February 17, 2012
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It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream Business #2
Technically, this comic should probably be called “It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream, Cheese, Sorbet, Soup, and Black Pea Business,” but I don’t want to give Rob any ideas, as that title is more than long enough as it is. As for the comic, it continues directly from the last issue (as is usually the case in any numbered series, obviously), so here’s hoping that you picked it up so that you’ll have a clue what’s happening. If not, Rob throws you in right in the middle of his quest to earn a living by selling ice cream and various other items (depending on the season and the crowd) at various markets. It was fascinating to see him trying to start things up in the last issue and navigate all of the various challenges of making it work, but this time around his business has more or less settled down. He seems to know the market circuit pretty well and he knows (more or less) what will sell to which crowds. We also get to see him making various new dishes (I’d love to try the elderflower sorbet) and dealing with some direct competition this time around from people who were selling his same dishes. In some cases they were cheaper or looked more professional than his stuff, which makes me wonder how anybody could plan to make a long-term living off of this, but I suppose we’ll find out the answer to that in the next issue. Which may be awhile, as he ends with a note that he’ll pick the series up again “once I’ve had a break from endlessly drawing gazebos.” This covers markets #25-52, just in case you were curious. I’m hoping this series is finite, as this would get more than a little dull if it went on forever, but so far it’s still a fascinating look into making a living through markets and the various people you see at them. Not sure on the price, so I’ll guess $3.
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Posted by Kevin
February 15, 2012
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Alligator Milk #1
Now that is one hell of a cover. Anybody looking at it is either going to be compelled to pick this up or run screaming in the opposite direction. The cowards will miss a thoroughly entertaining show while the rest of us will almost certainly have at least one of Max’s hauntingly extravagant drawings pop up in our dreams. On the first page this is called FEMA Camp 2012, which is based on the fever dreams of professional carnival barker and gold shiller Glenn Beck, so it’s instantly fertile ground for some extra insanity. Two guys are in line, trying to decide what they should wish for (the reader is not immediately told what this is all about), when one of them gets too happy at the prospect of a sandwich and gets admonished by a guard. The smiling persists, so the admonishment gets much worse, leaving only one of the guys to try and make it to the end of the line. As for what’s waiting for him at the end of the line, I’ll refer you to the title and leave it at that. I will say that it’s impossible not to love that last page but will offer no further hints. That would be a perfectly fine mini comic for a measly dollar, but that’s not all that’s in here. In the middle of the book the action stops to show two larger illustrations. One of them covers two pages of the story (we even get a “continued on third page following” warning like in old comic books) and the other images folds out from the center pages. The smaller drawing (and keep in mind that describing these drawings without you seeing them is a bit of a hopeless task) has two monstrosities that are tentatively trying to tongue kiss each other while clinging to a ceiling and towing along a bucket of horribleness respectively, while the larger drawing will take your breath away. It shows a man (ish) dragging along an incredibly heavy burden of melted bits of all sorts of creatures (or at least they seem mildly melted to me, and again I must point out the pointlessness of describing something that is almost certainly is its own unique thing) while another man, his dog and a snake creature all look on. At first I thought that this large picture was showing what happened to the people in that camp, now I’m not so sure and think they may just be two images that are completely disconnected from the main story. Either way, if you’re a fan of Max’s work they’re not to be missed. $1
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Posted by Kevin
February 14, 2012
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Takilma
Ah, dream comics. They’re damned near review-proof, at least in terms of the story, because what are you supposed to criticize? I can say that it now makes sense to me that James rarely uses humans, as the few unobscured human faces in this one were flat and their mouths never opened, but even that is a petty point to make, especially when it’s always possible that the faces were drawn without much detail based on the dream. So what is the dream about? Ah, this part is always fun. Two girls are out in the dark following a trail only by the soles of their feet, but when they reach a fork in the path a comet comes by to briefly light their way. They find the house that they were looking for, but after knocking on the door a large cluster of ghost crows emerge and light the forest on fire. The girls wonder if they should move away from the flames, but out of the forest emerges what appears to be a badger wearing a cloak and with two human legs. Or is it one large beast leg later on? Again, it’s a dream. This almost excuses me from my pledge not to do spoilers, but not quite, so I’ll leave it there. James has a nice afterword explaining the point in his life when he was inspired to do this comic (the dream wasn’t his, so he couldn’t explain it to the reader anyway) and a few more drawings from that time in his life. If I come across as hating this book, that really wasn’t the case. I loved the wisps from the house welcoming the girls, the transformation of the crows, and more than a few other little touches. As to whether or not you should buy it, that depends purely on your opinion of dream comics. It’s a worthy addition to that field, but clearly this wouldn’t be your best bet if you were looking for a definitively coherent story. $5
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Posted by Kevin
February 13, 2012
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The Greatest
Ah, to live in a world where the talented small press comics people had all the resources in the world at their disposal. I’m generally a fan of Kelly’s covers anyway (mostly because the combination of the title and her often fantastic title got me wanting to read the book immediately, which is kind of the point of a cover), but in this case she got a friend from art school to design the book for her (his name is Manfred Naescher if you wanted to look him up) and he designed a really gorgeous book. Crikey, do I need to get my parenthetical asides under control. Anyway, this comic is basically a listing of some of the more interesting seniors that Kelly has met working in retirement centers and their various personalities. It’s not as dense as some of her more personal comics, but there’s still plenty in here to love. That sample below was my favorite, but there’s lots to choose from, and I always love it when there’s coloring in small press comics that’s done this well. A low bar to clear, you would think, but it’s surprising how many people either rush that aspect or screw it up. With her experience in this field I’d say maybe it’s time for a new generation of Duplex Planet, what with David Greenberger not doing the comics any more (unless I somehow missed any new stuff completely since around the year 2000). Kelly clearly has some stories to tell in this field, and there’s always a place in the world for some forgotten wisdom from people who have seen it all. Or, you know, just guys with half a moustache. $4
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Posted by Kevin
February 10, 2012
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Nibble #7
I finally figured out what these comics remind me of. Stop me if I’m already used this in a past review from Tom (although how you’d stop me when you haven’t read this yet and I’m just now writing it is beyond me), but these comics are basically Sunday funnies. Oh sure, they’re puffed up ever so slightly to make up an actual comic, but the tone is the same, if often a little smarter. I’m also thinking back to the Sunday comics of my youth, which probably seemed better at the time than they actually were (if the current selection of Sunday comics is any indication, anyway) but they, like this, were just good-natured fun. So how about this particular issue? As you can see from the cover, there’s some roughhousing going on in this one. Two kids are using empty wrapping paper rolls to bash each other around until their older brother admonishes them for acting like kids. As violence is always the answer in these books (albeit harmless cartoon violence), things work themselves out rather quickly. Like all of Tom’s stuff, this one is definitely worth a look, and he’s somebody you probably want to follow if you’re desperately looking for examples of fun comics that you can show your kids. $.25
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Posted by Kevin
February 9, 2012
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The She-Ma’am Fella Hatin’ Sorority Feminazi #1
Hey wait a minute, that lady isn’t in a sorority! As you can probably guess from the cover, this comic is not for the easily offended. Then again, if you’re easily offended, why are you reading small press comics? All kinds of offensive shit in a whole bunch of these things. Anyway, this is a book of origins by the mysterious Mister V, although it’s not really possible to be mysterious these days, what with the social media and all. The first origin deals with the title character, and that title is long enough that I don’t want to write it again, but our hero in this tale is an abused Mexican maid. She can’t afford to get fired from her job, so she puts up with all sorts of nonsense from her rich boss. Then one day she finds Eva Braun’s strap-on in his attic (which gives the wearer super powers, obviously) and decides to test the device out on her boss. Next up is the story of Roswella, the last Martian, and how her race was wiped out, leaving her to find a suitable mate to repopulate the species. Jungle Jane is next and yes, she fucks a monkey. Her origins are still a little vague, but we do see what happens to people who track her down in the wilderness. Finally there’s Sequential Sally, who is a parody of female auto-bio types who use their cuteness to cover up their utter lack of anything interesting to say. My white male liberal guilt compels me to mention that there are also plenty of male autobio authors who fall under that heading, but this comic is all about the ladies. This particular story deals with her trying to convince people at a comics convention to buy her new book. Mister V was nice enough to send the first few issues of this series, so I checked the covers and these origin stories do have a point, as he tends to stick with the same characters. There’s also plenty of other minis available from the man, several of which couldn’t be considered offensive in any way, in case you wanted to check out his work but hate sexy parts, both real and strapped on. From what I can tell almost all of his stuff is up for free at his website, so check it out for yourself, but I thoroughly enjoyed the stories and the art. No price listed, so… $4?
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Posted by Kevin
February 8, 2012
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Grandma Stories
It’s always a good sign when I go to a creator’s website to check on the price of the comic I’m going to review and end up spending a good 10 minutes thoroughly enjoying the strips. Sam also does a (mostly, it seems) daily four panel strip about his life and, from what I can tell from 10 minutes of reading, it’s fantastic. But we’re here to talk about this comic, not his apparent awesomeness in general. This comic is exactly what the title implies: it’s Sam having conversations on the phone with his grandma (with a short phone conversation with his mom thrown in for some history on his grandma) as she tells him stories of her life for his 24 hour comic. It didn’t technically end up being a 24 hour comic, as he apparently didn’t finish inking 9 pages out of the 24 during the time period, but this comic has an amazing level of detail for a 24 hour book. Backgrounds a’plenty, and it only looked a little rushed in a few isolated spots. Anybody who has read a few of these timed books knows that it can get ugly, and this book had none of those problems. Anyway, stories from his grandma include her collecting supplies for the WWII war effort (when she was a kid), trying to convince her young brother to like his school, an incident with a sled and some barbed wire at the bottom of a hill, and collecting smooth stones to use as toys. There are also a few bits thrown in about life as it’s happening to her now (these are phone conversations, after all) and Sam eventually concedes that she’s told him way too many stories to put into this book. That sounds like a graphic novel to me, as everything they talked about was thoroughly entertaining, but what do I know? There’s also a nice color epilogue on the back page where Sam talks about spending time with his grandparents when he was a kid. It’s a thoroughly engaging little book, and don’t get scared off because you think this one might be too sweet for you. It’s touching, sure, but also funny as hell, and that one always wins out for me. $3
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Posted by Kevin
February 7, 2012
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Sunnyville Stories #4
One of these days I might actually pick an opinion about this series and stick with it. Feels like I’ve been all over the place on this one, and I do wonder how much of it is just my mood on any given day. On this day I thoroughly enjoyed this comic and hope that Max finds a happy niche for himself in this crazy business. On past days I could get nitpicky about the little things, which would kill the whole issue. Well, that and I’m generally too cranky to enjoy something that’s so good-natured for long, but that’s more of a personal failing. Enough about me rambling away the start of yet another review, what about the comic? This tells the story of a pair of sisters who bring a toaster oven in to the local store for repair. They’re told that it’ll be at least a month until they get it back and learn from their parents that the owner of the store is sad because he got into a fight with a kid he considers his nephew years back and they never managed to make up. From there we get a cautionary tale from another town resident about the dangers of waiting too long to make amends before things start winding down. Yes, even now I’m not going to throw spoilers at you, even though if you’ve read past issues you know that a bloodbath is almost certainly not the ending. One thing I’m really starting to appreciate about Max’s comics is how well he uses his set number of pages. He always gives himself plenty of room to work with, so even though the backgrounds can feel a little thin at times he has time for all the conversations between family and friends that would occur around a town problem like this, while even throwing in bits here and there to advance the characters. And I vaguely recall having issues with sloppiness in past issues, but that wasn’t a problem here. Everything looked nice, no unerased pencil lines for lettering, and this time around the story was able to win out over any minor quibbles. If you are looking for a bloodbath then you have a wide range of options out there, but this comic isn’t one of them. It’s a nice, quiet all-ages book with a decent message. Yeah, I’m almost certainly going soft. So sue me… $4
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Posted by Kevin
February 2, 2012
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Glade & Mark in: “Rocky Mountain Chomp”
You know what I didn’t think through in my request for online comics to review yesterday? The fact that I still wouldn’t have sample images for the reviews, as images for online comics are gigantic and I lack the means here to shrink them. Oh sure, there’s probably some easy way to do it for people who are less stupid than me, but this is the brain you folks are stuck with on this site. Anyway, Mark was nice enough to send along a few online comics, and I didn’t even click on the second one after seeing this. This was the comic that Mark put out for his wedding (Glade is apparently now his wife, or he picked a fake name for his wife in his wedding comic, which makes no sense), and it’s very different from his usual stuff in that, well, people can read it. I don’t mean that in a bad way, although that’s probably how it’s going to sound, as this is still as delightfully fucked up as most of Mark’s comics. It just has a clear narrative arc for all to see, while some of his other comics may take a little more work to decipher. This is the story of Glade and Mark’s battle with a giant monster that’s trying to eat the Rocky Mountains. As you might have guessed from that title, or maybe your natural instinct isn’t to see that title and automatically jump to “oh, it’s clearly about a giant monster eating the Rockies.” Anyway, they get a call from the President and set off to save the day, and even a big old monster can’t stand up against a serious shrinking. From there it gets downright cute, as a wedding comic should, but this is one case where you can click on that link and read the whole thing for yourself. It’s relatively short and you’re probably just killing time at work anyway, so go for it. And congrats to the happy couple!
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Posted by Kevin
January 27, 2012
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Star Pilot #6
Is two issues enough for a pattern? Because if it is then it’s safe to conclude that this comic has nothing to do with stars and only very little to do with pilots. Unless maybe either the monkey or the rhino (see the last review for this guy if you’re confused) is a licensed pilot, that is. Anyway, this one starts off with a musical genius who makes one mistake in his performance. The papers go crazy because of this error, so the musician finally decides that he has to get away from all the negativity and do something new. He finds a mountain that has never been successfully scaled and makes his way up, but comes across some small and starving birds. He decides to save them and give up his quest for personal glory, but the mountain remains treacherous and he still has to make it down alive. Oh, and the monkey and rhino from the last issue also play a very small but crucial role in things. This one lacked the sheer insanity that was #5 of this series and instead went with something like 85% insanity. That’s more than enough for me, and this comic was a lot of fun, even if page 14 did feature a ridiculously out of proportion yeti. Pretty sure this is also still $1, and the entire comic is up at Frank’s website at the moment if you wanted to read it for yourself. Of course, it’s better to buy it, so maybe just read a few pages to know that you either will or won’t like it.
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Posted by Kevin
January 26, 2012
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Gnarlton Livingston
Do you like pot? Do you like comic stories about pot? How about comic adaptations of a song that’s about pot? In that case, this comic will be right up your alley. As for the rest of us, you probably won’t find a whole lot to like here. This is an adaptation of a Carlton Livingston song called “100 Weight of Collie Weed,” which is about a guy trying to evade cops while carrying around, um, 100 pounds of weed. This comic kind of encapsulates my problem with comics/music/shows that are all about weed: OK, we’ve established that you really, really like weed. Now what? James has a pot leaf on most of his comics and his dinosaur series was all about dinosaurs that smoked a lot of pot, so we can kind of see where he’s coming from. But hey, at least that series had a lot going for it outside of that (and I should mention that he’s putting out a collected edition of that series soon with an entirely new “fifth issue” included), while this is a straight up adaptation of a song, which has never been my favorite kind of comic in any circumstance. Throw in the fact that I don’t generally care for reggae music and I’m not left with a whole lot. As for the rest of you, who knows? If you’re in your early 20’s and just discovering pot then you’ll probably love this, and his art is always nice enough to look at, but there’s not a whole lot to recommend this for the rest of us. I should also add that there’s a fold out cover (comprised of what is essentially four comic pages) for the song by Carlton Livingston, so if you do love the song then you can get a very nice poster about it for buying this comic. #5
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Posted by Kevin
January 25, 2012
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One Accord
Whooo boy. This probably isn’t going to be pretty, so I should at least highlight the things that I liked about this book. $.75 is a great price for a comic of this size and it never hurts to mention on the cover that you also take trades. I also thought he did a pretty nice job on the coloring and the art was mostly pretty good. Here’s the thing though: this is a religious comic, and I think religions as a whole are pretty damned silly. If you’re of a generally Christian persuasion, maybe you could find something in here to love, I don’t know. But I’m not (although I was raised that way, so I mostly know the Bible enough to talk about it), which means that I have to review this purely on its merits as a comic, and by that measure this comic is mostly annoying. Oh, one more good thing: at least it’s not a hateful religious comic. Well, in ways it is, but nothing bad is said about gay people, which seems to be a prerequisite for most religious work these days. The story starts off with our hero reading the Bible. That’s the first page, at the end of which he absorbs the book into his chest. Then Neal has a vision (not a dream, as he’s standing up the whole time) about a young woman who is in trouble at some kind of anti-religion rally. I thought they were at church at first, but then why would the pastor be doubting the existence of god? Anyway, Neal prays for a bit and god shows him his special armor: Aquaman’s costume, Captain America’s original shield (but intangible), a sword and a really dorky bike helmet. OK, those weren’t the names he gave for those things, but it’s quite an assemblage when it’s all done. So then the bad people decide that they’re going to eat the harlot (who somehow got tied up with a ball gag put in her mouth), but our hero chases a bunch of them off. Even with this comic I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I already mentioned that this is an overtly religious comic, so what do you think happens at the end? The last few pages are “answers” to a few difficult questions that people might have with references to Bible verses. So what’s my problem here overall? The woman-as-a-helpless-bystander bit has been old with me for years. What exactly did she do wrong anyway? Is a halter top a sign of demonic possession? And is it really OK for our hero to kill a good number of the people who were chasing them? Aren’t all people capable of redemption? Granted, he mostly just hit them with his thrown invisible shield, but he was hitting them all in the head. And those joke hymns at the bottoms of most of the pages… oy. Listen, this comic was just not intended for godless heathens like myself, so in all honesty I can’t review it for its intended audience. The art is nice enough (although some of the faces get a little wonky) and he really did do a great job with the coloring. I just no longer have any patience for or tolerance towards being preached at.
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Posted by Kevin
January 24, 2012
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A Smaller Hell
Why in the world isn’t this a regular numbered series? I can see from the past issues that it started off as one, but then it turned into a series of individually titled comics. Granted, Adam does a nice job of recapping what came before at the start of the comic, but even that could have been made better if he had mentioned which issues to read to get a fuller story of the recap. I’m bitching mostly because he sent me two new comics to review and I’m still not entirely sure that I’m reviewing them in chronological order, and there’s no reason for that to a difficult question to answer. Anyway! This comic continues the story of Floid, Guedo and Madlenka. If you’re not familiar with any of those characters, check some of the other reviews under Adam’s name. Or maybe buying some of those comics would do the trick. Floid is bored silly after the woman he was supposed to be protecting was killed, and Guedo finds him and gets him to help find Madlenka. With a few fight scenes thrown in, of course. So they both go into her brain (a special trick of Floid’s), but their timing is terrible and she gets distracted and stabbed just as they go in. Oblivious to this fact the two of them go about trying to undo Madlenka’s brainwashing, but they only have a finite amount of time to do it and she may very well be dead by the time they’re finished regardless. Here is where Adam shines, as the creatures inside her brain were creepy as hell and the dialogue continues to make this book. In a lot of ways it would be easy for my to hate this, what with all the punch-’em-ups and such, but that dialogue is so often brilliant (and the art isn’t half bad either) that I can’t help but be drawn in. Once there’s some easy way to keep track of the order of these things I’ll have no problem with them at all. Guessing $6, mostly because it’s huge.
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Posted by Kevin
January 23, 2012
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Bad Breath Comics #4
Is it still OK to give advice if it’s totally useless? No? You’re right, I don’t think so either. That being said, her’s some useless advice for Josh: his covers could use some work. Now here’s where it gets useless: I don’t have very good advice for the guy on how to make them better. I don’t care for the plain white borders on the covers, and keep the self-deprecation to the inside of the comic please, as you never know who’s going to be instantly turned off by that cover saying that there is no creativity in this book. That being said, his method enables him to sell these comics for $2 each, which is a damned good way for him to get people to pick up his books, and people should be reading these. That sample is brilliant, and part of its brilliance is the fact that nothing else in the comic is remotely like it. He has a nice wide range of topics in here and sure, they’re not all brilliant, but I love the fact that he’s trying so hard in so many different directions. First off there’s the intro and outro by Stepbrother Scary (kind of a Crypt Keeper-esque character), and I’m always a sucker for those bad puns. Actual comics in here deal with such subjects as a singing masked cowboy band rescuing a clothed platypus, fake covers from old comics, a two pager about “Satanama” that flew right by me, why a CD that you hate upon the initial listening can sound fantastic a few years later to you, and a continuing (?) story dealing with a young woman going home from work for the weekend and a creepy guy on the bus with an obvious hidden camera. There are also two longer pieces that I loved in different ways about History vs. America (featuring an obvious Bill O’Reilly stand-in and dealing with the need to have some idea of the historical relevance of current events) and taking a walk on a Saturday afternoon and seeing all of the televisions on inside with nobody watching them and nobody else outside on such a nice day. That second story actually managed something of a happy ending, even though I’m not supposed to mention such things. This whole review is a long-winded way of my saying that I love the vast majority of this comic (and of this series that I’ve seen so far) but think that a better cover would help it out. That being said, I should at least mention that I loved the sheer ridiculousness of that back cover, so make of that what you will. $2
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Posted by Kevin
January 20, 2012
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Flying Creature
Ah, a comic as a newspaper. I’ve seen a few of these recently and love the idea, but hate the fact that I can’t scan anything off of the damned things and always have to end up using the sample images from the creator’s own website. And, in this case, that sample looks like total crap. Oh well, luckily Rob has a huge backlog of comics, so chances are that you probably already know whether or not you enjoy his work. Anyway, this comic starts off with a man having some quiet time by himself before this is rudely interrupted by a chase scene between a cop and a gangster. There’s a crash, the quiet old man tells the cop that the gangster has been killed but secretly fixes up the gangster because he’s not a big fan of the police. Our hero lets the gangster rest up but doesn’t want to return to that life (we’re left with the impression that he gave that life up for the peace and quiet many years ago), so he agrees to take him close to the city. On the way there they stop and stumble across a plot to take over the world involving angry caterpillars with wings. Hey, they’re not moths yet, so what else would you call them? From there we get a longer chase scene with some caterpillars that have an interesting method to increase their numbers, a peek behind the curtain to what’s really going on, and an absolutely fantastic finale. Sure, you could kind of see it coming, but it was still nicely done. I’m clearly getting older and crankier, as I used to love comics of odd shapes and sizes, but these days I’m mostly annoyed that I don’t have any place to keep them (too big for comic boxes, too awkward for a shelf). Still, I’ll take a great story over an awkward presentation any time, and this one fits the bill for that. That and a newspaper comic left laying out of a coffee table is always guaranteed to confuse even the friends who slightly understand the world of comics, which is always fun. No price listed, I’d say at least $6 from the sheer size of this.
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Posted by Kevin
January 19, 2012
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Carl Finds Love #1
Ah, love. Judging from the pink store displays it is almost that time of year again where you are legally required to be dating somebody or else be considered a hopeless loser. Sara tackles the question of what it is that ladies like in this issue, which is kind of odd as she is a lady, but hey, I’ll take useful advice wherever I can get it. Um, I mean wherever the reader can get it. Anyway, things start off with what is almost an accident between a construction worker with a traffic cone for a head (or is it only ON his head?) and a car driven by a man with a tomato for a head. Oh, and the whole thing is witnessed by a walking, talking screwdriver. I know that Sara is dating the frantabulous Steve Seck (you know, those “Life is Good” comics that you are all reading), so now I have to wonder if they both decided to depict their characters as living inanimate objects or if it was their mutual preference for such characters that got the two of them together in the first place. There’s some pretty rough perspective work on that second page (a nearly wrecked car should not be smaller than the doors for a nearby establishment, and the traffic cone head guy should not tower over the vehicle as he walks towards it), but that’s the only error of that nature that I noticed. From there the guy with a tomato for a head offers the pair of gents some advice about the ladies: complimenting them on their appearance so that they know that “all that time they spend in the bathroom doesn’t escape our notice.” This man then walks up to a couple of ladies and uses one implicit and one explicit really bad pick-up line, and they both work like a charm. This confuses our two heroes (the traffic cone head guy and the screwdriver guy), but after seeing it work they decide to try it themselves on their lunch break. The result of their attempts are depicted below in the sample, and the rest of the comic is them talking with friends in a restaurant about their failed attempts and what it is exactly that the ladies like. Left unsaid in that conversation was the thing that flummoxed me: if the ladies hate that type of behavior in guys who were asking them out, why did the two ladies that the tomato head guy talked to give him their digits so readily? There’s still another issue to go that might explain that part that made no sense to me, but overall it’s a pretty fun comic with some pretty terrible advice on how to woo the ladies. Which, I believe, is kind of the point. $3
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Posted by Kevin
January 17, 2012
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Epic Tales of the Mundane #7
Between this and the recent mini comics from Max Clotfelter this is starting to feel like nostalgia week around here, as Brad was another one of the earlier people to consistently send me review books. Or my sense of time is all wrong and I’m mistaking the number of books he’s sent for the time period in which he sent them, which is a distinct possibility. But enough about website history, who cares about that in as disposable a medium as the internet? This comic is the first one that Brad produced in a couple of years due to financial troubles and life in general, and most of the material is from 2008 and 2009. Still, self-loathing three panel strips are pretty much timeless, and there aren’t enough topical references to make it dated. The bulk of the book is the three panel strips, with a the first part of a short story in the end that, to me, was the highlight of the comic. It dealt with the moment in high school when Brad went from being a painfully shy and awkward kid to a kid who used hate as a shield. Getting called out by a girl that he had previously rejected (after Brad’s acne flared up in a big way) was the final straw, and the reactions from all involved were authentic as could be. I’m intrigued as to where this is going next, assuming he keeps it going. Sure, I could just peek at the next issue that he sent me to figure that out, but then where is the mystery? As for the three panel strips, I might be the only person on the planet who thought his strip where he was trying to decide if he was doing three panel gag strips or a diary strip was funny as hell, but it won me over. Other subjects include what he should have said to specific questions, how his life was going (what with being newly married and sporadically employed), cats, trips to the doctor, geeky stuff and how awesome his wife is for appreciating it all. Worth a look if you’re already a fan, if you’ve somehow never heard of the guy you might want to go back to the earlier books to get more of a sense of who Brad is, but this one is just fine as a stand-alone comic. $2
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Posted by Kevin
January 13, 2012
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Wing Man
Crikey, it’s been years since I’ve seen one of Max’s comics. Well, at least I think it’s been years, as I’ve found that website time does not necessarily correspond exactly to actual time. Good to see that Max is still loving drawing the representatives of the lowest rungs on the societal ladder, and you’ll be happy to know that any preconceptions you might have from that title are completely and totally wrong. This is the story of an amorphous blob of a man and his young son. Well, that and the fantastically creepy way that the older man hugs his son. The older man tells his son to look after “Maw” and goes away for 20 years. When he returns he discovers that “Maw” has either died or gone missing in his absence, so they both go to a local bar to… find her? Exact revenge? Share a drink to her memory? I’m pretty sure it’s not the last one, but other than that I’m not sure. Maw is never seen in this comic, so it’s all up to your imagination as to what happened to her/exactly what she is. It’s a great finale either way, with the final line explaining the point of the title. If you knew what it was you’d be laughing too, but you probably still need to buy the comic and I’m not going to ruin it for you. Max was nice enough to send along a few other recent minis, so he should be up here a few more times in the coming weeks. The man has been putting out quality comics for years (if memory serves, which it probably doesn’t, he was one of the first people to send me some minis for review when I started this thing up 10+ years ago) and he just keeps chugging along. No price, but e-mail the man and you could probably get a copy for a buck or two.
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Posted by Kevin
January 12, 2012
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El Diablo
This book just might have my favorite comics intro of all time. Luis talks about how this book is based on a song called “NeoSatan” from an Argentinian punk band. He then tries to explain that it isn’t as dark as it sounds, that the song is actually just off-beat, before clearly realizing that he can’t possibly explain all the nuances on the inside front cover of a tiny comic and just leaves it up to the reader. Yes, you’re right in thinking that there is only a very small list of people who would even notice something like that much less love it, but that’s why I’m here. Anyway, the comic is the story of the devil sitting at a bar and remarking on how far he’s fallen, how he’s not even capable of scaring people any more. It is upbeat in an anti-devil kind of way, but the devil himself is clearly having a miserable time of it. Oh, and there’s also a kid involved that helps set up more hilarity for the devil before the book opens up (it’s one of those minis where you can unfold it into one giant final image) for the finale. My only problem was that the art seemed kind of uncomfortably cramped at times (it looked like it might have been shrunken down from a larger comic), but it’s still a great story. Which makes, what, everything this guy has sent me so far? There are still a few left to go, maybe there’s still a stinker waiting to be found. No price, but due to the size of this thing I’d say you could probably get a copy for a buck or two.
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Posted by Kevin
January 11, 2012
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Supplementary File #2A
American readers take note: this comic is meant to be read manga-style, meaning back to front and right to left instead of the other way around. Granted, the fact that the cover is on the back of the book (as they are usually arranged) should be a pretty big clue, but I just wanted to make that perfectly clear. Another big clue is the fact that this is a redrawn version of a Matsumoto Lieji comic called Queen Emeraldas from 1979. So really, you no longer have any excuses if you read this thing backwards. Anyway, this is the first of three parts of the adaptation, with Ryan releasing one part each month for three months (an impressive achievement in today’s small press comics world). This one starts off with our hero running into somebody who apparently just landed called “Boundless Ocean Boy.” They’re also searching for Deathskull, who apparently got away after being wounded. They chat for a bit and then leave the planet, but after they go our hero blows the entire place up. And this is one of the things I’ve always loved about manga: the willingness to let the stories breathe. We’re treated to several pages of the planet starting to blow up, first with smaller explosions and finally with an explosion big enough to turn it into rubble. With most American comics you’d see the planet explode, either in one panel or one page, before moving on to the rest of the action. In this comic you’re given plenty of time to absorb the fact that you’re watching a frickin’ planet explode and maybe you should take a moment to appreciate that fact. It’s an intriguing set-up for a three part comic, with my only complaint being the lost word bubble on the third page. Maybe it was supposed to fly off the page? Either way it doesn’t do much damage to the rest of the book. Oh, and this book will also make perfect sense to you even if you’ve never read any of Ryan’s other comics, so don’t worry about getting bogged down in the continuity. $4
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Posted by Kevin
