Optical Sloth

Today I’m linking to a newish favorite around here, Karl Christian Krumpholz! And yes, since I’ve been doing this for 24 years, somebody that I’ve only been reviewing for 9 years does count as “newish.”

Today I’m posting the reviews for somebody who’s a featured guest at Cartoon Crossroads this weekend, but I started reviewing his stuff when he was still doing mini comics: Matt Madden! Crikey, look at the text formatting on some of these oldies…

It’s a trick! There are no actual reviews this week, but I am going to post a link to all of my reviews for somebody who’s going to be at Cartoon Crossroads this weekend every day. Watch how they/I evolve over the years! Probably more them then me, honestly. I’m mostly still the same old dope I’ve always been. Anyway, let’s start things off with reigning champ of the website (i.e. the person I’ve reviewed the most) Brian Canini!

New review today for The Bible Drawings Part One by John Mitkoff. I wasn’t able to get to Chicago this weekend as planned, meaning my options for review comics until Cartoon Crossroads in a couple of weeks are just about gone. Will I get enough comics over the next week to write reviews next weekend? Probably not, but maybe!

New review today for Maps by Chris Auman, as I’ve somehow ended up with maybe the dumbest theme week around here yet: double page spread as a sample image week! Ugh, that needs a catchy name in the worst way.

New review today for Ninja Bootleg by Brian Canini, and you wouldn’t believe how low my Canini comic reserves are getting. The plan is to get to Chicago this weekend and stock up at Quimby’s, so we’ll see if that’s what actually happens!

Hey everybody, Andrew Neal has a new comic out! Review today is for No Raccoons in Hell by that guy I just mentioned.

Fantagraphics lost a whole lot of money/books when Diamond publishing went out of business (long story), so they’re having a big old 30% off sale through 8/25. If you’re looking for suggestions, well I just reviewed Jordan Crane’s latest and you may have noticed that I had very nice things to say about that. Or you can do what I do and just get another book from Jason every time you order (I’ll get them all sooner or later). Or the newest Hate series by Peter Bagge was just collected, or you must have missed at least one of Simon Hanselmann’s books, or maybe one of their big old hardcover collections that always seemed too expensive is now affordable for you, etc. Help them out and get some great books in the process!

New review today for The Fifty Flip Experiment #34 by Dan Hill! Is this the last of the reviews until Cartoon Crossroads next month, since most of my review comics are gone? Eh, probably not.

New review today for Goes Like This by Jordan Crane, and after this one I’ll be going back and rereading his old graphic novels. Yes, that means I liked it!

New review today for the last of this round of mini kus books, Sandbox by Yuichi Yokoyama. Does this pile go out with a bang or a whimper? Also my apologies for taking the week off last week, but my review pile is at a low ebb at the moment (hint hint, to anybody looking for a quick review). Cartoons Crossroads is a month away, so I’ll definitely restock there. If I don’t get more review comics maybe I’ll dig through the boxes for some oldies? Who knows!

New review today for Spirit by Tony DiPasquale, so hey, that’s at least one comic from CAKE that I’ve been able to cover so far!

New review today for Perfect Love by Giovanna Fabi, which is the second to last mini kus book that I have left to review this time around. And I can’t believe this to be true, but it looks like nobody has donated to Ron Rege Jr.s fundraiser in a week? Shame on y’all. No, not you, you’re too broke to donate, nobody blames you. But the rest of you? Just throw a few bucks at the man already.

New review today for Random Short Stories By A Future Best Seller by Brian Canini. Since I’m writing this on Sunday, I have no way of knowing if Ron Rege Jr.’s fundraiser has his 100% yet, but if it hasn’t, he’s almost there, so help the man out, won’t you?

That mini kus train just keeps rolling along, so here’s a review for The Big Spill by Janne Marie Dauer. You know, I was going to let the Ron Rege Jr. fundraiser thing go because he’s so close to his goal, so surely that’s good enough? But no, it turns out that I can’t stand the fact that it’s at 96%. That’s so close! As of this writing (on Sunday) that’s less than $600 away! Let’s wrap this up, shall we? Don’t make me post another one of these next week where he’s stuck at 99%…

New review today for Animal Denial by Emilie Gleason, as we’ve now passed the halfway mark of mini kus books. Also Ron Rege Jr. is still trying to get to 100% for his gofundme after his recent accident. I blame the fact that I forgot to post the link the last time around on it not being 100% yet. After all, the people who read this nonsense all do it because they love comics, right? He’s one of the best artists around, so if you can throw any amount of dollars his way, please do so.

New review today for Cities by Chris Auman! Also, “old man yells at clouds” rant incoming, so feel free to bow out now. I tried to order comics from several of the artists at CAKE (you remember, the show in Chicago I missed a few weeks back). And folks, it’s grim out there. No links to the creators on the CAKE website, which is a missed opportunity on their part, especially since several people share names with at least mildly famous people, so good luck finding their comics online. Then when I did manage to find the artist, over half of the ones I found didn’t have any link to buying physical copies of their books. Their choice, but I was desperate to give them money and couldn’t, so I guess the plan is working perfectly? Out of the ones that were left, one asked me to sign up for another subscription thing (nope, maxed out already), one only offered Paypal (even though mine seemed to be working fine, I’ll take the blame for my account not working properly with their website) and several didn’t have their latest comics listed and looked like their store hadn’t been updated in ages. Maybe everything is digital now and I’ve been left behind. I’ll get up to Quimby’s one of these days (after I find out what’s currently wrong with my car, which already ruined my plans last weekend), and I got frustrated and didn’t check every name on that list, but yikes. To the one person who read that whole thing, I apologize.

New review today for A Box of Candy by etchingroom1, which is also the latest of the mini kus books. Halfway through their recent shipment!

Last week was crazy for a few reasons, so my apologies for the lack of updates. Specifically it involved almost going on strike and moving offices in the same week, if you’re curious. But hey, there’s a new review today for They Must Know What They’re Doing by Fran Lopez, so all is right with the world. Also I mentioned the fundraiser for Ron Rege Jr a couple of weeks back, and that’s still ongoing. It’s great that a small press cartoonist was able to get (as of right now) 84% of his goal. But that’s not exactly 100%, and there have to be at least a few people reading this who have loved his comics for possibly decades. If you can afford it at all, please throw some money at the man to help him get through a rough patch.

New review for Fire Rabbit by Yuma Wang, as the mini kus train keeps chugging along. I’ve mentioned several times that I usually write these reviews on the weekends and have them autopost during the week, but I’m mentioning it again because Ron Rege Jr. is still doing a gofundme fundraiser after a rough accident, and as of this writing he’s at 71% of his goal. Maybe by the time you read this he’ll be up to 100%! But if not, help the guy out, will you? He’s one of the best around at this comics business and he could use a hand.