July 10, 2011
Website
Tortilla #2
I have a general question before I start the praising, and this may or may not be rhetorical: why is it that sometimes when a comics artist hasn’t put a book out in a year or two, the book that does eventually come out is filled with previously released material? I realize that making comics isn’t the highest priority when you’re also trying to make enough money to feed your family, and everything in this issue is new to me anyway, but I was just curious about that in general. Jaime says that this issue ended up being all personal stories about him and that it worked as a complete issue, and he’s completely right about that, so consider the previous questions to be about 90% Sunday afternoon ramblings. There are three big stories in here and a short piece about a “Love Bomb.” First up is Jaime’s old habit as a kid of hopping onto moving trains to spare himself some walking. He always managed to jump off before they started moving too quickly until, of course, he doesn’t. Hey, there would be no story otherwise, right? It was a great, tense story with some serious attention to detail, considering that all this happened many years ago. Next up is Jaime’s piece on stealing all kinds of stuff as a kid and temporarily being “the kid who could get booze.” He was too young to care about drinking it, but it was a nice way to make a few extra bucks. You could kind of see his downfall coming, but I loved how he portrayed the utter casualness he had for stealing after getting away with it so many times. Finally there’s the first chapter of a projected graphic novel called “Turk Street Serenade.” Apparently the bulk of this book was completed and on his hard drive when the damned thing crashed. “That sucks” is a massive understatement, as I’ve been thinking for years that it’ll probably take a big old graphic novel to really get his name out there. Sure, it already is among the smart people, but you know what I mean. Anyway, this chapter deals with Jaime taking over a night shift at a hotel, trying to stave off boredom before eventually getting way more action than he wanted. Ah, I remember the life of working nights at a hotel. The people that you’d see, I swear. Like Jaime said, the whole thing works really well as a complete comic, and if you haven’t read any of his stuff already, I’d suggest starting right here. No price listed here or at his website, I’m going to guess $4.
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Posted by Kevin
July 8, 2011
Website
The Patriot’s Daughter
Finally! We’ve reached the first utterly unreviewable comic. Well, I’m sure an art critic could take a stab at it, but this is way above my pay grade. What you have here are eight packed images in various states, until finally we’re left with a burning pile of regular wood. The initial images are all densely packed with images, although the cross is the only unifying factor (well, outside of Spider-Man showing up on the first few pages). As detritus from a fading culture, you could find all kinds of things in here to catch your eye. Then you could also write this review if you wanted, as I really have nothing to say about it. It’s a nice progression of destruction, but I’ve never been the biggest fan of these 100% symbolic comics. Looking at his website, this is clearly what his art is all about, and more power to him. I’d just rather have a story. What can I say, I’m a simple guy who likes strange mini comics from all over the world, and these pages strike me as something that should be hung on a wall and not in comic form. There’s no price anyway and the whole comic is up at his website, so it’s apparently a moot point. Anyway, good luck to the guy and I’d love to see a regular comic. You know, word bubbles and stuff like that.
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Posted by Kevin
July 7, 2011
Website
A different website
The Fifty Flip Experiment #3
Ah, a comic from back when this comic was funny. For those of you who are sarcasm-challenged, well, the comic is STILL funny (as of #14 anyway), but wow was the format different back when this issue came out. By the time Dan got to #14 the stories were getting longer and the art was getting better, but it’s hard to compare to an issue like this in terms of sheer content. This is mostly a series of comic strips, usually four to a page, along with some single page strips. As a result of all that content I’ll just briefly mention what you could find in the first half of the book: mistaken unicorn identity, screaming dad, some unfortunate third world care packages, the moral superiority of jogging, stupid Simba, the secret of Abraham Lincoln’s hat, medical experiments on slaves (in an odd change of pace for an otherwise jovial book), fucking crows, streamlining the mate selection process, “fake” wrestling, and a suicidal tackle box. And that’s just chunks of the first half! If you’ve never heard of Dan Hill and want to see what exactly he’s capable of, chances are that you’re going to want to start with one of his more recent work comics and work your way back. If you’re already a fan, or if you’re obsessed with getting value for your comics dollar, it’s hard to go wrong with this one. As for those websites, the first one is Dan’s official website (as far as I know), but it’s not working at the moment. The second one lists several of Dan’s old comics, including many of them from this issue, but that’s not working at the moment either. Too bad, but here’s hoping it’s just a temporary thing. If I remember correctly these were generally $2, although maybe the earlier ones were cheaper.
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Posted by Kevin
July 5, 2011
Website
Chickenbot’s Odd Jobs #4
You know, for all the times that I’ve wondered if this website isn’t a complete waste of time, or if maybe I’m losing interest in mini comics, I think back to the fact that if it wasn’t for this site I would have never seen comics like this one. And OK, fine, I could have lived without it, but it (and other comics) have made my life just the tiniest bit better, and isn’t that the point of art? Oh crap, I just asked what the point of art was; even rhetorically that’s dangerous. Moving on, if you haven’t read #3 in this series, you’ll be more than a bit lost here. No recap of any kind, and that’s going to be the extent of my negative comments for this issue. Chickenbot starts off as he’s chasing the bad guys down, and we very quickly get a death, a highly quotable fight (“no one eats my head, you huggably-soft psycho”) , another death and an escape. Oh, and smallpox. Finally Chickenbot makes it to the big bad guy and things get wrapped up, but almost certainly not how you might have expected. Is that too vague? Yeah, I’m not spoiling any of this one, sorry. It’s a given that Eric has a pretty firm handle on the humorous aspect of this book, but I wasn’t sure about some of the weightier aspects. Could he play serious drama and emotion with a title character that is half chicken, half robot with the apparent last name of “over easy”? Yes. Yes, he can. He had already proved that he could handle the longer stories, but this just reinforces that. The tension and the pacing were also damned near perfect for both issues. The art also keeps improving, and it was pretty damned good to begin with. This comic has just jumped to the top of my wish list for new animated shows, and up until a few minutes ago I wasn’t even aware that I had such a list. Buy it, that’s what I’m getting at here. Maybe if enough people buy it he’ll become rich enough to spend some serious time on this, and I’d love to see what happened if he did. I think this is $4 but I’m not positive. Either way you can get this and #3 for $6.50 which, unless you already have #3, you should very much do.
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Posted by Kevin
July 1, 2011
Website
3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics Summer 2011
Maybe it’s all the review copies of adult comics I’ve been getting lately, or maybe it’s just the utter ease with which you can find a naked picture of any starlet who has ever taken off their clothes for even a split second, but I found this comic downright quaint. Sure, it’s meant to be at least mildly salacious, and shame on you if you couldn’t figure that out from the title/cover. Still, outside of some (mostly drawn) cleavage here and there, there’s just not a lot here to threaten the delicate sensibilities of those types who try to censor everything. It’s not like Mike was trying to go that way and failed; he comes across as a light-hearted guy who is just having fun with the idea and using it to get an interview with one of the ladies from a space-themed beer commercial. Sorry, the “back in my day” rant will now end. So how about the comic? There are several full page spreads of various actresses in real or imagined movies and even a full color centerfold. The comic stories include a critical but fair look back at Barbarella (including the tidbit that Raquel Welch turned down the role), determining the “Trek Babe Supreme,” figuring out who gets the last ticket to the “Space Ark,” dealing with stupid aliens, and a theory of how the next mission would go in the new “Star Trek” movie after they put Kirk in charge (just after graduating) of the most powerful ship in the fleet. Yes, that was a remarkably stupid part of the movie, but the “stupid” quotient in movies seems to be going up all the time. There’s also that interview with Rachelle Wood from the beer commercial, which ended up being more interesting than I would have guessed going in. If you’re a fan of the ladies in science fiction you have an excellent chance of liking this book a whole lot. If not there’s significantly less in here to like, but the stories are still fun and hey, maybe if you give it a try you’ll end up liking ladies of science fiction more than you do now. No price for some baffling reason, but due to all that full color stuff I’m going with $5.
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Posted by Kevin
June 29, 2011
Website
Website where you can buy the book
Second Chances
Who else is sick of the seemingly endless eight hours a day you have to spend at an office? I’m guessing it’s most of the people who are in that situation. I’m currently not stuck in that hellscape (but am well aware that that’s a temporary reprieve, barring a pile of money falling in my lap from above), but Matt clearly either is or is well aware of that mindset. This comic is a mostly silent tale of Matt going through an average day. There’s Matt stuck at a computer, hunching further down as the day goes on, and getting bounced around on the subway. He picks up a pizza, eventually falls asleep and is woken up by a read oddity. He had been given a flower earlier in the day that can bring life to inanimate objects, so he decides to make a substitute for himself and send it off to work. Meanwhile Matt (I should probably just say “Matt substitute,” as I have no idea if this is really supposed to represent Matt and we all know the dangers of assuming) runs off to the wilderness and survives on his wiles. Things progress, the cardboard Matt ends up doing really well at work and with Matt’s old colleagues, and actual Matt (as represented in the comic, obviously) gets more than a little tired of roughing it. He decides to return to his old life, but by this point cardboard Matt has plans of his own. I’ve seen plenty of comics where the artist bitches endlessly about their sorry lot in life, but kudos to Matt for showing that there are always crappier options to your crappy life, and it can be dangerous to get exactly what you think you want. It doesn’t hurt that the art is gorgeous and that almost every panel tells a story (they kind of have to, what with it being a mostly silent comic and all, but Matt pulls this all off perfectly). Excellent production values for a $3 comic too, which leaves you with exactly zero reasons not to check this out. $3
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Posted by Kevin
June 28, 2011
Website (where you can buy the book)
Hereafter Press
664 North Main Street
Bristol, CT 06010
Revelations #1
Oy. It’s bad enough when self-published mini comics don’t have any sort of contact information, but for a comic where they went to the trouble of getting it published? Louise and Barry used “Ka-Blam” digital printing, a name I’m seeing more and more on the backs of the more “professional” (i.e. color cover and excellent production values) comics, so it’s not like this cost $0 to put out there, and they couldn’t even be bothered with an e-mail address. Sorry, but that just seems stupid to me. I put the snail mail address up there, so for the two people in the world who still use that to order their comics while still being internet savvy enough to find such things online, there you go. For everybody else, well, maybe they’ll stick with this series long enough to eventually get a working website up about it. This all came about because I was checking on some of Barry’s old series and I was curious if some of them really stalled out after one issue or if I just hadn’t seen new issues. That can be a problem when my main method of getting small press books is through review comics, as if somebody doesn’t bother to send me one after a few issues I have a tendency to lose track. Have I mentioned that I’m in a rambling mood today? Christ. So how about the actual comic, other bitching aside? This is why I was wondering about Barry’s past work: seems promising, depending on whether or not they stick to the series for a few issues, but it could just as easily fall apart. Our hero is a woman who makes a living defending vicious criminals that she knows are guilty. She’s never lost and has set countless monsters back out onto the streets. Some hero, right? Still, it makes for a mildly interesting premise. We cut to six months later and she’s about to get pummeled by a group of thugs, which she arguably has coming but, as it’s put in the narration, “deserving and accepting are two very different things.” She sprouts some short, thick claws at the ends of her knuckles and takes care of the thugs. From here we get to see our hero trying drugs to stop the changes she’s experiencing and is finally given some facts about her condition by a mysterious figure who has broken into her apartment. So what you have as a whole are some possible cliches that could turn ugly, or enough new ideas for them to make something interesting out of all of this. It’s not a bad intro, I just find as I get older that I believe less and less that there’s going to be a #3 in a series, let alone a #6 that a series like this would probably need to really get going. If you’re less cynical than me, go ahead and order it by clicking on that link, or if maybe you think you’d like this type of story and don’t mind if it dies out after one issue. Me, I’m going to reserve judgment. $3
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Posted by Kevin
June 27, 2011
Website
Silent V #4
Could it be? Is this the missing Silent V origin story? Well, sort of. The storytelling in this one is damned near linear, which is shocking in itself after the first three issues. The first half of the comic (roughly) deals with the early years of our hero and his proficiency in killing aliens. I’m still not entirely clear on WHY he hates aliens so much, although it seems to be basically because his scientist father didn’t have time for him as a kid, so he killed aliens in brutal fashion to pass the time. Chances are I’m missing some nuance there. The second half has a human sacrifice gone wrong (actually an intended dingo sacrifice) and the escaped dingo learning about the god he was supposed to be sacrificed to. See, I was able to more or less summarize this issue coherently! This also leads me to an inescapable conclusion: I’m going to have to read all of these again when #5 comes out, theoretically by the end of the summer. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the things that seemed like nonsense before (delightful nonsense though, no doubt about it) are going to start coming together. If not, well, then Kyle hasn’t been doing his job properly. Still, there’s just enough sense to all of this that I can see bits and pieces of a master plan poking through the surface. You guys should buy some of his comics to motivate him to get #5 out on time. Sure, it helps me out, but this comic should be seen by the comic reading world at large. $2 (?)
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Posted by Kevin
June 23, 2011
Website
Weeknight Casserole
I’ve found over the years of reading these books with funny pictures in them that there are two kinds of “collections of random stuff not collected in a single comic before” type of comics. One is the rushed mess of a comic, often half-filled with sloppy sketches, that was clearly done with the intention of having another (or one) book available at a convention. Then there’s the good kind, the kind that is full of stuff that just happened to be in different anthologies and sure, it probably doesn’t go together in any kind of logical sense, but who cares? Good comics are the goal here, not comics that tie together. This book fits that second description, as Kelly put a bunch of solid stories in here. Doesn’t Kelly know that you’re supposed to half-ass it for anthologies? Stories include a damned sweet piece about her Dad, an old boyfriend’s surprise party and how he was hit on all night by a male friend, cramming in a lunch break, “Accidental Adventures in S & M” (worth the price of admission all by itself), a page of small observances from her day, an early experience with live music (and not knowing a mildly famous guy by sight), and her odd crush on an older professor. There are a couple of pages that are portraits of various people, and not one of them was filler in any way. Once again I have nothing but praise for one of her comics. Sorry to disappoint the people out there who live for savagely negative reviews, but most of those folk left here years ago. $2
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Posted by Kevin
June 22, 2011
Website
Built #1
Here it is! Brian’s 100th ongoing series! OK, maybe I’m being a bit of a glib dick, as that’s not even closely to being literally true, but damn, this man has a lot of ongoing titles to juggle. It doesn’t hurt that they’re all in comics roughly the size of your thumbs placed next to each other, but it’s still an impressive achievement. This one deals with a robot who breaks free of his programming and decides to escape. This robot is on all the time, constantly improving itself, and it knows that its behavior will be noticed sooner or later, so this escape is a matter of self-preservation. Anyway, it manages to escape, is eventually found by a group of angry humans, and discovers just how unlikely humans are to listen to a sentient robot. Things end on a note that quite obviously makes this another continuing series and why not? There are all kinds of possibilities from here. Sure, “robot gains sentience, escapes from captors and wants to join humanity” story has been done before, but at this point I have full confidence in Brian’s ability to get something new out of it. That and Joe Badon’s scratchy, almost panicked art was perfect for the story. So yes, the verdict is that this is another potentially excellent series. Or another potential series that is abandoned early on, and only time will make that clear. For now I’d say it’s worth your support, but what do I know? $1
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Posted by Kevin
