Canini, Brian – Plastic People #16-18

January 31, 2025

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Plastic People #16-18

The link goes to the collected edition of these three comics for the sake of simplicity, but you can always get the individual issues from Brian’s website instead. Aren’t I helpful? These three work really well together, as they’re very focused on the police response to the serial killer on the loose. #16 is basically a chase comic, as Facelift calls the cop who made fun of him to try to explain why he’s doing what he’s doing, and the whole time the cops are trying to triangulate his location. I say that like I know what it means, but it’s on cop shows, so something like it must be real. Do they find him? Since there are two more issues to go in this review, I’d say it’s not looking good. #17 deals with the cop in question getting a gun sent to him in the mail from the killer, and another characters tries to find a church that’s right for them. Churches in this series don’t match many churches from our reality, so it’s a bit of a struggle. Finally #18 gets to the funeral for the city council member who was killed several issues back, with a grim and moving eulogy from his partner. The transition to the next scene actually got an audible chuckle out of me, so I’m not going to spoil it, but I feel safe saying that I’ve read enough to Brian’s comics to think that that was his intent. So overall the series is still moving right along, and I’d still recommend grabbing a compendium or two to see if it’s your thing. Will I ever catch up to him in these reviews? I’m only four issues behind now, so I live in hope. $4.99 (or $2 per issue)

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Update for 1/29/25

January 29, 2025

New review today for Adventures in Gondwanaland by Maryanne Rose Papke. Her triumphant return to the website!

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Papke, Maryanne Rose – Adventures in Gondwanaland

January 29, 2025

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Adventures in Gondwanaland

Most of the time I choose the sample image in the hopes of summing up a comic in one picture. As this is an impossible task, I usually fail. But I do at least always choose an image that either makes me laugh or blows my mind in some way, and the image below does both things. Just take it all in, before I get started talking about the comic. What do you think the comic is about? It’s Tile (a character Maryanne has been using in online strips and regular comics for a lot of years) going off on an adventure with her flying elephant. She’s worried about running into pirates, which is where the sample image comes in. From there she learns that she’ll have to deal with the flower-trees and their minions, as they’re stealing all of the paperclips from the capybaras. A secret tunnel is discovered, and inside of that tunnel is something that can help them with their task… or not. It depends on whether or not they run into Souffle. Even if that happens, they still have options. Also, will hats be involved? I hate to spoil such a thing, but yes. Yes they will. One of the things I love about Maryanne’s comics is that they’re so very hers. I feel like if somebody handed me four unnamed pages of this comic in a row I’d be able to tell pretty quickly that it’s one of her comics. There’s action, a quest, and capybaras. What more do you need out of a book? $2

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 1/27/25

January 27, 2025

I’ve struck a new vein of comics to review in my search of moving boxes, so I should be OK for a few weeks. Still, I’m taking comics for review, as always, around here! New review today for Once Upon A Time… There Was A Mouse! by Rachel Bivens.

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Bivens, Rachel – Once Upon A Time… There Was A Mouse!

January 27, 2025

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Once Upon A Time… There Was A Mouse!

When I saw Dan Clowes give his talk at CXC (in 2023) he made a point that really stuck with me about the unreliability of memory. His mother and brother had just passed away, and while he had faith in their ability to tell their shared family history together, now that it was just him he had no way to verify anything that he might have misremembered and felt their shared history slipping away. Why am I bringing this up? Like I said, it stuck with me, but it’s relevant to my review of this comic. I got this at CXC 2024, and there’s a kinda sorta name (good old Google helped me out with an actual name), but no website, no way to find anything more about them. Then when I did find them, this comic wasn’t listed as being for sale. So, we’re left with my memory, and since I stopped by this table alone: was this tiny comic a con freebie to give people a sample of her work? Or is just currently sold out on her website? The story is fairly simple, but adorable: a mouse is enjoying the heck out of a chunk of cheese, but one day that cheese disappears. The mouse then sets out on a quest to find more cheese (but a short quest, as the comic is only 7 single panel pages long), but how does the journey end up? It’s a cute comic, and worth a buck or two if you see it at a convention. Or if it’s free, it’s especially worth it. Just don’t count on me being the one to remember which of those options is true.

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 1/23/25

January 23, 2025

New review today for A City Inside by Tillie Walden. I mentioned that I’m low on review comics, right? If somebody doesn’t send me something soon I’m going to have to unpack some of the boxes from when I moved that may or may not have comics I need to review in them. Please spare me this task that I definitely have to do sooner or later anyway!

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Walden, Tillie – A City Inside

January 23, 2025

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A City Inside

I’m linking straight from the publisher because they’re in the UK and they have a lot of books you’ve probably never heard of. Explore, try something new! Anyway, this is my third Tillie Walden review, and in the first two I believe I used the word “masterpiece” unironically. So I guess you could say that I had high hopes for this one. And they were… met? I think? Here, I can’t resist quoting Tillie from her website trying to summarize this book: “This book. Oy. Probably my strangest work, and secretly one of my favorites. Don’t ask me what it means because I definitely don’t know.” And now you want ME to talk about it? Madness, but I guess that’s why they pay me the big bucks. Side note: nobody pays me any bucks, but I’m always willing to take them. This book is significantly shorter than her other two books that I’ve reviewed, but it feels like one of those books that is actually significantly more revealing of the author than they may have intended. Not that I have any inside scoop on that theory, which is why it’s just a theory. This one starts off with a woman on a couch, about to start a therapy session of some kind. We see what she sees, which is an exploration of her life, what she wants out of it (privacy and peace, mostly) and what causes her to leave her comfort zone, which is a relationship and a cat, not necessarily in that order. She tries city life, leaving the quiet city she’s built in her head, but in the end she just can’t take it. The rest of the book, which I’m not going to talk about because I’ve probably already said too much, deals with her unpacking her decision and taking in all of the pros and cons. Among many other things, but that’s why you can read it for yourself. It’s at least partially fiction, because her time in space is mentioned, and there’s a lovely ending that I didn’t see coming. I hope she’s done with her Walking Dead spinoff comic soon, as I’m really curious to see what other original stories she can come up. As for you, if her gigantic graphic novels seemed too intimidating, here’s a shortie just for you! $17

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 1/21/25

January 21, 2025

New review today for The Re-Up #6 by Chad Bilyeu and Juliette de Wit. Hey, I’m writing this review in the past. Is America still a country after the inauguration yesterday or naw?

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Bilyeu, Chad & de Wit, Juliette – The Re-Up #6

January 21, 2025

Website (Chad)

Website (Juliette)

The Re-Up #6

See, this is the trouble/joy of reviewing a series issue by issue instead of all collected into a graphic novel. Last time around I was a little down on the comic, or at least a little “meh” about it. But this issue takes a completely unexpected turn, and I’d be willing to bet that that previous issue will still end up being an important piece in the whole story before it’s all said and done. In this issue we get to see a bit of Chad’s early life and how his relationship with his family suffered during the years that he was selling weed. See? Unexpected! Things start off with a kitchen conversation between Chad’s mother and grandmother, and it’s the first time we see something that turned out to be a regular occurrence: Chad’s mother calling him to check in, and Chad ignoring the phone call. As his grandmother’s health declines the need for him to take one of these calls gets more and more urgent, but since he’s not aware of any of this the reader is left wondering if he’s ever going to do the right thing or if he’s unable to focus on anything past dealing. We also see young Chad, who had his problems for sure, but boy is it ever mandatory to slap anybody who says “you people” in that tone. Not that I could hear the tone, but it practically screamed off the page. While this was all going on we also still checked in with his dealings, and his annoyance with the whole thing seems to be increasingly impossible for him to ignore. And there’s a letter column! With thoughtful questions and equally thoughtful answers from Chad! Sorry to get so excited, but you see that kind of thing so rarely anymore. Any doubts I might have had about this series starting to become too predictable are now gone. Now the only question is if I manage to wait until the next con to grab the next issue or just order it straight from him. It’s not available as of January of ’25 (2025 in case AI me is writing these in the distant future), but they’re prolific enough that it’ll most likely be out soon. In the meantime, be like me and get caught up why don’t you? $10 (ish, or you could order the set of the first six issues for $50ish)

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 1/10/25

January 10, 2025

New review today for Still Making Your Diary Comics? by Fran Lopez. Also hey, it’s a new year and I’m getting low on review comics once again. I’m going to make a Chicago run one of these days (Quimby’s and Chicago Comics being mandatory stops), but if the weather is going to be this miserable for the entirety of January, I’ll need some comics to get me through. Send me your latest why don’t you?

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Posted by Kevin

Lopez, Fran – Still Making Your Diary Comics?

January 10, 2025

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Still Making Your Diary Comics?

Go ahead, admit it: you have a very specific idea of what this comic is going to be like. That’s OK! I did too. But Fran really takes this in a completely unexpected direction, and it ends up being all about that creature he’s holding on the cover. It starts off like you’ve seen these comics start out countless times, as the first strip is about Fran talking himself into doing diary strips again, then we get a few about mundane aspects of daily life, even hitting the “I’m bored” type of strip very early in the comic. Then he literally stumbles across this creature, seemingly on the edge of death, and they quickly have to decide what to do with it. From there they have to deal with what to feed it, what kind of diapers to get for it, and how to hide it from the neighbors, before finally deciding that they’ll need to get out of town entirely. It turns into an odd surviving in harsh conditions/raising a child comic (even though the child is an alien maybe) which, again, kudos. I did not see any of that coming. He also has thin pencil drawings on each page (in the space not filled in by the strip), and each of them end up telling their own story if you’re paying attention. This one was an unexpected blast, which is the kind of thing that makes this whole reviewing hobby of mine still seem fresh and worthwhile 23 years into it. I still have one more of his comics to review, but after two comics I think it’s safe to say that yes, you should check out his stuff, and at this point it’s probably safe to just do a random grab of whichever one looks most intriguing to you. $5

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 1/8/25

January 8, 2025

New review today for In The City #3 by Karl Christian Krumpholz, which almost makes this another week of comics from CXC. They’re for real almost out now though, and technically Karl mailed this one to me because I missed him at the con. Update your records accordingly!

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Posted by Kevin

Krumpholz, Karl Christian – In The City #3

January 8, 2025

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In The City #3

Last time around I think I mentioned something about Karl’s comics making me want to grab a few drinks (in the “let’s get together with friends and talk nonsense” way, not the “sadly drinking alone” way). This time around I’d say he’s convinced me to somehow quit my job and go back to being a broke barfly full time. Logistically, this seems tricky! But it never hurts to have goals, right? This is more of Karl and Kelly’s late night tour of the city, with all of the horrors and joys that that entails. Like that sample image below. Would you believe that I picked it for the bottom part of the page, and the fact that that sleeping man had his middle finger up didn’t even register with me until now? Baffling. This time around the happy couple try to get their very drunk friend home safely (and discover a worrying long term problem along the way), end up on the wrong side of a gun (which, believe it or not, has a happy and hilarious ending), run into another friend and end up at a party on the top floor of a tall building where a game of chicken bingo breaks out (go ahead and guess the rules, then read the comic. Were you correct?), and eventually wind up in an excellent spot to see the sunrise. Of course, that’s only the big stuff. The charm of this series, the reason it might be the best thing he’s done (even with the shocking lack of Oola), is in the constant small interactions that make up the evening. I genuinely don’t know if he takes notes as he goes or if what’s depicted as one evening was actually several, but everybody he sees is a potentially completely unique situation, with the constantly increasing booze levels only raising the potential hilarity in each one. And there’s the possibility of danger, which he doesn’t shy away from here, but it helps that between the two of them they seemingly know everybody in town, which makes for a great safety buffer if they’re ever in a spot where they might need it. It’s another great issue and you should buy it. What else needs to be said? $15

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 1/6/25

January 6, 2025

New review today for Messed #1 by Jay Kalagayan, Dylan Speeg and Clint Basinger. I’m writing this in the past, before I see if Illinois has a giant snowstorm today and tomorrow or if it ends up being a sputtering nothing. Exciting!

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Kalagayan, Jay B., Speeg, Dylan & Basinger, Clint – Messed #1

January 6, 2025

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Messed #1

I picked this one up at CXC (2024, future readers), mostly because Jay was a charming and relentless salesman. Also please understand, “relentless” is a good thing at a con; I can’t count how many tables I didn’t engage with because the artist couldn’t be bothered to make eye contact even though I’d stopped to check their stuff out. Anyway, I had a plan to review this one as a first issue, making a few suggestions, maybe a harsh criticism or two while the guy was just starting out to help in the long run… and then I checked out his website. This comic is from 2016, and he’s put out roughly a dozen issues since, so he’s both prolific (mandatory for this sort of story) and has most likely learned everything I was going to tell him by now. But hey, I’ve got to say something, so let’s all pretend, OK? This series is all about Lilliput, a sewer worker who sees all kinds of strange and unexplained things beneath the city. I’m guessing that this series really opens up in future issues (several images on the website were intriguing), but the first issue is pretty basic, with two main stories. The first one deals with Lilliput clearing out a clog of what looks like tiny versions of the worms from Tremors (which was a comparison Jay brought up to me at the con, and which is probably what sold it for me), and the second involves her having a long walk and talk with a giant talking… cricket? Both were told as if these events were a routine part of her day, which raises a lot of questions that I’m guessing get addressed later. So there’s plenty of weird stuff going on, but for a first issue I was honestly hoping for more. What’s Lilliput’s story? Who’s writing these reports we see between stories? Not a lot to push me towards a potential second issue based on this comic alone, but since he’s kept it up consistently in the intervening 8 years now I wish I’d bought the collection at the con and not just the first issue. So, to make sense of this jumbled mess, as a first issue I’d rate this as intriguing but so-so. Knowing that there’s another dozen issues changes the equation considerably, and I’m looking forward to getting the first collection at CXC 2025. Oh, also one of the artists is Clint Basinger, who seemed familiar to me. As is usually my solution to this vague sort of memory, I looked him up on my own website and it turns out that I reviewed a few of his comics back in the late 00’s. Look up his name and be amazed! $7

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 1/2/25

January 2, 2025

Hey, I’m one for one on getting the year right! New review today for The Audra Show #7 by Audra Stang, and maybe one of these years I’ll go back and list all of the comics folks whose reviews started off the year around here. Wonder if there’s anybody listed more than once?

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Posted by Kevin

Stang, Audra – The Audra Show #7

January 2, 2025

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The Audra Show #7

Well, my big plan to reread the series before reviewing this issue fell apart after I was unable to find the first couple of issues. Does this mean I don’t have them? No, it means I moved a few months ago and my general comics organizational plan was iffy even before that. If and when there’s a #8 for me to review, I’ll be doing my own archaeological dig. Speaking of my crappy memory, has Audra done much autobio in these issues before? This one is about half and half, and all of the stories are a few pages long at the most. I mean, the second half is all Audra, so it’s not like she was mixing both types of stories together. Stories about her life deal with her obsession with American Idol back in the day (which inspired some of her first art, so I can now officially say that that show wasn’t all bad), putting together her own scrap books of famous people, her innocent phone call to the mother of a contestant, and the looming, seemingly inescapable presence of her asshole of a father. He starts off as background noise for a few of her other stories, but he really makes himself known by the end, to the extent that her last story is called “I’m Glad I Didn’t Kill Myself,” told as her current self in reference to the previous stories. I hope that dude fell down an open manhole and lives in the sewers now. Anyway, the first half of the book is back to the ongoing story, and I don’t know why I’m reviewing the book like this so shut up about it. This is heavily about Adelaide, as she’s having a thoroughly miserable time watching other people have crushes when her crushes don’t feel the same way about her. There’s also a brief dream of Owen’s, which naturally involves something bad happening to him at his job. Oh, and she prints a few letters! Well, emails, I’m assuming, but still, that’s always nice to see. I don’t know where she goes from here, whether it’s focusing more on personal stories or back to her universe, but I’m excited to see what she comes up with next. $12

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 12/31/24

December 31, 2024

Last chance to type that year our, except for all of the times I’ll do it by accident in January. New review today for Cassetty by Chris Auman, and hey, at least the year is over, right?

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Posted by Kevin

Auman, Chris – Cassetty

December 31, 2024

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Cassetty

Oh, the audio history that young folks will get from reading this. Quick, what’s the first method you consciously used to listen to music? If you’re roughly my age it’s a cassette, although CDs were right around the corner from that. If you’re born any time after 2000, it’s a safe bet that no physical media of any kind was involved. Well, dig into the history of the various options, and have yourself a few laughs while doing it. There are several stories in here, all involving our good old pal Cassetty. He stops by a bar where he runs into friends and enemies of various media types (including an LP who’s very happy about the recent trend of people using records again, some CDs and an old eight track that introduces him to some even older formats). And his l’il unknown child which is, of course, a micro cassette. Other stories include Cassetty going on a rampage in Chicago (since Chris lives in Chicago, this seems like it was probably cathartic for him), a double page spread of his dreams, more evidence of his rage towards CDs, his most humiliating moments and his hazy times during the peak of his popularity in the 80’s. Finally he really digs into some of the oldest obsolete formats, including a few I’d never heard of, along with some solid reasons as to why they didn’t make it. I’ll always have a soft spot for cassettes, even if they are objectively inferior to other formats, so watching this little man going on a rampage or two was a blast. If you don’t have that same sentimental attachment, that’s OK too, as you’ll learn a whole lot reading this comic. And there’s violence, so what else could you ask for? $7.50

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 12/19/24

December 19, 2024

New review today for Nugget #4 by Tony Dipasquale! In website news, are there going to be reviews up over the holidays? Eh, probably. If it ends up snowing and I get stuck in town I’d call that a sure thing, if not I’d put the odds at 50/50. So if you’re really curious about it, keep an eye on the weather for Urbana Illinois!

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Posted by Kevin

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