So if you read the review for the previous issue (I am, as always, assuming that anybody who has the time to read a single review here also has the time to read all several thousand of them), you’ll know that I was trying to figure out how I’d manage to review every issue of this series, as Andrew sent along a significant chunk of them at once. Well, I’ve figured it out: it’s time for another in my very occasional series of weekly reviews! So you can expect one of these reviewed every week probably for the rest of 2021. If you hate them, they’ll be easy enough to skip! Still, that’s pretty harsh. I’ve only written one and maybe a third of a review so far; it’s a pretty extreme reaction to hate them. Anyway, another problem with reviewing four panel funny strips is how to avoid spoiling the funny when you do inevitably buy a copy. One excellent method (and one I’ve honed over my two decades of reviewing comics) is to avoid the comic altogether, usually while rambling about some other subject, like the idea of reviewing these comics weekly. See? You’re way into this review and I haven’t said a thing about any specific strip. Useless, you say? I’m failing in my duty as a reviewer? Yeah, probably. Feel free to dock my $0 pay for each review. OK, fine, I’ll mention the comic. For the second time I had all kinds of trouble picking the sample image, as a solid dozen of them at least got a chuckle out of me, and several got a literal “laugh out loud” reaction. Once again, you’ll relate to this stuff a lot more if you’ve had or have an office job, but I think damned near anybody would enjoy them. Subjects in these strips include (see, I’m getting to some specifics) the charm of a people person, the lingering desire for death, pulling up the ladder after you’ve made it to the top, bitcoin, breaking through that glass ceiling, the percentage of pants being worn during teleconference meetings, fuck the police, the always helpful H.R. department, and taking a moral stand. There are also several strips I haven’t mentioned, and I might have been a little misleading on a few of the ones I did. Yep, ever helpful, that’s me! Look, it’s a solidly funny collection of strips that I’m thoroughly enjoying so far. What else do you need to know? $5
I guess sometimes a title really does tell you everything you need to know. This is the story of four pelicans who are, well, bastards. That sample page should give you the gist of things. In this comic we see pelicans robbing (not that they need money for anything), pooping on anything and everything, occasionally doing some good by harassing the leader of North Korea (not that their motivation was to do something good), and eventually getting captured after one of the cops finally figures out how to take them down. Does it involve a net? Yes it does! Whether or not this comic is for you should be a simple question to answer. Do you like the idea of reading about asshole birds doing whatever they want? If the answer is yes, then absolutely get this comic. If the answer is no, honestly, this comic still might win you over, as there are plenty of funny bits. If you’re the type of reader who demands a compelling, meticulously plotted story, well, it’s kind of on you that had questions about a book called “Pelican Bastards,” but maybe this comic will help you lighten up and enjoy some good old fashioned mayhem. So am I saying that this book is for everyone? That wasn’t where I thought this review was going, but it’s looking like that’s true. Unless you completely hate pelicans, you weirdo, in which case Michael has several other comics that you’d probably enjoy. So yeah, give it a shot! You would not believe some of the stuff these pelicans can fit in their beaks. $5
For anybody who’s brand new to the website (welcome!) and are just wondering if this particular comic is worth reading, yes, it absolutely is, especially if you’re a fan of autobio comics. Brian has been doing this for roughly a couple of decades now, has damn near mastered the areas of the artform he’s working in, and is prolific to a degree that honestly has me wondering if there are secretly two of him out there. But I wanted to get into a general problem with autobio comics, and this one is an excellent opportunity to bring it up. This is a collection of his journal comics from January of 2021, so if you’re reading this in the distant future, let’s just say that things were extremely screwed up in America at the time. This comic mostly covers the attempted coup (and the fallout) in Washington, the impending arrival of Brian’s third child, and the troubles that Brian and his wife (Amy) are having with his parents. It’s this third subject that I want to talk about, because after reading this comic… I have no idea what the problem is with Brian’s parents. Oh, I know that they’re distant to him (after five months they didn’t ask even once how Amy or the baby was doing), I know that the problem seems to stem from his sister moving back to Columbus two years earlier, and that every attempt to mend fences seem to be coming from Brian’s side. But… what happened? Did they split over politics, as is happening to all kinds of families? Did his sister burn down his house? If your response to these questions is “that’s way too personal a thing to be asking,” well, fair enough! One way I never would have asked about this is if it was never in the comic. That’s the thing about autobio comics: you can’t go halfway. Joe Matt back in the day (I’m really dating myself with this one, as he hasn’t made a comic in at least a decade) blew up chunks of his life with his autobio. He put out some brilliant comics for awhile, but you’d have to ask him if it was worth it. Maybe Brian addressed the origins of the problem in a previous comic and I’m either forgetting it or never read it, but a brief synopsis would have done wonders. Maybe his parents have a legitimate grievance? Maybe Brian and his family are really going above and beyond by even trying to mend fences? The point is that in a truly open journal comic, I wouldn’t have to ask the question. I’m just left with the impression that his parents are assholes, which may or may not be fair to anybody involved. Still, all in all there’s a few great strips in here, and the attempts to patch things up are fascinating. I just think there’s a glaring hole that the reader is missing and that it would probably bug more people than just me. $6
How much can you really do with several stories written about bricks? Quite a bit more than you’d imagine, I’d say. This is a collection of several stories featuring this brick (or is it a different brick every time? Bricks are short on identifying features) having adventures. Sometimes they’re single page stories, sometimes they go a few pages or even longer. The whole book is silent outside of his crossover with Robb Mirsky and his Dingus and Dum-Dum characters, as their chattiness clearly could not be contained. This is yet another review where I try not to spoil too much from a mostly wordless comic, because if I did that you’d have no incentive to see what’s in here for yourself. His website also has several samples, because that’s how websites work. So, let’s see… in here you have bricks rocking out, bricks doing chores, bricks skateboarding, bricks pooping, bricks playing sports, bricks taking an eye exam, bricks carving a pumpkin, etc. There are a whole lot more stories in here, but even describing the premise tends to give away a huge chunk of the concept. I’ll just say that David is able to get more out of the three holes and square shape of a brick than I would have thought possible, and he has a few other comics available as well, so he’s not new to the concept. I read this one before the other comic he sent me, which apparently has the origin story of the brick, so maybe I’ll eventually find out how this brick got sentience? Eh, I’m just guessing here, but I doubt it. Some stories don’t need explanations. He put the price listing under Canadian monies, but it looks like it’s roughly $12 for any American types out there.
Who out there has played a Sims game? Or one of the equivalent games that asks you to control the lives of various avatars that generally do nothing more complex than what you do in an average day? Well, this one is for you! This starts off with a misdirect, as we’re introduced in the game to what appears to be our hero. Well, surprise, our hero is being controlled by somebody else! The mundane tasks that the avatar was doing are then carried out in real life by the player, and the juxtaposition of the two of them really brings home the banality of his “life” (and the question of why he feels compelled to play out the same events on the screen). Still, it wouldn’t be much of a comic if that’s all that happened, so eventually the player has to make a trip to the grocery store. While he’s out he runs into either an old girlfriend or somebody he has an interest in (it’s not spelled out), and his first foray into live human interaction in possibly several days goes quite poorly. But that’s OK! When real life goes wrong, he always has the simulation. There were some creepy bits, but generally of the “harmless creepy” category, as no humans were harmed. Maybe call it a cautionary tale of playing too much Sims? Sure, let’s go with that. It’s an oddly compelling story, considering how little actually happens. Give it a shot, you can’t go wrong with mini kus! $7
Now that there is one heck of a cover. I mean really, if you were to see that in a comics shop, that sucker practically jumps off the shelves. This is a collection of the surreal adventures of a little dude (purely guessing on the gender over here) called Nugget. It’s also a collection of silent stories, meaning that if I go too far in describing them I’m going to end up writing the whole comic in the review. So, in the interest of pulling off the balancing act of telling you about the stories without telling you THE stories, I’ll just say that the stories in here feature our hero getting sucked into a cup, finding a bottle at sea at ending up in a series of increasingly disquieting adventures, eating eggs and the horrific results (including one solid double page spread in the middle), finding his own twin and the desperate pull of the void, and the horror of the red doppelganger. It’s occasionally funny and often unnerving, which is a solid combination in my book. If that’s the case for you too, give this one a shot! $7.25
The mini kus folks are breaking off another hundo (hat tip to Comedy Bang! Bang!), as this is #101 in the series. Sure, it’s almost all different creators for each issue, but it’s still one heck of an achievement. So what direction are they going now? Not that one unrelated issue has anything to do with anything else, but let’s pretend that it sets the tone for a minute here, OK? Well, this issue is maybe the most straightforward issue of the series yet. Regular readers will know that once in every dozen or so comics the meaning just flies right over my head; in several other issues I have to make leaps as a reviewer that I probably mostly get wrong. Well, this time around we are introduced to a group of three friends who decide to go mushroom picking in the wilderness. Along the way they (and the readers) get a brief class on which types of mushrooms are edible (if they have a jelly-like consistency, stay away!), how the wilds in Iceland got to their current state, and… well, that’s about it, really. No swerves, no aliens land, no murders, just a straight story about picking mushrooms and talking about the sustainability of the planet. I guess you’d call it a message comic, but it’s a solid message, and you can tell from the samples that Dileydi is a pretty spectacular artist when it comes to conveying the majesty of nature. So if you’re looking for mayhem, give this peaceful comic a shot, then come back for #102. I’m sure the madness will begin again in no time. $7
Sweet Christmas, this is one behemoth of a comic. Can a comic be a graphic novel based purely on size? Because if this wasn’t the second issue of a three issue series, this 80 page beast would definitely qualify. I hope you’ve read the last issue, because this is going to be impossible to review without spoiling how that story ended. Which was by (last chance to bail if you don’t want any spoilers for the first issue) Muriel, the wife and one of three main characters (the other being the husband and the small child), dying. In rather slapstick fashion too, which was particularly brutal considering all the character growth she’d undergone. This one starts off with her funeral, which we get to see entirely from her perspective. Meaning lots of people saying their final goodbyes to her body, and her child just thinking she was sleeping and not getting the whole death thing at all. This time around we spend a lot of time with Klaudia and Rocky, a couple that had broken up in the first issue (which each of them being friends of one of the main characters). This is by necessity, as Adler (husband) has fallen into a deep depression, so most of his scenes in the first half of the comic are with him being completely immobile. Daniel gradually comes to accept what happened, but by then he’s been half adopted by another family who’s willing to take care of him while Adler tries to work through his grief. Still, this all seems fairly normal, and if you look at that cover you see a pretty solid indication that things are going to get weird. Adler, throughout his depression, has been watching several movies over and over again. One of them is called Re-Animator, and if you’ve seen that I don’t have to tell you where this is going. If not, see if you can work it out from the title alone. It’s fairly straightforward! The rest of the issue deals with the complications of making that happen, and naturally that also gets the police involved, which sets everything up nicely for the big finale issue. Well, small finale issue, as I’ve seen it and it’s nowhere near the size of this one. Maybe I’ll get to that one sooner rather than later, as I’m really curious to see how this is all wrapped up. This one could work on its own, I suppose, but I’d really recommend getting both issues. There is SO much here that I’m gliding right on by. Several damned near brilliant sequences with the kids, with the sad cop that gets drawn into things, with the relationship troubles of Klaudia and Rocky… lots of great stuff in here. $10
Finally, a new approach on witches! Sure, dopey historical figures have tried burning, stoning and drowning them. But has anybody considered the healing powers of music? Oops, I’m already into spoiler territory. Eh, sort of, anyway. This one starts off with a young girl picking some herbs in the forest. On the way back she’s bullied by some local kids, and we soon see that she’s living with a “witch.” Meaning an older lady who knows the basics about which herbs help with certain ailments. From there we meet the other important members of the story: a traveling doctor (who speaks for the Lord, which goes about as well as that sort of thing usually does), a musician and the various other inhabitants of the town. There’s a town meeting, what happens when you question somebody who thinks he speaks with a divine voice, and something distinctly resembling a mob. It’s an engaging tale with a few twists that I should shut up about, proving once again that the only reason this website exists is to point in various directions and say “Look! Read this comic!” while not giving much away about the actual comic. Oh, and not for nothing, but this is mini kus #100, which I think legally means they’re allowed to take over the world now. But honestly, who would want it? $7
This is one of those books that’s going to be impossible to properly review. Which is odd, as there is a coherent quest at the center of it, one of them there “heroic journeys” you read about. But when it comes to the page by page specifics of this book, there’s too much to talk about in any kind of coherent fashion. Would you like to play “spot the stamp” with his panels? Because you could; there are several tiny stamped images strewn throughout the book. Not on every panel though, as that would be too easy. Zombre, the anchor of so many of his past books, has a brief cameo in this one, but that’s about it. There are SO many panels with SO much going on in them; I just flipped the book open randomly to the image of two sleeping bears, and even on that image I just now found a tiny bug, seemingly serving as a watchman of sorts, on one of their paws. Missed it entirely the first time around. So if you’re one of those people who measures quality of a comic by how much time you can spend with it discovering new things, this one is damned near priceless. Every page that has a crowd shot has a ridiculous amount of things happening in the background. Eh, I probably should talk about the story. We start off with an elf (Twit Leaf) gathering berries. Somebody pulled a prank on him and the bucket has a hole in it, so most of his berries have been eaten by birds that were following him around. Still, he needs berries for the banquet, which means he has to look for them in a more dangerous area. This leads him to an abandoned pocket video game system, which might as well be magic as far as he’s concerned. After a few more events he makes his way to the banquet, hoping that the game system will make up for his lack of berries. This is the meaty center of the book, where we get to spend some quality time with the whole extended civilization going on and the bizarre cast of characters. Which is why I used them for the sample image, and the ones shown below are only a small minority of the oddities. Twit Leaf eventually decides to go out for more berries, which is where he runs into a Cryptmunk Slayer (he had thought them to be extinct). Oh, and there’s his elf friends. And the demon. And the floofy monster that’s capable of killing all other monsters in horrific fashion. And so, so many others. I’m wrapping this up here, but to be perfectly clear: this is the opus of Ansis Purins, at least so far. It’s his crowning achievement, and whether or not you were already a fan, you should absolutely check it out. You’re unlikely to see anything this thoroughly, delightfully inventive anywhere else, and this is coming from a guy who reviews delightfully inventive comics on a damned near weekly basis. Check it out, spread the word, and enjoy. Oh, and this behemoth is also somehow only $16.95; I’m a cheapskate and my guess would have been $30. Gather those pennies and buy this book!
Do you know why I love the mini kus books, even though they’re almost all from different authors, with dozens and dozens of different approaches to the art form? It’s because of a book like this one, where I spent a good chunk of it thinking it was going to fall into the “visually gorgeous but narratively baffling” category where these books occasionally land, only to have it all come together with perfect clarity in the last several pages. Well, it is me, so there’s a solid chance that I still didn’t read it correctly, but it all came together in a lovely and satisfying way. If you don’t get there, it’s fine! This book is a true joy to look at, and you’ll have that regardless. This one starts off with a woman watering a vase, which she is tired out doing but feels is necessary to keep her shadow side at bay. She eventually realizes that this is all related to a terrible memory of hers and decides that she has to steel herself to do something about it. In between all of that are several images of what she sees, what she imagines and how things could be. Yes, I’m being vague, as I will forever be if the other choice is to walk people through a comic. This is the 99th issue of mini kus, after all, so most people probably already know if they’re on board with the general idea. I thoroughly enjoyed it, anyway. Now I just have to fine some place to put it where my increasingly agile kitten won’t chew on it, like what happened with the last issue… $7
One thing they skip over in reviewer training (it’s an intensive course over several months but I, like all reviewers, am sworn to secrecy on the specifics) is what to do when somebody sends you their entire collection of published comics all in one chunk. Andrew is up to 20 issues of this series already, so he sent along quite a stack. Stay tuned while I figure out how to review them all! Anyway, the instantly worrying thing about receiving such a large stack is simple: what if the first issue is terrible? Not unheard of, after all; just think how many of your favorite small press comics had rough first issues before finding their way a few issues in. Well, no worries this time around, as the first issue had me literally laughing out loud several times. This is a collection of four panel strips that were done while Andrew was on his lunch break at work. While he doesn’t specify his specific job, probably for a very good reason, it’s clear that he has spent a lot of time in maddening meetings and/or dealing with office culture. So if that’s something you have to deal with too, chances are you’re going to love this one. The strip about a guy repeatedly asking further questions after the “we’re done here unless there are any questions” message from management and the staring of daggers by the coworker who couldn’t believe that the guy would not shut up has certainly happened to me before. Maybe you’re lucky enough to work in an office where nobody does that, in which case please let me know if they’re hiring. As these were mostly done on a lunch break, some of the art can be a little rough (just look at the panel borders in the sampled strip), but it doesn’t do a thing to take away from the humor. The version I got is the second printing, which is probably what enabled Andrew to include letters from people, and there’s also a pretty damned funny introduction by Jamar Nichols. What about the strips, you say? Well, keeping in mind that describing humor is a good way to murder it, subjects in here include the bare minimum required to sell your soul, who can and can’t quit on a dime, how casual Fridays can get, the physical manifestations of the soul crushing nature of work, and the HR robot and his preferences. And a whole lot more; there’s a lot of comic here. If you’ve ever had an office job you’re going to love this, if not I envy you like you wouldn’t believe, but you’d still find a lot to laugh at in here. $5
I would not have guessed that you could get this much of a story out of a ceramic’s fair, but Jooyoung has proven me wrong. This starts out as a general overview of a ceramic fair, with the different types of booths, people running the booths and the types of people who come to them asking questions (and occasionally “accidentally” smashing ceramics). This is all a prelude to the main event, which is a large booth that two attendees stumble on at the end of their long day. The proprietor informs them that she makes ceramics “to talk about racism with the audience.” This causes said attendees to make a run for it, but don’t fret! A couple of dummies come by the booth next, and they don’t have nearly the amount of self-awareness necessary to figure out that engaging might be a bad idea. As they question each piece the ceramist (yes, it was just today that I learned that this was the term for people who make ceramics) engages them and tells them the bits of racism that she’s experienced that inspired the pieces. Ever oblivious, what follows is a grimly funny example of the cluelessness of racists, the unwillingness to learn anything about it, and even them going through comments and suggestions that they really think are helping. There’s also a big surprise towards the end, but you’ll get no spoilers from me! This was a cleverly done tale and who knows, maybe it’ll reach a few people who need to see it? We can only live in hope. Give it a shot, or maybe just give it to the racist in your life that you can’t completely disavow because they’re a close relative. If you have a racist friend, I’d just refer you to the They Might Be Giants song on the subject from the early 90’s (My Racist Friend).
One thing I’ve discovered about the mini kus books, and it seems to happen like clockwork: roughly once in every dozen comics, I’ll come across one that either doesn’t do a thing for me or that I simply don’t get. They almost universally have something else going for them if the story doesn’t hit home, like some artwork that looks like nothing I’ve ever seen, an intriguing idea or two, etc. Well, folks, you’ve guessed it: I don’t get this one! There, I said it. Here, I’ll use my old trick of pasting the back cover blurb to see if maybe this helps: “One day you pop up from the ground and the next you’re thrown over the world. BLINK is a loop world full of lazy and libertine monsters.” Clear as day, right? There are few to any words in this one, every image (outside of the first and last) is a two page spread, and as spreads I have to say that they are magnificent. I mean, look at that sample! I used the one from the dead center of the book, and I’d love it if you could tell me what was going on. That lady (?) running away on the far right is the seeming protagonist, but with very few words and very little sense of forward momentum, I don’t know what she was running from or why. Angry citizens, it looks like, but why were they angry? Who were they? I mean, I could keep going, but I’d always circle back to the same point, which is that I didn’t get this one on a very fundamental level. If a series of genuinely incredible images is enough for you, sure, give this one a go. If you like a challenge, or the idea of saying “I’ll show this dumb reviewer what this comic is about” gets you going, by all means, give this one a shot! In fact, go back through my mini kus reviews and only buy the ones that baffled me. Prove that I’m a dummy! If, however, you’re looking for a solid linear story, maybe go with a different mini kus book this time. $7
I’m always confused in how to review 24 hour comics that end up being released in fancy, professional looking comics (like this, the 96th issue of the ongoing mini kus series). How much has it been polished for release, and how much is exactly how it looked right at the end of those 24 hours? I ask because this comic, as it is now, is damned near a masterpiece. Since anything I have to say about the 24 hour aspect would be sheer guesswork, how about I just leave that angle alone? Yeah, that seems fair. After all, I wouldn’t even know about the time frame if it wasn’t for the blurb on the back cover. OK, one more thing about the 24 hour comic idea: this was made with the condition that every page would have to be set a decade after the previous page, which is a hell of a condition to still end up with a coherent story. This one starts off with the fleeting memory of a young boy’s childhood, in which a mysterious old woman tells him about a mysterious bridge. He ended up spending his life in pursuit of this bridge, using whatever means he had available, and ended up falling short. Still, he passed his knowledge and his notes on to a ward, who then proceeded to spend his life in pursuit of the same bridge. He finally came to the conclusion (after a dream in which he saw himself on the bridge, along with the boy and the old woman) that the bridge had destroyed all of them, and so he destroyed all of his notes and attempted to end the whole thing there. Still the story was not over, as a girl in school stumbled across a trunk with many old notes about the bridge, which started the whole thing up again. I’ve already said more than I should, but the way this comic ends up a perfect circle was masterfully done, one of those “I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming” kinds of endings that are so rare in just about any medium. It’s a big comfort to know that Matt has been teaching comics to students for what, going on 15 years now? Maybe even longer. This is a guy with a lot to teach, and I can only hope that his students pick up on the good stuff. So yeah, I’d say this one is well worth a look, if you’re at all interested in seeing what the medium is capable of. Another mini kus winner! $7
Well, this comic certainly lives up that tagline. Robb had a recap on the inside front cover dealing with what exactly a “Sludgy” is, which was a big help to somebody like me who was jumping in cold. The storyline itself didn’t seem like it needed much of a recap; this feels more like a series of adventures starring Sludgy, not some grand adventure where Sludgy saves the world at the end of it. Of course, if that does end up happening I’m going to end up feeling like a real idiot. This one starts off in fairly serious fashion, as two guys are digging a grave out in the swamp for a guy who’s currently in their trunk. When one of them goes back to retrieve the body he hears a voice from the woods and sees a shadowy figure. The man, what with him currently committing a crime at all, shoots at this shadow, which brings his partner to him. Then they both see the shadow, come to the same conclusion and shoot him a whole bunch of times. After that they split off to chase him, and mayhem ensues (yep, this is the point where I figure I’m getting to close to spoiler land). That covers a little more than half of the comic, but wait, there’s more! There’s an ongoing series of stories dealing with a mosquito who’s sucked up some toxic waste and the trail of destruction he leaves behind him, the natural result of a Sludgy sliding down a hill (and the hilarious conclusion), and the end result of a Sludgy trying to fly. As these creatures can split off from each other to make new Sludgys, there’s certainly a conversation here to be had about the nature of consciousness, whether or not the same consciousness in a different body is a new person or the same person, etc. But I’m not going to get into any of that, as it’s so clearly against the nature of this book, which is simply to have fun. That’s what ends up getting Sludgy into trouble every time, and it’s frankly refreshing to see in a comic about a toxic sludge monster. So yes, if you’re in the mood for some adorable horror (and you can keep those two ideas in your head without your brain exploding), this one is definitely worth a look. $6
It’s always such a delight to read one of David’s comics. Did I give away the ending of the review already? Eh, it’s fine. The man has been making comics for 30 years (maybe longer?) now, and his mastery of the medium shows in books like this. You might think from that title that it’s all about a touch football tournament, but that actually only shows up for a few pages at the end. Before that the comic is about the last trip he took before the pandemic (to visit his son at college; it also shows his bemusement at now being the “old” person at a zine fair. There’s also a chunk with his son’s old artwork and a heartbreaking little bit about the death of his dog large in 2004 and the suddenness of it all. Then in two pages towards the end he manages to include ruminations on the necessity of clipping newspaper headlines in a digital age, his son’s covid scare at school, and how his scrapbooks are going to be the thing that gets him motivated for his next project. It’s damned near a graphic novel’s worth of stories,. just compressed and shortened into a mini kus book. Which is another thing that’s been an incredible mainstay in comics for decades, although David did get a bit of a head start on them (this one is #95 in the mini kus series, in case you were curious). Give this one a shot, it’s either a great introduction to David’s work for the newbies and another excellent comic from the man if you’re already a fan. $7
It’s an eventful issue of Plastic People! As always, if you haven’t been reading this then number eight is an odd place to get started, but maybe your thing is to read reviews out of order of books you haven’t read. Who am I to judge? This time around we get an interview with the ex of the murdered woman and a better sense of what exactly was going on in her life when she was killed. The back half of the comic deals with a big old movie star going about his daily business, ending on one heck of a cliffhanger. Is Brian building up to something or is he making it up as he goes along? My money is on the first option, based on his past series like Ruffians. And based on the fact that he’s up to #15 of this series on his website, so he might actually be done with it for all I know. Check out one of those beefier 3 issue compilations, that’ll give you a chance to read a chunk of the story at once. Or get the single issues like this one for $2. You do you!
Once again I’m reviewing a book before it even hits the creator’s website, so clearly this is THE place to be for new comic reviews. This makes maybe a half dozen times already this year! OK, granted, several websites post updates daily, and they’re dedicated to everything new that’s coming out, and… hey, look over there! This is another tale set in the Hyperverse, as William has put together a stealth universe all his own. It starts off wonderfully, as a great and powerful oracle has been beheaded and left for dead. The only times he regains consciousness is when a group of local rats powers him up and asks advice about their crops, which is not a subject that holds a great deal of interest for him. Eventually the Floating Crystal Witch finds him and makes him an offer he can’t refuse (you may have guessed from that cover that it involves getting a working body for him). She’s not entirely truthful in her offer, and he’s not entirely truthful in his response, so who’s going to come out on top? As always with one of Will’s comics, this one is absolutely gorgeous, and the full color spread really brings his comics up another level. He’s a master at drawing things that obviously couldn’t belong in this world or any other, but if you squint at them just right, don’t they look a little… familiar? It’s difficult to describe, and it’s possible that my brain just isn’t like other brains to elicit this response. Probable, even. Still, one of these days I want to gather all of his comics together and see how well it holds up as an epic. He clearly has a bigger plan in mind (and he did label this one as #1 after all), but since they come out so infrequently I’m curious how well the whole thing holds up. Until then, this is still a damned solid issue all by itself. I only wish he’d spent more time with the rats, because that stuff was comedy gold. $12
Hey, it’s the third J.T. on the website! Relevant to exactly nobody but me, granted, but I thought it was odd. This is one of the mini comics that came in a pile from …? I wish I could say I remember exactly who sent me everything, even after months or years, but that is not even close to true. I remember it came in a bundle with several minis by different artists, and almost all of the ones I checked had no web presence at all. Makes it tricky to link for reviewing purposes, even if I do applaud them for staying true to the “trade and share” tradition of how mini comics uses to be found. Have I said a thing about the comic yet? Nope. Anyway, I did find J.T. online, although you’ll have to ask him about the comics, as there was no online store. This is a simple 8 page mini with a single panel per page, which is also maybe another reason why I’m rambling so much before getting to it. It’s all about J.T. questioning whether his grueling work routine is worth it, as he’s occupied seemingly every minute of the day. He’s also clearly responsible for quite a bit, so passing the buck doesn’t seem to be available to him as an option. Still, his question is answered when he gets home after work and sees what it’s all been for. I guess I won’t spoil the conclusion, even though it’s fairly obvious where it’s headed? Eh, maybe it’ll surprise somebody, who knows. It’s quick, but it’s a heartfelt story, and sincerity can be rare in the comics world. Like I said, I didn’t see a simple way to order this or his other comics through his website, but I’ll bet if you contacted J.T. he would have some ideas…
Posted by Kevin 
