity is up to, even though she’s dead and all. The entity she answers to is cartoonishly silly at this point, just an over-the-top villain, so I hope that gets fleshed out a bit and we get to see what exactly is going on with all that. Other than that I can see that at least Barry seems to have some idea of a master plan here, so I’m content to stay along for the ride and see what happens…

Toxic Comix #7 by Barry Southworth

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It’s been a while since the last issue, which means that the overall story here is incredibly hazy for me. That being said, this issue had significantly less of the problems that I bitched about last time, so aesthetically I have almost no complaints at all. The one thing I can still bitch about is the spelling as, while there are fewer errors, the ones there are really change the meaning of the sentence. Still, it’s greatly improved overall. As for the story, this one is mostly about Trinity (as you may have guessed from the cover), a goth girl who’s just trying to get by at her local school, along with her only friend, a devout Christian. That particular relationship isn’t explored all that much, as most of the book is devoted to some creepy boys from her school trying to convince Trinity to take a ride with them and the consequences of that ride, in this world and the next one. A pretty solid issue that makes me wonder where this is all going, and where on earth I put my back issues for this so I can check that out.

Shame On You by Barry Southworth

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Barry is branching out into a few different directions these days, and this one is an “adult” comic, meaning that people are represented with actual genitalia and sometimes have various kinds of sex. Oy, to live in a place where this wasn’t seen as some kind of a big deal… Anyway, there are a few short stories in here, and they’re all entertaining. First up is a porn actress who’s had enough and decides, eventually, to take up a suggestion from her Dad about paint enemas. There are also stories of a slut who finally finds her place in the world and a dirty trick on a gorgeous woman who was completely untouchable to a couple of guys at a fast food joint. I liked this one quite a bit, even outside of the obvious benefit of all the naked people. There’s a general sense of playfulness and fun here that’s completely lacking in most of his recent work, by necessity because they’re serious stories, sure, but fun is a very underrated thing in comics.

Among the Dead by Barry Southworth

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Barry’s taking a bit of a break from the Toxic series, although fans of his stuff will notice some familiar themes in this one. It’s all about Nikki, a former lover/stripper for Satan who, after he tosses her aside, decides to stir up a revolution in hell, picking up a few of the more disgruntled demons along the way. This is mostly setting the stage for things to come, establishing a few characters, setting up motivations, you know, all the things you need for a good continuing series. The group knows of a sword that can apparently kill Satan, but they have to go through seven levels of demons to get it. It’s intriguing, and that’s the great thing about a first issue: there’s nothing but promise here. It could end up being great, or not, or it could end up being one of the countless series that are dropped by a creator and never picked up again. All that remains to be seen, but I liked this one just fine.

Bookhunter by Jason Shiga

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

There are times when you get an impression from the cover of a book and you’re exactly right, or there are the times when you’re either pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised. I had some thoughts about what was in here and lo and behold, it is exactly as awesome as I thought. This is the story of the Library Police in the 70’s and the whole book reads like a slam-bang action movie, with our heroes trying to solve the mystery of who stole a valuable old Bible and replaced it with an imperfect copy. That’s the bulk of the book, anyway. Things get started with an introduction to the team, as we see them track down a man who’s trying to rent all the copies of a certain book in an act of censorship. Really, the book could have ended with Special Agent Bay sliding across the kitchen floor and blasting the guy in the stomach with a shotgun, but this is a mere taste of the fun yet to come. Things get bogged down in technicalities a bit in the middle, if you consider learning all sorts of things about police procedures getting bogged down. It’s impossible to pick a highlight in this book though, and any mention I make of them would serve as spoilers. I’ll just say that I’ve never thought of a card catalogue as a weapon, but god bless Jason Shiga for doing just that. This is a tremendous, indispensable book, like every single thing I’ve seen this man write. Buy it, then buy the rest of his older stuff, then somebody kidnap him Misery-style and make him crank out the comics. Not really though, as that probably wouldn’t be his best work and we live in a world where I actually have to point out that I’m not serious about kidnapping the guy, but I am absolutely serious about buying all his stuff. Or getting it from a library, although you’re certain to have a little more respect for late fees after reading this…

Fleep by Jason Shiga

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Didn’t I say before that I was going to buy everything that this guy had? Like I do with so many other artists, I just never got around to it. After reading this I’m going to have to make that pledge again. This is one of the more innovative and original books that I’ve seen in quite a while. It opens up with the main character walking into a phone booth. He loses consciousness, wakes up, and is surrounded on all sides by concrete. All he can remember is that he went into the phone booth to call his wife… I’ll say no more. This gets my unreserved recommendation.

Flummery 10th Anniversary Edition by Jeff Sharp

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

How does some of the stuff for the online store sit here so long unreviewed anyway? It's almost like I'm making this site up as I go along. Flummery was started in 1995 by Scott Mills and Jeff Sharp. 11 issues later, Scott got big and famous (sort of, at least for small press comics) and Jeff gave up the ghost... until now. Or, more accurately, then, as this was put out in 2005. There's a whole pile of short pieces in here, some longer than others. The highlights to me are the story about Jeff playing Civil War as a child (always as accurately as possible, at least until they got a couple of historically incompatible props), a true story about a man putting his stamp on one of the first things the US shot into space, Jeff's story from his Uncle Leon on how he almost ran over General Patton, a creepy tale about cutting the heads off some pesky turtles and how said heads could live for days, and the story of how Jeff (as a small child) ruined his new pants and how he covered it up to his mom. That's a lot of highlights, considering there are only a few more stories in here. Those are fine too, I'm just mostly ambivalent about them while the stories I mentioned had a tendency to resonate a bit more, for whatever reason. This thing has a gorgeous package too, what with the purple cover and the gold print and all. Worth checking out for fans of the old Flummery series, or just for people who like a good autobio story every now and then.

Caesar by Jeff Sharp

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You know, I have a much more positive of Jeff Sharp’s work in my mind than what comes across in my other reviews. He has a cute style with some of his stuff, granted, and I guess it either caught me in the wrong mood before or this one caught me in the right mood. In other words, I liked this one. It’s the story of Caesar (you can probably see on the cover that he’s a lizard) and him going about his day, basically. He runs into a grasshopper a few times that’s trying desperately to get eaten and just generally enjoys his simple, easy existence. It’s cute, I love the color of the cover (which my crappy scanner almost captured, but not quite), and have I mentioned that I liked it? That’s about the only kind of reaction you can have with something this short, and mine ended up being positive.

Teen Boat #1-6 pack by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

The first 6 issues all wrapped up in a Teen Boat bow.

Teen Boat #8 by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

So, what happened? Did Teen Boat live through that horrific explosion or what? Well, what do you think, I’m here to tell you the answer to that question? This issue deals with the aftermath of the explosion, the fight to save his life, and how young Teen Boat becomes a man. Aw crap, I ruined the suspense of whether or not he made it. Nothing here but a fantastic story, the highlight quote to me being “This kid is literally in pieces… I can’t tell what part is teen and what part is boat.” This may be the end of the series, or at least it’s a logical place to end things, if that’s what they want. Me, I’d be happy with years of College Boat, Young Professional Boat and Midlife Crisis Boat. With #8 of this amazing series I feel like I shouldn’t even have to mention this any more, but anybody who isn’t reading this is only hurting themselves.

Teen Boat #7 by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

All is well in the world again, as not one but two Teen Boat’s I’d never seen arrived in the mail today. They’re twice the size of the old Teen Boat’s and this one even has a cliffhanger ending that’s, well, spoiled a bit if you scroll down and check out the cover to #8, but oh well, that’s a spoiler I can live with. As for this issue, Teen Boat learns that the only way to a woman’s heart (at least in high school, insert snarky comment about adult women here if you wish) is through the ability to drive a car, so he takes steps to learn these skills. Naturally being out of the water is not something that comes naturally to young Teen Boat, but he’s able to learn what he needs to know and even has the driving test going smoothly. At least he does UNTIL… I can say no more. But what needs to be said? Who doesn’t know by now that Teen Boat is one of the goofiest, funniest and downright cheeringupingest books in the world? #7 ranks with the best in the series, and after seeing that cover I have the same high hopes for #8. It’s a bit pricier than the old books, mostly because it’s huge in relation to #1-6, and the old books were ridiculously cheap to begin with.

Teen Boat #6 by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Is this the end of Teen Boat? Who knows, but I sure hope not. How’s that for an evasive answer? This one, as you can probably tell by the cover, is all about Teen Boat deciding to run for class president. My favorite sign had to be “Vote for the schooner and you’ll graduate sooner!”, but there were more than a few good ones. Oh, and I should also mention that he’s running against the most popular guy in school who also happens to be on the football team and throws great parties. How’s that for drama? Good stuff again, as if that’s a shock to anybody who’s been reading this series.

Teen Boat #5 by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

And here I was looking for a fight in this issue, what with that provocative cover and all. No such luck. Still another solid issue, don’t get me wrong or anything, but I was looking for more mayhem. What you have is Teen Boat trying to figure out how he could ever love a normal girl and how he could ever love a gondola. More on the “angst” and less on the “thrill” this issue, I guess you could say. Still, 8 pages of angst probably makes a lot of sense in terms of the general overall story, and might help the pacing a bit for a graphic novel. Oh, let’s be honest. I’m just annoyed that there are no more pirates.

Teen Boat #4 by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This is about as flawless an issue as anybody could hope for. Sure, it’s only eight pages, but those pages were just about perfect. Teen Boat travels to Venice with his Yacht Club, hoping to find out if he belongs at sea or on land. He soon meets a talking gondola and falls for her/it, but this only makes him more confused. You’ll have to read it to find out why. Honestly, there’s no reason not to. You could send these guys $4.00 (the shipping gets expensive, relatively speaking) and get the whole run of this comic up until this point. Hell, you could spend that on a single issue of most of the regular independent series. The art is gorgeous, the writing is funny and, as I said, just about perfect. I want to quote every line is this book to convince you to get it, but it’s best to leave them for you to discover as these books are tiny. Hey, here’s a complaint: make the books bigger! It’s hard to consider that a complaint, but it’s the best I can do.

Teen Boat #3 by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Before I begin, everybody can read the slogan at the bottom of the cover, right? It’s hard to get much better than that. If you think that anything about this series is even a little bit serious, that’s not the case. The kid turns into a boat, how serious do you expect it to be? Teen Boat desperately seeks the approval of his classmates (and the love of a foreign exchange student), so he uses his powers to… um, “boat” all the cool kids into international waters in the first couple of issues for gambling purposes, after which they’re attacked by pirates. One iceberg and Coast Guard rescue later and Teen Boat is back in school, being made fun of by all the cool kids. This issue deals with that, and also shows that he can’t control his powers when water penetrates his ear. For the most part this is funny, absurd stuff. The art’s flawless, the writing is crisp and delicious, and they can even make it look cool when the kid transforms into a boat.

Teen Boat #2 by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Again, I have no idea how so many books in the store slip through the cracks on this site, but here it is in 2009 and I never bothered to ramble about Teen Boat #2. Seeing as how pirates are all the news right now (the actual, terrifying kind, not the lovable Disney rogues), why not get to it? Bad things first: the pages in my copy aren't printed in the correct order. This is shocking to me because I've sold all kinds of copies of this series and it's been out for years, so you'd think that little thing would have been fixed by now. This is a continuation of #1, and in this issue Teen Boat sails out over international waters with a good chunk of his school (and the girl of his dreams) aboard, and they are quickly set upon by pirates. The students see that offering a Teen Boat in trade to the pirates would be a very useful thing indeed, but can't convince him to transform... until an evil iceberg hits him and knocks him into human form. The pirates have the same problem with the iceberg, and things get dicey from there, as Teen Boat can't seem to transform in extreme cold. Just telling the specifics leaves out all the wonderful conversations in here, like the student mistaking the meaning of the word "booty" (an obvious joke, granted, but still funny when done right) or some of the pirates falling out of character. For the three people who read this website on a regular basis and still haven't checked these comics out, I don't know how many times I have to mention this, but the only person you're hurting is yourself.

Teen Boat #1 by John Green & Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Back to the beginning! It’s been awhile since I’ve read this, essentially the origin story for Teen Boat. This tells the tale of the young Boat growing up (in flashback form, sprouting barnacles and propellers at odd times), then getting found out at school. Naturally, as a young outcast who’s desperate to impress a pretty girl, he accepts the invitation of a group of jocks to let them use him as a party boat. Soon, however, they get far enough from shore for some illegal activities to start occurring, and this moral dilemma is where we’re left at the end of the first issue. The series improved over the years, granted, but it was pretty well perfect to begin with. This was made in 2001 and it astounds me to think that people who love comics (and also have a sense of humor; sadly, they’re not necessarily the same people) might not have heard of this by now… which is why I’m bringing it up again.

Life Meter edited by Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I'm guessing that most people reading this are between 20 and 45, and if that's the case most of you have played video games on a fairly regular basis at some point in your life. If you're male you almost certainly grew up with them. Yes, that may be a sweeping generalization, I'm just speaking of all the male friends I have. This book is a collection of short pieces about video games, so that long winded intro was to tell those of you who have never played video games that you will be utterly lost reading this comic. It even dealt with any concerns I've had about anthologies, as all the pages are numbered, there's a table of contents and it even lists the video games on which these pieces are based. Hey, I'm practically an expert on old video games and even I needed the occasional hint. Stories in here include a day in the life ofFrogger (by Dan Abdo), Debbie Huey's take on the obsession of Toad from the Mario games, Faith Erin Hicks has a continuing series about a horny fangirl who is hiding out from zombies, Dave Roman shows us what's inside the Moto Bug (in one of those pieces that flew right over my head), Jamie Dee Galey shows us the dangers of shaking trees, Phil McAndrew has a piece on Pac-Man commiseration, and Lea Hernandez tells us all about Mickey's ghetto booty from Kingdom Hearts II. There are also full page (or half page) comics about various assorted video gamesthat'll be better left as a surprise, but I have to mention the highlight of the comic: Jacob Chabot's piece on Burger Time. I don't think you even need to have played the game to love this strip, as we are treated to an origin story of the chef from Burger Time and shown that a man with a spatula and a salt shaker can, in fact, be a bad ass. If you don't have some love in your heart for video games this comic probably won't do a thing for you, but if you do it's hard not to love it.

Astronaut Elementary Book Two by Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Let’s say you’re having a lousy day, and why not? It’s possible, even likely sometimes, depending on your job, social life, the state of the world, all that. I defy anyone to read this collection and still feel lousy. You could flip through these and just read the little blurbs on posters and other items in the backgrounds and be amused, then when you stop to actually read the dialogue, well, your soul would have to be awfully black to not get at least a few dozen chuckles out of this. And sure, it is technically an “all ages” type of book, but unlike a whole bunch of things in that genre, here it doesn’t automatically also mean “stupid to all adults”. Anything but. It’s an introduction to a few more of the students at Astronaut Elementary and their various quests, like destroying a student and the endless harassment by Team Feety Pajamas. We also get to meet the principal and be impressed by his giant sword, watch Spike with his fruitless crushes on the school boys, and see the richest girl in school. All of these things tie together in some ways, or sometimes not, but it’s not really relevant. These are a pure joy to read and I have almost no interest in any sort of a larger story, which is rare for me. Can you tell yet that I’m totally sold on these things now? If you’re a complete cynic, I guess you can skip these, although they may very well cure you. Other than that, there’s no reason in the world not to check them out, and you can get all sorts of free samples on their website if you’re too cheap to actually pay for them…

Astronaut Elementary Book One by Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Collects #1-4 of Astronaut Elementary

Astronaut Elementary #4 by Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Time travel! Violence! A panda for a teacher, and on the day that the heroine wears her panda hat, no less! And, of course, a villain! All these things add up to the plot of #4 of this series, such as it is. Sorry about all the exclamation points, but this series just makes me giddy. The dialogue is very true to anime, or at least the anime I’ve seen, and I love the constant random goings-on. Don’t try to puzzle out the whole space-time continuum problems with there being multiple versions of the same person in here though, your head might explode. Good stuff as always, there are also collections of these issues now up in the online store for those of you who like their Astronaut Elementary in neat little packages…

Astronaut Elementary #3 by Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Everybody out there like anime? If the answer is “no”, you probably shouldn’t bother with this series. If the answer is “yes”, or is you just like ridiculous dialogue and incredibly cute characters, maybe you should give this a chance. These issues all stand alone, and they’re all about different kids going through their days at their school, which just so happens to be in space. This issue has a kid who won’t take his space helmet off, a girl who has a crush on her teacher, a boy who builds a robot, and the kid with the helmet becoming the king of space. The art’s adorable, the stories are a lot of fun (especially if you’ve been raised on anime), it’s just an all around good time.

Astronaut Elementary #2 by Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

If you're going to do an anime series, it's only a matter of time before you get to the part about the smaller robots forming into a giant robot body. Kids, ask your parents (unless they still make Voltron and similar things, I have no idea). This issue is theoretically dedicated to Maribelle Mellonbelly (the richest and most popular girl in school), as she tries to find out more about her newest crush, Hakata Soy. Regular readers of this series will remember Hakata from the last issue, and this time his role as the head of a giant robot is examined in more detail. Another girl tells Maribelle the story of how Hakata (along with his other buddies in robots) saved her village and all of the bunny people inside of it by fighting off an evil group of invading bird people. Once again the dialogue is absolutely perfect, and meant to be said out loud with an exclamation point! If you've never seen anime that won't make a lick of sense, but trust me on this one. If feels like Teen Boat got most of the love on this page, but this series is fantastic, and going back and reading the early issues has helped drive that point home. Get these in their collected editions or get them in the regular issues, but the important thing is to get them. Unless you hate anime, but even then (as I'm not a big fan) there's plenty to like about this series.

Astronaut Elementary #1 by Dave Roman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

The reviews start with #3 for this series? Really? Somebody needs to talk to management about this lack of order around here. Well, this is the first (long overdue) step to correcting that problem. This issue introduces some characters that we all know and love from the rest of the series There's Miyumi San (trying to avoid the attentions of a boy who thinks he's hot stuff with any male who's in the vicinity), Hakata Soy (getting used to school while dreaming of his true calling in the head of a giant robot), and Doug Hiro (enjoying the vastness of space). Miyumi is the star of this issue, as she also gets another story dealing with her dinosaur driving lessons and her race against the jerky rich girl. All of this is told in the style of an anime cartoon, of course, so the dialogue is hilarious, exclamations are common and nothing outrageous is ever seen an anything but completely normal. That dialogue really deserves all the praise I can give it, as you can say damned near anything in this out loud and chuckle. For example, when Miyumi is picking out a dinosaur for the race, one dinosaur licks her face. Miyumi says "He he - You must be smart because you knew I'd taste good! That makes us friends!" Is that what makes the panel great, or is her giant thumbs up sign, her anime eyes of that huge grin? Maybe it's all the things put together, which is why comics are so great. I'm sticking with that theory.

Two Stoopid Stories by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

With a title like that, how much can you possibly criticize this? He’s right, these are two stupid stories. The first is a hazy, indistinct tale of two creatures in the clouds having a brief conversation. Yeah, there’s a bit more to it, but why ruin it? The second story is about a caterpillar and a robot wandering around until the caterpillar eats something it shouldn’t, causing a creature that intensely desires meat to pop out and grow some teats of its own. Yes, it really does make just as much sense as it seems. Luckily, Barry nailed down the ability to tell stories that make little or no sense and keep them funny years ago, so I’d have to say that this is another success. Maybe I don’t like it as much as some of his other books, but from what I’ve been able to tell so far you really can’t go wrong with any of his stuff.

Two Blobs Waiting for the Bus by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You might be able to assume, from that title, that this is nothing more than an easy-to-draw exercise which puts another book from Barry on the “shelf” with little to no effort. And, you know, you may be right .I don’t know how much effort he puts into each individual issue, and it’s certainly not like this is the most intricate thing in the world, but who cares? It’s a funny comic, and the world could always use a few more of those. This is about two blobs, as you might have guessed, waiting at a bus stop. One blob is his way to the circus, the other is waiting to get to work, where he is very good at collating. Tragedy strikes, and there’s a surprise twist ending, so don’t miss it! I may be lying or I may not. This is, um, let’s say $3, contact info is all over the page, and I’m liking his stuff more and more every time I see it. Read his stuff and be amazed!

Taken by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Here’s a wordless four part story from Barry about worship and mass hysteria. At least a little bit, anyway. There’s a little man who takes it upon himself to throw away the local item of worship, and the rest of the series is spent with said little man trying to “talk” sense into the locals and the locals trying to agree on something else to worship. I liked this one a whole bunch, even if it did only take me a few minutes to read. Hey, that’s just the nature of the wordless comic beast. In case you can’t tell what’s going on (it’s hard to pick just one sample from any wordless comic), in the sample the locals have just discovered that their sacred item is gone and they know who took it. Good stuff all around. Check it out!

The Sidewalk by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

There’s this one episode of Samurai Jack where Jack is walking along a high, rickety bridge that take him days to cross, but there’s only room for one person at a time. Along the way he meets a large man playing bagpipes, and one of them has to get out of the way for the other one to pass. Well, neither one of them wants to give ground, so an epic battle ensues. That pretty well describes this comic, except for the “epic battle” part. Two creatures are walking along a moving sidewalk and there’s not room for them to pass each other. They try a number of things to get around each other, and that’s mostly the comic. I think Barry is a visual genius, or pretty close to it, and I love the fact that his artistic style is simple enough that he can crank out the comics. That and the fact that he’s smart enough to keep coming up with entertaining stories goes a long way. See, non-prolific people? See how easy it is? OK, maybe not really.

Quondam by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

No way! No way in hell can I break this down into any kind of logical sense. Usually there’s at least something from the real world for his books to ground me, ever so slightly, in reality. That’s not the case here at all. Still, this is why they pay me the big bucks, so let me try to make some sense of this. There are these two, um, creatures, you see, and they meet each other and become instant “friends”. I put that in quotes for a reason, but let me build up to it, OK? On their travels they meet another odd creature who seems to want to start a fight, so an epic struggle ensues. The two original monsters get a bit mixed up, forming a giant superbeast… oh screw it, I don’t want to give away the ending, even if it does imply that the original two monsters were a bit more than friends. This is all assuming that I was right to begin with in my interpretation of the story, which might be hoping for a bit much. There aren’t many people who entertain me more these days than Barry Rodges because I have absolutely no idea what to expect from him, he has yet to disappoint, and he seems to crank these things out. This is $4, which is a bit steep (except it’s all in color), so do me a favor: if you’re curious about the guy, I have plenty of books that are only $1 or $2 in my online store, so check out a couple of the cheapies. Then, once you get what it is I see in the guy, maybe you’ll want to spend a bit more cash. That’s my theory anyway, but it’s a free country, so do what you’d like.

Debacle set of #1-6 by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Debacle #6 by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Just sat down to write this review when I realized that I didn’t remember much about the comic. No bad impression, no good impression, just indifference. No drugs involved either, I guess it just didn’t do much for me one way or another. It’s a short book and the main story in here is the character on the cover trying to find some pancakes. Not much there, although I did like the art. The rest of the book is mostly a series of one page strips about such topics as incorrectly wearing bunny ears, black people as wacky comedy foils, cereal (it made no sense at all, seriously), and some pick-up lines. The parts that did the most for me were the surreal pages, like the one with a mirror and fire hydrant having a conversation, or the one with a wildly writhing man getting attacked by bees. A lot of the comedy stuff looks like it was taken from the Sam Henderson school of drawing, which is fine, but he left the funny out in most cases. This is probably $2 or $3 (what is it with nobody putting a price on their books these days?), and kudos to him for at least doing six issues of a series. He has some work to do sure, but there is potential here.

Debacle #5 by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

I think this may be the first thing I've seen from Barry that was just plain bad. Don't get me wrong, it still had a moment or two, but this is the first issue of the Debacle pile that I wouldn't recommend getting all by itself. As part of the 6 issue set, well, fine. There's one big story this issue that wanders all over the place. A young man is bored, so he's given robot seeds. His seeds, however, are defective, as the robot that springs up sees hats everywhere. The lack of actual hats causes an explosion, which leads to a fight, which leads to more wandering around. The story, meandering though it may be, wasn't the problem. The art was terrible. Barry does occasionally walk the minimalist line, but this time around it looked for the entire issue like he was rushing to get someplace he'd rather be. Good chunks of the text still had pencil outlines underneath them, there's never much of a background besides clouds, and the linework on damned near everything looked like he did this while riding a very bumpy train. The recurring joke still almost makes this worth a look but, like I said, as part of the set. Get this all by itself and you'll probably be disappointed.

Debacle #4 by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Just picked one of these randomly to review (as Barry sent me all six issues to sell on the site), but I liked this one. Three stories here. The first is about a very, vary random story about a flying horse named Happy Horse Waxy. He flies around, captures a mouse, and… well, I don’t want to give away the ending or anything, not like it made any logical sense that I could see. Then you have the story I sampled, so no more needs to be said of that, assuming you can read the sample (how’s that new scanner working out for you guys anyway? Better or worse than the old one? Let me know!). Finally you have a story about a man who gets a robot that can do literally anything he asks it to do. Interesting story, my only problem was that there were way too many panels at times (the cover is the exact size of the comic, in case you were wondering). It added to the chaos of the story, sure, but it’s too tiny of a book for that many panels, unless you’re Shane Simmons or something. Obscure comics reference! Hah! Oh, at least I amuse myself. Contact info is down there, these books are pretty random but they also have a lot of different stories in them, and Barry isn’t afraid at all to radically change his artistic style throughout the series. Worth a look, especially with the cheap price…

Debacle #3 by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Of all the six issues of Debacle, this one most closely lives up to the title. What I'm trying to say is that it's a mess. Fine, it being a Barry Rodges work and all, there are some good points. Those would be Nonpedal (a short story about kids making fun of a boy with stumps for feet) and the strip about how great winter is because everybody wears socks. Fonetik Funnees, however, has officially worn me down. The strip about the three-eyed boy with a stick for a body being abducted by aliens was mildly intriguing, but Barry got tired of it towards the end and stopped it abruptly. Ditto for the story about the man who wakes up as a bunny rabbit and has to challenge Death to a game to become human. The rest of it was just sort of present, not doing much for me one way or the other. It has to be pointed out that feel more than a little bit ridiculous for criticizing the man for work that is 8 years old when he's done far better comics since, but hey, as they're still available to buy, I do have an obligation to be honest about it, right? There's plenty of other stuff on this page that is well worth your time, including other issues of this series, and this issue isn't bad enough to "ruin" your purchase of the whole set. I just wouldn't pick it up all by itself and hope to get an accurate representation of what this man is capable of.

Debacle #2 by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It’s been “time capsule” month around the old Sloth, as I’m killing time until SPACE by filling in holes in the online store. It turns out that this has been a good thing, as there are plenty more holes than I thought when I started all this. Barry sent this collection of books along probably in 2005 (it’s 2009 now, future readers), and I only managed to review two books in this series? Shameful. There are three comics in this one, and two of them, if I were a lazier man, could be summed up with “I don’t get it”. First up is Pencil & Me, the story of a pencil and an, um, round-headed thing, as they decide to dress up and pretend to be beating each other up in various places. They do this until a bystander gets the drop on them and teaches them a valuable lesson. I’m telling the whole story here (or at least most of it) because things breaks down a bit after that. Fonetik Funnees is just what it sounds like, a strip told phonetically, and I hate to admit this but I JUST got the punchline as I looked at it again. OK, it’s funny, and it was amusing to see everything spelled out phonetically for a one page strip. Any longer than that and I probably would have gotten a headache. Last up is Gunter and Tad, as we follow two creatures shopping and using what seems like random words in odd places to carry their conversation. I like to think I know a variety of big words, but Barry stumped me on this one. I’m probably just missing this point, and that certainly wouldn’t be the first time. So all in all this issue is just OK. Lucky for Barry and the rest of the comics reading world that he got significantly better after this, as you can tell from checking out reviews for his other, more recent work. This whole series is still worth checking out if you like his stuff, but if you just need an introduction you might want to start further down the page and work your way up.

Debacle #1 by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

It's way past time that I finish filling in the holes on this page, so #1 finally gets a review. Yes, I am aware that I'm the only person who even notices these sorts of things. This issue is, as you might have imagined, pretty raw. You can see some of Barry's unique skills, but he clearly hadn't put it all together yet. First up is a conversation between two armless things, but if I say anything about it I ruin the punchline. Which makes no sense, but hey, I'm firmly against ruining things whenever possible. Next up is floss, a story about two lonely musicians and what they can do when they get together. From here it gets downright autobiographical, as Barry describes a man who always makes fun of his (Barry's) beard and then has the sampled strip about Renee French. A bit dated at this point, but he's probably still right. Finally there's a short two page strip with a very large head and a very tiny gun, of which I will say no more. Like I've said, his best stuff is yet to come at this stage, but there are still enough nuggets in these minis to make them worth checking out.

Beak by Barry Rodges

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Visually, I think the only way you could describe this would be as all out war against words of any kind. The sample will show you a little bit of what I mean. The concept is simple: one of the creatures involved here gets a shiny new beak but refuses to say where it got it. The comic is spent with the other creatures trying to convince said beaked creature to give up the secret. In the meantime, word balloons are smashed without thought or mercy, just for the sake of conveying a sense of mayhem. A quick read, but good stuff nonetheless.

Plastic Farm #9 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

My pledge to you guys: when #10 comes out I’m going to sit down, read all these in a row, and tell you honestly what I got out of it. There’s a whole lot of stuff going on here and I feel like I’m losing the thread a bit just reading them when they come out every few months. Maybe I’m assuming that Rafer has his universe together more than he really has and maybe I’m not giving him enough credit already. Hey, I guess that’s kind of like a “tease”, huh? This one is about Ralph Baker, who has been going by the name of Raoul since he was experimented on for money and left a trail of debts (and damage) in his wake. What does this have to do with everything else? Well, as always, we’ll have to wait and see. The backup story is The Continuing Adventures of Fat Man and Little Boy (by Scott Christian Carr & Jeff Westover) is a post-apocalyptic tale, too short to really get much out of, but the art was too smudgy to see what was going on whenever the characters weren’t standing perfectly still anyway. To be fair, like I said, this was only a few pages long and it might be the kind of thing that grows on you after a dozen pages or so. Contact info is up there, I still think this is well worth the effort to try and figure out what’s going on here and where exactly this story is headed…

Plastic Farm #8 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Who out there has been reading this series, waiting patiently for at least some answers to what exactly has been going on here? Well, you get some answers here which, as is usually the case with the great series, also opens up some more questions. The vast majority of this one is the Kamikaze Kid talking about the state of things, how they might have gotten there and what might be done about it. Look, the man (Rafer, that is) is obviously building a universe here, and these things take time. This issue wouldn’t mean much of anything if you hadn’t read the other issues (other than to convince you that he was talking about the last few years worth of GW, or maybe I see that in everything these days), but it’s huge if you have. Contact info is up there, this is still $2.95 and I haven’t been this excited about a continuing, story-based series in quite some time, if that means anything to you…

Plastic Farm #7 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

What the hell? Sorry, I know that these are only connected in the loosest of terms at this point, and obviously it’s all going to make sense when it’s done, but what the hell does this issue have to do with anything else? I know, I know, it’s probably just setting up characters who’ll play a major (or minor) role later on and it’s best to have patience. That’s not much of a problem because the next issue has one of the more interesting characters, The Kamikaze Kid, featured pretty heavily. Still, one of these days Rafer is going to have to start tying some of these threads together, at least loosely, or I’m afraid he’s going to start losing people. It’s an admirable thing he’s doing here, setting everything up deliberately and carefully, I just hope he’s not overestimating the patience of his audience. Not me, though, I’m pretty well hooked, barring some serious drop in quality. Oh yeah, the actual comic. I’m supposed to be talking about that. Well, there are two stories in here. The first one is about a man who can turn his belly button from an innie to an outie at will and his subsequent rise to fame and the inevitable crash. The second story is about a paid assassin who gets a little too close to her target and her problems with the whole thing. I’d tell you more about how they relate to the rest of the larger story, but I honestly have no idea. Both entertaining stories in their own right though, with Jake Warrenfeltz pitching in on the first story and Rafer writing and drawing the second. This issue will probably make sense later, but it’s tough to recommend this story on an issue by issue basis. If you want to dig in (and you should, it’s a fascinating story in a lot of ways so far) you’re better off buying issues in chunks than one at a time.

Plastic Farm #6 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Well, here’s the end of my pile of Plastic Farms. Does it make any more sense at #6 than it did at #1? Well, in my traditional wishy-washy way, I have to say “sort of”. Not that #6 is a magic number in any way, and he never said that things would be making sense at this point, this was just the number of comics that he sent me. This one is all about Chester, sitting in a bar and telling the story of his life. It’s actually fairly average stuff, at least for most of the issue: Chester getting adopted, growing up with a normal family, learning about baseball from his foster Dad, and trying to get a girlfriend. Of course, things start getting all kinds of bizarre by the end of the issue, which only serves to get me hooked even more. I think this is a really remarkable series and I think there’s a good chance this guy (Rafer, that is) is going places in comics, especially if he can keep up this pace. This is $2.95, contact info is up there and, while I might advise you to wait for the graphic novel if you want this to make any sense at all, this is really something that everybody should take a look at.

Plastic Farm #5 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

For some reason I haven’t been keeping track of the artist for these issues, as Rafer only drew #1 and 2 (according to his website). Oops. I’ll dig up the rest of them soon. I mention this because, really for the first time in the series, some of the art was noticeably bad. I don’t know if it was rushed or if it’s just really tough to draw a rapidly changing party scene with people dancing and causing a ruckus, but those first 6 pages or so were tough to look at. After that it was fine, but that party scene was something else. Anyway, this issue still has nothing to do with anything else, at least not yet. It was titled “Sean”, so I’m guessing she’s the character to keep an eye on. Sean and a couple of friends crash a party, literally, and cause some havoc. The rest of the issue is calmer, dealing with Sean and her boyfriend, who is leaving as Sean sticks around for a year or so to get her degree. The backup story was an illustrated poem by Matt Dembicki called Witch’s Tongue, which had the benefits of looking great and being more than a little bit creepy. All in all this was the weakest issue of the bunch, mostly due to that crappy stretch of art and a disjointed story, but the disjointed story is one of the good things about this comic. What can I say, I’m taking them as they come. Maybe this’ll turn out to be a crucial issue later, but I’d say pick up pretty much any one of the other issues for a better example of what this series is capable of.

Plastic Farm #4 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Another great, if completely unconnected, issue of Plastic Farm. This one is all about two people, Jack and Emily, who meet in school and fall in love. They’re both pilots and one of them goes missing after flying during a hurricane, and I’m already telling you more about this than you need to know, and I’m also making it seem like an absolute bore. Well, it’s not, it’s just a straightforward story without many bells and whistles, and there isn’t much I can say about it without giving too much away. If you like his other issues, and you already know that the man has a gift for realistic dialogue and social situations, then you know it’s worth a shot. As for the main underlying story that’s supposedly going on here, he mentions what’s coming in the next few issues, and it involves actual recurring characters, so I think we’re getting somewhere. The backup story is from Dennis Culver and is called Astrozombies, which is about, of all things, zombies in outer space. A good few pages of mayhem, which is never really a bad thing.

Plastic Farm #3 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Well, this series has officially stopped making sense. Rafer mentions in his intro that this issue has little to do with the previous issues, at least right now, but for us to trust him because he knows what he’s doing. OK, I’ll trust him. After all, I still have three issues sitting here, so I can verify that he knows what he’s doing by what happens next. If it’s still a mess by the end of #6, watch out! Because, um, consequences will be dire! Anyway, this one has two unrelated chapters to keep us busy. In the first one we have two skinny people who are reluctantly eating their dog. They seem to have a working truck, so why they’re eating their dog is a complete mystery. They’re called on by a local commune to help with an injured member, and that’s the chapter. Then you have a drug deal of some kind going down involving a couple of detectives and a big crime figure. That’s it for the main story. I have no idea at all where he’s going with this, but he showed me with the first two issues that he can spin a compelling (and confusing) yarn, so I’ll stick around for a bit. The back-up story is by Sean Frost and Wendi Strang-Frost, and it might make even less sense than the rest of the book. All in all, easily the most confusing book of the series yet. Buy it today!

Plastic Farm #2 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This issue is a lot more focused than the last one, as it’s all about Chester sitting in a bar and telling his life story to the bartender. Well, part of his life story, anyway. It goes from his being left on a church doorstep as a baby to life in a home for disturbed boys right up to the point that he gets some advice about attempting an escape. In other words, great stuff for a second issue, because now I can’t wait to see what happens next. Rafer also mentioned something at the start of this of only having 48 issues left to go, so here’s hoping that he has a plan, and the ability to finish, a 50 issue run. The back-up story, called Progressions (by Jeff Coleman & Stephen Greenwood-Hyde), is a rollicking kung-fu romp involving cheesy dialogue, many killings and close-ups of feet. If you think that’s a terrible idea, shame on you. Maybe for a huge series or something, but for 8 pages it’s wonderful. Anyway, as I may have mentioned, I have no idea where the main story is going here… and I couldn’t care less. As long as it’s good to read issue by issue I’m willing to wait for some serious cohesion.

Plastic Farm #1 by Rafer Roberts

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

When something reminds me of Eddie Campbell in any way, it’s a good thing. I’m not sure if it’s the lettering or the way that the Kamikaze Kid reminds me of the Eyeball Kid. Only slightly so far, as this is the first issue, but it’s there. What’s this series about? Well, a man named “Cheez” wakes up in a pile of his own vomit with no idea what happened to him the night before or how he got there. Most the rest of the issue is about the Kamikaze Kid, with a tiny, tiny segue to get there. Then there’s the ending, which doesn’t make any sense at all right now, but it’s setting up for future issues so that’s OK. Overall, well, I loved this. The story had me constantly wondering what was going to happen next, the dialogue was smart and believable (which, considering some of the settings, was pretty impressive), and any artist that can draw a harpoon gun that well is wonderful in my book. Then there’s a short story by Sean Duffey & Jake Warrenfeltz about explorers in the future trying to find a new planet for resources. It was pretty good and I love the idea of having backup stories from different artists in each issue. Remember when Dave Sim used to do that? Ah, good Cerebus memories. Here’s a website, they sent me the next five issues too, so there should be plenty of time in the coming weeks to see where all this is going, and whether or not it’s worth going there. So far I’m intrigued…

Sucker Punch #1 by Mark Jason Robards

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Oh yeah, comics can be funny. Way too many minis seem to take everything seriously (sometimes for good reason, sometimes out of a bit of the old pretentiousness), so three cheers for anything that wants to make people laugh a little bit. This one isn’t all gags; far from it. It’s the story of a cast of characters, all 20-somethings: an “aspiring” writer, his female friend, her slutty roommate, a token indie rocker guy and an asshole friend. Oh, and the title of the ongoing story throughout is “Today is the day I wish they would hold a parade in my name”, which is a thing of beauty all by itself. The female lead, Frieda, takes great joy in smacking somebody back to reality when there’s any danger of things getting heavy or profound, which just makes me smile after reading so many comics that really and truly want to tell me something. It’s nice to read something occasionally that just is what it is. Oh, and the writing and art are both terrific, which makes exactly zero things I have a problem with here.

Chloe by Hans Rickheit

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Words fail me. Seriously, I usually try to take a comic, break it down without giving too much away (because why should I ruin it for anybody else), and let people make up their own minds, but this needs to be seen to be believed. Unless you’re easily offended, or nauseated, then you should probably avoid this at all costs. It’s the story, I guess, of Chloe, a disaffected teenager who finds a mysterious dwarf in the forest while looking for her lost dog. Said dwarf is a follower of the Underbrain, something that is only vaguely defined for most of the story, until it comes into crystal detail later. Somewhere in all this there’s also the normalcy of the high school, her father and various other people who try to help her (or at least communicate with her), but the heart of the story is the cabin in the woods, the dwarf, his cats and all the horrible things he’s growing outside and inside. Reading this was a bit like watching insects crawling around inside of a dead thing for about 20 minutes, but in a good way, or at least in a “I can’t look away” kind of way. If you’ve ever wondered about the potential of the medium and what it can be capable of when somebody lets every dark corner of their brain shine for all the world to see, this is as close as it gets to required reading.

Jorge the Robot #6 by Matt Rhodes

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This one seems a bit smaller than the last one, but that could be just because I’m not remembering it right. In this issue Jorge wins a trip to the Super Bowl, and hijinx ensue! Sorry, it’s too small for me to say any more. I hate to keep repeating myself, but you guys do know that Matt is 13, right? Maybe if enough of you buy his comic he’ll think that he can make money doing comics and drop out of school. Then he’ll be rich! OK, maybe not, but you should still check out his book. It’s fun, and it’s punk comics! Remember when you were all young enough to still call yourselves punks without seeming silly or just plain sad?

Smaller Parts by Grant Reynolds

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Here it is! The perfect chance for you to see a whole bunch of Grant Reynolds all in one bundle. In case you thought the other minis were too small, that is. If you thought they were too expensive at a buck, well, there’s probably something wrong with you. Anyway, lots to get to here. There’s the circle on life (if your circle involves a rabbit, a wolf and a gun), a poem about monotony and despair, a couple of shorties about returning to the womb, one about missing children and a failure to hold onto important things, and a couple of pieces that appeared in Animal Wrangler, up yonder. That sentence contained more nonsensical interpretation of the meaning of stories then I usually write in a week, which is exactly why I don’t usually write that way. Overall, this book made me want to pull the covers up over my head and just think for a while. Not altogether in a good way, but in this world, who can argue with something that inspires thought?

Snowglobe by Grant Reynolds

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Remember that fire in Rhode Island last year when all those Great White fans died? Well, this comic is tangentially about that, as well as the wrath of god. Or God, or GOD, depending on your beliefs and/or terror. This is another short book, but it looks incredible and it’s a perspective of the the whole thing that I honestly hadn’t thought about, which is always a good thing. Whatever happened with that, anyway? Did anybody ever go to jail for that? Just curious. Anyway, contact info is up there, this is a bit tiny for $2 but it’s a good read.

Mover User 2/Oh Goodness by Grant Reynolds

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

That’s right, two minis stuck together with one of those high tech pieces of tape. What a bargain! The first part of this, Mover User 2, is an old John Lee Hooker song about moving to L.A., breaking up after getting there, being forced to sleep on floors and trying to get through it in one piece. It must be an incredibly powerful song because it really hits you when you just sit down and have it presented as a story like this. Great stuff all by itself, but then you also have Oh, Goodness, one of those random minis that’s mostly about Grant and his girlfriend Kristy. It’s only about six pages long so I don’t want to give anything away, but he deals with horniness, vaginas, sleeping and snuggling. Huh, that makes it sound a lot more erotic than it actually was. Oh well, there are worse things in the world. All in all a pretty solid package.

King Cat #68 by John Porcellino

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

First off, my condolences to John after the death of his cat (which anybody who has read this book at all has seen countless times over the years), Maisie Kukoc. Speaking as somebody who has a cat on his lap at the moment, it’s hard to overstate just how awful it is to have a loved pet die, especially one as obviously thoroughly loved as Maisie was. The comic itself is all about being in a time of transition, as John moves back to Denver with his wife and cat. There are random observances from the road, stories of Diogenes, bits about the importance of an anthill and a quiet moment with his cat, along with the usual “top 40″ and other text pieces. The possible highlight of the book (in a series where it’s almost impossible to pick out highlights) was the showdown between two squirrels on a power wire, something I won’t spoil for everybody who is obviously going to go out and pick this up and the first available opportunity anyway. And again, sorry about your loss, John. I’d like to tell you that things will get better, and they will, gradually, but with this coming on the heels of a general sense of giving up on this insane world, well…

King Cat #67 by John Porcellino

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

How on earth did I miss a King Cat? For those of you who read these reviews sequentially (i.e. every person who clicks on John's name, I imagine), I somehow didn't read this one, even though it was actually sitting in a box, in my room with all the other comics available for sale, for a couple of years. Seeing as how I almost certainly wouldn't have this website and/or still be reading comics if it wasn't for John, that's baffling. But enough about me, how about the comic? Go ahead and scroll around the page if you want, there will probably be no shock here: I loved it. It's odd reading these things out of order, as by #69 John seems to be in a much happier place, but things were much different in the dark days of #67. A few of the stories are just John lying in bed, obviously unable to sleep, worrying about various aspects of his life or life in general. He's also clearly in some pain from what appears to be stomach surgery of some kind, but is unwilling to really complain about it. Ah, that good old "heartland" stoicism. Stories in here include sleeping in the car in L.A. with his cat (after the hotel wouldn't allow pets), getting advice from teaboxes, Maisie's eyes, a tale of courting his wife from back in the old days, and, as he couldn't leave it on such a depressing note, the story of a walk that left him with a strong sense of hope. There's also a fantastic text piece about Square-Head John, and you can guess what stories would come from such a name but I'm not going to spoil a thing. Highly recommended, as always, and only crazy people aren't already reading this book religiously. Are you a crazy person?

King Cat #66 by John Porcellino

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

The machine that is King Cat just keeps rolling along, as this one deals mostly with John’s time in Elgin a few years back. John spends a quiet afternoon raking the yard (or a quiet few minutes raking the yard, after that all the neighborhood kids come over to help out), then follows that up with a game of touch football, minus the Hollywood ending. The other big story in here is a mostly silent piece with John taking a long drive out to a mound of gravel, with the trademark King Cat appreciation of all the silent moments in life. Other than that, this seemed like an unusually quick read, and I figured out why that is: no top 40 list. It just feels wrong. There’s a heartbreaking letter about a neighborhood friend getting sick, but other than that it’s a remarkably quick read. It’s still King Cat so you’ll still love it though, so don’t fret too much…

King Cat #65 by John Porcellino

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Having a crappy day/week/life? Pick up an issue of this and just try and stay depressed. Not that it’s ever a collection of “rah rah” type life affirmation, but it’s impossible to stay sad with John’s quiet stories about wandering and searching for something in this world. This issue is a collection of places. Elgin (where John still feels at home), a band trip years ago to Iowa, DeKalb in the early 90’s, a trip to a state park in Kansas, and country roads in Denver. Also included, of course, is his “Top 40″ list (it’s been a while since I’ve seen it actually at 40) and his text pieces, if possible, are even more beautiful than his drawn stories. Hey, if you read any other part of this page it shouldn’t come as a shock that I love his stuff. This is just another exceptionally great issue from the series that makes it impossible for me to give up hope in the potential of this medium. Not that I’m trying to put any pressure on the guy or anything…

King Cat #64 by John Porcellino

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This issue came out soon after John’s Dad died, so this is filled with memories of his father and comics about the days immediately after he died. Naturally, it’s somber as can be and it makes you realize that if you have any relatives at all that you like you should probably give them a call every now and then. John was incredibly close to his father and this whole thing reads like his heart has been crushed, which I guess it has. It’s not possible to do much of a review on something like this, so all I can say is that it’s still King Cat, and if you love the other issues you’ll love this one too, but it’ll also break your heart to read it.

King Cat #62 by John Porcellino

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

#62! Now that’s a number all the small press folks in the world should try to reach. In my humble opinion, of course. This issue has a text piece about his move (he’s in San Francisco now), a comic about kites, one about getting out of bed, a zen story about a twisted nose that I still don’t get (I’m a bit slow at things like that sometimes, I’m sure it’ll hit me at 3 in the morning or so), his always essential “Top Forty”, hijinx with a beard that I can relate to, and a quiet, lovely tale about eating at work. And a few odds and ends, sure, but I don’t think this title is something that I have to “sell” you on, so pick it up and discover the rest of the stuff out for yourself. Also, if anybody out there has a million dollars laying around, please send it to him so he can quit his job and do comics all the time. Contact info is up there, buy some of his comics if you’re looking for a peaceful thing in your life.

Tear-Stained Makeup #6 by Marcos Perez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

My saying nice things about everything on this page might be getting old for people, and I apologize if that’s the case. But what’s the alternative? I can lie and say that this one sucked, even though Marcos managed to include everybody in the larger plot (which is saying a lot) and flesh out all of them in this mini, even if only a little bit. I could point to the lack of a recap at the start of the book, but he’s fixed that, putting a concise and informative recap right up front. Or I could bitch about the crappy artwork, which in fact started off fine and has been getting stronger with each passing issue (even if the occasional background do vanish). Sorry folks, this is just a really great comic series, and Marcos (so far at least) can do no wrong. In this issue Stella finally gets her act together to go and see Laura, Tildy gets a makeover, Robert gets a guitar, and just about every little character you’ve seen in previous issues pops in for a panel or two. Oh, and Marcos goes into detail in the end about various panels and pages where he had issues, so it’s even useful as an instruction manual on how to make mini comics, for those of you who think this all looks so easy.

Tear-Stained Makeup #5 by Marcos Perez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

Hey, more flashbacks! A necessary step, as far as I’m concerned, into figuring out what these people are all about. This one deals with the “origin story”, more or less, of Tildy, as well as a bit more of the history of Dee. Marcos has also decided to go with this smaller format (16 pages) in the hopes of getting these out on a more regular basis, which sounds great to me. The cover is also a shimmery silverish sort of thing, impossible for the scanner to pick up but pretty neat when it’s in your hands, if you go for that sort of thing. One minor complaint: for those of us with lousy memories (i.e. me),a handy “previously on” is never a bad idea to sum things up. I love this series and some of the minor details were still lost on me. All in all, it’s another solid contribution to the ongoing storyline, with the promise for more to come on a regular basis, so what’s bad about that?

Tear-Stained Makeup #4 by Marcos Perez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

This may be as big as the last three issues put together. So if you’ve been reading these and wondering why certain characters were getting less attention than you may have liked, everybody gets dealt with here. And if you haven’t been wondering because you haven’t been reading this, might I ask what exactly you have against comics? How many really great character driven fictional comics are there out there to choose from at the moment anyway? The story in this one deals with Tildy and her afterglow, Dr. Wilson and his unhealthy obsession, Laura Dee and finding a reason to live, Eddie and his crush on Tildy, Aurora (Tildy’s friend) and her nudity, and more side characters than you can shake that proverbial stick at that you keep around to shake at things. Marcos had a great idea to put out this giant issue, as all sorts of the background people are actual characters now and not just walk-on lines. There was even an incredibly odd bit from 1903, although I have no earthly idea how that fits into the big picture. If you like this series you probably already have this issue, but if you’ve been waiting until there’s more available to dig in, well, you got your wish. Great stuff again.

Tear-Stained Makeup #3 by Marcos Perez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

What ever happened to that woman who tried to kill herself in the first issue anyway? Or how about the doctor who is trying so hard to save her, what’s his story? Don’t worry your pretty little heads about these things a moment longer, as they’re answered here! Well, mostly. Sort of. OK, he at least starts to talk about them. Also, you get to see what a scumbag that singer from the last issue is, but now I fear I may have said too much. Another great issue, all around, with more questions than answers, but still more than a few answers, which is why you keep coming back in a regular series, right? Something about the art wasn’t as crisp in this one either. I don’t know if it was rushed, bad equipment or what, but it looked like it. Which isn’t to say it was awful, as the man has a serious talent with the whole drawing end of things, just that I’ve seen his stuff look better. A blip on the radar once the big collected book comes out with the first ten issues or so, whenever that happens, and it better happen, because I find myself already invested in these characters.

Tear-Stained Makeup #2 by Marcos Perez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

OK, now I’m completely won over. Objectivity has left the building until he does a really crappy comic and loses me. Just a little warning in case you heart negative reviews or something. This one is all about Tildy, the librarian from the short story in the last issue, and the person who’s easily the most intriguing story so far, even if the other character did throw herself in front of a taxi. This is mostly a “day in the life” story, following her trip on the subway to what was meant to be a quiet night at home (after she hears the news about Laura Dee and the taxi). Of course, if that’s all there was it wouldn’t be much of a comic, but why ruin more than that? So far these are great, and most of the fun of reading great comics is that you get to discover things for yourself. So there!

Tear-Stained Makeup #1 by Marcos Perez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

You know, if you’re that capable of being (to use a cliche) laugh out loud funny when making the comics, there should be some sort of law saying that you’re not allowed to be able to create an insightful series that isn’t meant to be funny. Just too much pressure on the rest of the folks who are perfectly capable of doing one or the other but not both. OK, maybe it’s too early to say that, as this is just one issue, but it’s one great issue. It looks like this is going to be a continuing group of characters and, as Marcos says that it still has a long way to go, these could be considered background info for the rest of the series. This one deals with a young woman who tries to kill herself when her bandmate (couldn’t tell if he was a current boyfriend) leaves town, another young woman who reads to local kids and has a tough time dealing with an ex-roommate, and a doctor who goes to help the girl who attempts suicide. Great dialogue, really solid and expressive art, once again I have to say that there’s not much for me to complain about here. Well worth a look…

Carl's Large Story!!! #1 by Marcos Perez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:15 +0000

What’s left to be said to convince people that Carl is the awesome? This issue is the start of “Carl’s biggest story to date”, which could mean just about anything, as this issue alone is already Carl’s biggest story to date. I’m hoping that it means an eventual Carl graphic novel, but I’m hopelessly optimistic about things like that. If you’re a big fan of the one panel delights of the first volume of Carl's, you may be briefly sad, at least until you read the first page of the book (the one I sampled down there). It tells the origin of Carl, and the rest of the book deals with his formative years starting his own band and helping out his best friend with his hip-hop project. Eventually they use some of their new money to open Carl + Bill’$ Awesome! Cool! Kidz Home!!, definitely the best name for an orphanage I’ve ever heard. This causes some other problems, which leads Carl to run for mayor… and how much longer should I go on before there are no surprises left? Look, by now you know the drill with Carl. Either you’re one of the people who laugh out loud several times by reading these, or you’re filled with bitterness and can’t smile at anything. I sympathize, but that just leaves more funny for the rest of us.

Famous Fighters #1 by Matt Smith & Tom Pappalardo

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

God bless Matt and Tom, and I mean that as nothing but completely sincere. So many people who do comics are happiest when it’s one big chaotic fight scene, so they decided to take most of the story out of it and we’re left with one big pile of fights. Which, if you’re feeling particularly cerebral today, might not be your thing, and more power to you. I rarely if ever sample the first page of a book, and that’s all I needed to know I was going to like this one. Barbarian Lord is a character who’s confined to single page stories, usually ending in decapitations, and always ending in a poem. Nothing but fun to be had there, and these are sprinkled throughout the book. There’s a Pong contest between a man and Satan, done entirely in verse. You also have Eclipso (a fat-headed kid who kills flowers), a zombie metal band and an extended kung-fu parody, also hilarious if you’ve seen more than one kung-fu movie in your life. Really, there’s not a single thing here to complain about. Tom (between this and the issue listed above) looks to me to be a giant among comics men, assuming he has more like these last two in him, and Matt was able to do plenty of this issue in verse (which I usually hate) and make it a wonderful thing to behold. Buy it and laugh, as there are few enough things around that’ll allow you to do that without trying to teach you some sort of a message. None of that nonsense here, just an awful lot of decapitations!

Broken Lines Book One by Tom Pappalardo

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Well, this isn’t a comic exactly, and it’s not a short story exactly either. It’s mostly a short story with comical interludes thrown in, but what a story it is. I can’t remember the last time I was this impressed by a story where I had no real idea what’s going on. It starts innocently enough in an all-night diner with a cowboy and a man in a spacesuit eating dinner. Their waitress can’t work up the enthusiasm to be too curious about them, and things proceed slowly for a bit until Maggie ends up having to get a ride home from these two. After they part ways, Maggie meets a group of demons from hell dressed as firemen (firemen make fires and kill people, firefighters are the ones who put them out, you see) before eventually ending up back with Cowboy and Spaceman and their silent friend, Vampire. She joins them on their journey across the country, trying to make enough money to survive along the way, while being chased by… well, we’re not sure what. Nor do we know where they’re going or why they’re going there. None of that matters even a little bit, as an engaging cast of characters (I haven’t even mentioned Myron or the Vampire Hunters because why not leave a few surprises for you?) and a constantly funny dialogue keep things moving even when they’re stuck doing inventory in a grocery store to make a few bucks. Spaceman is possibly a small retarded child judging by his actions, Cowboy is the stereotypical cowboy except with a clumsy streak, and I don’t have the slightest idea what Vampire is yet, except that he seems to have given up drinking blood. What can I say, I was mesmerized and damned sad to see the last page of this book. It’s projected to be the first of four issues, so at least there’s plenty more to go. I can’t recommend this enough for those of you who don’t mind a lot of really wonderful text thrown in with the pretty pictures. Oh, and Thomas did most of the drawing himself, except for a page each by Mister Reusch, Jason Goad and Matt Smith.

Claptrap #1 by Jeremi Onsmith

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Three cheers for Jeremi getting his own book! Yes, I’m biased, so move along if you’re looking for me to bash this. OK, I will say one thing: put out a comic with a continuing story, not a sketchbook! Still, as far as sketchbooks go, this one is pretty good. Lots of one page gag strips, mostly funny, and I’m always happy just to see the range of characters he can throw together. I should also put up the link to Mike Stiehl’s page here, as most of Jeremi’s other work can be seen in Bomb Time For Bonzo. It sounds like he’s getting to work on another mini, so here’s hoping it’s done in time for the next big convention. Still, this book looks great for a buck. I love the detail he puts into faces.

Baka Geta by Jeremi Onsmith & Ryoko Oguchi

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

In case you were wondering, that cover is almost exactly the real size of the comic. Oh, and the title means either “Nonsense” or “Stupid Sandals”. Useful information all over the place today! This is a comic about Jeremi’s first trip to Japan with his girlfriend. It’s basically a collection of images and impressions that he got from the trip, with pages dedicated to the many insane cartoon characters and advertising mascots that are all over the place. I should also mention that Ryoko’s drawings are adorable. Adorable, I tell you! No strictly linear story here, but a nice assemblage of impressions from a fascinating place.

Arrows Bring Comfort by Jeremi Onsmith & John Hankiewicz

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I can’t seem to get John Hankiewicz to link up there, so here you go. Jeremi and John both did half of this book, which is an alphabet book, meaning that it goes through the letters and has a picture for each one. Simple enough, right? I had fun trying to figure out who drew what, until I figured out the very, very simple way that they split up their duties. Did I mention that I’m a doofus? Good. Anyway, good stuff. This gives them both a chance to show off a bit with things that they don’t usually get to draw, which is always good. It’s $2, you can order a copy from the website above, and it also has a fancy blue cover, if you’re in that kind of a mood.

Tomato: A Dream Comic by Kelli Nelson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Well, as you should be able to tell from that scan, this is a dream comic and, as such, might not make much sense in any kind of linear fashion. I think it would have been funnier if she had left out the fact that it’s a dream comic and let people try to figure it out for themselves, but I’m sadistic that way. This is about a young girl who goes to join a school for girls. Whether she’s a teacher or a student isn’t exactly clear, but we do know that she’s younger than the other girls. Anyway, she hears some scandalous stuff at lunch, then is mistakenly thought to have made a racist comment, and I’m on the verge of telling you the entire comic here so I’ll just stop there. Dream comics are always interesting to me because it’s a little peek into the subconscious of the author, however unintentional. It’s a shortie, sure, but it’s a good little book.

Three Questions About Daddy by Kelli Nelson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This is one of those times where a comic is a tactile experience, or at least the cover is. I really wish there was some way for you guys to feel and smell this cover. Scientists, get on it! The cover is made out of leather (or fake leather, I’m no expert) and this will remind plenty of people immediately of childhood and the wallet that your Dad always carried around. Kelli made this comic from the responses of 16 people to 3 questions: How would you describe your father, how would you describe your relationship with your father, and what’s your most outstanding memory of your father. Responses range from relatively flip to gut-wrenchingly honest, both positive and negative. I’ll be the first to admit to being prone to hyperbole with my reviews, but this is a fantastic comic about life, really, that’s not to be missed. Unless, of course, you’re one of those mythical people who has never had a single problem with your father and have no interest in people who have.

The Horrifically Complete Non-Winner by Kelli Nelson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Here it is, the perfect book for anybody who has ever enjoyed a good journal comic. Well, almost anybody, as I guess if you hated Kelli’s work for some reason this wouldn’t be for you, but what’s not to like here? This is the complete (as that cover may suggest) collection of her Non-Winner strip, done from 2001 through 2005. I’d never seen plenty of these, as she did most of these online, and it’s taken me weeks to get through the whole thing, as I’ve been picking it up and reading bits of it at a time. If you’ve ever read a journal comic and thought “what the hell were they thinking with this one?” or “this week’s strip looks like a complete waste of time”, well, Kelli is kind/neurotic enough provide commentary for every single one of these, going into details about her fractured family life and other personal details. At times the quality of the strips aren’t the best, as these were taken from her computer and some of these were designed with color or odd little tricks, but it’s only noticeable on a very few of these. Topics in here include pretty much everything in Kelli’s life for those 5 years: family, married life, video games, comic conventions, dealing with publishers, hating (then eventually loving) Joss Whedon, and just about everything else you could think of. As for the commentary, I thought it would get on my nerves, but it ended up being completely fascinating. She adds all sorts of tidbits to everything, taking full responsibility when the strips sucked (mostly the “throwaway” type strips that she had to do while under deadline for something else) and adding relevant information to everything, including the awkward fact that her family did read her strip although she really, really wished they wouldn’t. For anybody who has ever wondered exactly what goes into making a journal strip, this is the perfect book for you. Hell, even if you aren’t even a little bit curious, you can still just ignore the commentary and enjoy the strips. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable book, and it’s a damned shame that she decided to (temporarily?) give these up.

Non-Winner #3 by Kelli Nelson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

What do you like better out of a mini, one big story or a bunch of tiny, relatively random ones? Well, if it’s the latter, you’re in luck! And if it’s the former, well, expand your horizons a bit! This one is all over the place, and there are no handy little titles to let you know when the story is changing, so pay attention! In here she talks about her main memory of a dead Uncle, getting laid at least in part because of a dream involving Dragonball Z, her immediate reaction to the divorce of her parents, supporting the troops at Lowe’s, and still having regrets for tattling in the sixth grade. Oh, and more insecurity about having all of her good stories come from when she was in grade school and how her best years are behind her. I liked this one too, although probably not as much as the other two, if that means anything to you.

Non-Winner #2 by Kelli Nelson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Has everybody out there read Happy #2 by Josh Simmons? If not, you may be a bit lost on this one. In it, Josh has an extended rant about the state of autobiographical comics, from the quality of the art to the depth of the stories, to everything about them, really. I’d say check it out for yourself, even if you don’t agree with it there’s still the rest of an issue by Josh Simmons to enjoy. Anyway, this is mostly Kelli’s response to that rant, with all of her insecurities and fears about her own self-worth taking over. After that is a short story about the best response that I’ve ever heard to those annoying singing wall fish that were so popular a few years back. Great stuff again, although a much quicker read than the last one, not like that’s a big deal in any way.

Non-Winner #1 by Kelli Nelson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Blurb! That’s one problem I have with the fact that the online store shows a sentence or two, as now I’m apparently supposed to keep that in mind when I’m rambling and try to sum it all up in a brief soundbite, and I’m completely unable to do that. Sorry. I could just say “I loved this comic!”, which I did, by the way, and then go down from there, but that would indicate order of some kind, and I’m completely against that. Anyway, review, oh yeah. This is a dense collection of tales from Kelli’s life. The first half is about a summer vacation she took with her husband, then you have facts about her personal art history and going to art school, losing the Xeric Grant, being ugly (her words), and still being ashamed today of something she said more than 12 years ago. Look, all I really want out of a mini that only costs a buck is that is be entertaining, and this has that, plus it takes a while to read (she uses a lot of text), PLUS it has a cover made out of what looks like coffee holder materials. Great stuff all around and cheap too, I only hope that the other issues of this are as good as the first one. Like I said, it’s $1, contact info is up there, or you can head on over to the store, where you can also buy it. You do get that I’d be saying all these nice things even if it wasn’t in the store, right? OK, good…

Invisible Momma by Kelli Nelson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Not sure how this one slipped through the cracks, as it was in the box of comics that Kelli sent me for the store months ago. it was kind of buried, I guess, but I think it means I’m just stupid for not seeing it. Oh well, now that I have seen it, how is it? Shockingly, as I seem to like most of her work, I like this one a whole lot too. This is the short story of the life of her mother, a life that Kelli hadn’t thought all that much about until she was out of college. This is set up like the sample, a panel per page with one drawing above it. If she hasn’t yet she should write some stories; she has a real gift for prose. This one is mostly a tale of regret about not getting to know her mother and confusion as to how to tell her about it, and at least a little bit of a sense of loss on what her mother had to give up to raise a family. Great stuff, probably her most powerful book outside of Three Questions For Daddy, and that’s other people giving quotes.

The Dream Project by Kelli Nelson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

And here I was thinking that my trolling the store to find comics that were never reviewed might have been a waste of time. If I hadn't, when would I have ever finally read some of these comics that slipped through the cracks? The last of Kelli's book I had to review (the phenomenal Horrifically Complete Non-Winner) was done over a year ago, and here this one sat. This is, as you might have been able to tell from the title, a dream comic, with brief bits at the end about the nature of dreams and a bit at the end about the best way to lower dream recall, which is an interesting change from people who want to remember absolutely everything about their dreams. This is damned near a pitch perfect representation of a dream. Kelli's focus will shift to a light, which leads seamlessly to her staring at a clock. Figures will remain throughout the dream (but they'll age several years through the course of the dream), Kelli knows instinctively who is evil and who she likes, regular events of the time will get thrown in along with absurdities that seem perfectly normal, like Kelli asking for the rest of the water from the pool of the INXS singer who killed himself. It's silly to summarize the story, as it's a dream comic, but this does manage to maintain the bizarre consistency of a dream, the sense that everything comes together at the end even though there's no logical reason for it to do so. For those of you who may have forgotten about Kelli on this page, or for you new folks who have never seen her stuff, take a closer look. At this issue, sure, but there's a whole pile of goodness on this page.

The abc's of Truckhead by Nate Neal

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

If I’ve only seen two comics where there’s a page for each letter of the alphabet,is it OK to compare them even if they have nothing to do with each other? I thought so. This one is much more complex, sure. The art is more intricate, the writing (or at least the concepts) for the pages is better, but for some reason it didn’t make me smile as much. Maybe I’m a simple lad, or maybe I’m just sad, but this book does hold up pretty well on its own. Like the title says, each page in here starts with a letter of the alphabet. “K” and “L” sum up the complexities of this book nicely. “K” is for “Karma”, and it’s a one page epic of screwing, leaving and beer. “L” is for “Lethargy”, and it’s a simple cartoon about doing nothing. Truckhead doesn’t say much, but then, he does have a truck for a head. This book is much more complicated than the title might suggest. Lots of the pages look like a ton of thought went into making them, and you couldn’t really ask him to spend more time with the art.

True Fiction #6 by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Comic strips! That idea can either terrify me or elate me, depending on who’s involved with it. Some of them are formulaic wastes of time (like everything in the paper except Boondocks, at least around here), and some of them at least try to expand the artform, challenging the readers here and there. Luckily this falls into the latter category. And the thing about strips like this is that sometimes the artist will try too hard, leaving a jumbled strip or two as a result, but as long as they keep pushing the boundaries and trying to come up with new things, it’s worth the trip for me. This is a book of strips of varying shapes and sizes, and I came out of it generally liking the whole thing. Individual strips might not have done it for me (like the silly Green Arrow strip), but overall this is worth a look. Topics include Hector on the Farm (which has more silly genital jokes on one page than I had previously thought possible, when I thought of it at all), backwards aliens, sneezing, dreaming, nudity, a butt on the loose, a devil dog, heaven and hell, an ethnically diverse buffet, quadriplegics, dumb food jokes, and the future.

True Fiction #5 by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This was part of a neat idea for a 24 hour comic: 11 people got together in a comic store, sat down and started at the same time to finish 24 hour comics. Two of the people didn’t finish, everybody else came out of it with a comic. Tom’s was the story of a model for an art class, trying to remember poems that she needed to know for her poetry final the next day. Most of the book is just poems and her body floating around or going over the things that she’s thinking about, with brief bits of reality thrown in. It’s a bit too self-referential for my tastes, because if you know that he’s doing a 24 hour book he does all kinds of little inside jokes about it, but it’s not a bad little story overall. And he mentions in the afterward that the art gets stronger as he goes because he felt really rushed at the beginning, and it’s obvious in the final product. Not the best of his books and not the best of the 24 hour books that I’ve seen, but it’s far from awful and has a naked woman wandering around for most of the issue, so I suppose you could do a lot worse.

True Fiction #3 by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Now this is what a tiny mini comic should be. You can quibble over the content, sure, but what you have here is a comic that’s full of a wide variety of stories that’s heavy on text, which, for me at least, is usually a sign of more bang for your buck. In here you have the life of a tiny mouse, a fable about a trusting cow, a trip to the moon, shape shifting around a naked woman, neglect beyond the grave, misery and dogshit. Yeah, that mostly sums it up. Tom was kind enough to send me a bunch of comics, so there will be a lot more of his books up here in the coming weeks, and so far that looks like a really good thing to me.

True Fiction #2 by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

With something this short you have time for a visceral reaction and that’s pretty much it, and I liked this one a lot. It’s the tale of a princess who’s shipwrecked on an island with a man who she completely ignores. Funny stuff, if a bit pricey at $2 (hey, it’s tiny), and definitely worth checking out. I just found the Squid Works website, and there are all kinds of comics there. Looks like Tom has done all kinds of comics, so I should be able to tell you a lot more about the guy if I ever get any money that doesn’t go right to rent or food again any time soon.

True Fiction #1 by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Here’s an interesting early effort from Tom. This is all about a guy who, while sitting at a coffee shop, has his nose fall off. He soon discovers that his nose is actively trying to escape, then also finds out that similar things are happening to other people around him. That’s all I’m giving away because it’s only 6 pages long, but it’s a neat little story. Too expensive for how small it is, sure, but that happens. If you like his stuff and already have some of the other issues this is worth a look, otherwise I’d say to start with one of the meatier issues (#3 is my personal favorite) and work your way back if you’re so inclined.

Neptoons by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This book is one short barely contained doodle. Granted, it’s called a doodle comic right there on the cover, so it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. This is about a… creature of some kind telling a story to other creatures, all silent but with word balloons filled with images. The man in the story sees a shining object on top of a hill and seeks to attain it, which would have disastrous consequences. It’s a nice little story, but the highlight here is how busy the art is. The center spread, where the man in the story first sees a throng of creatures, all talking amongst themselves, has to be seen to be believed. I’m still not sure what the vast majority of them are talking about, as a lot of the images in the word balloons flew right over my head, but the images alone are worth the price of admission. If you’re picked up any of the other damned near countless minis Tom has put out over the year, this is an excellent companion piece, as you’re rarely going to see such unbridled creativity from anybody as you see from him here.

Let Me Out Of Here by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

A lunatic singing a song about wanting to get out of the nuthouse. With a good part of the rest of the inmates eventually forming his backing choir. What more can you ask from a mini? There’s also the remarkable fact that this was made in 1987, at which time I believe the most interesting thing I was reading in terms of comics was Secret Wars II. There, that should establish some street cred. As for the comic, there’s not a whole lot to say. Tom draws an excellent crazy person, he manages to throw in enough disturbing visuals to keep essentially an illustrated poem interesting and funny, and it’s cheap as could be. Worth a look, like the vast majority of the rest of the stuff on this page.

Froggy's Problem by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Depression with work and life and general seems to be the unofficial theme of the week here, or at least it is as of Tuesday. This is the story of Froggy, a depressed creature who doesn’t understand why he’s sad. He has a great life, a job he loves, and he even gets to dance, as he is a jaunty frog. So why so sad? This tiny mini mostly deals with the basics of Froggy’s day to day life, and ends up (spoiler alert!) leaving the question of his depression up the reader. I think it’s fairly obvious but, as I probably do a lot, it’s probably just projection. I should also point out that my scanner tends to make green things a little too yellow, as this one looks green to me, but not so much on the computer. Anyway, this is a solid mini, and cheap enough that it’s impossible to find anything to bitch about.

Es Brillig War by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Have you recently been asking yourself the question, "Why aren't there more mini comics entirely in German?" If so, you're in luck. This is an unreviewable comic from Tom, with a bit of text by Robert Scott (after Lewis Carroll, and no, I'm not entirely sure what that means either) made into a comic. As all the text is in another language, I can't help at all on that aspect of the story. I can still see the art though, so why don't I make something up to make it seem like I understood what was going on? Let's see, there's creepy worms, a flower, a big old tyrant, a fantastical device, an armed struggle, and... aw, I can't go on. I have no idea what was happening here. If you like your comics baffling, I can't recommend this one highly enough. If you prefer being able to read your comics, might I suggest something else from this page?

The Drawing Stick by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Hey, they were making silent mini comics way back in 1985! Kids, if you weren’t born yet, ask your parents. This shows pretty clearly that Tom has been putting out quality books for over 20 years, although the poor guy probably had to take a few breaks in there to pay the bills and such. This is the silent story of a young man, a drawing stick and a cast of characters that all try to cheer up a sad young woman. This drawing stick can make anything, at least briefly, and yet nothing seems to be working. More than that and the whole thing is ruined, as this is a tiny thing, but it’s cute with a great punchline, and what more can you ask for out of comics?

Damn Weird #23 by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Is it cheating for the purposes of a review to just say that the title is accurate and leave it at that? Probably so. The setup for this is that we should throw off the shackles of linear time and space and take a trip to the state of grace. There, I’ve “spoiled” about a third of this tiny thing. This folds into a giant four page spread where the artist takes you to the places he’s just promised with a seemingly random series of images and dialogue, although it’s possible that I’m just not enlightened enough to get it. There’s plenty of well, weird stuff in here though, if that’s what you’re going for, which is probably the case if you’ve seen the title and the sample images.

Comic Artists I Have Seen by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This is exactly what it looks like from the sample: a collection of sketches of comic book artists alongside their characters. Unfortunately, as I pick samples for stuff in the store before I read them (usually, anyway), I missed the highlight: the back cover. On this page Tom details how to draw a comic book artist and, as I don’t want to ruin the whole thing considering this is a tiny thing, I’ll just say that you always start by drawing a shmoo. And if you don’t know what that is, I have all the faith in the world in your googling abilities. It’s a shortie but cheap, worth a look if you enjoy making fun of comic book artists, and really, who doesn’t?

Clean by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Everybody needs to know what to do to get in the good graces of Jesus, so this book serves as a helpful guide. It’s part of a larger book written by Rikki Ducornet called The One Marvelous Thing, and it has a delightful checklist at the end of all the things you have to do to get to heaven. Jesus, it turns out, is quite the jokester and cleanliness really is next to godliness. Rikki takes a few choice Bible quotes and made it damned near impossible to sample only one page, as how could I ignore the table of Holy Lightning of all the naked people eating but not fornicating? Good clean fun for those of us who distrust religion more than a little bit, maybe a bit much for the pious.

All the Trees are Pink by Tom Motley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Here's Tom's adaptation of excerpts from Rod McKuen poems, which of course means I didn't like it... what's that? I enjoyed it immensely? A mini comic with nothing but excerpts from poems? How about that. Frankly, it reads like parts of one big poem, although I'll take Tom's word for it that it's excerpts from different poems. It starts with a poem dedicated to Bernadette Peters (kids, use the Google, or just rent The Jerk, which would also give you a chance to see Steve Martin when he was actually funny), and the whole thing seems like it could be about her. Humble, self-effacing, and utterly readable, if there were more poets like this maybe I'd have more of an appreciation of poetry. Tom has a series of relatively minimalistic images, which is fine as the star of the show here is the poetry anyway. Well worth a look, and I'm still mildly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Aline the Alien by Tom Motley & Lonnie Allen

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

When does a book get too experimental? I'd previously thought just about never, but now I'm having my doubts. This is a flip book where both creators play with the panel structure of comics, smash through the fourth wall and talk to the readers, and generally smash many conventions of making a comic. All well and good, I say, but throwing in time travel too may have just made my brain explode. I'll put it this way: in both stories there's a repeated page, front and back. Due to the nature of the stories I'm not entirely sure if that's a printing error (if so, shame on them for not being extra careful with stories this complex) or just them making a statement about comics. So how about the comics? Tom's half deals with Aline the Alien, and things get off to an excellent start with a good old fashioned pie fight. Then Aline starts to notice the panel boxing her in, the author is introduced, the guy who does the text boxes ponders his existence, and things end with a spectacular two page spread of Aline being trapped in a time bubble, panels and word balloons all over the place. Lonnie's half smashes through the fourth wall and deals with time travel, facing the fact of their two-dimensionality, and becoming real. If I gave the impression here that this wasn't a fun book, well, sorry, as it is a blast to watch these two play around with comic concepts. That doubled page just threw me completely off, as organized chaos like this really needs to be free of errors like that. Unless it was a commentary on the printing process that I missed...

Zebediah the Redneck Zombie Bites the Dust by Scott Mills

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I remember reading back in high school that Dostoevsky was paid by the word, which is why all of his books were so long. Of course, he’s probably the best single writer in the history of fiction, so it was a good thing that he was motivated to ramble a bit. What does this have to do with Scott Mills? Well, if he got paid by the mini comic and/or graphic novel, he’d be a very rich man. I don’t know anybody outside of James Kochalka who has a larger body of work in the small press business. Luckily he also has some serious range, which is what makes him so unique. This one is about Zebediah, a zombie with a heart of gold. Well, as much as a zombie can have, anyway. Also you have a mad scientist who’s determined to screw up the parts of the world that weren’t already destroyed by the zombies, elves who want to make the world grow again, and a conjoined killer. Oh, and some of the most incomprehensible zombie dialogue that you’re likely to see, but then, how clear did you expect zombies to be? They’re not here to enunciate, you know. Good stuff again, with the usual caveat that it’s a bit expensive to spend $10.95 on something that takes you 5 minutes to read, but it is a really great 5 minutes…

Mars Base Super Trio by Scott Mills

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

You know what I love? When somebody like Scott Mills, after I’ve already read practically everything he’s ever done, is still able to put out something like this that just completely surprised me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the best mini in the universe or anything, but it is a lot of fun and it’s very different from just about all of his other work that I’ve seen. What you have here is a trio of folks (obviously) dealing with some serious boredom in space.Also, a character with a giant ass and a space anomaly suddenly gaining awareness and looking for a human body to take over. I don’t want to say too much because this is so tiny, but you get the idea. If you already like Scott Mills you’ll probably check this out sooner or later. If you don’t, well, this isn’t like his regular work, just so you know.

Paping #11 edited by John Mejias

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This comic is huge! Just wanted to make sure I got that out there, because I shrunk the cover down to better fit on the page. And, once again, my scanner doesn’t do this book justice. More than most comics out there this is a tactile experience from cover to cover. I think it’s already been pretty well established on this page that I’m enjoying the Paping experience, so why not skip all the glowing praise and get right to the stories? You have a one pager by Scott Pefflet that manages to be about all kinds of things,a story from Sara Edward-Corbert (probably my favorite of the bunch) about the smartest kid in class getting outsmarted, Matt Wiegle’s take on wife (and parts) swapping, Andy Bodor’s baptism of Van Halen, a completely unique and indescribable story from Sean McCarthy, John Mejias and his story of Rud, another wordless tale (this time from Shawn Cheng), Zak Smith and the soap box derby, another story from John (this time about being willing to work for it), a white-out extravaganza from Dave Miko, The Boxer from Drew Gold and some comix to read aloud from Jeffrey Lewis. Whew! Good thing I don’t have to follow any rules of grammar or good sentence structure, otherwise I would have gotten in some kind of trouble with that mess of a sentence. This is $8, contact info is up there or you could just pick up a copy in the store, if the feeling moved you…

Paping #10 edited by John Mejias

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I wish this scanner did this series justice. The flowers, title and the drawing that all look kind of purplish are really a vibrant silver color. This one is another anthology and it’s all about these cartoonist’s relationships with their fathers. Lots of good stuff in here with a wide variety of styles. Zak Smith shows the difference between a romantic description of his father and a real description, John tells a story about teaching and learning why students are the way they are, Drew Gold recounts how his Dad took out credit cards in his name and rang up some serious debt, Shawn Cheng has a wordless story about family life, Peter Maddalena has a horrible story about some kittens, Meredith Gaydosh talks about depression and a wonderful summer, and Andy Bodor talks about him not being an arsonist. OK, so it’s not all about fathers, but that seems to be the general theme. It’s $4, it has a gorgeous cover and some good stuff in the middle.

Division Shadow #1 by Patrick Meaney & various artists

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I know, that’s a whole bunch of artists to list for a single comic. The idea is (and I think it’s a good one in theory but we’ll see how it plays out) that each of them is doing the work for one of the three main characters in the book. I would love it if there was some way to know who did what (even something as unobtrusive as initials at the bottom of an artist’s page), but you can’t have everything. This is the first issue of a projected six issue mini series and Patrick swears that it’s going to come out monthly until it’s done. Three cheers for that idea. As for the story, there’s a whole bunch going on here, so I’ll try and hit some of the important points. There’s a squadron of government agents who kill a large group of people who seem to have access to a drug that lets them live forever, an old man who has a heart attack (or some sort of medical emergency), a woman who’s trying to rescue people in the re-zoned Middle East (guessing this is all set in the future), and a kidnapped baby. These people were all getting distinct personalities by the end of the first issue, which is usually a good sign. Except the baby, but that does seem like it’s going to have some future significance. An intriguing first issue, although it’s always tough to say how these things are going to turn out. Here’s hoping they keep to their schedule so it doesn’t take too long to find out…

Kosmostrator #2 by Dave McKenna

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Hm. He seems to have forgotten how to spell the name of his comic, or maybe he just didn’t notice. Whatever the case, the main story in here is fantastic. It’s about some giant monsters who begin fighting in a city landscape, when suddenly the zippers get loose, some giant people come out of the costumes… and they start screwing like mad. Great stuff, as it just kept getting more and more over the top. Some graphic stuff in here, so don’t buy this for a nephew or anything. The bits in the beginning and end were kind of throw-away stuff. Not particularly bad, just not that great compared to the phenomenal main story. Contact info is up there, monkeys come free with a comic…

Kosmostrator #1 by Dave McKenna

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Here’s a pretty good random mini I picked up at SPX. Three stories in this one. The first is by far the best of the bunch, a break-neck retelling of, um, a blimp fight. Great stuff, worth the price ($2) right there. Then there’s the story of a movie shoot where a robotic dinosaur comes alive and starts killing people. Hey, I don’t know how you could possibly go wrong with a good robotic dinosaur fight. Then there’s “Secret Pornographer”, and I don’t get it. Maybe that ending will make sense to me at 3 in the morning tonight, in which case I’ll be sure to update the site again with my revised opinion, but right now it didn’t do much for me.

An Army of Lovers Will be Beaten by Bernie McGovern

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

As always, three cheers for an absolutely wonderful title. This is the story Lieutenant Buckeley, a hero in the ongoing war between blue people and constellations in the night sky. Yep, not a typo. This is also one of the major limitations of the small press comics movement as a whole, as whenever there’s a story like this (where it would go a long way to show all those blue people) it would be wonderful to see it in color, it’s just that there’s no financial way to make it possible. Unless the artists were independently wealthy, I guess. Anyway, this first book (of a projected twelve) introduces us to the Lieutenant as he goes on furlough, wandering around a town and trying to avoid all the seamier places, like the local tavern and “El Lay”. He wanders off into an open field to get some rest… which also happens to be where most of those bombs aimed at the stars are landing. It’s a dreamy, surreal tale, punctuated by the relentless naivete of the main character and the fact that a llama ends up saving his life. It’s an interesting first book. I’m not completely sold on the whole thing yet, but I am curious to see what happens next, and that’s all you can ask for out of a first issue.

It Lives! #1 by Ted May

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

It amazes me to see that Ted isn't already on this page. I own every single anthology he's been in (according to the ones he lists in the back of this issue, anyway), so it just made sense that he would already be here. That being said, I only thought he was OK before I saw a clump of his stories all in one place. Now I think he might just be the new Jesus. Too much hype, I guess, but damn is this guy funny. There's a story called Toilet Battle that is the single funniest fight scene I've seen in years. I offer no details! Help Me Understand Your World (while being one of the best names for a story ever) was incredible, as was the one involving pants. Monster Mask wasn't absolutely perfect, but I still liked it.

Asiaddict by Mats?!

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

If there's one good thing about not having the money to travel, it's that it gives you more free time to read travelogues like this one. OK, granted, it's a pretty thin reward, but if I ever find myself in Laos, Thailand or Cambodia (or all three), I'll have a pretty good idea of how to get by and what to see when I get there. Mats takes in all the local sights, describing little historical facts and local attractions while doing so, all while throwing in a few observations. The book is structured so that each place or thing only gets a page or two, with text written like it's by an overenthusiastic tour guide (I mean that in only the best way), with a series of vivid, colorful pictures to illustrate the more interesting places. And the random facts are, well, fascinating. Did you know that the native word for "Bangkok" is 168 letters long? Or how to get around any of these places effectively? Or, barring effectively, how about safely from place to place? This whole thing is smart and engaging, the packaging is gorgeous (you can see that cover) and Mats has an excellent grasp on when to let the photos and images speak for themselves rather than go into excessive explanations. If I ever head over to that part of the world, this thing is coming with me, that's for sure.

Planet Named Desire #9 by Joe Marshall

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Getting up to #9 in comics these days is no small achievement, and you can tell just from looking at this that Joe has his shit together. It’s artistically solid and the whole packaging just looks great. There are a few stories in here. The first, about a greedy monkey, is either about an old morality tale or it should be. Great story, and you can never go wrong with a monkey. The second is about an old rock and a tree and bunch of people trying to figure out what they can do with them. The third is the most moving of the bunch, about a bird that’s dying and trapped in the wall. Then there’s one last story that I’ll leave as a surprise because, hey, I’ve already convinced you to give this a shot, right? Seriously, I never have a problem with comics that are all about telling you to slow down and enjoy what you have, and this comic has all kinds of that. I don’t know about the back issues (maybe he peaked with this one or something) but you can’t go wrong with #9.

Planet Named Desire #8 by Joe Marshall

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Two really great stories in this one. The first is the tale of a young swordsman who is trying to train with the best swordsman in the land. It’s about patience and not accepting everything as it appears. The second is all pictures, about a dog and its quest to find the meaning of life. It was done extremely well, with drawn backgrounds and pictures of a whole cast of characters. Then at the end of the book you have a few full page panels which showcase just how incredible of an artist this guy is. This is a great series (from what I can tell from the issues I’ve seen, anyway), and I don’t think it gets anywhere near the attention it deserves. Yes, I would be saying that even if I wasn’t selling some copies on my website.

Planet Named Desire #7 by Joe Marshall

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I’m a sucker for a good autobio comic; I’ve said it time and time again. I’m especially a sucker for the ones that are by people who usually write fiction, as it’s a rare glimpse into their personal life. There are three stories in here, all about Joe and what makes him tick. The first one is about how he draws bigger women because when he tries to go skinny they look sickly (and he goes on about how women are smarter than men), the second one is about how he doesn’t own a TV or VCR and prefers nature, and the third one is about the birth of his new son. He manages the difficult task of not being preachy really well, as it would have been easy for him to condemn people who don’t appreciate the outdoors or don’t agree with his viewpoint on women. It’s a good issue, he should try rambling like this more often. He also sent a few more back issues with this one, and I’ll get to them one day, but he has a diverse array of back issues, and that’s only in the few I’ve seen. It’s always good to see somebody who’s not afraid to experiment. These are cheap comics too, it’s worth ordering a few.

Planet Named Desire #6 by Joe Marshall

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Who wants to know how the world began? Or, well, at least an excellent theory on how the world began? Joe answers that timeless question with this issue from way back in 1999 (kids, ask your parents). Essentially, things started, some life forms made it, some did not, and the gods and goddesses took care of everything. The earth goddess was especially competent, things essentially ran themselves, which left plenty of time for her to have sex with, well, everyone. Still, she ran out of gods and goddesses to have sex with soon enough, and happened across a lonely monkey boy. You can probably guess what happened next, and that led to human life on earth, but probably not the way that you've heard it. Great stuff from Joe, a little raw maybe compared to his later work, but a solid issue with a self-contained story. Well worth a look, as is pretty much everything else on this page.

Punked by Jeffrey J. Manley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Ah, the 24 hour comic. The quality of these rare creatures varies wildly, as sometimes it's a freeing exercise for an artist, not letting them dwell too much on making everything just right, which can lead to some profound insight. Sometimes it's just a total rush job, something for an artist to do to say "look everybody, I did a 24 hour comic!". Jeffery manages the former, even if he is a bit ham-handed at times getting there. This is the story of a young man trying to relate to his father. He takes advice from his evil side, chats with his other siblings, and finally everything works out OK (spoiler alert) with one of the creepier endings I've seen, or at least one of the creepier ones where it's supposed to be sweetness and light. I was impressed by the art here though, as if he can make it look this good while rushing through a comic (and this was done in 2004), he should have a vast library of work available by now. For some reason Jeffery decided to alternate the page colors, which is a bit disconcerting, if only a minor gripe. As far as the story goes, it's a bit simplistic, sure, but the bit of misdirection with the trash bag was a nice touch, and it's too damned heartwarming to say much bad about it. If you like his other work this is definitely worth checking out, unless you're too cynical to accept anything with some sort of a happy ending. $1

Jeffrey J. Manley's Tour Guide of Joplin, Wyoming

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

There’s not a whole lot to be said for your average graphic novel preview, as it’s only going to be a tiny fraction of the story. This one is about Miner’s girlfriend accepting the wrath of her parents and staying out late with him, Miner’s new haircut and his girlfriend’s reaction to it, and the neighbor’s reaction to Miner’s penis. It did look good and I’m intrigued by the thought of a huge book with these characters, so I guess the preview did a good job. If I can make one request though: PLEASE get an editor for a graphic novel. Have a couple of friends read it or something, just to get rid of the obvious spelling mistakes if nothing else, “truely”. Although I seem to remember him saying that he did that on purpose, I’m pretty sure most other people don’t get the joke and it just doesn’t look good. It’s $1 and it has me wondering. And, as the book won’t come out for another year or so, this might be the only look you get at his stuff for another year.

Isn't It Beautiful? by Jeffrey J. Manley

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This is one hefty pile o’ strips for six bucks. It’s essentially one year of Manley Days (1/17-05 to 12/31/05) and having these all in one place does the whole thing a world of good. I wasn’t completely sold on it after the first mini collection (if that’s what you’d call it) but I am now. Yes, it does get a bit schmaltzy at times, or possibly I’m just too damned cynical and it’s really heartwarming. Either way, he really hits his stride somewhere towards the middle of the book and it just flies from there. My previous grammatical bitches are completely gone, and the only problem with the book aesthetically are the occasional smudged pages, but that’s rare and it’s a printing problem, not Jeffrey’s fault. If you bought the previous book this one does contain all of those strips, so there are repeats here, but I think it’s smart to have a whole year clumped together like this. A big part of it is dealing with a pregnant wife and new baby, and this diary strip is different from most others in that Jeffrey isn’t even in some of the strips, as he devotes plenty of time to his wife and kids. He obviously dotes on them, or at least doesn’t show us most of the bad stuff if he’s really a horrible father/husband although, having met him a few times, he sure hides that evil side well in person too. His website or the previous book will give you a taste of the strips if you’re not sure of it, but if you are sure this is a pretty good way to spend an hour or so on a lazy afternoon.

The Gypsy Lounge by Jason Lex

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This book makes so much more sense as one coherent story. Look, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m fairly sick of most superhero comics. There are exceptions, of course, but not many. And I’m especially sick of most indie attempts at superheroes, as they’re usually so much like the real thing that it’s pathetic, or they’re just parodies. Parodies were fun for a while, but they’re so easy to do and there are so many of them that you really have to do something different to stand out in the crowd. Anyway, all that being said, I was pretty surprised with how much I liked this comic. Scratch that: I loved this comic. Every once in a while I would come out of my state of awe from the art and read the dialogue, and then that would impress the hell out of me too. Let’s focus on the art for a second. I hope my crappy scanner does it justice, but what you have are fluid, cartoony characters combined with pictures. I wouldn’t have thought that it would work, but it’s incredible. The dialogue is as real as can be under the circumstances, and there was never a moment that I lost the impression that this could all be happening, which is saying a lot considering some of the circumstances. Jason says in the back of the book that this is something that he worked on for years, tweaking certain things, discarding others, building up others, and it shows. This reads like a labor of love and just about everything in it is done confidently, which makes all the difference in a book like this. If you’re going to do superheroes in this day and age you have to know what you’re doing and it helps a whole lot if you have something new and fresh to add, and Jason has both things going for him. Have I mentioned the story yet? A young girl, the daughter of a failed superhero, decides that she’s tired of being poor and becomes a supervillain. She steals the assignment of an established supervillain because she figures the payoff will be bigger, but finds that she can’t go through with it. This leads to her being targeted by every supervillain around, and the rest of the book is basically one long chase scene, but much, much more complex. I’m not sure how many more good things I can say about this. I really thought that I would be mildly amused at best, but this really blew me away. Did I mention the dynamic cast of characters, most of which are either still around or “unaccounted for”? I hope he keeps this up, and if there’s any justice in the world doing so will make him rich and famous.

Broads and Monsters by Pat Lewis

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Yes, this is a sketchbook. It's not like it's a secret or anything, Pat mentions the fact right there on the cover. Generally speaking sketchbooks don't do much for me one way or the other, and they're damn near impossible to review, what with not having a real story and all. This is a collection of, oddly enough, broads and monsters, with the occasional broad/monster hybrid mixed in. Most of the sketches are fully formed images with a few naked women thrown in, and it's not like you weren't wondering about that, you pervert you. There is one story in here, Pat's version of the Bloody Mary myth that adolescent girls always seemed to try out. You know, the one where you say Bloody Mary X number of times into a mirror and a monster her face ripped off jumped out of the mirror and ripped your face off too. So, it's up to you. Is a cute story, a chunk of sketches and your general love for the rest of Pat's work enough to pick up a sketchbook? He is quite good with the rest of his books, you know, and the man sure can draw. Oh, and he also uses this as a chance to plug his hardcover graphic novel called The Claws Come Out, so I suppose you could always go straight for that.

The Titusville Geek by Pat Lewis

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I suppose context is important in reviews. If I were judging this book just from the perspective of any old mini comic, I’d say that it was an enjoyable enough little story. Judging it from the perspective of so many of his other minis, which are so often an absolute blast, I’d have to say I was a little let down. This is a campfire story told to a bunch of little kids about the old geeks in the circus. If you’re not aware of what they are, they were usually drunks who were willing to do anything for their booze, and they spent their time in a dingy cage, surrounded by their own filth, biting the heads off chickens and generally behaving like an animal. Pat seems to think these people were mostly stupid or actually retarded, which isn’t something I’ve heard to explain the geeks, but it’s not like I’m an expert on the subject (insert “Yeah, but you’re geeky enough to run a comics website!” joke here). It has its moments, to be sure, like when the geek sets off the town to destroy the circus by biting the head off a small child, but overall it just isn’t as good as some of his other books. Not the harshest criticism in the world, I know, but it’s the best I can do. My advice is to check out many of his other fine works displayed on this page and then circle back to this if that makes you love his work, which I would think it would have to if you have a sense of humor at all.

Prowl by Pat Lewis

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Mankind has long wondered: what would happen if aliens kidnapped a young woman and turned her into a werewolf? Well, that question has finally been answered with this mini. It’s a wordless story of a young woman walking home from a date who is suddenly taken onto an alien spacecraft, where they have apparently perfected the process necessary to bring about a werewolf. Much havoc and chaos ensues, and you have a fun little way to spend a few minutes of your day.

One Horse Town by Pat Lewis

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Huzzah for Western comics! Or at least huzzah for Western comics with this many frying pans to the head. Works every time. This is the story about a remarkably incompetent sheriff and an unfortunate boast by the town mayor when he says to the sheriff “even your horse would be a better sheriff than you”. The town is momentarily thrilled about this idea, or at least they are before they have time to really think it over. It gets a bit more complicated from there as the bad guys make their move and a new sheriff hits town, but don’t worry, there is also a showdown at high noon. Funny stuff all around, and you sure can’t beat that cover…

Watching Days Become Years #4 by Jeff LeVine

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

More quiet tales of Jeff's life in issue #4, and he even gets briefly political this time around. I've also often wondered how most people in the country are able to so completely disassociate themselves from the violence that is done in our name all the freaking time. Other subjects in here include a lack of time, the value of being awake versus sleeping, a quiet day at home out of the heat, trying to get calmness from trees, the incremental nature of profit sharing at work, and one awesome punchline that I'm not going to ruin here. There's also his drawings and impressions of places and trying to be content with the little things, and as usual it's a tossup as to which is his better work. He's a master of the one page "diary" type strip, but there are also few people out there better able to document the little things about places. The inevitable conclusion, as I've been saying from the beginning on this page, is that everyone should still order all his books and give him as much money as humanly possible. I'd love it if I was able to help him, in even a tiny way, get the gift of more time.

Watching Days Become Years #3 by Jeff LeVine

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Again with the long gaps between reading his comics! Full disclosure: I “grew up” reading his stuff, from his Destroy All Comics magazine to No Hope to all the little minis in between. Of course, “growing up” in this racket means that he helped form my high opinion of this medium in my late teens/early 20’s when I was making the transition away from superhero stuff to actual quality work. Not that there’s not SOME quality superhero stuff, kind of… OK, I’ve gone off the rails. This comic, as is the case with most of his work, defies reviewing. Jeff seems to wander around town, finding things to do on his days off (or happily deciding to do nothing at all), and documenting in very specific detail what he’s seeing. What’s often missing in his books are other people, as he’s more than content to document his surroundings, the growing pile of books and DVDs at his apartment, and his personal thoughts. Oddly, although he mentions in this issue that he’s had the same job for 7 years (as of 2006, judging by the dates on the strips), I’m not sure that he’s ever mentioned exactly what he does. It’s just not important enough in the grand scheme of things to warrant mentioning in his comics when there’s so much (or so little) else to talk about. My quest to make this guy rich continues, so buy his stuff, show some love for a genuine artist.

Watching Days Become Years #2 by Jeff LeVine

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

It’s been entirely too long between my Jeff Levine fixes, although one look at his website tells me that he’s put out 5 issues worth of strips from his website. Turns out that there’s all kinds of new stuff available, I’m just not looking in the right places. Anyway, on a purely personal note, it’s been fascinating to me to watch how my life parallels his, or at least when it does on those occasional long and pointless nights, when it seems like the whole damned thing is a waste. This is a great book to read the next time it’s three in the morning and you’re thinking all kinds of deep thoughts, because a whole bunch of them are mirrored right here. And I can’t help but notice that in spite of my pleas for everybody to buy all his books and make him rich and famous, that still hasn’t happened. Or maybe everybody who looks at this site already has bought all of his stuff and it made him $10, I don’t know. All I can say is that there are few people I look forward to reading more than this man. Oh, you want to hear about the actual issue? Jeff captures a few quiet moments, take a trip to San Francisco to see a jazz legend, and saves the world from elephants. One of those things is quite possibly not true…

Watching Days Become Years #1 by Jeff LeVine

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

For anybody who’s not sure about how I feel about Jeff’s work, scroll down and read the other reviews. It was one of the first reviews I did for the page because I wanted to make sure that everybody who hadn’t heard of him would at least see him here. I think a bunch of these have been put up on his website over the last few years, so chances are you’ve seen some of them, if you visit his site on a regular basis. Trust me when I say that the whole is better than its parts. Not that the parts were bad at all, but there are also a few new strips in this. I’m of the opinion that Jeff can do no wrong, so if you’re looking for an unbiased review, you might want to stop reading now. Maybe his work will start sucking when he becomes fat and happy later in life, I don’t know, but for now he’s doing some of the best comics around. They’re all about simple things. Walking down a road, spending a day off of work doing nothing at all, sitting around feeling lonely, just little things. He has an amazing ability to slow everything down in his world and capture it on paper, which helps everybody reading to think about their own life and where it’s going. Turns out that it’s OK if it’s not really going anywhere, as long as you’re still able to stop and enjoy the little things. It’s great to see him getting published again and I think everybody should buy a copy of this. I have selfish reasons, of course, as I really want to see what kinds of comics he would do if he was rich and famous.

Sleepwalker #1 by Molly Lawless

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Warning to readers who hate baseball: one page of this comic deals with baseball at all, and that’s the hilarious story of the last game of the Washington Senator’s in 1971, something that I had somehow missed. So if you saw this somewhere and skipped out because you thought it would be a baseball comic, boy were you stupid. Most of the rest of the comic is the story of Jeff, a man who wormed his way into becoming the personal assistant to a wildly successful writer who does shlocky fantasy books. It’s a great story about a guy who finally gets to work for one of his idols and finds out that the reality of his hero isn’t quite as wonderful as he’d imagined. He also deals briefly with his hilariously stereotypical friends, a liberal blogger, underground comix artist and a screenwriter. Intriguing stuff, continued in the next issue, and it even leaves on a bit of a cliffhanger. She ends the issue with a short story about a robbery she’d witnessed, without doing much of anything about it. Great first issue (although she’s done more comics if you’re curious and would like to e-mail her), well worth a look.

Infandum #2 by Molly Lawless

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Humiliation! Now there’s a fun theme for a comic. First up is the delightful strip I sampled below, about how to deal with getting dumped by a guy. Not sure if it would work if the genders were reversed but ladies, this is perfect advice if you want to torment the dumper. Next up are a couple of stories about baseball players who are remembered, even after long, mostly successful careers, for one big play they botched. These stories are from 1908 and 1912 respectively, as Molly seems to have a fascination with this era. Fine by me, it’s something I’ve been curious about for years but never bothered to go back and research. The best of the bunch is next, a story about humiliation at grade school. Molly was something of a teacher’s pet back then, but decided to spice things up a bit by following the lead of a fictional idol of hers and puts on a pair of homemade rabbit ears for a few days. This, oddly, goes mostly unnoticed by the class… until her mom decides to come in wearing the same ears. I believe “scarred for life” fits here. Finally there’s the story of a Molly deciding to train for a marathon with a friend, who lives miles away. They were supposed to both be training at the same time, except for the minor fact that, months later, the long distance friend still hadn’t begun running, while Molly was hobbling herself on a constant basis trying to get in shape for a marathon. Great stuff all around here, it’s hard to get more quality material for a buck than you’ll find here.

Infandum #1 by Molly Lawless

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Intoxication! Now there’s something we can all get behind. Or something that we’ve all worked towards at one time or another, in one form or another, and yes, I’m talking to you super religious types who “get high on Jesus” too, assuming you people would read a site like this. This is a very short comic, but it does have one essential story about a young man walking home with his laundry at night when he happens upon the town Jesus Van. Chances are you’ve seen something like this in your town, and he thinks it would be the best idea in the world to smoke a bowl in said van, and, well, there’s a lesson to be had somewhere in that. Also in here is a strip about the basics of Catholicism as told by a talking bird, the story of the death of a drunk baseball player over a hundred years ago, and a tale about the virtues of drinking heavily after an intense workout. Great stuff again, and don’t be too fooled by the size, as Molly has a tendency to draw tiny panels, so she still has space to pack in a good story…

Great Moments in Baseball #1 by Molly Lawless

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Molly does the impossible here: she makes me care about baseball players from around the turn of the century who are, in most cases, long dead. Who knew that Ty Cobb was a nutcase who quite possibly killed a guy? Some of the other stories have been scattered around her other comics, but they’re all in one volume here for people who are interested. There’s the story of the last day of the Washington Senators (in 1971), Big Ed Delahanty’s mysterious death, how the “best” double play combo in history got into the Hall of Fame, and how a respected manager was ruined after catching a grapefruit dropped from a plane. If you’re curious about that last one, well, lucky you, as that’s the sampled page. It leaves out the fact that this manager was trying to beat a player who had caught a ball that was dropped out of the Washington Monument, as apparently balls falling a long distance was a big thing back then. I think this is fascinating stuff even for people who don’t care about baseball, although I have my doubts that anybody who hates the sport is going to pick up something called “Great Moments in Baseball”. Then again, what do I know?

My Word! by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Missy and John teamed up on a fairly unique mini comic here. They each came up with 5 words for the other person and that person had to draw five comics. I don’t think I’m giving away a thing by telling you the words: postage, camel, decision, honey, sidewalk, sick, bedtime, violets, catsup, and fly. Who gets which word? What do they write about? Those questions can only be answered by reading this, as it’s fairly silly to give something like this a regular review. Even if your black, black heart prevents you from loving Missy’s work because you think it’s too cute or something, I can’t imagine needing to go to a lot of effort to convince anybody to read anything that John P. has ever done. It’s a fun and occasionally melancholy book, what more can you ask for?

I Heart New York by Missy Kulik

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

If you’re looking for a perfectly adorable story about New York, you’ve found it. Missy tells a brief tale of a young girl wandering through the city, taking in the sights that adults often miss. There’s a sense of wonder throughout this mini, as Missy observes the sights of Central Park (horses, squirrels, an Alice in Wonderland sculpture, and Calder’s circus) and marvels at the Empire State Building. This was made in 2000, and possibly that sense of wonder is gone by now (full disclosure: I’ve never been to New York. I know, I know). This is one of those “gateway comics” for kids though, if you’re looking to get your young ones interested in comics, or even if you’re just looking for something to feel good about for a few minutes.

Half Boy/Half Stupid by Missy Kulik & Rowboat

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

You don’t go into one of Missy’s minis expecting tales of drunken misadventures (or at least I don’t, but I’ve read relatively few minis from her so far so what do I know), but that’s what you get here. Missy illustrated a collection of stories told to her by her friend Rowboat, dealing with being misunderstood, breaking in the door on an unsuspecting crush, making a fool of yourself over the phone to an ex, ending a Halloween night in a state of drunken disarray, a nightmarish cat, a pack of wild donkeys, smoking a telephone and a perfect romantic evening that doesn’t go as planned. A pretty great pack of stories, with Missy’s art bringing the whole thing wonderfully to life.

Cloud Picnic by Missy Kulik

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Yes, in case you were wondering, this book is exactly as adorable as it appears from the cover. This is the silent tale of a couple of sock monkeys, floating along a river on a a flat smiley face, meeting another couple of... things. Mostly featureless dolls, vaguely shaped like humans. Then they all run across their friend, a solo teddy bear, who decides to climb to the top of a circular slide. This circular slide leads the bear to land on a cloud which, in turn, leads to the cloud picnic. This was apparently also made on Super 8 film (possibly on that website), which I'm curious to see. As for you and this comic, do cute things frighten or alarm you? If so, this should probably be avoided. If you have a healthy capacity for "Awww", then you won't regret checking this out.

Chromosome Crossroads #2 by Karl Kressbach

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

If you’re going to have a comic about incest, this is about as good a title as you could have. It’s the story of a family of a mother, brother, father, sister, and daughter, and an awful lot of those people are able to claim more than one of those titles in regards to the same family member. It’s creepy, sure, and it’s easy to lose track of who is who even with the handy introduction, but there’s a little bit of bizarre charm in the way that some of these people relate to each other. Little things like showing off local landmarks, when viewed in the larger context of what a weird world the live in, come off as surprisingly poignant. Or maybe I’m just an emotional sap today, you be the judge. Anyway, it looks good and it’s original enough to be worth a look.

Chromosome Crossroads #1 by Karl Kressbach

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This whole “draft” business deserves a bit of an explanation. The second draft is a redrawn version of the first, with the impressive color cover that you see above. It’s a pretty noticeable improvement, although frankly I’ve always been a bigger fan of letting older work stand as is and putting effort into making future work better. The first draft is the same story, with a few pages different here and there, but it doesn’t look as good. So I guess if you’re a cheapskate you can go ahead and get the older version, if you’re looking for the best possible edition of this comic you can get the second draft, and if you’re a comic scholar you can get both versions to compare and contrast. Everything clear now? Update: Karl says that he redrew it because he has a much longer story in mind, in case you were wondering.

Spudd 64 #4 by Matt Kish

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I’m going to give you both of my opinions about this issue, just to confuse everybody. That’s right, I said both of my opinions, as I can’t decide if I should go deeply pessimistic here or totally optimistic. The pessimist in me thinks it’s a terrible sign that, on the fourth issue of a series, Matt has already called in friends to help him out with an issue, for art and for some stories. The optimist in me can also see this as a great sign, as the sheer number of people involved (Steve Black, Leighton Connor, Coly Kegley, Tim McClurg, Sean McGurr, Dara Naraghi, Kyle Wallace and Tom Williams) indicates that Spudd is taking off big time and all sorts of folks want to put their interpretation in before it turns into a huge behemoth of a series, loved by all small children and furry animals. The truth of the whole thing probably lies somewhere in the middle of all that, as usual. What about the actual comic? There are all sorts of full page spreads, mostly by Matt (but not all, by any means), but the main story in here is written by Leighton Connor and drawn by Matt, about Hafez first leaving his people and his brother starting a long search to find him. He also goes into greater detail later about some of the deities involved in the Spudd storyline, which is what’s making me lean towards my optimistic view that he has this whole huge story planned out already and this “jam” issue is a blip on his path to fame and fortune. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fun issue and will serve as a good reference point in the future when this stuff gets (more) confusing, but, speaking purely for myself here, I’ll be happy to see a regular sized issue of Spudd 64 done totally by Matt to keep things humming along at their proper pace. If, two issues from now, we get a “best of Spudd” issue, I’ll know that the pessimist was right all along, but I have genuinely high hopes for this series…

Spudd 64 #3 by Matt Kish

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Have I mentioned yet that every cover has a different image or is a different color, or both? And not juts for this issue, but all three? Thought that was worth pointing out, just to show the level of detail that goes into this. So how about this issue? Well, it’s a (mostly) wordless tale, which is a great idea for Matt. Why? Because I could stare at his art for days, so why clutter it all up with all those pesky words? As with a lot of wordless tales, the story is up for a bit of interpretation, but I’ll give it a shot. Spudd goes into space and eventually lands on a planet. He runs into some Sea Monkey looking creatures, who give him some sort of power. He’s a bit freaked by this, so he runs away, right into a giant monster (who doesn’t look all that intimidating because he looks like he’s smiling), and if I keep going I’m just going to tell you the whole story, and what fun is that? Three cheers for a comic with no angst, no autobiographical stuff going on and no silly drama. This one is 100% imagination and comics like this are a lot harder to come by than they should be.

Spudd 64 #2 by Matt Kish

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This reference will only make sense to about two people, but this series reminds me a lot of the one I tried to do a number of years ago, but couldn’t pull off because of my lack of drawing ability. Oh, and the story didn’t resemble this one at all. Trust me, there’s a similarity there, somewhere… Anyway, this comic. It’s huge, about 40 pages, with the first half being the ongoing story and the second half being something of an origin story. I compared this to Beanworld in the last review, and that’s still the closest real thing to compare this to, but he’s quickly building his own unique niche in the comics world. Most of the drawings in here are completely unique, obviously coming from his own brain and not just a rehashing of another comic. A number of people do that, consciously or unconsciously, especially when they’re first starting out, but Matt seems to have skipped that step altogether. This series is fantastic in the most literal sense of the word, and I can see from the level of detail in each image just why there’s a long gap between issues. Great stuff and and I couldn’t recommend it more highly if you like truly bizarre stuff.

Sugar Free Days #3 by Cole Johnson

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This things get real easy to write when the whole comic is available online (OK, not anymore, apparently). If you want to know what it’s about, or what it’s like, go read it. Simple, eh? OK, I’ll earn my keep a little bit. It’s the story of a young man who has recently died. Everything is kept very simple: dialogue, art, and mood. The afterlife seems like as pointless a place as the living world and William tries to make some sense of things. It’s apparently the start of a larger story and shows some serious promise. Now read all of his comics and see what you think! Go on, I know you have some free time at work or something…

The Short Term by Nick Jeffrey

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Is a comic successful if I have no idea what to make of it? If that’s the case, kudos to Nick. This is the story of the last few days or weeks of the life of Jack Sanders, somebody that was obviously close to Nick, or at least a friend. No idea how much of this is taken from reality and how much of it is sheer artistic license, but it’s a riveting book. Jack has very few priorities in life, and at the time of this comic he’s unemployed but making plenty of money, so he has a lot of free time. It’s also at this time in his life that he finds out his mother needs a liver transplant, or at least a piece of a liver. Jack offers his, but there are complications, and here I am telling the whole story. What makes this whole story so hard to figure is that it’s about nothing and everything at the same time. Jack is obviously having a great time with life, even as he’s dealing with an ugly breakup, getting mugged and a dead roommate. It’s easy enough to read this as just all about him going through his days, getting fucked up and never having anything amount to squat, but there’s also genuine searching here, a longing to live up the hopes of his mother, however faintly and briefly. Don’t take this the wrong way: your typical whiny, self-absorbed mini this is not. But I do believe that Nick has mastered nuance in comic form, and that along with his current mastery of humor and the ability to tell a good story makes him downright dangerous.

Plates are Cult #2 by Damien Jay

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

There’s not a thing wrong with comics being methodical, and Damien seems to have that down. The first story in here is about Joey the Mancat. Joey spends days (or weeks, or maybe months) just sitting in the same place, watching life go by him. Trust me, it’s a lot more interesting than it sounds. The rest of the book is a guided tour on a deep sea probe, uncovering all kinds of odd things. The sheer earnestness of the two main characters makes this whole book a blast, from Joey’s laid back interest in watching everything happen to Shaun’s joy in every aspect of a deep sea dive. It’s a fun book and it looks great, what else needs to be said? These are $4, and I should mention that they’ll be on sale here as soon as the distro starts. Do you think I was too nice to it because of that fact? Looks like the same rambling, meandering review I usually write to me.

Morgenmuffel #15 by Isy

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

You know, for somebody as overtly socially conscious as Isy, it’s surprising how little preaching she has in her books about any chosen cause. Sure, she mentions corporate greed, oil and veganism, but she manages to pull it off in a very accessible way. This issue is more of the same, which is a good thing, in case that wasn’t clear. It mostly talks about her summer vacation of 2006, with her meandering to all sorts of places. Also included in here are a diary about a trip to the lake (illustrated, of course), a history of the Cowley Club, some zine recommendations, games to kill time on long road trips and various drinking games. My favorite, which I suppose isn’t a game really, deals with tequila shots. For you youngsters out there, generally I’ve seen it as licking salt (usually off your hand, but creativity is encouraged), drinking the shot, then biting down on a lemon. Apparently in Leeds they snort the salt, drink the shot and then squirt the lemon in their eye. As an American, I am shamed by our collective wussiness once again. The only “problem” I had with this issue is that her panel layout is occasionally impossible to follow, as arrows can’t always help tell you where to go next if whole panels are left out of the map. Still, the stories she tells are usually about various travels, where it’s not essential to get everything in a linear order anyway. Just wanted to throw a bit of negativity into an otherwise glowing review.

Blink #3: Space to Breathe by Max Ink

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This is the last of the available Blink’s (as of 8/6/07, anyway), and unfortunately, it’s a SPACE issue. That means (and this applies to other conventions as well) that it’s much shorter than the other issues, as it looks like Max wanted to have something new for SPACE of last year. Still, the other two issues are mini comics too, it’s not like he’s cheating a whole bunch here. There are only two short stories in this one, the first with Sam and Blink looking up at the stars and talking about the world and the second with Max telling a story from his parents about stopping to notice the good things in life. It’s a peaceful little shortie and another solid issue, I just get greedy when I find a series I’m enjoying and hope that all future issues will be about a hundred pages.

Blink #2: Experiencing Creative Difficulties by Max Ink

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

More from the world of Max Ink, and this time he tells us right off the bat what to expect in this issue: writer’s block. Or whatever it’s called when it’s more of a comic’s block in general than writer’s block. Anybody who’s gone through it knows how horrible it is, to have any spark of creativity that you had always assumed would be around just leave you completely, never knowing when or if it would be coming back. The first half of the book is dedicated to this, as Blink gets a chance to do a strip for a theater zine, but she finds that all her ideas are stupid and worthless. Sam tries to talk sense to her, pointing out previous successes and some good things she finds in Blink’s sketchbook, but it’s a hard sell to Blink. The other big story in here has the same theme, this time with Blink giving up on her productive afternoon and taking time off to play around in the snow.There are also some fairly illuminating sketchbook pages in the back, detailing where the first story came from and some other ideas that are floating around his head. More good stuff from Max, even if these so far leave me with the impression that while Blink is a decent series, he has something really special in him still to come, either through Blink or something completely different down the road.

Blink #1: Up Leaves Fall Down by Max Ink

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

The trouble with reviewing these things sequentially, the way I see it, is that it often short-changes the artist. Take this first issue of Blink, for example. By now (4/25/07), Max has this as (if I remember correctly, as his website is down and I can’t find the info online) a weekly online strip, so he’s spent some serious time on it. Even if it’s not a weekly strip, he’s done at least three more issues with these characters by now. However, in this issue, things are just getting started, with us getting to know the two main characters, Blink and Sam. They walk and talk or they sit and talk, about lost innocence and crosswords puzzles, with a few pages of sketchbook material and the most wonderfully honest advertisement I’ve seen in quite a while. It’s here as an introduction, and it does a fine job at that. Seems like I was going somewhere profound with this, but I had to take a break and away it went. I’ll leave this up as an illustration to anybody who thinks that I know what I’m doing, and if it comes back to me I’ll put it up in the review for the next issue, which should be in a couple of weeks if all goes as planned. Either way, a solid issue on its own…

Bumperboy #3 by Debbie Huey

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

What a fantastic cast of characters. Nuts the Squirrel, the Banana Posse, Stompy the Elephant, Peevo, Starbo, Big Baby, Gotar the Robot, and (my personal favorite even though we only see him for a brief moment) Cheepoo. If I had any pull in the entertainment world I’d say this universe is ready and waiting to be made into a cartoon. This issue is the marbles tournament that has been coming for the previous two issues, and she even managed to surprise me on the ending, which is always a good thing. This series is gorgeous and it’s fun. It’s a bit simplistic at times, granted, but that doesn’t take a thing away from the positives in here. More comics soon please!

Bumperboy #2 by Debbie Huey

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

OK, I haven’t seen much here to convince me that this series is anything less than adorable. Whether or not that’s a good thing is entirely up to you and what kind of stuff you enjoy. What I did see in this second issue was a glimpse of some of the other characters that are in this Bumperboy universe, and it’s hard to complain too much about that much diversity. This issue is all about Bumperboy (and Bumperpup!) trying to find all of his lost marbles. The quest takes them all over the place, and they run into Rupert (who lives in a great oak), Jeannie (some kind of a lifeguard who’s also a dog), and Bam and Bop (who are onomatopeople). There’s more going on here than this adorable marble tournament, and I’m hoping that we get to see more in future issues. Good stuff though, unless you only enjoy guns and things exploding in comics.

Bumperboy #1 by Debbie Huey

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Watch in wonder as I learn how to work a new website system! The great part is that I’m only going to be using this for a few weeks, so I get to forget it all right away! Anyway, this is about a comic, not my problems. Bumperboy is a three issue series by Debbie that is, frankly, adorable. Check out the sample down there if you don’t believe me, and get back to me if there’s something about that that’s anything less than adorable. In this issue Bumperboy and his dog Bumperpup, who seems to speak in pictures, meander. Bumperboy has to get to the park to play marbles with a friend, but things keep popping up to keep him from his goal. It’s a fun book, but I’m reserving judgment on the whole thing until I read the other issues. A promising start though. If you hate things that are too cute at times, however, I’d advise you to read something with more guns in it. Unless, of course, this is so adorable that it melts your cold heart, which is entirely possible.

Slackmatic #1 by Ryan Holgersen & Nathan Brewer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

If I wanted to keep everything on this website all neat and technically accurate I’d put this below the other Slackmatics, as it came out later and actually includes most (if not all) of Slackmatic #3 and 4. But who cares about stuff like that? If anybody who’s a big fan of theirs can’t tell that this fancypants, comic sized edition is different from the long out of print mini comic version of the original Slackmatic #1, well, it’s their loss. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a big excuse to reprint a lot of their old stuff in a better format just because they put some of their best work in here, as the first half of this is all new material. Like what? Glad you asked. There’s a big story to start things off here where the two of them finally have a bloody battle while trying to come up with a comic story. Hey, it’s been a long time coming. Next is a wonderfully paranoid story about a car parked outside of the post office. Why has it been there so long? Why is it rocking? Finally there’s the story depicted on the cover, dealing with a slime monster from outer space. Yes, it is just as adorable as it looks from the cover. As for the second half of the book, check out the reviews below this one, as everything you need to know about them are in there. Kudos to these guys getting the full size treatment, the experience is much like the one you get when watching a great movie on a giant screen tv for the first time. Sure, it’s still good on your crappy, tiny tv at home… but wow, that difference is huge. Also, I don’t know how they do it, but these two remain just about the only creators out there who can screw up “your” and “you’re”without consistently getting on my nerves. Must have something to do with the fact that their stories are consistently hilarious…

Kitty Litter #6 by Ryan Holgersen & Nathan Brewer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

While I wasn’t looking Kitty Litter turned into a thrice weekly web comic, so if you’re looking for more from these two you can get new stuff for free at that link way up at the top of the page. Personally, I prefer the longer stories to the strips, as there’s more opportunities for mayhem with the longer format, although they do seem to be able to cram a lot into the one to six panel format too. I do like that fact: it’s not just a set number of panels every time, they do seem to wander around with that. In here you have strips about lazy ninjas, hair on fire, lots and lots of dead people (moving and not), vampire bites, pooping in shoes, and zombie chipmunks. If you still need convincing that it’s worth checking out after that list, along with the fact that it’s a measly dollar, I can’t help you.

Kitty Litter #3 by Ryan Holgersen & Nathan Brewer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Pirates! Vikings! Monsters! Torture! Action lines! Turtle Wurtle! Mayhem a’plenty in this one, which should come as a shock to no one who’s actually read their stuff, and shame on you at this point if you still haven’t. The cat steals a pirate ship, tortures Nathan when he drinks her milk, and turns the two men into monsters for her own amusement (on accident, of course). Oh, and they seem to be getting tired of the whole thing, at least judging by their interruption from the “editor” at the end. That’s fine, I like their stuff but I also like how they’re constantly trying new things, so if this is the end I say it’s best to go out on a high note, and this is definitely a high note, with all kinds of little stories in here. That being said, there’s also something to be said for staying around, doing the same thing over and over again, getting fewer and fewer laughs each time, until eventually people are happy if you manage to even get one laugh. It’s called lowering expectations, people!

Kitty Litter #2 by Ryan Holgersen & Nathan Brewer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Getting a new comic from these two pretty much always makes my week, so you can imagine my elation at seeing TWO new books. The other one will be up here later, of course, but how about this one? Well, have you ever wondered what would happen if your cat got really bored one day while you were at work and decided to make a machine that produced robots to take care of every single thing in your life? Of course you have, we all have. Well, Ryan and Nathan decided to let us all live that dream for the span of this short mini. You’ve probably already guessed that things didn’t end well with the robots, but I’ll say no more to avoid ruining the finer points of the story. And, as a little bonus, there’s a terrifically gruesome little anecdote in the back of the book about nature. Sort of.

Flame-Broiled #8 by Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Here’s the end of the horror series, and it’s the end of my pile o’ Flame-Broiled comics, expect for the 3-D issue, so get to work on a new story! Matt watches the ultimate horror movie in this one and gets taken away for his “perversions”. Another good issue, although I’m pretty sure now that this movie he’s talking about isn’t real, which is a damned shame, at least judging by his description. I’ve said so many nice things about this series, here’s something critical: that back page is almost illegible. Seriously, if I didn’t already know their website and e-mail address, I’d have no idea what the back said. This whole three issue story is great if you ever liked horror movies, as it really goes through the societal stereotypes along with why exactly people like gory movies so much.

Flame-Broiled #7 by Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

The story of Matt’s infatuation with horror films continues, although I only learned of one new movie that I’d like to see and apparently it’s impossible to find, in a completely selfish little aside. Also, we finally get to see Nick, and there’s a mini revolt about the writer vs. the artist. Not much of one, though, and here’s hoping that they stay together for awhile, as these are consistently at least good and sometimes great. Not sure how old he was in this (it says it’s the second year of elementary school, but I don’t see how he could have gotten all these movies if he was in second grade), but it looks like he always looked exactly the same. Good stuff again, and there’s more to come next issue, as he finally watches the movie that was almost impossible to find. Contact info is up there, send him some money and get the whole lot of these, if you want my opinion…

Flame-Broiled #6 by Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

You know, I’m really enjoying digging through all the books from one creative team. It’s great for showing the progression of their skills, that’s for sure. This one, as the cover may suggest, is all about Matt and his life-long obsession with horror movies. As someone who shares that obsession more than a little bit, it was great to see his reaction to some of the classics (and suggestions for a few new horror movies). The lettering is fine this time around, the art is getting better all the time (a lot more backgrounds in this one), and I’m starting to feel like I know Matt a little bit, which is a sign of a great auto-bio comic in my book. Good stuff all around, and there’s even a reference to Harvey Pekar, as the saga will not die! $1, check it out, as I know there are at least a few of you out there who appreciate a good horror flick…

Flame-Broiled #5 by Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Finally, the last issue of the Harvey Pekar saga! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed it, but I’m looking forward to seeing what else these two can do. In this one they finally meet Harvey, but spend most of the time feeling guilty for bothering the poor guy. He was sick and miserable and all they were doing was pestering Harvey about comics. There was a lot of great stuff in here with Matt documenting all of this self-doubts and trying to figure out just what he was doing there. The best issue of the “trilogy”, and it even helps explore Matt’s personality so you have more of a clue for future issues. I think you should get all three of these and see what these two are capable of. Contact info is up there, $1! By the way, I’ll throw in one tiny complaint, just so this isn’t all praise: work on the lettering. It’s neat enough, sure, but sometimes it’s dark enough to read and sometimes it’s tough. A minor, minor thing, like I said, but why screw up the easy stuff?

Flame-Broiled #4 by Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

The saga of meeting Harvey Pekar continues, as Nick and Matt work up the nerve to call Harvey in this issue. There’s a bit more to it than that, but that’s the gist of it. Will they ever actually see him? Who knows? I’m still liking the issues, although it’s hard to say what anyone would think of this comic if they only saw this issue. Worth checking out, although it might be best to get the whole saga here so you can have a sense of closure…

Flame-Broiled #3 by Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Imagine my surprise, upon finding Matt at SPACE, to see that he had 6 new comics out. 6! Sure, you could argue that a lot of the art is simplistic so it shouldn’t take that long to put an issue together, but I’m still impressed. He also said that he thinks things get a lot better by #8, so I’ll review one a week until I find out. Anyway, this one is about Matt eventually meeting Harvey Pekar. I say “eventually” because Harvey isn’t in this issue even a little bit. Instead, Matt discovers American Splendor, talks to Joyce Brabner (Harvey’s wife) on the phone, and talks about his phone phobia, which is strange, because I have the exact same thing. Not a paralyzing fear or anything… ah, read it to see what I mean. I’m still not blown away by the art, but the writing is fantastic and the art is more than good enough to serve the simple stories that are happening so far. If he decides to write about, say, all the different types of sea life in exact detail, he might be in trouble. Until then, these two are doing just fine.

Flame-Broiled #2 by Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

See, this is why it’s always better to read more than one issue of a series. This one is a whole bunch better than the first one. The first story is about a typical day for Matt (I’m guessing because he’s the writer). Kind of dull at first, but he eventually gets locked out of his parents house and his reactions are just so honest and heartfelt that it’s impossible to do anything but like it. The next story is about a conversation with someone at a garage sale about adult trading cards. Where they might have come from, what they might have been used for (they were pretty tame), that sort of thing. Interesting stuff. The last story is about how Matt and Nick met, which is kind of self-indulgent but still kind of funny. I got the impression that they knew how silly it was to put the story of them meeting in their comic. All in all I’d say that this was a definite improvement over the first one, a good sign indeed.

Flame-Broiled #1 by Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I’ve mentioned before that some autobiographical stories are better left untold. The first half of this book, about the author buying comics as a kid and his problem when he forgot to use a coupon that would have given him $5 back on his purchase, is a prime example. It’s slightly entertaining, that’s about it. The drawing is kind of messy too, with some things not shaded and the guy with a beard barely looking human at all. Not a bad story, just nothing that anybody really needed to see. Obviously this is a judgment call on my part, so feel free to ignore me. The second part, about a boy with no head, was better. Still kind of dopey, but the art was crisper and it was an interesting story. If you see it around, eh, I could take it or leave it, but it’s far from terrible.

Legal Action Comics Volume 2 edited by Danny Hellman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

It’s always a copout of some degree to just list the contributors involved in an anthology as proof of it’s greatness. Why not go into greater detail about the (in this case) 73 cartoonists and their individual contributions? Well, to me, the joy of a good anthology is discovering things as they come, finding new artists that you like, taking a chance on all sorts of people you’ve never heard of, that sort of thing. So nailing all this down specifically (outside of it being, in that case, by far the longest review I’ve ever written) kills a lot of that sense of discovery. But none of that is really the point of this book anyway. It’s about trying to help Danny Hellman pay some huge legal bills in a lawsuit that is still apparently ongoing (the only update I managed to find about it (as of 8/15/07) is that only one count is left in the lawsuit and that it still hasn’t gone to trial) and, on a selfish level, getting to see a bunch of the best cartoonists working today all gathered into one book. So how about that list? OK, here’s a few names: Sam Henderson, Carol Lay, Doug Allen, Art Spiegelman, Kim Dietch, Kaz, Johnny Ryan, Tony Millionaire, Ted May, Hans Rickheit, Dave McKenna, Michael Kupperman, Miss Lasko-Gross, Pshaw, Lauren Weinstein, Patrick Dean, Mike Diana, Rick Altergott, and Dean LeCrone, to name a fraction of the people that I had already heard of. There seems to be a bit less personal animosity towards Ted Rall this time around (although there’s still plenty here), with the stories being all over the place. It’s a great anthology whether or not you agree with Danny’s legal case (and what’s not to agree with?), and something that everybody who enjoys this genre at all needs on their bookshelf.

Legal Action Comics Volume 1 edited by Danny Hellman

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I could go on and on and tell you that the proceeds for this go to a great cause, and one that is vastly important to free speech in general. But if you want to know why Dirty Danny and Ted Rall are in court these days, you should go to the homepage of Danny Hellman and see for yourself. Or I could run down the stories and tell you what I thought of each one. Instead of wasting your time with that, if you read all about the lawsuit and still don’t think you should give money to this guy, I’ll just let you know who’s in this benefit, and this collection of talent should pretty much speak for itself. Tony Millionaire, Sam Henderson, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Renee French, James Kochalka, Marc Bell, Johnny Ryan, Steven Weissman, Ron Rege, Doug Allen, and Spain, among MANY others. I hadn’t seen most of the stuff in here, although I don’t know if it’s pulled from other stuff or mostly original. Whatever the case, it’s all really good, and I’d never had a chance to see Danny Hellman’s stuff before this and I like it quite a bit. Did I mention that this is over 250 pages? What the hell are you waiting for?

Milkbaby #7 by Matthew & Michael Heisler

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

The Heisler family must have done something right to produce two kids whose imaginations are this delightfully screwed up. After all, most families are lucky to produce one person who does comics in some way, so kudos to them for that. What’s this comic about? Well, if you take a look at that cover you can see almost everything that goes on in here, except for Rasputin. You have an adorable boy and his friend the elephant who get tricked into selling drugs, an act of sheer heroism, wacky silent hijinx, Detective Barney Miller on the job, and Rasputin, who has been done before in mini comic land, but it’s a great story and it’s always nice to see it done well. This is one of those comics where you can find little things in the backgrounds of the panels when you dig a bit, which is the best kind in my book. As for who does what in the comic, well, they both write and draw their own pieces, and as far as I can tell don’t collaborate directly on stories. At least not in this issue. I was going to say that Matt seems to be the more bizarre of the two, but after flipping through this again I have to say it’s a tie. An interesting collection of stories, worth checking out.

Unlucky #3 by Matthew Hawkins

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I’m going to assume that these things are just called “preview minis” and leave it at that. Maybe there’ll be a graphic novel of all these at some point and the name will make more sense, or maybe he’s coined a new term for mini comics, but who cares when the stories are this entertaining? Two more new stories in this one. The first, possibly the best of the entire series so far (and drawn by Matthew Bernier), deals with a young vegetarian woman who inhales most of a chicken after not eating meat for 6 years. To say there were disastrous results would be a bit of an understatement, but you have to add to the mix the fact that Matthew had a serious unrequited crush on the girl… and then she spent the better part of an evening puking and pooping in his bathroom. The next story, dealing with a random dead guy in New York (and drawn by Toby Craig), is surprisingly bland, given the subject matter. It’s mostly just Matthew and his friends driving around, trying to avoid dealing with the guy until they eventually have to call 911. Not a bad story, it’s just that the previous two issues and the first story here set the bar pretty high. Also, you may notice that there are new covers for issues 1 and 2. I think they’re a vast improvement on the old covers, but I’m keeping them both up here so you can decide for yourselves and to show off how awesome and “old school” I am for getting them way back when they had the old covers.

Unlucky #2 by Matthew Hawkins

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Another preview mini? That’s all well and good, but where’s the great big graphic novel full of these stories? When that’s my main complaint for an issue, you know I probably liked it a whole lot. There are two stories in here. The first (drawn by K. Thor Jensen) is about a sexual adventure Matt had in college that led to an infected nipple. It’s a long way to go for a punchline, but it is quite a punchline. And there’s gratuitous sex, so it’s hard to complain about that. The second story (drawn by MK Reed) deals with an awkward conversation waiting in line to order food. It’s all over a penny, but kudos to Matthew for standing up to an asshole. With this collection of talent combined with the ability to tell a fantastic story, I’m really excited to see a larger collection of these stories, so get to work! Or just keep these previews coming if you must, but I want a big pile o’ stories…

Unlucky #1 by Matthew Hawkins

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

If you’re anything like me, you probably never imagined that a school principal dressing up in a gorilla suit could ever have anything but a hilarious ending. Well, not so much, at least not according to the second story in this mini of true stories from Matthew, Katie Skelly (for the gorilla story) and Joe Simko. It’s especially horrifying because few artists out there have a more consistently adorable style, and the ending of this one is anything but adorable. There’s also a story about young Matthew trying to relate to his Father as a kid, asking any question in the world in the hopes of sparking a meaningful conversation. Good stuff all around, and this is called a “preview mini” because there are plenty more true stories to come, which sounds like a good thing to me after reading these first two.

Three Keys #1 by Nik Havert & Paul Schultz

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

You probably know already: do you like fantasy comics? I like fantasy books, on occasion, but the comics have always left me kind of cold. Purely a personal taste, as I’m aware that most mainstream comics have at least some element of fantasy to them, and a whole bunch of them do quite well. This is the story of a battle, told from the point of view of the three main characters: a magician, a rogue and an archer. Or possibly those aren’t the technical terms, I’m a bit rusty at the terminology. Anyway, the dialogue is more than a bit cheesy, but as they’re all telling increasingly fantastic tales, I think that’s perfectly OK. The art was great for the wacky sort of thing that they’re trying to do here, but the whole thing didn’t do much for me, as these comics usually don’t. Still, if this is sort of thing you’re into it’s a pretty fun comic.

Rocket Girl #2 by Nik Havert & Jesus Antonio Hernandez Rodriguez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

So how do super heroes learn how to use all those silly gadgets they wear anyway? This issue is a mostly embarrassing look at the early superhero life of Rocket Girl, as well as her first accidental “win” and subsequent earning of a nemesis. The glow wore off on me a little bit for #2, frankly. My earlier enthusiasm for the potential of the series remains, but something didn’t click for me here like it did for #1. Not the dialogue, which is still at least pretty good (it is a superhero book, after all, and some dumb phrases are bound to make their way in), or the art, which is still mostly great, or the general direction of the book, which is still, as I said, intriguing. Maybe it’s the fact that the story ended with “Find Out Next Issue… If There Is One!” It just drove home the futility of getting invested in books like this. Sure, these two issues were better than OK, but so what if they just dump it and move onto something else, or quit comics altogether? Here I am, trying in my own puny way to get the word out for a book… and they may have quit on this title two years ago and are just trying to sell off the backlog now. Cynical as hell, sure, and not a rant I intended to fall into, but there you go. That being said, um… this comic is now available in my online store!

Rocket Girl #1 by Nik Havert & Jesus Antonio Hernandez Rodriguez

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

After many, many years of being disappointed with comics that have superheroes in them, I’ve learned to take anything with a superhero in it and assume that it’s crap until it wins me over. Luckily, this one did that about one page in. The first page is a spread of the main… well, obsession of the main character, a superhero called Fire Chief. I’m not sure what else Jesus has done, as this is from a few years ago, but holy crap is this man a gifted artist. That single page was enough for me to turn the cynicism off and let this thing win me over, and then the writing kicked in. Yep, that’s all you need for a great comic, so I was hooked. This is the story of a woman named Polly Harris, a seemingly ordinary woman who has a massive crush on one of the more famous superheroes in their town, the Fire Chief. Why she has a crush isn’t immediately clear, as he’s in a baggy costume with a bucket over his head, but she has an absolute obsession, which eventually leads her to try the superhero thing out for herself. That may be a spoiler, as most of this book is the “origin” issue and we don’t see her in costume until the end, but come on now, the book is called “Rocket Girl”, how did you think it would turn out? Anyway, great stuff all around, completely engrossing, and kudos to Jesus on the choice of making the werewolf more like the old black and white movie werewolf and less like the giant beast that seems to be in all the movies these days. You damned kids!

Dare by Nik Havert & Renatus

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I’ve never been sure whether to take porn in comics seriously as a storytelling device. Nik says in the introduction that this was a lot wackier before he started writing it, then stripped it down into more of a spy story with some sex. The problem is that if I’m supposed to take all of this seriously, where do the silly scenes end up? This follows the story of Sylvia Dare, a woman who has risen through the ranks of spydom and eventually ends up in a practically invisible section, dealing with missing classified information and things of that nature. If I have to take everything here seriously though, it must be hard to be a super spy when you’re also a nyphomaniac. Generally speaking, I can’t imagine many spies get distracted with having sex with random people when they’re searching for information. Or, according to the James Bond movies, maybe they do and I shouldn’t take it all so seriously. It boils down to that, more than anything. If you can laugh along with some of the sillier scenes, there’s plenty to like here, and yes, I do mean more than a lot of naked people. Some of the fight scenes are done really well, and I thought her origin story was handled nicely. If you must take everything here seriously though, you’ll probably have a hard time with it. Unless, of course, all you’re looking for is some serious nakedness, in which case you’ll probably come away happy.

Agent Z (Cover B) by Nik Havert & Federico Zumel

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Want to get somebody hooked on a title right away? Shoot the main character in the head and leave him for dead. Then shoot him even more, but he just keeps on ticking. Why? What the hell is going on? I’m intrigued for #2 because of all that, so kudos to the crew. This is about an agent and his partner checking out some shady dealings at a lake. One of them gets shot, so the other agent, under fire, leaves him there in the lake. But the isn’t dead, and nobody knows why. Or maybe Agent Z (I’m just guessing that the guy who was shot turns out to be Agent Z) knows and isn’t telling anybody? Like I said, I’m intrigued. Good art, good writing, now all they need to do is keep this thing going so they can make a real story out of it. Worth a look, if you’re into the mystery/espionage stuff…

Agent Z (Cover A) by Nik Havert & Federico Zumel

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Act of Contrition by Nik Havert, Craig DeBoard & Wes Sweetser

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

The Pickle Press empire keeps wandering off in different directions, and that’s fine with me. This time out Nik has the story of a mystery involving a wide cast of characters, with the only thing that they seem to have in common being the local priest. The main thing needed to keep a story like this entertaining is suspense, and it did take about half of the comic for me to figure out for sure where this was headed. Take that as a measuring stick, I suppose. If you feel that you’re required to be fooled until the end of the book, you’ll go away disappointed. Or maybe I’m just the smartest man alive, who knows? The story begins with a man in a confessional, always a good way to go, telling a priest that he’s killed someone. The rest of the book is a flashback to the actual story, starting with a dead young woman, a crazy old woman who sees people in her bushes, a boyfriend who may or may not have had anything to do with the young woman’s death, and a priest who’s dealt with them all. Great dialogue pretty much the whole way through here, and those fat black shadows were perfect for the theme. Worth a look if you like the murder mystery/suspense type of stories.

Tales to Demolish #3 by Eric Haven

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This particular page on ye olde Optical Sloth has sat idle for far, far too long. Tales to Demolish #1 and 2 were tremendous things, a joy to read for completely different reasons. Of course, this did come out a couple of years ago, meaning that it’s me who wasn’t on the ball, but the wait was worth it. This one is in full, gorgeous color (hence the jump in cover price) and has a pile of different stories. There’s the one from the cover, dealing with the eternal war between mammal and reptile (and Eric was kind enough to show us the inspirations for the cover). This takes up the first half of the book, all told from the perspective of a guy watching a show on tv, and you just can’t go wrong with punching through somebody’s head. Next up is The Gunslinger, quite possibly my new favorite comic story, with exactly the perfect mix of dialogue and violence for the subject matter. And even after all that there are still 4 more stories, dealing with a campy midnight movie about a killer tree, a neighbor, the real story of Santa Claus, and the unfortunately named Dr. Arcanus. The coloring in this book is tremendous; everything jumps off the page, and it fills me with sadness once again that the world isn’t arranged so that the vast majority of the small press books can look this good. At any rate there’s not a bad story in the bunch, and it would be nice is Eric were made rich immediately so that he could concentrate on making comics.

Tales to Demolish #2 by Eric Haven

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

The name of the story in here is “I Killed Dan Clowes”. What, I still have to write a review? Isn’t that enough on its own to make you curious enough to buy it? Well, what am I supposed to do now? This is a short book and each surprise in it was better than the one that preceded it, so I don’t want to give anything away. It’s $3 and I’d never seen anything from this guy (that I remember anyway, maybe something in a random anthology somewhere), but now I’m sold. Does that help? His art was tremendous, perfect for this adventure story. I mean revenge story! Oops. As you can probably tell by the title on the cover, there’s plenty of mayhem, death and God. I’m not even going to tell you who else gets killed in here, or if Dan Clowes actually dies. Check out the website or send him an e-mail, I’m sure there are samples there that will tell you more than I’m willing to. Hey, what can I say, I like a good surprise, and I’m not a fan of ruining it for others. Look, even the sample isn’t going to give too much away…

Tales to Demolish #1 by Eric Haven

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

This series only has two issues in it that I know of and it’s one of the best things ever. This one is all about a man (a “glaciolologist”) who discovers a giant monster in a glacier. Huge, even. The monster eventually catches up with the guy, and I’m on the verge of giving too much away. These are tiny books, but I love the one track minditude of these things. He focuses on one thing in each book and just nails it, simple concept or not. This one is $3 too, you could probably read both of these in under ten minutes, but what a ten minutes it is.

Tepid 2003 by John Hankiewicz

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Sorry, I still haven’t gotten any good advice for how to get rid of the rainbow effect on certain covers. I can mute it, but it just makes everything else blurry, so what’s the point? Looking back over past reviews for John’s work, I noticed that my reviews are a collection of generalities, mostly without any specific information about the actual comic. I guess it could be said that I do that a lot, but for John’s comics I do it for a couple of reasons. For one thing, everybody out there who reads this site knows how much I like his stuff, and I don’t feel like I should have to “sell” someone on this once they see a few samples. Another reason is that there are usually very few “conventional” story points in these, so giving too much away would take away from the experience. For instance, this one is about baseball, Eleanor, and an eyeball. If I told you how it was about those things, all you’re discovering on your own are the feelings you get after reading an issue of Tepid. It’s a look at the unseen world, things that you don’t usually think about. He’s in a class all his own, and that’s a fairly impressive thing to be able to say about a guy who’s only been doing comics for about 5 years. He finally got a Xeric Grant, so this book looks gorgeous. It must take him many hours for each panel, there aren’t many comics out there with this meticulous attention to detail. Send him $4, read this book, make him rich! But not too rich in case that would cause him to retire and stop doing comics…

Handbook by John Hankiewicz

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

I’ve found that it’s just about impossible to scan only one page of one of John’s stories and have it make any sense. So I tried to scan two pages in a row, and… well, you tell me if it helped. This one is a collection of shorter pieces that I hadn’t seen before. There’s one about Dancing, one about Epictetus, Amateur comics and some stories about jazz and asthma. Mostly those stories really aren’t about any of those things, but you mostly have to figure these things out for yourself. Go back and read any of my other reviews to see what I think of the guy. Sorry to be so predictable, but what do you want from me? When he puts out a book that doesn’t make me think, doesn’t include at least three things that I’ve never seen before (this one has a great quote, someone grabbing a lightning bolt and the best depiction of a small child I’ve ever seen), and looks in any way rushed, I’ll be all over it, but in a negative way. Until then, be happy that there’s someone out there who’s putting out such consistently thought-provoking work.

Asthma by John Hankiewicz

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

If you ever wanted to try out John's comics but wanted to wait for something more substantial than his mini comics (or his giant regular issues), this is perfect for you. It contains pieces from old minis like Handbook, Martha Gregory and Dance, along with a couple of pieces that you may have seen in The Chicago Reader. Well, you may have seen it if you live in Chicago. For the rest of us, it might as well be new. John's comics have never been easy to review, mostly because so much of it is open to interpretation, and the bits that aren't are better appreciated seen than described by some yahoo like me. That being said, I am legally required to make a review more substantive than "reviewing is hard!", so I'll give it a shot. There is a series of silent pieces in here that may be my favorite thing John has done involving a little (although giant in perspective) girl, a house with two inquisitive arms, pipes oozing goo, a naked couple who slowly find clothes and explore their surroundings, and a series of four panel strips involving hands that always end in the rich, detailed hands being made into cartoon hands. I don't know why that image effected me the way it did, probably because John is so meticulous and detailed that simple images thrown into that can have a substantial effect. The jagged landscape (the ground is littered throughout these pieces with what appears to be broken glass), the waves of sound (unless they really are lightning bolts, they're mostly coming from what appears to be a speaker), and the interaction between all these players really comes together by the end. At least chunks of that story were in Handbook, maybe it took seeing them all together in this giant format for them to really hit me. Well, that's one piece (made up of a number of smaller pieces, granted) in this giant book, what else is here to be discovered? There the series of Dance pieces (which mostly have nothing to do with dancing), a set of silent pieces involving a man alone in a room with a rotating cast of objects, a story on betting, the Martha Gregory comics, a story of the train station his mother worked at when he was a child, and a personal story about Lot C. Yes, that's the simple version. Didn't I already make it clear that these things are best discovered on your own? This really is his most substantive work to date, and that's nothing to sneeze at when you consider the amount of detail he puts into everything he does. If you're scared of the price I do have minis here you can check out, but I recommend just diving in and going with this.

All-True Sometimes by Mary Jessica Hammes

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Why don’t more people do the daily (or weekly, whatever) bio strips? Is it just because newspapers don’t want them and, if so, what difference does that make when everybody alive has their own website? Just curious. This is a collection of strips, mostly true (judging by the title, anyway) about a variety of things. chopping trees, Sleepy Town USA, bagels, Duran Duran, getting older, joke time, sickness, bug karma, Petey the Unicorn, sweet tea, boys, Atkins, cheap holiday gifts, and apples on a roller coaster. Random enough for you? They’re not all fantastic, but enough of them are good to make this worth your time.

A Sacred Text by Justin Hall

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Sometimes the back of a book can sum up the whole thing better than I could. Still, they pay me the big bucks to ramble, so off I go. This is the story of a former slave who escapes under mysterious circumstances. He’s on the run and comes across a temple with a religious service going on, and the rest of the book is the story of his living with these people and trying to move on with his new (and suddenly free) life. It’s a fascinating story about destiny and love, among many other things, and it well worth a look. It also won the Xeric award in 2001 and I have seen very few bad things come with that caveat. I have a bit of a problem with the sloppiness of the lettering at times. Never anything too serious and it’s just me seriously picking at nits, but I had to find something negative, right? Anyway, every one of his books is available here now and I really like his art.

True Travel Tales #3 by Justin Hall

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

There’s only one true travel tale this time around, and it ends up possibly being the best of the bunch. A young woman named Sarah goes off on a two week tour in Mexico right around the holidays, as she wants to avoid the whole family affair and is at the lowest point in her life. She meets another woman on the bus, Helena, who has recently had her children taken from her (we’re never given the exact reason for this). They make an immediate and profound friendship, but things get complicated when Sarah discovers that Helena isn’t sleeping, and hasn’t slept for at least three days. Things get progressively crazier from there, as Helena slowly breaks down completely, falling into three distinct personalities, going so far as to act like a whore and speak Spanish fluently at times, something she had never been able to do. The struggle to keep Helena from hurting herself and/or out of a Mexican mental institution (a place, they are told, where crazy people sometimes never make it out of) is what makes this book such a beautiful thing, as these strangers give up large chunks of their vacation and sleep just to try and keep this woman going. Justin’s art has never looked better, and he explains in the afterward some of the artistic liberties he took (like telling the story from Sarah’s perspective). It’s odd to say that you should start at #3 and work your way back if you’re interested in this sort of thing, but this really is the best of the bunch.

True Travel Tales #2 by Justin Hall

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:35:16 +0000

These issues of True Travel Tales (#2 and 3) seem to have been forgotten about in the “online store” box for years, due mostly to the confusion of all the other comics coming in, and it’s a damned shame. One of my biggest complaints about autobio books, when I have anything to complain about, is that some people can manage to make a comic about nothing at all, having never been anywhere interesting or done much of anything worth noting. That is not an issue in this series, as these tales take place over various parts of the globe. The first story here involves some silent snorting of coke, followed quickly by a near-brawl as said coke ends up missing (they were silent because the walls were thin, it’s not a silent story). Next up is a shortie told in the rain dealing with reactions to the start of the Iraq War (this came out in 2003), and the shame which the author was already feeling back then. A familiar piece is next, or at least it’s familiar if you read the 2003 SPX anthology, dealing with masturbation and a Bible reading. Next up is A Final Goodbye, dealing with seeing a friend on what ends up being their death bed but, assuming they’d get better, never saying a proper goodbye. Finally there’s a text piece about the Fiesta de la Cruz in Bolivia, and how it can be dangerous to be a foreigner in a private, sacred event. These were all drawn by Justin but told by other people, usually with pseudonyms, unless perhaps we’re supposed to know Agustin “Tin Tin” or Sam “Le Pelona”. I can see why they remain basically anonymous (especially the woman masturbating in the dark church), and it all looks gorgeous, so what does it matter? I realize that this issue is basically an antique in comic years at this point, but fascinating stories like these never really get old.