New review for Yo! Burbalino #4 by Greg Farrell. Sure, I missed the weekend update, but at least there will be a new update every day this week barring my hands falling off, so that’s a good thing, right?
Update for 3/28/11
March 28, 2011
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Posted by Kevin
Farrell, Greg – Yo! Burbalino #4
March 28, 2011
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
Update for 3/25/11
March 25, 2011New review for Dexter Park by Desmond Reed, and my scanner worked for about 20 minutes today, so I managed to scan about half a dozen of the comics that were closest to my computer. This means regular reviews next week and I’ll most likely manage to post one this weekend too. Huzzah! Also, my apologies if your comic wasn’t close enough to be grabbed, but I’ll get to those when I give up in a week or so and just buy a new scanner already…
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Posted by Kevin
Reed, Desmond – Dexter Park
March 25, 2011
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
Update for 3/23/11
March 23, 2011New review for Pork Belly #1 by Dan W. Taylor, and the scanner seems to be officially dead. I’ll head out to get a new one tomorrow or Friday and then I’ll be reviewing a ton of stuff, as it’s been piling up with all the technical problems.
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Posted by Kevin
Taylor, Dan W. – Pork Belly #1
March 23, 2011
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
Update for 3/20/11
March 20, 2011Quick, if you’re in Columbus, go to SPACE right now! There’s still time! Actually, with the time difference there may not be. Anyway, new review today for Skin Horse Volume One by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells.
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Posted by Kevin
Garrity, Shaenon K. & Wells, Jeffrey C. – Skin Horse Volume One
March 20, 2011
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
Update for 3/17/11
March 17, 2011New review for Panel #16: “Sweet” 16 by the Ohio anthology masters. Most of them will be at SPACE this weekend in Columbus, so you should maybe think about heading that way. I’m almost certainly too broke to make it, but that’s no reason for YOU not to go. Oh, and as far as the scanner goes, it just so happens that turning my computer on and off multiple times seems to get it to work, so back to normal updates until that temporary fix stops working too.
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Posted by Kevin
Panel Anthologies – Panel #16: “Sweet” 16
March 17, 2011
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
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/16/11
March 16, 2011Hey look, the scanner worked today! New review for Window #7 by Dave Lapp. If this scanner is really working again I’ll be back to the daily reviews, if it was all a trick then it’ll be sporadic posting for another week or so until I can get it replaced or have a bundle of cash fall into my lap.
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Posted by Kevin
Lapp, Dave – Window #7
March 16, 2011
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.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/15/11
March 15, 2011Oh yeah, there are still some books in the online store that went unreviewed. New review today for First There Was The Scribble by Brad W. Foster and a bunch of other artists. I’m hoping my tax return will be able to pay for a new scanner, as my current money has to go to getting new glasses (the frame for the old ones exploded for no good reason) first. I’ll still manage to get a review up for the last Panel book before SPACE this weekend, but my ability to afford going to it is doubtful at best. If any millionaire reading this could send me $1,000 for the trip out of the goodness of their hearts… right, like any millionaires read this site. And like any of them have hearts…
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Posted by Kevin
Foster, Brad W. – First There Was a Scribble
March 15, 2011
Now Available! $1.75
First There Was The Scribble
Anybody out there with writer’s block? Is that even the right term for somebody who is creatively blocked from making new comic characters? Anyway, if you have whatever the right term for that is, you should maybe look at this book. The title sums it up pretty well: start with a scribble, and try not to have any preconceived notions about it. Make it a genuine doodle. Then take a minute to examine the doodle and see what you can some up with out of it. This comic contains Brad’s first attempt at this and the second mini comic he put out on this theme. The first shows Brad’s attempts of making art out of doodles. Some of them are more impressive than others, naturally, but there are some seriously impressive images in here. The second section includes doodles and their results by Jamie Adler, Bob Conway, John Cosgriff, John Howard, Dave Miller, Reg Platt, Roldo, Jim Ryan, Dan W. Taylor, Edd Vick and Keith Woods. Don’t be alarmed if you’ve never heard of some of those names, as this book was first released in 1994. Different perspectives added a lot to the experience, as Jim Ryan named all the characters he created and Reg Platt put together a Sherlock Holmes story from his characters. Brad points out that a few of the doodles in the second half are cheaters, but hey, why not? Nobody is keeping score and the whole point of the exercise is a new outlet to express creativity. It’s an interesting project that some of you creative types should maybe try if your current output it mostly theoretical. $1.75
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Posted by Kevin
“Update” for 3/10/11
March 10, 2011After eight rounds, the scanner wins the fight for a review today by knockout. If I ever get that stupid thing working again I’m going to scan sample images from as many comics as I can before it explodes, in the meantime feel free to order some comics to help out or continue to wait patiently until I’ve managed to pile up enough pennies to get another one.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/9/11
March 9, 2011New review for Night Animals by Brecht Evens. This would have been a Top Shelf Tuesday update yesterday, but I didn’t win my most recent battle with my scanner until today. Slowly earning enough cash to get a new one and stop bitching about it, but I’m also still perfectly happy to have anybody who wants to help me get a new scanner buy some comics from me…
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Posted by Kevin
Evens, Brecht – Night Animals
March 9, 2011
I don’t think it’s ever taken me longer to read a silent comic. In case that’s not clear enough, that is high praise. It also made it difficult to pick a sample image, as a good chunk of the pages in this fantastic book are two page spreads, chock full of weird and alarming characters. There are two stories in here and each has more creatures than I could describe if I used a million words. The first is “Blind Date,” in which a man solemnly dresses in his finest bunny costume before a date. He follows a series of painted arrows to his date, traveling through a sewer, forest, underwater nightmare land, and a series of tunnels before finally making it to his goal. I particularly enjoyed that last arrow, but if I tell you what that’s all about then I’d be ruining a perfectly good punchline. The second story deals with a young girl getting her first traumatic period at school. She goes home and is lured from her bed by a creature that seems to promise only fun and good times to go with her new adulthood. Again, one of the final images is of the creatures juxtaposed with that of a perfectly ordinary search party, and once again Brecht hits exactly the right tone with their ethereal but obvious presence. Yes, it does too make sense, and if you read the book you’ll be able to see what I mean. Overall I’m left without a single complaint, which is always a welcome occurrence. The art was pitch perfect in every single panel, the sheer range of the creatures presented shows the work of a vibrantly imaginative mind, and any one of those two page spreads could be happily examined for minutes at a time and you’d still be running across little surprises that were thrown in. It’s still fairly early in the year, granted, but this is the best book I’ve seen in 2011. Granted, that’s partially because the huge Alec collection was technically released last year, but it’s still high praise that I don’t go casually tossing around. $7.95
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/4/11
March 4, 2011New review for Bird Brain #2 by Francois Vigneault and, as the universe clearly hates me, the frame for my glasses just exploded for no good reason. It’ll be a little longer until I can get a scanner that works every day, and my plans for going to SPACE this year are looking increasingly unlikely. So if you have books that you generally hand to me in person at SPACE, you may want to think about getting a package together to mail to me instead, barring a minor miracle or the discovery of a rich relative.
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Posted by Kevin
Vigneault, Francois – Bird Brain #2
March 4, 2011
Bird Brain #2
If anybody out there hates birds, it’s probably best to move along to the next review. Who hates birds? Well, somebody is bound to, right? People either hate or love all sorts of things that seem to mild to me to feel strongly about either way. Anyway, this is another collection of birds Francois has observed and drawn in his travels. Birds that he has observed include herons, ospreys, tree swallows, hummingbirds, swallows, bald eagles, Candian geese, screech owls, warblers and a few more to leave you some surprises, as I have no idea what constitutes a spoiler in this sort of book. He does a masterful job of conveying the birds, but that’s no surprise because he’s also extremely gifted in drawing people. There’s also a nice introspective author’s note in the back detailing why he loves larger birds and how their sudden acts of violence remind him that our world, though appearing tame, really isn’t far from that sort of thing. In case you think that this is simply a collection of bird drawings, well, no. He makes them funny on occasion and includes his observations throughout, so if you like his other stuff there’s no reason in the world to think that you wouldn’t like this one. And who doesn’t like his other stuff? $2.50
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Posted by Kevin
Udpate for 3/2/11
March 2, 2011New review for Cheetahs Never Win #1 by Steve Reeder because today is Austria Wednesday! Just today though, unless all kinds of Austrians start mailing me comics in the very near future. Oh, and the scanner worked fine today, thanks for asking, so if it can hold together for a few more weeks I should be able to replace it myself and stop bugging the lot of you about it.
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Posted by Kevin
