Various: Mauled Anthologies

July 26, 2007

Website

Mauled! #1

In case you can’t read the cover, it says “True Stories of People Attacked at the Zoo”. With that being said, how much convincing could you possibly need to check this out? Here’s a partial list of the people involved: Danny Hellman, Jenny Gonzalez, Dave McKenna, K. Thor Jensen, and Brian Musikoff. Those are just the people who are already on this site, but there are all kinds of stories in here of very stupid people being mauled by animals who have every right to take a chunk out of them, as far as I’m concerned. Let’s see, what animals are involved: monkeys, a polar bear, an elephant, tigers, and a panther, among other things. I love stuff like this, so if you don’t feel the same way, you probably shouldn’t bother to check it out. If you do like this stuff, you can get copies through Brian for $3.95.

Mauled! #2

There’s very little reason for me to write a review after you get a good look at that cover. You either think the idea is morbidly hilarious or you don’t. Well, in case you need any convincing at all, I’ll tell you what’s in here. There’s a woman who has a scalpel in her chest cavity, a man who loses a leg through prolonged incompetence, a small boy who loses his penis at an early age, and more stories about people screwed out of their rightful piles of malpractice money because of all those “anti frivolous lawsuits” bills that the Republicans have been passing for years than you can shake a stick at. That’s a long sentence, take a breath and read over it to make sure it made sense. Good? Good. If I could make a suggestion, I think the next one should be about people who put a variety of things in electrical outlets. Come on, we know the stories are out there! Here’s the talent that I knew: Neil Kleid, Mike Dawson, K. Thor Jensen, and Dave McKenna. Good stuff all around, it’s $3.75, send an e-mail!

Mauled! #3

And this behemoth of a page just keeps getting bigger and bigger. One of these days I’ll pare it down, etc. etc. excuses excuses. So, once again, you can see that cover, right? You already read the first two issues of this series and chances are that you’ve been waiting for more for quite a while, and here it is! A few of the artists involved: Stan Yan, Josh Frankel, Lonnie Allen, Peter S. Conrad, Fredo, Jenny Gonzalez, Kate Allen, Adam Suerte, and Dave McKenna, among many others. What sorts of tragedies at sea are they talking about exactly? You have snapping sea turtles, a giant eel, various shark attacks, a whale trying to jump over a boat, horrible storms, and at least one swordfish living up to its name. Great fun to be had here as always, although I was less than impressed with the stories that were told in poetry form. I’m here for the mayhem dammit, not iambic pentameter! $4.50, please keep buying these so they keep making them, next up is “Mauled by Machines”… Website


Various: International Anthologies

July 26, 2007

Sentence

Anybody out there curious what the British comic scene is like these days? No? Then shame on you, there’s nothing for you to see here. For the sane members of the viewing audience, read on. There are eight artists in this, four of which are on this site somewhere: Gary Northfield, Nick Abadzis, Tom Gauld and Dave Shelton. The concept of this anthology is simple: each creator gets to work with one sentence, and one sentence only, of their choosing. Then they have six pages to tell that story, only using the words in that sentence, if any. Here are the sentences: I want your body and soul; Walk towards the light; What could possibly go wrong?; You’ve gone up in my book now your grandad had a hook; Like a bird-call, but harsh and distorted, like sounds in a cave; Be a happy, healthy dog; Heavens to Betsy, Miss Wickerstaff, have you no shame?; and If I stumbled from your party at three in the morning, would everything turn out fine? There’s not a single bad story in here. My favorite of the bunch changed almost every time I read a new one, which makes this nothing short of a phenomenal success in my book. The price is a bit steep at $12.50 but this is a rare chance to see creators from “across the pond”, as they say, all in one place and getting the chance to really shine. Here’s the e-mail address of the publisher and I really think this book should get some attention…

Stripburek

One of these days I’ll figure out how to do a review for an anthology. I liked the vast majority of it. Lots of familiar faces, either from other anthologies or just things that I’ve come across, like Alexsander Zograf and Jakob Klemencic. I’ve mentioned before that I think Stripburger puts out some of the best anthologies going, right? Good. This is over 200 pages and has a great insert with samples from all of the cartoonists and contact information for everybody. Damn you, finite amount of money! Anyway, the stories here are about all sorts of things. Vague enough for you? Life, love, work, futility, time, zoos, rebellion, dreams, hunger, suicide, Hitler, hostages, trolls, elves, oblivion, family, trickery. and death. There, who says these things have to be complicated? This one is about a year old (as of 2/16/03) but they have a new anthology available for preorder from Top Shelf. Come on, aren’t you getting sick of all these American comics?

Stripburger #18

Anthologies are, invariably, a tricky proposition. How do you recommend something that has 3/4 great stories, but 1/4 of it sucks? Or how about if that number is turned around and 3/4 of it sucks, but the other 1/4 of it is so amazing that you think everyone should read it? Well, that issue can be dealt with another day, because this book is almost all at least worth reading, if not great. It’s an anthology of handicapped people from Europe and it’s something else. Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland and France all had people contribute to making this book. Chances are you haven’t heard of most of these people, unless you follow the scene in other countries. I was happy to learn that there are so many other issues of this series available. It’s up to #20 now along with a few special issues, and most of them are anthologies with a theme of come kind. Once I move out of my current place in Champaign, I’m going to send away for as many of these things as I can afford and see if they’re all as enjoyable as this one.

What kind of stories are in this mini? Well, there’s the man with no arms who has to find a way to take a piss, an impotent bigot wandering around town, two people in a convalescent home who can’t get sexual satisfaction, and a wheelchair race in hell. As I look through this again, maybe I was being too generous in saying that the whole thing worked. There’s not a bad story in the bunch, which is saying something, but a couple of them aren’t much past average. And if that’s the worst thing that I can say about a book, that has to be a good thing. I also expected more of a sense of anger at the non-handicapped world. I don’t know why I thought that would be the case, and there are hints of it here and there, but it’s not anywhere near as pervasive as I thought it might be. If you’re at all curious to see what the scene is like in Europe, this is the best place I’ve seen to start looking.

Check out the website: www.ljudmila.org/stripcore/com.htm


Update for 7/25/07

July 25, 2007

OK, A-S is all done, and if all goes well I should be able to finish up tomorrow, depending on how long it takes to deal with the mess that is the Various pages. As for the fundraiser, I’m a few orders away from being able to shut up about it, so that’s a good thing, and thanks to everybody who has bought stuff. Reviews for the past week that have been shoved off the main page: Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox, Black Book by Steve Black, Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (available in the store), My Word by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (also in the store), Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner, Panel #9 by Various Columbus people, Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido, Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson, There’s No Place #1 by Corey Bechelli, and Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen. New stuff in the store last week included Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault and a bunch of stuff by Corey Bechelli.


Update for 7/24/07

July 24, 2007
Sorry about the lack of a regular update, but I’m a man on a mission here. I had no idea the site had so many broken links and was such a general mess. Anyway, A-Q (SPOILER ALERT! There are no Q’s)�is now good to go, and I’ll probably keep this up until I get through the whole thing. The fundraiser is still going, so please feel free to order stuff. Reviews for the past week that have been shoved off the main page: Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox, Black Book by Steve Black, Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (available in the store), My Word by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (also in the store), Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner, Panel #9 by Various Columbus people, Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido, Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson, There’s No Place #1 by Corey Bechelli, and Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen. New stuff in the store last week included Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault and a bunch of stuff by Corey Bechelli. And I’ll keep plugging away at the rest of the names on this website, so things may be a little chaotic around here this week…

Update for 7/22/07

July 22, 2007

Looks like I was a complete idiot to think that I could get through all these people in one weekend. Still, A-G is done, and everybody that I could find online has valid websites. I did find a lot of new websites doing all this Googling, although I can’t vouch for every single e-mail address. Reviews for the past week that have been shoved off the main page: Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox, Black Book by Steve Black, Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (available in the store), My Word by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (also in the store), Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner, Panel #9 by Various Columbus people, Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido, Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson, There’s No Place #1 by Corey Bechelli, and Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen. New stuff in the store last week included Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault and a bunch of stuff by Corey Bechelli. And I’ll keep plugging away at the rest of the names on this website, so things may be a little chaotic around here next week…


Update for 7/20/07

July 20, 2007

New reviews for Black Book by Steve Black and Earth Minds Are Weak #7 by Justin Fox. The fundraiser is almost exactly half over, as I now need $77 by the end of the month to pay my bills, and I do have a big check coming at the end of next month, so this really is a temporary thing. As long as this goes on, everybody who orders something gets a free comic, and if anybody from Columbus wanted to get a big order I’d drive the damned thing to their house. That’s service, people. And a bit of desperation. As for updating all the creator pages this weekend, the front page may look like a bit of a mess for anybody who comes in while I’m in the middle of things, as it’ll be a long, contextless list of streaming names. When I quit for the day on Saturday and Sunday I’ll post the updates for the last week at the top of the page, so the weekly visitors can keep up if they want. Thanks everybody, happy weekend!


Update for 7/19/07

July 19, 2007

New reviews for My Word! by Missy Kulik & John Porcellino (available in the store) and Super #1 by Kevin Breslawski (newly available in the store, along with Super #2). Also I’m going to try a fairly big project around here this weekend: fixing up all the creator pages. You know, link to the current website for people I haven’t updated in years, take down all the broken links, that sort of thing. If you know of anybody on the site now who has a broken link or incorrect e-mail address, feel free to e-mail me and I’ll fix it. I hope to get to everybody this weekend, even if it seems insane to try and fix 738 (yes, I counted) distinct pages. And keep those comics orders coming, I may reach my fundraiser goal yet…


Update for 7/18/07

July 18, 2007

New reviews for Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs #31 by Steve Steiner and Panel 9 From Outer Space by the fine Panel folk from Columbus Ohio. Another new comic for the store too, Friends #3 by Francois Vigneault, with #1 and 2 to be coming shortly.


Update for 7/17/07

July 17, 2007

New reviews for Random Journeys #3 by Rob Jackson and Relationship(s): The Train by Mason Johnson & Daniel Salcido. Also, I’m going to cut and paste my fundraiser plea with an updated dollar figure, because it’s not a real fundraiser if it’s not getting on peoples nerves, right?

I’ve tried this before as a sort of informal plea, but I’m going to beg again, even if it pains me to do it. I’m taking some time off this summer, to work on the website and a number of other things, but money is going to be a serious issue by the end of the month. Specifically, I’ll be about $85 short. I’ve seen blogs do this from time to time, so why not me: I’m doing a “fundraiser” until the end of the month. I’ll post weekly updates as to whether or not that dollar total has changed. Don’t feel obligated; there’s bound to be a plasma center or pawn shop around here somewhere, I won’t end up homeless at the end of the month if nobody buys a damned thing. But if you ever wanted to show your appreciaton for the site and get a lot of great comics to boot, now would be the perfect time. Like I said before, I should be able to get orders out in a hurry after I get them, and for the month, I’ll throw in a free comic with any order. And if you like buttons, I get all kinds of buttons from comic people, say the word and I’ll throw some of those in as well.


Update for 7/16/07

July 16, 2007

New reviews for Red Eye, Black Eye by K. Thor Jensen and There’s No Place #1 by Scott Oliver and Corey Bechelli. Corey also sent a bunch of new stuff for the store: There’s No Place #1 and 2, Hate Yer State #2, The Battle Within (with Scott Oliver), Willy Wonka: Candyman, Solidarity, and Pursuit. 4 of those are only a measly $.50, for those of you out there on a budget, which I imagine is just about everybody…


Update for 7/13/07

July 13, 2007

New reviews for The Ineffables: Political Science by Craig Bogart and Others by Will Dinski. And the grand total of the fundraiser so far: $66. Honestly, that’s more than I was expecting out of the first week. The grand total goal is still $150, which puts me, what, $84 short� Another week like that last one and I can take off this stupid PBS fundraiser hat. Thanks everybody, happy weekend!


Update for 7/11/07

July 11, 2007

New reviews for Muse #1 by Jamie Chase and Dark Matter Mission for A Cooped-Up Cosmonaut by Christopher Davis (also available in the store). And even more new stuff for the store: This Is Still America #1 and 2 from George.


Update for 7/10/07

July 10, 2007

New reviews for Blow by Robert Swinton and The Bird And The Bear: Doormats Of Life by Alex Kim. Happy All-Star game day! Even if I can never manage to sit through more than a couple of innings…


Update for 7/9/07

July 9, 2007

New reviews for Badassitude by Pat Aulisio and Craig Coleman (also new to the store) and Satisfactory Comics #7 by Isaac Cates & Mike Wenthe.


Update for 7/6/07

July 6, 2007

New reviews for two great comics to end the week: Only Skin #1 by Sean Ford and Every Girl Is The End Of The World For Me by Jeffrey Brown. I’ve tried this before as a sort of informal plea, but I’m going to beg again, even if it pains me to do it. I’m taking some time off this summer, to work on the website and a number of other things, but money is going to be a serious issue by the end of the month. Specifically, I’ll be about $150 short. I’ve seen blogs do this from time to time, so why not me: I’m doing a “fundraiser” until the end of the month. I’ll post weekly updates as to whether or not that dollar total has changed. Don’t feel obligated; there’s bound to be a plasma center or pawn shop around here somewhere, I won’t end up homeless at the end of the month if nobody buys a damned thing. But if you ever wanted to show your appreciaton for the site and get a lot of great comics to boot, now would be the perfect time. Like I said before, I should be able to get orders out in a hurry after I get them, and for the month, I’ll throw in a free comic with any order. And if you like buttons, I get all kinds of buttons from comic people, say the word and I’ll throw some of those in as well. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!


Update for 7/5/07

July 5, 2007

Well, so much for that idea up updating on the 4th. Today there are new reviews for the last issue of Hillbilly Sex by Nick Jeffrey (really, he’s quitting) and Tick by Kenan Rubenstein.


Update for 7/3/07

July 3, 2007

New reviews for Death, Cold As Steel #2 by Bram Meehan & Jamie Chase and Infandum #2 by Molly Lawless. Molly also sent a bunch of books along for the online store: Infandum #1 & 2, Sleepwalker and Great Moments in Baseball #1. Happy 4th, I may or may not review some stuff tomorrow, although I probably will…


Update for 7/2/07

July 2, 2007

New reviews for Winter Comic by Sarah Morean and The Horrifically Complete Non-Winner (also available in the online store) by Kelli Nelson. Oh, and I had to fix a few stupid mistakes on the page for Richy Chandler. Whoops!


Update for 6/28/07

June 28, 2007

New reviews for Power of 6: The Twisted Apples Part One by Jon Lewis (also scrubbed all the outdated crap off his page) and A Stoopid Pigeon Treasury by Brett Neveu & Richard Sparks.


Update for 6/27/07

June 27, 2007

New reviews for Symphony in Ink #2 by Dan Taylor and various eople and Fabricari #2 by Steve Harrison. Many many more new comics for the store today too, all by Christopher Davis: Fish Out Of Water, Crawling, No Buses. Chickens., I Walk With My Wife In The Evening, Why I Never Joined The Strawberry Resistance, Dark Matter Mission For A Cooped-Up Cosmonaut, and True-Size Eyes. I’m shuffling all these in alphabetically (along with the new stuff from yesterday), but it’ll take some time. Of course, you could always just use that handy Search option on the left to look for the stuff you can’t find…