Kamison, Michael & Arnold, Steven – Heel on the Shovel #1

July 22, 2021

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Heel on the Shovel #1

Boy, this one takes you on a real journey. I got one set of expectations from that cover, another one from the first few pages (although the hints were there all along when I went back and checked), and then quite another set after I really got into it. This is the first issue of three, and don’t fret! They were nice enough to send me all three issues, so there’s no danger of another unfinished series dangling around out there. This is a story mostly focused on three people: Adler, Muriel, and Daniel. Adler and Muriel are married and Daniel is their three year old child. You’d think there wouldn’t be a whole lot going on with a three year old, but Mr. Kamison has other ideas on that front. Things start off with full frontal male nudity, so if you’re at all prudish, move along I guess? Why you’d be buying small press comics if you’re alarmed by a dick is another conversation. Anyway, from there Adler and Muriel each go to console one member of a friend couple of theirs who has just broken up. Muriel is distracted because she’s thinking about biting people, and Adler just finds the apartment gross and tries to reassure his friend that every marriage has problems, even one that seems as perfect as his. From there things get dicey in terms of me saying too much about it, as spoilers for a comic that has two more issues coming seems like a bad idea. I’ll just say that Muriel is tremendously dissatisfied in her life (we get a brief synopsis of her former hopes and dreams) and finally decides to do something for herself, Adler tries to roleplay his way into cracking the case of the bathroom smoker at his school and ends up in an entirely different scenario, and Daniel tries to understand grownup problems as well as his new playground friend who is significantly further along the “woke” scale than he is, what with being three years old and all. All of this is expertly drawn into a collision by the ending, with everything coming together to cause a shocking ending. But hey, two more issues to find out what’s going to happen next! I had my doubts about the first comic from these two that I reviewed, but this one right here, this is an absolute winner. If you’re curious about their work(as they have a lot of comics to choose from), so far I’d say that this is the place to start. $8

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Posted by Kevin

Lehmann, Brandon – G-G-G-Ghost Stories

July 20, 2021

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G-G-G-Ghost Stories

It’s a big old collection of Brandon’s comics! If you’ve read any of my past reviews of his work you’ll know that I find the man to be full of funny, and that fine tradition certainly continues in this collection. Looking over his website I think some of these stories were previously in mini comics. Maybe some are brand new to this collection? I don’t know, as for once I’m so timely with my review that he hasn’t even posted this book as being for sale yet (give it a week or so, I’m sure it’ll show up). These all have some sort of generally spooky theme (more or less), and there’s even an epilogue section with a brief follow-up to two of the previous stories that’s delightful. But I’m getting way ahead of myself if I’m already talking about the epilogue, huh? Stories in this one deal with getting some cash for spending the night in a haunted house, how one Lyft driver is getting awfully tired of ghosts requesting rides, a cursed book where the severity of the curse is mostly in the eye of the beholder, a haunted house for cats (which is where the sample image comes from; without that context it’s one baffling sample image), daily phone calls announcing the impending arrival of the Viper (with one of the dumbest endings ever, but hey, Brandon calls that fact out in real time), and the Okiku ghost and her very specific rules for how many plates you need in your house before triggering the curse. There’s also the meaty center of the book, in which a man who recently became a werewolf goes to the local Barnes and Noble for some advice on how to cure his curse. So many wonderful little details in that one, and the fact that it constantly escalates without really going anywhere has to be seen to be believed. And if you think that means I didn’t like that one, incorrect! It’s probably second only to the haunted house for cats, and that’s because I’m hopelessly biased towards cats being weirdos. So yeah, this one is an all around winner. The man is awfully prolific (again, going off his website) so I’ll most likely be checking out some of his other comics soon. I was already pretty well sold after the last two comics, but this one has me convinced that more people should be singing the praises of this guy. $15

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Posted by Kevin

Bravo, Kyle – Forever and Everything #7

July 16, 2021

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Forever and Everything #7

The pandemic comics are finally starting to arrive, and this one covers a few areas that I had no experience with in my particular bubble. Early in-person voting, sure, I know all about that (98% of the people were great, but that 2% who weren’t, whooo boy), but what happened in schools was all hypothetical to me until reading this comic. This one reads more like a regular comic than most of his books, if that makes any sense. Kyle tends to keep his observations short in past issues, but this one started with the first time he heard about the coronavirus, how he dismissed it several times along the way and downplayed the severity of it when it did hit, all taking up maybe the first half of the book. It also showed how he tried to comfort his students, their reactions when they got the news that the school was shutting down (mostly centered around how anxious they were to be able to take their art supplies with them), and a bit about how he handled classes remotely. Other stuff in here is similar to how a lot of us had to deal with things, going from not being sure if it was OK to touch anything to figuring out how it was all about the masks. Other subjects include the oddity of fishing on a random Wednesday afternoon, trying to get some work done while being attacked by his children, going to the doctor for what he was sure was the corona, and dealing with a sudden glut of homemade masks. As we in America are mostly in the clear (this is July 2021, dear readers, so if the Mechagodzilla variant has hit by the time you read this, my apologies), there’s been just enough distance for all of this to be fascinating to me. Your mileage may vary! Maybe you’ve heard more than enough about the virus and want some distance. If so, give this one a while before checking it out. Otherwise, all I can say is that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Posted by Kevin

Aushenker, Michael – The War on Dental

July 14, 2021

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The War On Dental

It’s always a good sign when a comic is actively hilarious, and this one more than crosses that bar. This is a story about dragons murdering dentists. If you’re understandably confused, relax, I’ll break it down a bit. Cast your minds back to maybe 2016 or 2017, when that one incredibly rich dentist flew to that one African country and murdered a very old lion that was a huge cultural symbol to the people. He was told not to, he did it anyway, and as far as I know the worst thing that happened to him was that some people called him mean names online (I just checked and it’s true. The lion was named Cecil, he was 13 years old, and the dentist is fine). That’s obviously a terrible story, and what would make it better is if the lions got together to pay this dentist a visit. This comic takes a different path: there’s still a dentist, but he kills a hibernating dragon and steals his fangs, which leads to the remaining lions coming up with a plan to take their revenge. Which, honestly, happens pretty quickly, as it’s not like a dentist has much of a chance against several enraged dragons. This isn’t quite satisfying enough for the dragons, who then kill his wife, his family, and destroy his business. From there the vendetta goes on to include all dentists, all people who kind of look like dentists, countries where the most dentists might come from, etc. So yeah, the rest of the book is complete mayhem. If you think it’s nothing but dragon murder, humans do briefly get their collective act together and find a couple of heroes (including the one listed on the cover, who must be from one of Michael’s other books?), which involves a giant mecha. It’s funny and more than occasionally brutal, what more could anybody want? I still don’t see an obvious way to order Michael’s books from his website, but go to it anyway and send the man an email. $5

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Posted by Kevin

Canini, Brian – Four Stories

July 12, 2021

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Four Stories

Four stories? In an eight page comic? Who would have thought that such a thing was possible? Granted, two of the stories are only a single page, but it’s still impressive. This is a really solid mini, and it even ends with a nice little update to the first story, which features a grimly realistic tale of a fish slowly developing the ability to walk on land and what happens to him when he gets there. All on one page! Next up is the meat of the comic, a tale about the hidden costs of dining out at a seriously upscale restaurant, which is a little too close to real life, and something that’s probably coming (if it’s not already here; I haven’t dined at a super fancy restaurant since before the pandemic, so I’m a bit behind the times). Next up we get the juxtaposition of a letter home from an aspiring star in Hollywood to the actuality of what she’s going through. And finally there’s a good old fashioned gag strip about how quickly time can pass you by and make you seem completely out of touch. As somebody who still has trouble grasping why it’s so terrible to use a period to end a sentence in a text message, boy howdy can I ever relate. It just means the sentence is done, not that I’m yelling at you! Ugh, kids today. Well, since those last two sentences aged me twenty years, I’d better wrap things up. This one has variety, a couple of surprisingly dense stories (especially considering the format), and a few laughs. All for a measly $2!

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Posted by Kevin

Delliquanti, Blue – O Human Star Volume One

July 1, 2021

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O Human Star Volume One

So I just did a quick bit of research, and outside of a few shorts pieces in anthologies, it’s true: this is Blue’s first long comics series. Why did I feel the need to research this? Because it’s damned near flawless, and it will always be shocking to me when that’s true with anyone’s first try. Also, as I’m perpetually a day late and a dollar short, the third and final volume has been completed and should be coming out this year, so the story is over right as I’m getting into it. Ah well, I can still do my reviewers duty and get anybody who’s as constantly late as me on board. This is the story of Alastair Sterling, and it starts with him dying. Before you start making comparisons to Sunset Boulevard, no, he’s not dead for the whole story and narrating it. Well, he is dead. Ugh, I’m getting ahead of myself. He does die in the first few pages, true. But then he wakes up with his consciousness in the body of an extremely human-looking android and is told that this is because of his former assistant Brendan as he’s being driven to see him. Who’s driving him? Well, that ends up being a mystery, as he quickly learns that Brendan had nothing to do with this resurrection. Alastair was at the forefront of artificial intelligence technology before he died, and in the ensuing 16 years robots have become normalized and have their own rights. The bulk of this book is spent with Alastair trying to get a grip on this new reality, interspersed with flashbacks to show how the two of them met, how they researched their work and how they finally got it off the ground. Alastair also meets another synthetic life form, Sulla, whose personality was taken from his brain waves in one of Brendan’s failed attempts to bring Alastair back. Sulla, however, had requested to be a girl after her first few years, which raises all sorts of questions from Alastair. So how many mysteries are we up to? Mysterious benefactors, the questions about his robotic clone (not even close to the right term probably), how his relationship with Brendan is going to go after so long apart, a few more I’m definitely forgetting. So there’s all kinds of intrigue, but it’s also just so damned human. Sulla is a typical teenager, at least in temperament, and there’s the usual nervousness about trying to fit in with other teens, especially after a lifetime of home schooling has left her without many social graces. Alastair tries his best, but he’s clearly and consistently uncomfortable in this world. And Brendan’s collapse early on as he realized that this really was Alastair at his doorstep was devastating, as was his constantly walking on eggshells around Alastair and Sulla. I’m completely hooked and getting the second volume as soon as I wrap up this review, so expect a few words about that in the coming months. Maybe just in time for the third volume to be released so I can be at least mildly current? I live in hope. But yeah, in case I wasn’t clear: get this book as soon as you can. I guarantee that you’ll be hooked after the first few pages. $25

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Posted by Kevin

Kamison, Michael & Arnold, Steven – Bee-Man: The Death of Bee-Man

June 29, 2021

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Bee-Man: The Death of Bee-Man

Don’t you hate it when you randomly pick one comic from a new stack by a team of artists while you’re pressed for time, read it, then quickly flip through the other comics from the stack and become convinced that you inadvertently picked probably the weakest of the bunch? What’s that you say? The amount of people in the world who relate to that are probably in the single digits? Oh yeah. Anyway! These fine folks sent me about a half dozen comics (don’t fret, I’ll get to them), but look at the cover of this sucker! Of course I’m going to go with that one first. This is the story of a team of scientists who are trying to reverse the dying out of the bees, but their first attempt ended with them accidentally making “vampire bees.” Erwin (the hero of the piece) is by far the most dedicated of the bunch, but it comes at the expense of his home life and new child. He eventually starts to hallucinate that the vampire bees are talking to him (or possibly they are; I wasn’t entirely clear on that), which leads to him trusting the bees far too much and entering a controlled environment to prove that they aren’t dangerous. Multiple bee stings ensue, and the guy ends up in a coma for ten years. When he wakes up things have changed quite a bit, and that’s before he notices some gradual and then sudden changes to his own body. I honestly can’t decide if I should go into spoilers here for the rest of it. I mean, when you call your first issue “Death of Bee-Man,” the writing is very much on the wall. I’ll just say that they stuck to the science of what happens when a bee stings somebody, and even with that the ending seemed abrupt, like they had just had enough of the story. There were some funny bits and some solid quotes, but this felt like something that should have maybe been a few issues long to let it breathe. Either way, that is some cover, and I’m looking forward to getting to the rest of the books from their pile. $5

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Posted by Kevin

Baylis, Jonathan – So Buttons! #11

June 17, 2021

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So Buttons #11

I guess I shouldn’t be amazed that Jonathan managed to put this together during a global pandemic, but I am honestly a little surprised. Sure, it’s not much different from normal, I imagine: Jonathan writes the stories, asks his various artist buddies if they can draw the stories, and the comics magic happens. Still… kudos! If you’ve never read an issue of this series before, these are autobiographical tales taken from Jonathan’s life, sometimes drawn by entirely new artists, sometimes drawn by a few favorites that he’s used in multiple issues. Also I noticed that every past issue of his series is currently in print (including the collected edition), so if you’re intrigued, get caught up! The man can tell one hell of a tale. Just wanted to get that out there in case I got distracted in the middle of the review. So what’s in this comic that was produced during a global pandemic? Would you believe only one story involves the pandemic, and even then only briefly (and tangentially)? It’s true! For everybody that remembers and appreciates Basil Wolverton’s work, Jim Rugg’s cover art is goddamn amazing. Subjects in this issue include the mythical Laphroaig 15 year scotch and the lengths he went to to try and get it (before it was eventually released as an anniversary edition), his work as a “make a wish” escort and the time he met John Cleese (this one takes you on some twists and turns, as there’s some serious danger that John’s going to end up being an asshole to this kid), his time at school abroad in London and how the comic shop he discovered there led him to small press books, visiting his old Waldenbooks job after it had been turned into a bank, his grandmother’s obsession with Bazooka Joe gum and how that eventually (kind of sort of) led to a job as a Topps intern and finally his tribute to Carol Channing (who shares a birthday with him). There are also a few more wordless pages, but I have to leave something as a surprise. And his bios of the artists tell you a lot about them and why he specifically picked each one for each piece. It’s a steal for $5 and I’m always happy to see a quality series like this make it to double digits while showing no sign of slowing down. Give it a shot if you’ve never tried his stuff before, and if you’re already a fan I guess all I had to say was “hey everybody, a new issue of ‘So Buttons’ is out!” $5

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Posted by Kevin

Thomas, Grant – Queen of the House

June 15, 2021

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Queen of the House

The thing about Grant’s comics is that they generally come in one of two forms: dense, meticiulously detailed comics like his “My Life in Records” series (and a few others) or these teeny tiny minis like Queen of the House. I’m guessing that if you look at the price tags (generally $1 for these and $7ish for the other series), but what’s a good way to let people know right off the bat? And is it really important to do so? It’s not like there’s any more inherent worth to one or the other; some people just have a minute to read a comic. Eh, who cares? How about this: if you see a scanned cover that looks unnaturally gigantic, it’s probably my scanner taking a huge image of a tiny comic. It it looks proportional, it’s probably one of his “regular” comics. Well, that was a pointless digression, but what I was trying to get across is that this is a tiny comic and there’s not a lot to say about it. We see the adventures of a cat left home alone, and we see it end with the one thing that’s always guaranteed to cheer up a cat. It’s cute, and us cat owner types will find a few things to love here. Other than that I can talk about the new kittens I got a month ago, or I could just recommend that you send Grant $5 and tell him to give you a few of these l’il comics so that you can get a sense of what he’s all about. $1

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Posted by Kevin

Knickerbocker, Sean (editor) – Rust Belt Review #1

June 3, 2021

Website (for Sean Knickerbocker)

Rust Belt Review #1

Hooray for a big old comics anthology! And by “big” I mostly mean the size of the actual comic (which wouldn’t fit entirely on my scanner) rather than the page count, which is still more than respectable. This has stories from six artists, about half of which I’d read before. I should also point out that the second issue is coming out in a couple of weeks (6/14/21, readers of the future), so for all of you skeptics that think series like this rarely get beyond the first issue, in your face! One of Sean’s goals (from his introduction) is trying to find a way for artists to diversify their income, as this issue was done in a time when in-person cons wasn’t an option, and it’s not like that’s generally a big moneymaker for the artists anyway. First up is a story by Andrew Greenstone about a cult that kidnapped 100 people and forced them to compete in trivia and games, with death being a very real possibility if you get something wrong. I want to quickly complement the layout of this book: the artist’s name is at the bottom of every other page and the title is on the opposite page, so there’s not the danger you get in some anthologies of stories with similar art styles briefly running together. Next up is Caleb Orecchio’s series of short pieces (that all tie together beautifully) dealing with a group of children, their animal pals and their bullies. And one poorly timed erection, but I don’t want to spoil anything. MS Harkness’s piece about a bank robbery is so amazing that I don’t want to give a thing away about it, so I won’t, but I will say that it got a literal “lol” out of me. Juan Jose Fernandez has a more contemplative piece about yearning featuring some haunting video game-esque imagery. Sean has a couple of stories with the same dirtbag characters; in one the losers are given an ultimatum to clean up their act, and in the next they receive an unexpected windfall while nefarious forces plot in the background. Yep, that one is obviously of the “to be continued” variety. Finally there’s Audra Stang telling a story that connects to her overarching narrative in her mini comics, further cementing the need for a complete edition when it’s all said and done. This is a damned solid anthology, and after looking at the list of artists in the second issue it’s looking like that one should be great too. There are a few pieces that look to be continuing in the next issue, which is a solid way to keep people coming back for more. I hope this works out; there are too few ongoing comics anthologies for my tastes. $10

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Posted by Kevin

Powell, Nate – Save It For Later

June 1, 2021

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Save It For Later

If you’re not political, if you’ve somehow managed to maintain that state of blissful ignorance into 2021 after everything that’s happened the last several years… well, shame on you, but this is also a note to say that you won’t be interested in this review. I will say that maybe reading this book will get you off your ass and you should give it a shot, but if you’ve convinced yourself that everything is going to work out, nothing I say here is going to change your mind. So what’s this book about? It’s an unapologetic call to action (whatever that means for each person) and an unflinching look at what’s happening in our country, which covers quite a bit of ground. I think it’s Nate’s best work, and the guy has been around for ages, so that’s saying a lot. Yes, March was amazing, but that was John Lewis and Nate, this one is all Nate. After a brief introduction where he goes into what the book is and isn’t, he starts the first chapter with a quick punch to the face: the day after Trump’s election in 2016. I’ve seen books reference this, sure, but it’s a clear indication right off the bat that he’s going to dig into everything. The first chapter is devastating, as it details Nate’s depression, how quickly the white supremacists came out of the woodwork to celebrate, and what small measures they could take in their lives to make any kind of a difference, or at least to make their voices heard. The second chapter shows them making the choice to explain to their young child exactly what type of a person Donald Trump is, how he’s constantly lying and without any redeeming qualities, but how she shouldn’t worry, as his opponent was obviously going to win. This also led to them having to tell her what happened the next day, and their daughter ended up having to comfort them after the conversation. The third chapter is “the parenting chapter,” I guess, as they watch old footage of John Lewis getting assaulted by cops and some white nationalist marches with their daughter, leading to an awkward conversation where Nate has to defend the cops as not all bad (despite what he’s thinking as he’s saying it) and explaining to her why it’s wrong to ever use a swastika, even when playing. He also tells the story of his first time seeing the Ku Klux Klan having a demonstration in his home town and how his parents tried to laugh it off at the time. The fourth chapter is almost sweet, as it tells the story of how he took some friends with him to a comic convention in 2011 and how seeing it through their eyes gave him a new appreciation for cosplay. That was the case, anyway, until the Nazi cosplayer showed up, all smug defiance, and how he eventually chose not to confront the guy. The fifth chapter is the densest in the book, and it should be required reading for anybody who wants to get into the head of a white supremacist, as it’s unsparing in its descriptions of who these people are, how they justify their actions and how the bleeding of colors from their chosen flags means a whole lot more than some bullshit “blue lives matter” nonsense. For the sixth chapter we get the coronavirus, which tied neatly into the theme of manchildren who are contemptuous of science and want praise for doing exactly what they want at all times. Finally the last chapter is a small guide to what anybody anywhere can do to protest whatever is important to them and how it’s important to design your sign so that anybody objecting has to side purely with evil; “No Nazis anywhere,” for example, is tough to get too mad about without really telling on yourself. I don’t usually go into this much detail in reviews, but I’m still just scratching the surface of what he’s accomplished here. It’s not a bullshit message of “we’ll get through this together” without details, and he readily admits that he doesn’t even know how much worse things are going to get by the time the book is published. It’s a clear-eyed look at how perilous the current moment is and should frankly be given to anybody who’s too complacent in their life. If you don’t try to get them to be better, who will? $25

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Posted by Kevin

Cherry, Ben – Beastly

May 28, 2021

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Beastly

It’s another gorgeous wordless mini comic from Ben, on a completely different track from the last one we saw. It’s a simple enough story, but it’s fairly devastating. There’s a hunting expedition (the time frame of this one is left up to the reader; my guess is that it’s meant to take place decades ago, but I could be completely wrong on that) that manages to tranquilize a polar bear. This isn’t the wanton murder type of hunting, as this guy brings the bear back in the hopes of making money off of it. The bear is placed in a cage for a public viewing, but the public isn’t particularly interested, and the bear isn’t particularly motivated to put on a show. The hunter, unable to blame himself for this state of affairs, starts drinking heavily and berates the man he’s hired to take care of the bear. Unfortunately, he does this as the bear’s cage door is open for feeding time, and I should probably stop there to preserve at least a little bit of the mystery. It’s another intriguing comic from Ben, and as always I’m curious to see what he comes up with next. $4

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Posted by Kevin

Robertson, David – The Tay Bridge Disaster

May 26, 2021

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The Tay Bridge Disaster

Is this David’s first comic that’s only about a single subject (not including comics about dreams)? Probably not but I’ve forgotten the other ones because my memory is crap. If only there was some way to check, like a global database of everything that’s ever happened. This one is based off a historical tragedy, so you can Google some images if you’d like after reading it. I know I did! David does a nice job of laying out the history, getting the reader familiar with the architect, listing the theories behind the collapse (he says that nobody knows for sure, although Wikipedia thinks that mystery is settled), showing the construction, etc. There were several warning as the bridge was being constructed, which led to quite a few people who were able to use the “I told you so” defense. The architect behind the bridge didn’t live long at all after its collapse; it seemed to destroy whatever will to live the man had left. The bridge became the only consistent means of travel across the river, as the ferry service was shut down after a few successful train crossings. Things seemed to run fine for about six months, but when it gave out, it gave out in brutal fashion. I do like the idea that the pillars have never been removed and still remain next to the current bridge. It’s a nice memorial to the people who died as well as being a monument to checking your work, I guess? David also includes some poems and tributes to the incident that came out shortly after it happened, including some poems from the man who was thought to be the worst poet in the world at the time. It’s a fascinating story all around, even if it’s lacking in some definitive answers. Not that that’s David’s fault, it’s just that historians can’t seem to agree. No price listed, but probably around $10ish (check with David through his website)

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Posted by Kevin

Bravo, Kyle – Forever and Everything #6

May 24, 2021

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Forever and Everything #6

In case you’re curious if a guy who does regular diary style comics kept going during the pandemic, the subtitle of this one is “the pre-pandemic naivete issue.” Which makes me naturally curious to read the next issue, as I’m oddly fascinated to see how artists handled the past year, so I may break my usual “don’t review the same artist twice in quick succession” rule. Which gets broken every now and then anyway, and it’s not like I have a boss breathing down my neck one way or the other. Anyway! This is a collection of this strips from right before the pandemic, which was formerly known as “normal life.” Subjects include watching a bird frenzy, modern technology helping with the lawn mowing, trying to explain that he’s not up the task of making a phone call to the doctor adequately, the checklist when he leaves the house, termites, dipping fries in milk, the thought of being trapped in a dentist’s chair listening to the hygienist, trying to maximize his reading time, attempting the ill-advised trick of urinating into an empty bottle while driving, explaining the meaning behind the terminology of ska fans to his young daughter, and a few other things that I’ll leave as a total surprise. As always, I chuckled more than a few times reading this, and yes, that does count as a recommendation. This is also a series where you’ll be OK if you haven’t read the first five issues, so jump in wherever, give it a shot! $5

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Posted by Kevin

Jackson, Rob – The Woodsman

May 13, 2021

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The Woodsman

Is this the longest book that Rob has done? At 88 pages (according to his website anyway; he doesn’t number his pages and it’s not like I’m going to count them) it has to be close. This is the story of an aspiring writer who goes out to a secluded cabin in the woods to try and find some inspiration. Yes, I’ve seen stories start with this premise before, but believe you me, none of them came close to going the places that this one did. Anyway! Our hero (Bill) tries writing for a few days, has no luck, and eventually runs into the Woodsman as he’s out hunting and laying traps. They slowly strike up a friendship (I’m most likely rounding up a bit with that word), and they get to talking about previous writers that have also used that cabin for inspiration. The Woodsman reveals that they all had similar problems, and he offered each of them a deal: if they write a story for him, they were guaranteed to get back on track with their own books. Bill recognized a few of the names, so clearly the deal worked for them. He thought about it for a few days and agreed to the deal. The next thing Bill knew, he had significantly fewer blank pages in front of him and his writer’s block was gone, so he spent the next two weeks writing what turns out to be his best book yet. Still, the uncertainty haunts him. What happened that night? What did he write for the Woodsman? Surely it wouldn’t hurt to go to the Woodsman’s cabin and take a look, right? This is the point in the review when I can’t say much more, because despite the fact that I’m maybe 20 pages in at this point, there are so many twists and turns that I don’t want to spoil any of them. There’s the question of the nature of the Woodsman, what the other writers remember about their deals, what each of them ended up writing for him, and about a dozen more questions that I’m not even going to mention. It was riveting all the way through, who could ask for anything more? If you’ve somehow made it however many years reading this website without reading one of Rob’s books, this seems like an excellent place to start. No pesky series to get bogged down in and his artwork is as good as it’s ever been. Don’t ask me to do the currency conversion thingie, but I think this would be roughly $13 here in the U.S.

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Posted by Kevin

Canini, Brian – Plastic People #7

May 11, 2021

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Plastic People #7

(I’m going to assume that everybody reading has at least a passing familiarity with the events of the previous issues)

This time around we finally get to spend some time with the family of the murdered woman, and can I just say that this format is finally growing on me as a way to tell this story? Sure, you’re only getting a fragment of the big picture each time, but it’s a self-contained fragment, and it’s clearly building towards something. This one starts off with an ad for a new action movie (called Terror Stopper, and I’m astounded that nobody has used that title until now. It tells the whole story!), and then we briefly meet the family who’s waiting to identify the body. They meet the detectives, but even when they see the body they’re not sure. One of the drawbacks of living in a society full of people who all get the same plastic surgery, I guess. Once again it’s tough to review one of these shorties without giving too much away, so I’ll just say that what does identify the body (and how the mother instantly recognized it) was not what I would have guessed, and her brother has a one track mind with what’s really important. With this issue I’m halfway caught up to what’s out there already (I just saw #14 listed on his website) and thoroughly hooked. I’ll also point out that the compendiums put together three issues at a time if this pace is just too slow for you, so maybe consider going that route? $2

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Posted by Kevin

Nilsen, Anders – Big Questions

May 5, 2021

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Big Questions

So a little bit of personal history is necessary here. I started reading Big Questions around when the first issue came out in the late 90’s. I liked it quite a bit, although it seemed to be mostly gag strips and birds having philosophical debates. I read the first 7 issues but lost track of it somewhere along the way. Reading back through my old reviews it’s clear that I was loving it, but hey, there are a lot of comic series out there and I only have so much money (meaning: very little). But then some stimulus money came around, I checked out the Drawn & Quarterly shop and hey look, a collected edition of this book came out almost a decade ago. Whoops! Well, a giant book of funny strips and random philosophical discussions could be fun, so I picked up the hardcover version. Revisiting this so much later, I have one main question to start: why isn’t this book in the pantheon of greatest books of the genre? I haven’t seen every top 100 list, granted, but I don’t recall seeing it on the ones that I did read, and after reading this, it seems like a glaring omission. Anders explained in his afterward that he did start off fairly meandering, but the story got clearer to him as he went along, and when he had the chance to put everything in its proper place here, he really nailed it. For the purposes of this review I’m going to assume that you missed this completely when it was around. If you read a few issues back in the day and are just curious if it ever came together: yes it did, and you should buy a copy toot sweet. For the newbies, this is the story of a few dozen birds, a grandmother living with her mentally challenged grandson, a snake, an owl, some dogs, a few crows, a crashed plane and the pilot. Oh, and Greek mythology, the underworld, destiny, free will, and faith. This books takes a little while to get going, and the pace is never frantic, outside of a few fight scenes (in the context of this book, since it’s fights among animals, they’re fights for their lives). If anything it’s closer to the few manga books that I’ve read in that there is no sense of a rush to tell the story. Anders mentions in another note that he takes a perverse pleasure in drawing the same panel over and over again with only slight changes every time, and he uses that to full effect here. The story in a nutshell, and I’m bound to miss a few things: a bird is searching for his missing mate after their tree is chopped down, a giant bird (what they don’t understand to be a plane) has come crashing down into a house, another group of birds has found a giant egg (what they don’t realize is a bomb), and the giant bird has also hatched a human (who they don’t understand is the pilot). Oh, and there’s the family in the woods. Some of these birds fixate on the giant egg, others on the grandson, and others on the felled giant bird, each doing their own thing. They interact throughout the book, try to convince the others of the wisdom of their particular course of action, and just generally try to get by. The art consistently improves throughout (and it amazing for the vast majority of it), the story is completely compelling (I’d recommend starting this when you have a couple of free hours, as you won’t want to put it down), and most of the characters get solid endings. Not necessarily happy, but the only endings they could have had, really. I feel like I missed a major piece of comics history in not reading this book until now, frankly. If you love comics, this is absolutely required reading.

$45 (softcover) $70 (hardcover)

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Posted by Kevin

Thomas, Till – Zirp #6

April 29, 2021

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Zirp #6

Ah, foreign language comics. Sometimes they’re impossible to review, sometimes (like with this one) the translations are right on the bottom each page, making it a breeze. Of course, there was also a fairly long interview in German included and what looked like some reviews for his past work, but I’m sure the man was limited in the number of pages he could use, and you can’t translate everything. It also came with a music CD by Flamyng, which I’m listening to as I’m writing this. This isn’t a music review website, but I like some of it quite a bit (mostly the wordless stuff), other songs not as much. Fine, all the bells and whistles are out of the way, what about the comic? He mostly keeps the words to a minimum anyway, and the comic also includes three fold out double sided spread pages. The story starts off with our hero riding his bike home, and along the way this somehow seriously annoys a furry that was picking up very shiny loose change from the street. Maybe it was the wind from his bike? In any case, the furry takes out his rage on the next person to ride a bike in that area. Our hero (Lenni) then tries to nail down some banking rates, visits his sick mother, and takes his child to the beach, where they see some of the most striking visual imagery of the comic: several large balloon animals, the type you’d usually see in a parade. From here we learn that he is not at all on good terms with his ex, and I should probably stop there before I tell you the whole comic. The book is gorgeous, the story is solid (apparently the first part of a series), and it comes with a free music CD. What more could you ask for? $12

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Posted by Kevin

H., Matt – Miss Fortune

April 27, 2021

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Miss Fortune

Long, long time readers of the website take note: this is the same “Matt H.” that wrote several issues of a comic called Flame Broiled way back in the day. As is the case for an increasing number of creators, he requested that I shorten his name here in case his students try to Google him. That’s one thing I never would have anticipated when starting this website almost 20 years ago: that so many people would become serious professionals and have concerns about people being able to see their past work. I mean, in hindsight, duh, but it never occurred to me. This is Matt’s first comic in roughly a decade (I think; don’t quote me on that) and it’s a simple enough formula. The hero of the story, Miss Fortune, is constantly being talked into things that she shouldn’t be doing, what with that foreboding name and all. Chunks of the early strips are very static (it looks like Matt used the same cutouts several times), but it gets more involved and frenetic as the strips move along. Subjects include the wisdom of this particular lady holding a baby, nailing a picture to a wall, plugging in a phone charger, dogsitting, feeding a sick man hot soup, or (by the end) just standing around the graveyard. There are some funny bits; the punchline for that final strip in particular was hilarious, as was the bit in the graveyard. Who knows, maybe this will get him back in the comics game. Meanwhile, if you’re curious about his past work, I’d recommend his series in Flame Broiled dealing with the time he met Harvey Pekar, or maybe his attending a horror convention if that’s more up your alley. $6

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Posted by Kevin

Jep – How About A Nice Big Cup Of Climate Grief?

April 22, 2021

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How About A Nice Big Cup Of Climate Grief?

This comic is all about a subject that I find myself thinking about more and more lately: how does a person continue to blithely exist in a world that seems completely committed to doing nothing at all to help alleviate the inevitable climate crisis, especially when we’re already most likely past the point of no return? Oh, and I should mention: if you’re looking for laughs here, it’s best to move along. Jep has managed to include more than a few funny bits, but it’s mostly as grim as the current reality demands. Jep has a basic plan: instead of spending the rest of his life agonizing over this issue, he has decided to really hone in on the subject for a couple of dozen strips, and then basically “fake it ’til he makes it” for the rest of his life. If he can hold to it, it’s not the worst plan in the world! Constant low level dread and blinding rage at the people who don’t give a shit about it doesn’t seem like the best strategy. Of course, this was all before covid, which has been a helpful reminder for everybody that things can always get worse. Anyway, you know the basic idea of the comic (him working through his feelings on the thing that will most likely doom the generation behind us but maybe not us (“us” being the 40+ types)). He helpfully includes one villain with each strip, but that’s what you’d call a target rich environment. Specific subjects include the youth movement (and how embarrassing it is that the only hope for change has to come from teenagers), the unlikelihood of global cooperation, how the rich probably aren’t going to be too bothered by things, how dumb things were in the 80’s (which is still a far cry from how dumb they are now), his trip involving a deadly heat wave in 2018 that really solidified his thinking, how annoying the blissfully ignorant are, the idea of leaving it all behind and heading for the hills, and the species that will most likely thrive. There’s plenty more, of course; this is maybe the most textually dense book he’s ever done. If you’re somebody who’s willing to confront this issue head on, read this comic, maybe his idea of getting this out of your system will work for you. If you prefer ignorance, I guess this review is as bad as you’re likely to feel about all of this, so congrats on making it this far in life without a conscience I guess? $8

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Posted by Kevin

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