Go ahead, get your arguments ready in your head. I thought I’d have quibbles with whatever ingredients John ended up using in this comic, but in the end he won me over. I see you, bacon fans, eyeballing that sausage patty and perhaps not seeing any bacon anywhere on that sandwich. Bacon is a wonderful thing, that’s one of those universally acknowledged truths (except for vegetarians, and most of the ones I’ve been friends with liked bacon, they just didn’t eat it for moral reasons). But a sausage patty is the perfect shape to cover a bun, so it’s always going to be the clear winner here. But wait, am I really not going to list John’s suggested ingredients? Reader, I am not. That’d basically be spoiling the whole thing! You can make an educated guess from the image, but you’ll get at least one of the ingredients wrong. The only thing I take issue with is that he puts the jam UNDER the cheese, which goes against decades of training on my part, but considering the cheese he uses I can see the whole thing working out really well. I knew this would happen, but now I have to go get a breakfast sandwich. I do want to mention that John has been making comics for many years (I even reviewed one of his book before the great website rebuild of 2010, see if you can find it!), and in hindsight I would probably have been better off getting one of his heavier autobiographical comics. But I’m always going to walk away from Cartoon Crossroads wishing I’d picked up more comics, and this one was a lot of fun. It’s not on his website yet, but I think it was $3?
My initial impression after reading this was that there’s not a book out there that calls for this kind of artistic treatment more than the Bible, but looking through John’s old work shows that this is kind of his style. Not always, as he’s clearly changed his style over the years, but fairly often. This is the part where I point out that I’m not any kind of an art scholar or student, so I can only hope that nobody is reading these reviews for that kind of viewpoint. If anybody had they would have long ago failed out of art school because of me and would have taken me out in a fairly brutal fashion as revenge, so I’m going to keep assuming that never happened. But the image below, for example, shows Adam and Eve hiding out after eating the forbidden fruit. You can make them out, and you can even (to me) see the fear on their faces, along with a barely defined figure peering around looking for them. In the chaotic lines around it, what else can you make out? This is where things get subjective in a hurry, so consider that a rhetorical question. Other images depict different scenes from the first book in the Bible: there’s Adam being molded from the dust, his getting placed in Eden, the first time he’s shown animals, the woman being made from the rib of Adam, and more; these all come from Genesis, so maybe you can guess what he chose to draw. But each image had me flipping back to it after finishing, looking for details in the din and seeing new things each time. So it was a rewarding experience for me and am curious to experience the next book (which John was nice enough to send my way). It’s well worth checking out, assuming you have an interest in the subject matter. $13
Generally speaking, there are two types of people who read books with maps heavily featured in them. There’s the type who obsess over the details and gladly call out the author if the movements they describe wouldn’t make any sense in their own maps (hello Game of Thrones!) and the readers who ignore the maps. Chris, as he makes very clear in his introduction, is the former type, even going so far as to say that he’ll read books specifically because they have maps in them. This comic is a natural outgrowth of that obsession (and a companion to his Cities comic). Maps let you wonder what life would be like on different sections, where (if it’s not accompanied by a global map) they could be placed on a planet, what the environment might be like, etc. The sample image gives the game away a bit, but the rest of the comic is close-up images of different sections of the map, and it wouldn’t make much sense to use one of those images with no context. This is one of those cases where whether or not you should check out this comic is a simple question. Are you obsessed by, or at least interested in, maps and speculating about what might be going on in there? Or do you ignore the maps? Folks who are the former type, come on down! Probably should go ahead and get the set of this along with Cities so you have full context too. $6
You don’t see them very often these days, but I do love a tribute comic. This is Brian’s homage to the Ninja comics of his friend Michael Anthony Carroll, who I reviewed a fair amount back in the day (before the great website update of 2010), and then apparently stopped reviewing for some reason? Odd. I’ll have to grab some of ninja comics the next time I see him at a con to catch up/get some context for this one. Not that you need much context, because: ninjas! Everybody knows ninjas. This one starts off with a brief explanation of the concept, then it’s on to the “training video” portion. Other stories include a listing of their weapons, Godzilla dressed as a ninja, a very vocal movie critic who’s not having a good time watching a ninja movie in a darkened theater, and of course Franken-ninja. I also couldn’t possibly avoid talking about probably the longest story in here, about a silent fart who takes up ninja tools and goes on a rampage. I thought it was funny, but if your eyes just rolled out of your head, maybe this one isn’t for you. Which is fine; very few people have as many comics to choose from as Brian does. I found the whole comic to be a hoot, even if I was probably missing some context, so if you’re up for some ninja mockery I’d say you should give this one a shot. $5
Hey everybody, it’s a new Val Cannon mystery! OK, that’ll wrap up this review, as… huh, you probably want me to talk about this a bit more than that. This is considered to be #30 of the Meeting Comics series, which I’ve been praising for ages, so you can probably guess where this review is going to go. But fine, I’ll go into some detail. This one is set in 1997, back in the younger days of Val. When we last saw her she was having sex with every one of her 5 of so roommates, first one by one and then (when they all found out about it) as one big group. But this issue has a bit of a “morning after” vibe from all of them, as they’ve each had time to think about what they might want in the future, and oddly it might not involve a daily orgy. To each their own, I guess! Still, that can’t possibly be the attitude of 1997 Tori, right? Also, doesn’t the title allude to a mystery? It sure does! Their house raccoon has gone missing, along with the trap they use to take it to the vet for checkups. Unfortunately they all blacked out the night before, and since this is before the age of ubiquitous cell phones, photographic evidence is a bit hard to come by. Still, they’re able to piece together enough information to get a good idea where to check out next, and they get to be in disguises to do it. Will they be discovered? Will they figure out what happened to their raccoon? Will everybody change their minds about the orgies? I genuinely don’t know, as this is the first of a two part story. I reckon we’ll find out next time though! $9
I’ll admit it, there are times where I zone out when there are large blocks of text in a comic. If I’m reviewing it I fess up (as I’m somehow always guilty about it), but yeah, sometimes all the text gets me to tune out. I mention that mostly so I can say that Dan has another one of his delightful… stories? Calling it stream of consciousness rambling sells it short, as he clearly sticks to his own plan throughout. Whatever you’d call it, this time around it’s four pages instead of the usual one or two, and after reading it my brain got the clear signal that I had just read a piece of art and it was time to ramble about it myself on my website. It wasn’t until I sat down and logged in that I realized that I hadn’t read the actual comic yet. Oh laughs! It really is possible to have them by myself while reading comics and then writing reviews! So basically yes, the four page story alone is worth that measly $5. But there’s also a whole comic that comes with it! He’s sticking with full color, and I’m a fan of the idea. This one is all about Lily, the goth girl from DuoLingo (not familiar myself, but I looked it up and she’s real) getting transported to a cave of evolved dinosaurs. In this case “evolved” means “walking upright and talking,” not telepathic dinosaurs, if you were thinking about that for some reason. He goes to great lengths to mention that this story is about the real Lily, so it’s now canon that that lady has lived with dinosaurs in a cave. We see her on a beach, we see her wash her pits in a bathroom, we see her join the civilization of the dinosaurs and return to her own world. But not all is as it seems! In fact none of it is, but I’m not going to get into specifics. Here’s to another 34 issues at a minimum of this constantly delightful series! $5
Jordan Crane! He’s one of those people who got me into the small press comics back in the day; if you look up his name on the website his reviews are mostly from the 2001-2004 era, where all of the “site news” posts have vanished so I’ll never know exactly when those reviews were first posted. And oh, past me, to complain about an $8 graphic novel. So young and dumb! Anyway, in my world, he put out two amazing graphic novels, several years later put out a kid’s book, and then vanished. In reality, he put out five issues of a series from Fantagraphics, was working on a graphic novel that took him 20 years to complete (Keeping Two, which I’m shocked I never reviewed), and never stopped contributing stories to anthologies. Which, and sorry to take so long to get to the point, is what this volume contains. Despite my admiration for Jordan’s work, I still honestly wasn’t expecting to be blown away by this because hey, anthologies, am I right? Some good stories, some bad, many so-so. Allow me to murder any suspense that you may be feeling: this is one of my favorite books of the year. Top to bottom, with no qualifiers for “some of the stories were just OK.” Nope! This is a book I’ll be returning to on a regular basis. I have to mention the design of the book, as it very quickly moves into the realm of being one of the prettiest books that I own. And good lord, do I ever own a lot of books. The thick pages mixed in with the thin, the vibrant (and there should be a word stronger than “vibrant” for this) colors, the single or double page silent drawings between the stories (which often feel like padding but in this case masterfully raise or lower tension between the stories)… if there’s an award available for book design and he doesn’t win it, what are we even doing here people? Perhaps now you’re curious about the contents, or not willing to take my word for it. Well, I’m not going to walk you through all of it (this is a dense volume), but things start off in fairly wacky fashion, with a thief in old timey prospecting times trying to get a locked briefcase off of the handcuffed wrist of a dead man. And I was set for wacky times, I’m so fine with that! But the images in between stories told the tale and set the mood, leading to the quiet claustrophobia of “Keep a Light Out.” Then the stories shift to black and white (but not the larger drawings), with a heartbreaking story of a relationship dying a slow death, mixed with images of it when it was just getting started, which also continues later in the book. And you know what? That’s all you get from me. A solid chunk of the joy of reading this is not knowing what to expect after every page/story, and I’m not going to ruin that any more than I have to. Again, one of my favorite books of the year, and if you like comics at all (and what would you be doing here if you didn’t?), this one is mandatory reading. $39.99
I briefly thought that there was a printing problem with this issue, as the title and author is on the back cover, before I figured out that it’s more like a manga. A tip for you, gentle reader, so you maybe don’t fumble around as much as I did. Or at least part of the story is, while the rest starts from the usual (in America) front of the book. Although you can kind of read that part right after the initial story on the side with the title and author and it’ll still work in that order. OK fine I’ll fess up! This one didn’t completely click for me. Blame it on the manga aspects (I still haven’t read enough of that for it to feel natural to read a story in the “wrong” order), I’ll absolutely accept the blame for that. There’s still a lot to like here, even if I feel like I’m missing the big picture. The haunting cadence of a whole lot of the dialogue, the absolutely otherworldly sandy area where they’re all trapped, the inhuman masks on the walls (and how they may or may not tie in to the rest of the mystery), all that kind of stuff. And Yokoyama has put out all kinds of books, so it’s not like he’s some new artist which, once again, proves that I’m the dummy here. These things happen! On the other hand, what a great opportunity for you to just get the bundle of four comics instead of just one. You may find this one a headscratcher too, but even if you do, you’ll have the three other latest mini kus books to keep you entertained. $8 for this, or $22 for the bundle.
Was I expecting to get my heart broken while reading the latest Nugget comic? Reader, I was not. I mean sure, Tony’s work is getting better with each issue of Nugget, and it had already started off strong. But generally speaking my overall mood after reading one of his comics has been more “what did I just read” and/or “oh, so THAT’S what he was going for,” and this one… but hey, I’m getting ahead of myself. There are two stories in this issue, one very short to start things off followed by the much longer piece. Things start off with Nugget taking a walk in the woods with his mother, where he eventually finds and takes home a caterpillar. Anybody who’s done that themselves knows what’s coming next, and that’s the shocking discovery of that caterpillar somehow being replaced by a cocoon, and then a butterfly. It’s a sweet story about the inevitability of change and accepting it when it happens, which serves to make the next story all the more devastating. It’s told mostly (though not entirely) in alternating panels or pages, and it’s not apparent what’s happening for a couple of pages. One panel will depict Nugget’s mother in a variety of scenarios raising young Nugget, then the next image will show adult Nugget taking care of his visibly older and frailer mother. It’s relentless and the end of the story is inevitable; Tony has really stepped up his game with the facial expressions to really take the reader on a journey. Nugget was clearly trying his best but overwhelmed and so very sad, his aged mother was often terrified, confused and embarrassed, and the images of some of the best moments of his childhood juxtaposed with the heartbreaking reality of those final days and months of a life were just brutal. But not completely, because there was still so much love and joy in the memories of their younger days. It was reckoning with a complete life, good and bad, and it’s probably Tony’s best work. Plenty of people will find parallels to events they’re experiencing with their own parents and family, that’s for sure. If you’re looking for more mayhem I’d recommend some of his other issues, but the overall best issue is probably this one. $10
Just so you know, l’il reader, I used the Google translate option to link Giovanna’s website in English. If it doesn’t actually work that way you can do the same thing, or if you know Italian (or want to learn) there’s always the original version. The clues for this story are visible on the very first page, which makes it yet another one of those comics that’s tricky to talk about without giving too much away. Should I give up on my “no spoiler” stance? Maybe assume that 90% of the people who come to this website just click on the link for the artist and don’t bother reading any of this nonsense? Eh, I kind of have to assume that people do read this, so you all once again get to witness me dancing around a comic without saying too much about it. It went in directions that I didn’t expect, including an ending that smacks the reader right between the eyes, is what I can say without giving anything away. Things start off with <spoiler>, then we shift to a rapturously happy couple in bed. There’s a sudden strangeness in the air that they both notice, then one of them leaves, as that person obviously knows exactly what that strangeness signified. A plea is made and heard for more time together, and that’s right around the part where their partner also decided to leave the bedroom and find out what was going on. I thought that the little boxes all over the pages really added to the sense of claustrophobia of the whole thing, but it looks like Giovanna uses it in a lot of her work, proving once again that “what the heck does he know anyway?” is always a valid response to my reviews. Anyway, yes it’s worth a look, and as always the better deal is getting four of these mini kus books at once for $22 rather than just one for $8. But I’m not the boss of you!
What’s left to say about Brian’s work? It’s alarming to think about how much I must have repeated myself by now, maybe 50 comic reviews in and 20 (ish?) years later. So here’s something: I’ve seen a whole lot of collections of comics by single creators that have appeared in various anthologies over the years. I’m always a fan of the idea; far too many great stories disappear from memory because they were only available in an anthology that had a print run of 20 copies and disappeared forever. But a lot of people, at least some of the time, tend to phone it in for those types of stories. I’ve read several of Brian’s anthologies now, and I’ve never once gotten that impression. Anyway, hey, look at this, it’s a collection of short stories from various anthologies! Brian lists where these first appeared for the curious, and this might be the first time where I don’t think I’ve read even one of these stories before. This one has 11 stories (even though it looks like more when the four panel strips are listed separately), starting with Gilmore Girls Vs. Godzilla, just to warn you right off if you were in the mood for some quiet autobiographical stories. An excellent punchline to that one, and some oddly plausible action before that (OF COURSE coffee would affect the Gilmore Girls in roughly the same way that spinach does Popeye). Next up is some unwelcome relationship advice in dealing with an abusive partner, which I can’t say any more about because I’m not going to spoil a thing about that ending. Then there’s the story of Brian dressing up as a hobo for Halloween (as a small child), an entirely too plausible Jurassic Park sequel (which they honestly may have done by now), and a fantasy sword slasher, sort of. Probably the most disturbing story in the comic is next, and if I told you that it’s centered around a cheese ball and that’s it’s occasionally terrifying I doubt that you’d believe me. And yet! The other big story in here deals with a man driving to Texas, happy to get away from the snow, only to land in a blizzard. Was I expecting the punchline to this one? Once again, I was not! There are also a few more stories but hey, who doesn’t love surprises? It’s another solid collection of comics that requires reading no previous issues to understand, so if you’ve been seeing Brian’s name for years here but were never sure where to dive in, right here would do just fine! $8
So there are a couple of ways to interpret the fact that it took me roughly half of this comic to fully understand that it’s entirely fictional. One is that Janne is such an excellent storyteller that the same thing would likely happen to most people who read this comic. Another is that I’m a gullible rube. Luckily, both things can be true! This is the story of a young woman who’s trying to save up to leave her home town to go to college. She’s working a fairly brutal factory job at a candy factory and saving even more money by living with her grandmother, and we learn a couple of facts about candy factories that are more than a little gross and alarming (unless they’re entirely made up too; I can no longer trust my own judgment). One day her boss makes an offer to her: he needs a truckload of gummy worms disappear so he can get the tax write-off, and he needs somebody to do the dirty deed. Since her main goal in life is to get as much money as quickly as she can, she has no real choice but to agree to the scheme. She dumps them in the woods, but unfortunately a massive rainstorm washes them away and right back through town, where they’ve mixed with some other chemicals in the river and have puffed up to massive sizes. The story becomes a global phenomenon, she’s mortified and avoids work for a few days before finally deciding to face the music… and finds her life completely changed, but not in the way she was expecting. The rest of the comic showcases her new skill set and the whole story is told as a confessional that gets to the bottom of what really happened. See? Plausible that I could have bought into it! Check it out, it’s a hell of a story, and you can figure out if you would have fallen for it too without some advance warning. Be honest! $8 (or $22 for a set of four comics)
If you’re wondering which of the 8 comics that mini kus sent along this time had my favorite cover, well, you’re looking at it. Come on, that should win all of the prizes. Also I’m not going to do the thing I sometimes do where I post the synopsis on the back of the comic here verbatim, but it might be the most misleading one so far, in a hilarious way (the people who read that in the hopes of reading this comic to get better arguments in favor of being a carnivore had to go away disappointed). So what’s the comic about? Well, a doofus (depicted below being told that he should use his hat as toilet paper, based on his previous arguments) finds out that he can’t get anything with meat in it at a party. Furious, he leaves to find meat. Biting a dog doesn’t end well, so after his encounter below he chases a runner, because she must eat meat! Nope, she’s vegan too, and lists lots of famous people who are also vegan (with the important disclaimer that they’re all also rich). But he does finally make his way to the slaughterhouse, and there is where the fun really starts. Is it really fun? Good god no. It also passes up several opportunities to turn preachy, instead relying on the most terrible thing of all: facts. What the lives (and deaths) of the cows are like, the tortures that pigs go through (and how they’re forced to live before and during those tortures), and let’s not even get into the grim reality of chickens (what did you think their lives were like now that breasts and thighs are so much bigger)? The amazing thing about the comic is that it somehow manages to be hilarious at several points. It shouldn’t be! But Emilie gets there. Still, if you’re already vegan, you should pass these out to your friends who are still resisting. If you’re like me and still hanging on the meat eating lifestyle, this will thoroughly expose the fact that only argument you’re left with is “but it tastes good!” $8 (or $22 for a pack of four mini kus books)
Cities! We all live in them (probably). This comic contains some of Chris’s ideas for what cities could be, or at least where they could be; he also has a lengthy introduction where he speculates on what could be going on in these cities, but since they exist in worlds that we can’t get to yet, it’s hard to say much for sure. This is a silent comic (after that introduction) with titles for what type of cities are depicted on these two page spreads, and since it’s silent it’s once again one of those things where I’d be giving away the comic if I said too much about what types of cities are depicted. There are some solid ideas in here (and some ideas that will almost certainly come true if humanity is going to survive all of the climate change going on), and if you’re the type with a solid imagination, you’re absolutely going to take a few minutes out of your day to wonder what a city in a tree would actually be like. Oops, I gave away one of the cities! Anyway, this is a fun (and occasionally gorgeous) comic, so give it a shot why don’t you? Especially if you’ve read some of his other comics and enjoyed them. Eh, you know how comics work by now right? $6
Is it possible for a comic to be heartbreakingly quirky? Devastating and darkly funny? It almost feels like “bittersweet” could work, but that’s still not quite right. Hey, it looks like another mini kus book where you’ll have to figure it out for yourselves! If you’re curious, “etchingroom1” is an artistic group comprised of Kristina Yarosh and Anna Khodkova; since I have no idea if this was a group effort or the vision of one of them, I’m putting the collective name in the title and their real names as tags. More information than you needed or wanted, but there it is! This one starts off as a typical day, until the author walks by a candy shop. This brings up all kinds of memories of a recent heartbreak, and what follows are a series of imaginary candies that depict what it feels like to be going through a breakup and what comes after it. Most of these are double page spreads (and somehow manage to be both hilarious, grim and entirely too true), and I don’t want to give them away in the review. Outside of the sampled image, anyway, which kind of says it all about the “I know we shouldn’t be dating but I can’t bring myself to say anything” stage of dating. A few of these felt like gut punches, and if you’re ever been in love and then had it end badly you’ll most likely feel the same way. If you’ve never been in love but are curious about heartbreak (or are that mythical creature who married their high school sweetheart and have never had any problems), then this comic would do you some good too. See how the other half (or really 99%) live! This is $8 solo or $22 for a set of four comics; this is also the fourth comic of that set, so if you go back over the last few weeks you’ll see my reviews for the other comics and maybe that can help you make up your mind?
Is there such a thing as the perfect title? Maybe it’s just that I’m extrapolating it to also include the current state of the world and so very many world leaders, which was probably not Fran’s intention. But hey, it also works pretty damned well for these two stories, so kudos to him. As that cover says, there are two stories in here. The first one starts off with two revolutionaries in a situation that is rarely seen in popular culture: the moments before they go out on their dangerous mission, just making small talk and making sense of it all. The masks that they have to wear, for example, don’t let the person turn their head and still see properly. Part of the plan or further evidence that the bosses don’t know what they’re doing? One of the two revolutionaries has one opinion and the other chooses to be optimistic about the whole thing. We don’t see the actual event at all, but instead check back in with the two of them after things have gone horribly wrong, and this time they have to make a terrible decision by themselves. The second story is a bit more lighthearted, at least on the surface. There’s a monk who, after spending most of his life as a fairly normal and unremarkable person, suddenly shows up every morning in a new and ridiculous pose. He also can’t be moved from these new poses, despite the best efforts of the other monks and townspeople. Has he revolutionized how to practice his religion, or is there something else going on? Fran is becoming a master (if he’s not there already) of depicting the quiet moments and not taking anything at face value. This is another damned fine comic, so if you haven’t been reading his stuff yet, this is yet another good chance to get into it. $5
I feel like if I say that this book had a slow burn that I’ll be cast out of polite society, but I’m saying it anyway. Of course, if you read the synopsis on the back of the book (or the website) the whole story is right there, but I’ll still try my usual shtick of avoiding spoilers. This one starts off with our hero asleep in bed, with both hands immersed in buckets of water. For the first few pages we see her going about her day, always careful to keep her hands covered, before running into a child who’s becoming encased in ice. She takes her hands out of the buckets and they immediately burst into flames, which turns out to be a lifelong condition for her. She also runs into a thirsty dog (and has to give a warning about the hot water) and an assault, which is a pretty easy thing to break up if your hands burst into flame. Finally things take a turn for the worse, with life or death stakes for our hero. Can she get herself out of a mess? It’s another delightful tale from the mini kus folks, and it even stays that way if you stop reading before the ending. Oops, that was damned near a spoiler. Anyway, it’s worth checking out, and as always you can either buy it for $8 or buy four issues for $22. The savvy shopper, of course, always buys in bulk. $8
A note to the curious: I included a tag for the title of every mini comic in this collection, so if you’re worried that you’ve already read these stories, check out the list. It was entirely new to me, and I actively try to get new comics at cons, so maybe it’ll all be new to you too? There are six stories in here, all published from 2018 to 2023, with two of the stories being from full mini comics and the other four coming from anthologies or as parts of other comics. But before all that there’s a lengthy intro from M.S., where she really gets into what she gets out of comics and her thoughts on her older work. Also included is an invitation from her to skip it if you don’t enjoy such things, in which case I imagine you went right to the comics. The shortest piece starts things off and really sets the tone for the whole book; it’s her having a conversation with a giant dummy she took home from the gym, with just about a perfect ending. Next up is probably the highlight, or at least the one that’s stuck with me the most so far, which details her trip to an anime convention (to help out her friend at her table), her disastrous decision to both consume a giant edible cookie and also give one to her friend, and the experience under that influence combined with the aftermath. As somebody who has had “too much” of an edible once or twice, it was a harrowing tale (and it’s not like M.S. was new to edibles, she just found the most potent cookies on the planet), and just chock full of terrors. Her trip to get change for her friend through that particular crowd was actively making me nervous, and I’m currently sober as can be. There’s so much more, but that was the kind of story that you should buy collections for alone, so I’m not going to spoil any more of it. Next is Plunder Bird, an awkward tale of what she describes as her worst sugar daddy back in the time when she was still doing that to make some cash. How she kept a straight face once those tattoos were revealed is beyond me. Rotten is fourth, and the kind of thing that I can’t say much of anything about without giving it all away, but god damn, maybe that one is actually my favorite of the book. What was happening around her during those three months in the world, her efforts to hide it, the comments from people around her who didn’t know what was happening, that was just one damned near perfect comic. The Uncut Gem was the one story I had read (it was in an issue of Rust Belt Review), and it remains a rare action movie that I’d pay to see if somebody had the guts to film it. Finally there’s the story of her accompanying/coaching her friend for a big weightlifting convention, right as covid is hitting and nobody is sure what’s going on. There’s the drama of the competition, a quick side trip to the Billy Ireland museum, and shakes. What more could you want? The only quibble I have with this book is technical (there was a page that was printed twice in the last story, but it seemed like the next page was printed after that so nothing was lost), but overall maybe this is her book that I’d recommend first to people. Dig into her stuff with a collection of smaller stories, then you can tackle the graphic novels. $20
Did I assume one thing from that title and end up getting something else? Reader, you know I did. I took it literally, expecting a silent comic of, you know, observations. Not so! This is a more of a guide for how to unplug, take in your surroundings and respect them, even if you might have to invent some of those surroundings. It starts small, with a few surprise observations, before those carry her fully into a new way of thinking. She also details something that has always fascinated me, and that’s finding unique things on your walks. She uses sea shells mostly as an example, but these can be unique rocks, twigs, unknown detritus, etc.; just anything that strikes your fancy as being unique enough to be noticed. I speak from experience when I say that these are not necessarily going to be appreciated as gifts, so don’t even try it; these are more for your own personal fulfillment. She stresses that collecting is not the goal and that these found items are best placed back in the wild (after whatever length of time seems right to you), which is a fantastic message for this miserable modern world. There’s a genuine life lesson to be learned in this comic, which is rare, and there’s some fairly stunning imagery to go with it. What’s not to love? ($8, or $22 for a bundle of four comics)
Could it be? There’s no listing on Brian’s website for buying these three issues together yet, have I maybe finally managed to catch up to him? Ha ha no. There’s still two more issues of the series for me to read, among other things. It’s more likely that he’s behind on updating his website than he is behind on putting out comics. Oh, and you’re welcome for the bonus schmutz that I accidentally scanned with the covers. I like to keep it real around here! Anyway, overall this story does seem to be heading towards a conclusion, as our heroes keep getting closer and closer to Facelift. #19 is where everybody finds out that Facelift has no finger prints on file, meaning he’s never had plastic surgery, which seems impossible in this world. I have my own theory as to why that might be the case, but since half the fun of a mystery like this is finding out the answer, I’ll keep it to myself (this also lessens how stupid I’ll look later if I’m completely wrong). #20 has Liz and Kim get their date redirected to check on a movie star, and as you can probably guess from how the rest of the series has gone, a wellness check is rarely going to end well. It even takes things a step further than that, which is why I made that cryptic comment earlier in the review. Finally #21 has a “View” like show discussing current events, followed by a very brief moral dilemma by our journalist friend Jorge. The killer seems to be contacting him directly, but he got fined the last time he didn’t turn the letter in right away. Does he give up the scoop and follow the law, or do his best to become a part of the story? The series is still a compelling mystery, so heck yeah I’d still recommend it, and I don’t see anything in Brian’s brief synopsis of #23 to indicate that that’s the last issue. Buy a collection or two maybe, see what you think! $5
Posted by Kevin 
