April 26, 2011
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Inside the Slow Spiral
OK fine, there are probably too many stories out there already dealing with alienation and isolation upon entering college, but isn’t a good one always a welcome thing? This one deals with Jon’s entry into film school and his propensity for spending his entire day in the film lab watching strange independent films while smoking pot (and hastily clearing the air). The woman who works down there starts up a friendship with him and he doesn’t seem like a total social misfit when he does go out, it’s just that he prefers digging up and going through old student films. He eventually watches a film called “Inside the Slow Spiral III,” which sends him digging to find other films from the man and trying to figure out who the guy was. Jon readily admits that the films are boring, but thinks that that was why he loved them. The title also tracks up nicely with Jon’s own progress, and I loved how his activities during his drunken blackout were referred to (I got the impression that they weren’t his finest moments) but that it was mostly left up to the imagination of the reader. The fictional peek into the mind of the filmmaker of the “Inside the Slow Spiral” series at the end was brilliant too, but I’m not allowed to divulge too much about that. I’m not sure if this is the same Jon Allen I’ve seen in various anthologies (the website isn’t particularly helpful on that front), but if he is I’d say he’s gone a long way to mastering his craft. If it’s an entirely new Jon Allen then he’s way too good at this stuff to be brand new. Either way you, gentle reader, should probably give this a shot if you’re here for unique and interesting comics, and why else would you be here? No price, but my gut says $4.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2011
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Crass Sophisticate #16
I know I occasionally bitch about unerased pencil lines in comics, but this one deserves a prize for that horrible habit. I’d say less then half of the pages DON’T have sloppy pencil writing in the word balloons. I know this is an earlier issue for these two, but come on, they had done 15 issues before this one. Anyway, if you can get past that (and even I did eventually) then this is another great issue. This is the story of one of our heroes (I’m not sure which one and damned if I can remember which one of these characters is which at the moment) who gets to a party too early. For anybody who has had this happen to them, you know what a calamity this can be. So he wanders around, trying to strike up a conversation with a few girls who obviously have no interest in him anyway, and things are generally awkward until the actual party kicks in. Once that happens our hero is standing over the keg, meaning that he gets to chat to anybody he likes. He almost gets a compliment but, upon later review, the girl in question was just calling him ugly. Anyway, the party gets busted and our hero somehow ends up in the house all by himself with a keg of beer. Hilarity (or immense sadness, I never can tell) ensues. It’s another funny book, which tells me that they’ve at the very least been keeping this funny for dozens of issues now. It took them an awfully long time to figure out to erase the pencilled in dialogue first, but they did get there eventually in the series. If you think that complaint is a minor quibble then you should have no trouble with this at all. Oh, and I enjoyed the picture of the drunken girls on the back cover. The eyes were blacked out to protect the innocent, but it did help the story to see what exactly they were talking about… $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 21, 2011
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Dodo Comics #1
I go back and forth on the idea of comic creators explaining their work either before or after the comics part of the comic, but it’s probably a good thing Grant did that in this issue. It showed me exactly what he was going for, and I probably would have missed large swaths of if if he didn’t. For example, there’s a single page strip called “The Duel” which is just a bunch of frantic lines. Still, this looked vaguely familiar and, sure enough, Grant explained that it was a page from “Lone Wolf and Cub” with the character removed. With that piece of information you can almost put the characters back onto the page and your head and it transforms it into a significantly more worthwhile piece of art than just a bunch of lines. Other stories include a long (and funny) piece on where ideas come from, visions of fire, the tower of Babel and another piece with just unrelated images (this time for a page from “Akira”). I’m not going to explain what he was going for in every story (I do think his explanations worked better after reading the story instead of before it), but hey, check out the samples on his site to see for yourself. He’s clearly interested in the crafting end of comics and is looking for new ways to go about it. Kudos and more power to him, and he’s certainly off to a diverse and worthy start. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 19, 2011
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Moe
So is Moe the dog or the black blob thing? Or is it even a dog? I guess it doesn’t really matter. This is the silent tale of that creature and its inadvertent adventures with the black blob. It starts off innocently enough. but then the black blob offers and rescinds a bone (ah, that’s why I thought it was a dog), which causes the dog to run into a cartoon villain carrying a dead body, which naturally leads to a mix-up that lands the dog in jail. But hey, what’s to stop an amorphous black blob from getting through some bars? From there we’re treated to some drug use, a mosquito on the attack (oddly and hilariously wearing the same cartoon villain mask from earlier), an underwater adventure and even a budding romance. I can’t say much more without giving away the ending, so hey, I won’t. Piotr lives in Poland and his website is in Polish (as would be the case), so it’s possible that this is silent to avoid any language barriers. If so, it was a great choice, and if it’s just a coincidence, well, it all worked out for the best. This has scenes that made me laugh out loud, always a welcome (and sadly rare) development. I have no idea of a price, although I recommend going to his website and clicking on the “Kontact” link to ask the guy. I think it’s funny and charming enough to deserve a look.
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Posted by Kevin
April 14, 2011
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Monty #1
That was one profoundly strange and rewarding comic. Regular readers of the site probably already know that “profoundly strange” comics are always welcome around here, but this one came in the guise of a coherent, linear story. That’s tricky to pull off and Kayla did it beautifully. This is the story of a girl or boy (ah, the website references a “Whalegirl,” so there you go) with the head and arms of a whale who is trying to take the train to school. Some youths harass her and shove the creature out at the next stop. It’s here that our heroine sees a young girl getting an even worse treatment, but because of her terror nothing is done to help this girl. More is going on behind the surface here, as these two events match up too neatly to be a coincidence. When the lead character gets back on the train our hero gets stuck sitting next to a very loud and greasy man (the type you so often see on trains), and that’s as far as I go in the descriptions. Kayla was nice enough to send the next couple of issues along as well, and I’m looking forward to reading them after this one. Generally speaking first issues of a series are where the experimenting takes place, where the artist gets the stupid mistakes out of the way. Granted, there was a printing error that mixed up the middle pages, but she made that point very clear in a note on the inside cover and the actual content was fantastic. She’s also only 22, so I recommend against going to her website and reading her accomplishments if you’re the type of person who is easily threatened by such things. You should still check out the various paintings, drawings and samples regardless, as she does have a sizable chunk of this issue up for free. I’ll hold off until I read the next too issues to get too silly with the praise, but I sense some serious potential in this one. $4
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Posted by Kevin
April 13, 2011
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Monsters of MMA
Who out there remembers Bryan’s first comic? It was called “First Fight” and it featured the real life account of Bryan’s first mixed martial arts fight. It had drama, tension and a perspective that us small press comics folks don’t see very often. This comic has little or nothing to do with all of that. It’s set at an undetermined point in the future and, as you can see from that cover, the fighters aren’t all that human. Whether or not you’ll enjoy this comic hinges on a simple question: are you looking for something resembling a sequel to “First Fight,” or are you just looking for some violent mayhem? If it’s mayhem you’re after, this one has it in spades. The guy on the left of that cover is a zombie that can regenerate after eating some brains. The guy on the right is covered in spikes and can apparently produce even more spikes at will. Who do you pick to win that one? Whichever one it is, again, if you’re looking for carnage you’ve come to the right place. The art is fantastic, as the violence is depicted as real and brutal stuff (if mildly cartoonish because of the nature of the fighters). The writing is good too, but this does mostly cover a fight, so there’s nothing all that fancy about it. I liked it, although I am genuinely curious to see how the rest of his actual time in MMA went and wouldn’t mind a follow-up to “First Fight.” It’s not for the squeamish, but it’s worth a look if you’re a fan of the MMA stuff and want to see how it would theoretically look in the distant future. $4
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Posted by Kevin
April 12, 2011
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Window #8
I’m not sure if Dave ever bothers with any sort of a theme on an issue by issue basis, but if so this would have to be the “unfortunate touching/yelling” issue. No, nothing is remotely inappropriate, but it does rise to the level of icky on occasion. The main piece deals with a group of kids who go to Dave’s art class in a, well, shithole. Possible literally, as he has to plug up some drains to deal with some of the more offensive odors. He teaches them a few tricks, has his heart broken by a kid that only says “hot dog” and draws in repetitive scribbles (although he probably gets his heart broken on a semi-regular basis, what with all the teaching he did for low income students), and meets up with a remarkably clingy kid who has no clue about where she should be grabbing on the guy to get his attention. This story sums up why I’ve been enjoying these issues so much, as we see some of the only happy moments of these kids’ lives, but it’s very clear that a lot of them are just horribly damaged. Not that Dave hits us in the face with this information, but bags under the eyes of a kid and some dirty clothes go a long way to making that point. Other stories include a conversation with a guy whose two front teeth are worth $1,000, the shape of his Mom’s teeth and what that means for his own future, an incident from Dave’s childhood and a story simply called “penis.” This one is hysterically funny and I’m not going to say another thing about it, other than to reiterate that it was a harmlessly funny story and that Dave is a saint among men for many, many reasons. Well, at least in regards to his treatment of children, and that’s supposed to tell a lot about a guy, right? $1 or 2, check with the man for details.
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Posted by Kevin
April 11, 2011
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A Working City
It’s possible that Nick has cornered the market on bleak yet oddly adorable characters. Look at that sample and feel free to say that I’m crazy, but the deceptive simplicity of the appearance of his characters is a big reason why these stories work so well. This comic is set in a either the near future, an alternate universe or this has already started happening in Bristol and we just haven’t heard about it yet. Things start off with our hero giving a presentation at his job and getting a long ovation from the other people in the meeting. He’s a little shocked, as he had his original plans for the subject of the meeting stolen and he lost months worth of work. He scrambled to put something together… and nobody could tell the difference. This has a profound effect on our hero (his name is Arthur and I’ll just start using that, OK?), as it calls into question his entire existence. What’s the point of putting in months of work for something that can apparently be done just as well in a few days? In that case, why bother to show up at work at all? What about the whole nature of life, of being in a relationship, of being bombarded with advertisements every waking hour? Can you see why I’m not clear if this is a fantasy or something that’s already happening? Anyway, the interactions with his wife (?) are pricelessly depressing, and there are no happy endings to be found. If there are any art snobs who would turn their nose up at something like this because they don’t like how the characters look, you’re missing the big picture and a damned fine story. No price, naturally, but go to that website of his and ask him for a price. I’m guessing around $4.
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Posted by Kevin
April 8, 2011
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Brain Dead Phylum #1
This is one dirty, dirty comic. No, not like that, you perverts you. The story takes place mostly in a sludge pit, and Kyle went to the trouble of making the place look as dirty and grimy as possible. The story, such as it is, deals with two very stupid robots essentially having an extended conversation. They get into a ship, press random buttons for a bit and end up crash landing. I’m not sure if it’s possible for me to reveal spoilers with this ending, but paradoxically I can’t say more about it without revealing spoilers. Let’s just say that the characters are very aware of their situation and the next issue could be downright hilarious. Or terrible, as it’s only one issue and it’s impossible to say. I did like this one, as the bits that were intended as funny mostly were actually funny, which is a rarer occurrence than it should be. I’m also detecting some strong Pat Aulisio influence at work here, and as someone who has been reviewing Pat’s work since the very early days of the website, that does make me the internet equivalent of a proud… uncle, maybe? I’m not sure what analogy would make sense there. My basic point is that I’m happy that at least one artist is taking some tips from Pat’s style and running with it. Unless Kyle has never heard of the guy and this is all in my head, that is. The rambling point of all this is that this book is worth a look and it’s damned good for his first full length mini comic. Encourage the lad with your dollar! $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 6, 2011
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Late One Night Now Available! $.50
This may be a rare comics find (although I didn’t find it so much as Brad mailed it to me), as it appears to be the first 24 hour comic ever. Hell, it’s even less than five hours! When did Scott McCloud start all that anyway? This is from 1986, so probably right around the same time. Of course, this is eight very tiny pages, so I don’t know if that would fit the criteria for a true 24 hour comic. Eh, it amuses me to think about it anyway. The story for this one is that Brad had a page that was going to run through the printing press anyway for another comic, so why not split it up into eight parts and make another comic out of it? The back cover also indicates that this is #1,847 of his products, if you count all the posters and cards as one each, and he put this out a very long time ago. I don’t care how you slice it, that’s serious productivity right there. Anyway, the strips are mostly a series of images like the one sampled below, and that sort of thing gets all the joy sucked out if it from critical reviewing. I did enjoy the one four panel strip dealing with logic, so keep an eye out for that one if you have a spare $.50. Not that the rest of it was bad, just by its nature it was something of a “blink and you’ll miss it” comic. So… yeah. Make up your own damn minds! $.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 5, 2011
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Herman the Manatee Gets Hit By A Boat Volume 1
You’d think that a strip that almost always ended with the main character getting hit by a boat would get boring in a hurry. It threatens to get boring but Jason does an admirable job of turning it around before it goes off the rails. The art is fantastic, which is almost a shame as there really isn’t a lot to show most of the time other than a manatee, some fish or possibly a surface view. It’s comics like this that make me think that I shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss web comics. Well, it’s not I dismiss them out of hand, it’s just that I get so many physical mini comics that it would be impossible to get into reviewing web comics too. If you were wondering, yes, this is the exact same reason why I don’t review zines. Anyway, I should probably mention a few of the comics, even if I have already given away the ending for most of them. Herman is lured up to the surface by a song, bubbles, different asshole fish and a fortune cookie. He tries a few different methods to get around this problem, each with varying degrees of a lack of success. We also see a bit of Herman’s early days, and from those it’s a wonder that he ever gets out of whatever he uses as a bed in the morning. There’s also a smartly done parody of the work of both George Herriman and Edward Gorey to liven things up when it starts dragging a bit. Jason sent along three more volumes of this series, and it may or may not get terribly boring over the long term. Either way, this first issue is worth a look, and if you don’t believe me then his website should have more than enough samples to convince you. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 3, 2011
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Cheetahs Never Win! #3
In case you were wondering exactly when my scanner died AGAIN, it was right after I managed to scan this cover. No sample image, in other words, and no website to look at sample images. Why? No idea. If there was ever a comic that was perfect for a website with plenty of free samples, it’s this one. This comic is mostly a series of single panel gag strips, with stories never running longer than a few pages. There are some groaners in here, but overall I thought this was a funny pile of strips, and I do occasionally have issues with the single panel format. To describe these strips very simply (but to not give them quite enough credit), these are essentially funny messages involving animals or inanimate objects that you might hang up in your office cubicle if you didn’t mind the shock of your co-workers over all that profanity. A few of these strips (and I’m going to leave most of these a mystery, as nothing kills comedy faster than critical analysis) involve a message in a bottle saying “Fuck You,” the mental process of a fish as he escapes death by hook, or the secret life of pencils in various states of use. It’s significantly more funny than not and this is a hefty pile of strips for $5.
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Posted by Kevin
March 31, 2011
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Monkey Squad One Annual #1
It can be difficult for people to know when to jump in during an ongoing series, especially in the world of mini comics where early issues can go out of print in a hurry. Well, if you have any interest at all in this series, and it is a lot of fun from what I’ve seen so far, start with this issue. There is a detailed issue by issue recap on the front inside cover, there are character bios for everybody you could think of, and there’s even a schematic of their headquarters. If I can find the past issues of this series (the organizing system here in my apartment is in a bit of a shambles) I think they would make much more sense now that I know what came before. This issue is more about story snippets and catching up with the characters than anything else, so don’t go looking for one coherent storyline. Still, this is the sort of issue that ends up being invaluable in a long run, and it sure sounds like Doug is gearing up for a long run. The story bits we do see include the Squad sitting around and chatting about getting to go to the Kid’s Choice Awards, the training of a young Connor (beginning at age 7, but then again nobody on the team is even a teenager yet), some new members of Monkey Squad Two followed quickly by their disbanding (that would be a spoiler if it wasn’t listed clearly on the cover), another piece from the alternate future timeline story (and I love that it refers to the exact pages of the issue in question and where this new story would fit, that’s some excellent attention to detail right there), and a nice flashback story to the Monkey Squad from 1996 including who was on the team, who they were fighting and what happened to some of them. Really, all my complaints about past issues go right out the window with this one. Now I know what’s going on and who all these people are, and that really goes a long way. I have no idea how Doug could pack this much information into a recap for a regular issue, which is one more reason why this series is screaming out for a website. The man needs a central location to keep all this information straight, not to mention a place to show off his artwork. One last thing I have to mention is that Doug sent a letter along with this saying that he’s dedicated to making me a fan, which is exactly the right attitude for anybody to have who has received a less than glowing review. Try harder, put out better work and if you still don’t win me over, who cares? I’m some chatty guy with a website. Improving your comic should be the goal all by itself, and that should be a constant goal if you’re taking all of this seriously. And Doug, yes, you have officially won me over. Unless the next issue sucks… $2.50
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Posted by Kevin
March 29, 2011
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The Gods Must Be Bastards
Rob Jackson has been on a serious role as of late, and I’m thrilled to see that he’s keeping that trend going with this issue. As you might have guessed from that fantastic cover, people are beginning to wonder just what exactly the gods are trying to do. In this world scientists are routinely killed when they approach any sort of scientific breakthrough, as the gods prefer to leave all that stuff as mysteries to maintain their power. That’s the common wisdom anyway, and a group of scientists set out to reach the home of the gods and see for themselves. Along the way they get into a sea battle (after stealing a ship), land on a place called “The Island of Lost Souls” (where, shockingly, things don’t go all that well), encounter the sea beast sampled below, and eventually make it all the way to the home of the gods. You’ll have to read it for yourself to see what happens there, but I thought it was just about the perfect conclusion. It’s damned tempting to mention some of the happenings after they made it to the island, but I’m committed to no spoilers, even when I really want to. So what you have here is a lengthy comic with multiple factions wanting different things, an impressive array of fanciful creatures and beings, more character development than you would think and a whole pile of asides that I’m either forgetting or not giving enough credit to here. He’s done it again, that’s what I’m trying to say with all this rambling, and if you’ve enjoyed past Rob Jackson comics (and why wouldn’t you?) then you’re really going to love this one too. I think this is roughly $7 in American money, but it’s huge and you should probably check with Rob to be absolutely sure on that price.
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Posted by Kevin
March 28, 2011
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Yo! Burbalino #4
The stories in this series keep wandering farther and farther from making sense which, in case this is your first time visiting this site, is a good thing in my book. The first story takes up right around the first half of the book and features the quest for equality from one squirrel. He is refused service for ice cream, so he ends up trying to reach the ice cream scoops from a branch and constructs a robot to get the ice cream for him. Constructing robots in comics rarely goes according to plan, and that pattern holds true for this story. Other bits include a recipe for homemade ice cream (although I wasn’t altogether clear on if you sealed the small bag that’s inside of the large bag, but that question will not make sense to anybody who hasn’t read the issue, so please carry on), the story of a fight from very early in Greg’s existence (although it was less a fight and more a punch and retreat), Ronnie Vanderhoeven eating bananas and poo (with a real groaner for an ending line) and a thoroughly surreal stand-up comic story. There’s also an illustrated poem with just about every image that’s currently in your head featured and I don’t have any idea what to say about it, so I’ll just mention it and leave it at that. I’m liking the turn for the weird that this series has taken, although your opinion may vary depending on how much you value “sense.” I think this book was $2, but contact Greg up there and he’ll let you know for sure if you’re interested.
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Posted by Kevin
March 25, 2011
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Dexter Park
Desmond has a very good idea about requesting that reviewers don’t reveal the endings for his books, as they’re tiny things and why would somebody ruin a perfectly good ending anyway? Still, he has so far managed to put together a twist ending of some kind in most of his books that just scream out to be spoiled. I’ll continue to resist, but to those of you reading these reviews who are unconvinced: seriously, send him a few bucks for a few comics and you’ll see for yourself. This one starts off very quietly with a single frog going about his day. He meets up with an old friend from his tadpole days and ends up getting invited to a party. The catch is that this party is in one of the “forbidden areas” where frogs are not supposed to go. Why? Rumor has it that there’s a monster in the area. Not all frogs believe in this monster, so our hero goes back to his grandpa who survived a previous encounter with this beast. Well, his tale is a little sketchy, our hero is no longer convinced and all the frogs end up heading to the party. That’s when it gets really good, but you’ll have to see for yourself. I love the quiet moments at the start of these minis. This one has a whole page of a frog eating a fly before things get going, and past issues have had similar quiet moments before things get crazy. Desmond also has a real knack for internal consistency. That’s a strange thing to tout for an author, but his books always make perfect sense by the end of them and they’re usually endings that you probably should have seen coming, but no less clever for that fact. $2
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Posted by Kevin
March 23, 2011
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Pork Belly #1 Now Available! $1
Sorry, let me just check to see if my head literally exploded from all the puns in one of the stories… nope, still attached. I generally have a problem with too many puns, or many at all really, but the piece in this one crossed right back over into being hilarious. No, I’m not sure how that happened and kids, you really shouldn’t try it at home. The story deals with two people who are showing each other sketches and making puns out of them. There’s “A horse, drawn buggy” and “Cow Bells,” but that pales in comparison to something being so asinine that it’s actually “asin-ten.” Seriously, kudos. Other stories include Chris Hoskin drawing two large boobs into something like an optical illusion, Dan retelling the (modern) story of a woman who was forced to breast feed the family hunting dogs because the husband had to send the wife’s family two cows to marry her in the first place and a pictorial representation of the theory “you are what you eat.” Boobs and more puns than you will usually see collected in one place, what’s not to love? As with most of Dan’s comics this one is 8 pages, but what an 8 pages. $1
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Posted by Kevin
March 20, 2011
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Skin Horse Volume One
Occasionally here at the chaotic offices of Optical Sloth (i.e. my apartment) some comics and/or graphic novels will fall through the cracks for no good reason. Maybe they get buried by other comics, maybe they’re the victim of a cleaning spree and don’t see the light of day again for weeks, months or even longer. The first volume of Skin Horse is one of those unfortunate comics. Sometimes the staff here in the office (i.e. me) just plain screws up, and we feel better talking about it if we can use general terms of blame instead of just being accurate and saying “it’s all my fault.” Anyway, the good news is that there’s already a second volume of this out, so you can find out immediately what happens next. Believe me, if you read this book you will very much want to see what happens next. I didn’t have the highest of expectations, granted, but that was mostly due to my general ambivalence towards daily comic strips. There’s that seemingly legally required first panel recapping the last panel of the strip from the day before, which is a waste of usually 1/4 of your daily strip right there. This series doesn’t engage in that kind of nonsense, so that’s worth about a billion point in my random and meaningless scoring system. Then, and this took me several pages to wrap my head around, this strip is funny. I mean that I chuckled out loud more than a few times, and any daily strip that can do that is always welcome around here. But wait, there’s more! This strip is often much smarter than you might think. Again, my expectations for a daily strip are staggeringly low, but this surpassed those expectations instantly and just kept getting better as it went on. I should probably mention something about the plot here, right? Things start off strong by dumping the reader right into the thick of things with a team of vague government agents who have the job of collecting talking animals. This may come a bit from Shaenon’s previous series but, as I haven’t read that, this may have also started right here with this first strip. Anyway, the talking lion that they’re after ends up getting taken back to their base (spoiler alert, I guess, but this all happens on the first few pages) and then we get to the really good stuff: figuring out what these characters are all about. There’s the head agent, Tip, a cross-dresser who’s also a hit with the ladies. This one could have been played for stupid laughs in any of a number of ways but it ends up being a fairly nuanced and adult portrayal of a transvestite, so kudos for that. Then there’s the talking dog, the zombie girl who’s also on the verge of a deadly rampage, the security guard who gets his mind wiped on a regular basis and is constantly alarmed at the stream of oddities heading into the office, the robotic receptionist from the 1800’s and the boss of the whole place who is essentially a sentient swarm of bees. Once we get all that out of the way Tip has to head down to the basement and arrange a truce between the sentient silverfish, centipedes, zombie heads, cobras that only want to hug, a giant rat and a vastly intelligent crystalline species. That isn’t even the first half of the book, but it’s intricately woven together and too damned smart to be that funny. Later story arcs include the zombie girl trying to get the talking dog to go on a rampage, the team heading out to determine who has jurisdiction over a helicopter with a human brain and a lengthy fight with panda bear. There’s also a fantastic introduction and opening story to go along with a “Customer Service” video for new members of the team and some drawings by other artists. Plenty of free strips are up at their website if you still need convincing, but I thought this book was fantastic and they had to completely win me over to get me to that point. They managed to completely blow away my natural animosity to the daily strip with very little effort. Oh, and I have I mentioned how great the art is? Again, considering the whole daily strip problem, this series and its vast and eclectic cast of characters always looks good. So yeah, I think you should check this out immediately. $14.00
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Posted by Kevin
March 17, 2011
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Panel #16: “Sweet” 16
There is a dark, cynical corner of my brain that is just itching to pounce on a crappy Panel anthology, one where they coast on the production value and the content for once. I’m not proud of it, but there it is. This particular issue of panel will be giving that corner of my brain no joy today. Of course, that means that it’s another solid anthology, which makes the rest of my brain very happy. As you can see from that cover this issue was done up like an old school notebook (do kids even use those in class these days? Man am I old), doodles on the back and all. There’s also the usual excellent pile of creator bios in the back, although only a few of the artists had the courage to show their high school photos. For shame! And the content? Yeah, there’s a pile of great stuff in here, and if you thought this would all be tales of woe from high school, this crew should have proven by now that they’re not content with sticking with the obvious. Stories include Tony and Jessica Goins (a married couple) signing up for eharmony.com to see if they would be matched up on that site, Dara Naraghi and Ross Hardy’s silent piece about two girls stuck at a bus stop after their dates got a little too “handsy,” Andrew Lee traveling back in time to tell his 16 year old self what to avoid, Dara Naraghi and Molly Durst’s piece about modern love (making me very happy that the women I date all speak in complete sentences and know how to spell), Tim McClurg’s genuinely sweet piece about how his wife is the only person he remembers vividly seeing for the first time, Sean McGurr and Andy Bennett’s piece on trying to track down a forgotten star of “Sixteen Candles” and KT Swartz and Brent Bowman’s fantastic take on the concept of coming of age. In other words, yes, this anthology is still going strong. Buy it and see for yourself! $3
Comments Off on Panel Anthologies – Panel #16: “Sweet” 16 | Reviews | Tagged: Andrew Lee, Andy Bennett, Brent Bowman, Dan Barlow, Dara Naraghi, Jessica Goins, Katie Swartz, l Molly Durst, Panel, Ross Hardy, Sean McGurr, Steve Black, Tim McClurg, Tony Goins | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
March 16, 2011
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Window #7
Dave mentioned in a letter with a recent batch of review comics that his Window series had never gotten reviews on an issue by issue basis before, which is nothing short of baffling to me. Are there really that few small press comics review sites out there? Did reviewers think that talking about a few issues of this series was enough? Dave is a fairly well known name in this little section of comics, so I have no easy answer to that one. More for me, I guess. Dave’s eye for revealing and uncomfortable conversations with his students continues with this issue, as the first half of the comic deals with Dave talking to a student about his venus flytrap and why the kid’s dad is on disability. Most of the second half is also a delight as it’s all close-up pictures of various insects and their nests and/or hatching places as he takes a group of kids out to a field. The silent story baffled me a bit, as I know it has something to do with a shower and separate rooms, but maybe it’s been too long since I read past issues for it to make a whole lot of sense at the moment. Maybe you can puzzle it out better than me, but either way this comic is worth getting for the two longer pieces, otherwise known as the bulk of the book. I’m still looking forward to each “new” issue of this series, which is all you can ever ask for from the world of mini comics.
Comments Off on Lapp, Dave – Window #7 | Reviews | Tagged: Dave Lapp, Window | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
