This particular volume of Nugget is the longest one yet, with the longest stories yet: 64 pages and only two stories. Should I be irrationally annoyed that he didn’t call it “giant-sized Nugget”? No, I should not. Am I? Maybe a little bit. He seems to be drifting more into body horror this time around, or possibly I’m just noticing it for the first time. First up is a story about Nugget and a friend, seemingly lost at sea. They’re amusing themselves by making faces to each other and generally being friendly, which matters a lot for what comes later. They reach land and the friend makes a discovery: a strange orb that’s making noises that compels them both to lick it in return for visions. And boy howdy, can Tony ever draw some visions. I’ve compared this to Jim Woodring’s work before, and see no reason to stop doing that now. The orb quickly becomes a point of contention for both of them, which leads to some fairly brutal physical violence, in which the orb gets cracked. And if you’re thinking it might have been an egg, you were certainly on the right track with that guess. I’ll say no more about specifics, but it’s a grim tale of friendship and broken trust; that last page is going to stick with me for awhile. The other story is about Nugget, alone again, as he meets a sea nymph while he’s working on a giant head in his yard. Just roll with it! He falls for her immediately and takes her on a tour of the woods, where they stumble across a seriously violent act, and she decides that she wants more of that type of thing in her life. Nugget is heartbroken, but it turns out that there’s another sea nymph wandering around. Do we get to see what passes for sex in this world? I don’t want to say for sure, but I think so? You tell me. This is all entirely wordless, which I must have mentioned in past reviews but haven’t here, and it’s no less devastating for it. It’s the best issue yet, which has been true of all of them, which is a hell of an artistic trajectory. $14
New review today for Airbag #3 by Brian Canini, which you’d think would be from my Cartoon Crossroads pile but nope, he’s just that prolific that he already has another book out since the con a few months ago.
Programming note: I’m probably not going to review it since I reviewed the series issue by issue, but there’s a collected edition of Applewood Canyon out, and y’all should know about it. In case you didn’t want to buy individual issues, well, now you’re all out of excuses! Oh look, here’s a new issue of Airbag, which is how I’m going to segue into the actual review. He’s done a few of these now, each with its own theme, and they’re getting better each time. Considering my short term memory that might not actually be true, but they’re all great so work with me here. This time around it might be “themes” more than “theme,” since the stories deal with loss, feeling forgotten, social awkwardness and, uh, tricking another mouse into springing a mouse trap. Hey, he never said that all of the stories in these issues had to be about humans! The issue starts and ends with a boy who’s laughed off of the basketball court for having the wrong shoes on, with some wise words from his grandfather on how this sort of thing usually ends up if he follows the wrong path. Next we have a brother and sister, both with relationship issues of different types, dealing with the death of their mother and the conflicting feelings that came from it. Each get their own story as they try to connect with other people, with drastically different results. A grandmother and grandfather each tell their story about feeling abandoned, one with the self-awareness to realize why this probably happened and one who’s left without a clue. Finally there’s the longest story in the book, which deals with a college student whose drinking has gotten out of hand slowly, ever so slowly, trying to get her life back on track, or at least put together some semblance of a plan for it. Plenty of tears in here along with a few laughs, and plenty to think about if you’re one of those stoic types who doesn’t cry easily. As always, the man does a lot of comic series, so if you ever want to jump into his stuff without worrying about backstory, his Airbag comics are the way to go. $8
New review today for Santos Sisters #7 by Greg and Fake Petre, soon to be a fancily collected hardcover edition by Fantagraphics! Well, for the first five issue, anyway.
I don’t know where I should mention this, so I’ll just do it up front: Fantagraphics is putting out a nice looking hardcover edition of the first five issues of this series in March, which you can and absolutely should pre-order here. Haven’t I been singing the praises of this book since #1? Don’t you trust me? Also you should check out the first six months worth of books coming out from Fantagraphics in 2025 because sweet Christmas are there ever some amazing looking books on their way. But this is not the place to talk about such things! This time around we get the second part of “What Time Is It?”, which if I was ruler of the world would be put out in larger installments, but I’m not so I’ll shut up about it. We have the sisters attend a chess tournament (mostly because Ambar is into one of the players), see a lot more of the plot gong on behind the scenes (what the heck is Quibble?) and get a good indication of how Todd is going to get mixed up in all of this. Next up is the cover story, and if you don’t get a laugh out of at least one line from that sample image, I don’t know what to tell you. Todd is once again front and center, as he’s kidnapped by Blue Agua for mating purposes. Which may just involve him fertilizing eggs, but thankfully it doesn’t go quite that far. Poor Todd is just trying to keep his job, and I’d call this story a good indication of Alana’s interest level in Todd. Then there’s a brief intermission of ads, which might be annoying in another comic, but here it’s just a pile of comics/people/other items that look, at a minimum, intriguing. Which, hey, is a good reason to buy a few comics before the big collection comes out, especially since that only covers #1-5 and 6 and 7 are out too. And #8, according to their website, but one thing at a time. Back to the comic! We get another wordless tale of the drunk bees, but it’s a shortie so I’ll leave it to you readers, and finally there’s “Trojan Horsing Around,” and if you guess that that might involve enemies of the sisters sneaking into their house using a literal horse disguise, do I have good news for you! Ridiculousness and hilarity abound, as we’re given one more example of why it’s a bad idea to have a fight against a villain in your home. As always, I’m barely scratching the surface of the one-liners and generally funny bits, and my talking about it doesn’t do justice to the utterly unique line it rides of innocent sincerity and mild cynicism. It’s a mix you won’t find anywhere else, and I’m thrilled that they’re getting recognition from a big publisher. $5
New review today for Sportsbar, NY Part IV by Martin Pohl, although it should have a little mark over the “a” and I don’t know how to make it show up. Other than that, yep, that’s the title.
Well, last time around for these reviews I was utterly unable to find a good link to buy Martin’s comics, and I’ve at least solved that this time around. And they’re all in print, so go get caught up why don’t you? If not, or if you’re waiting to be convinced, this is probably the first issue of the series where you don’t need a lot of knowledge of the previous issues to follow along. The pigeons, for example, are completely gone this time around, but if this is your first issue, you won’t miss them a bit. The art seems a bit, um, looser at the beginning, but it’s generally a minimalist type of comic anyway. What’s happening with the story? One of our bunny heroes is having all kinds of trouble with depression (well, specifically the Depression Wolf), the bunnies are also having relationship problems, and the two brothers seem to have lost their time machine. Which is the bare bones explanation of things, as the depression angle covers a good chunk of the comic (involving mental and physical therapy), and it could be argued that the therapy ends up hurting both of the bunnies in the end. We also get a grimly hilarious bit throughout the second half dealing with job interviews, with a depressingly accurate version of the low key humiliation involved with pretty much all of them. Funny stuff here and there again, a safe place for new readers to jump in, and it looks like the next issue is double sized, which Martin was kind enough to send my way. $5
Well, I’m not even sure what happened with reviews last week. Unfortunately timed distractions is my best excuse, as I’d planned on writing a few of them. But don’t fret too much, here’s a new review for You Get What You Get by David Robertson.
I’ve been reading David’s comics for… a decade now? Time doesn’t work properly in my brain any more. Anyway, my point is that this might be the most visually diverse issue of one of his comics yet. David always draws a few of his stories, so you’re obviously going to get his style for those, but several other stories were by people I hadn’t seen before, making this issue really stand out. Not that that would matter much if the stories were garbage, but good news everyone! There were some pretty solid stories in here too. Like what, you ask, as I set up the segue? Stories in here deal with the age gap in McDonald’s employees (with Clio Ding), trying to relate to a sign about loving music at a record store (with Zu Dominiak), the constant destruction of the old in favor of the new in this modern culture (with Helena Edwardson), a parody of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s critique of the Black Hole Disney movie that went off the rails quickly in a delightful way (with Andy Hanks), the last “witch” to be burned (with Rozi Hathaway), the differences in depictions of a raised middle finger (with Olivia Hicks), when The Police (the band) finally and briefly got back together (with Marc KZ), the timeless majesty of Purple Rain (with Francesca Mancuso), and the impotent fury of watching as the host of a quiz show on tv gets the answer wrong (with Ludi Price). And lots more, obviously; I doubt if that’s even half of the stories. Are there stories that involve Star Wars in some way? Always, yes! Is there an oddly touching story involving a person dressed up as Goofy at a theme park? Very specific question, but also yes! It’s another solid pile of tales from David and friends, and hey, why not give it a shot? One of the joys of his comics is that they’re all self-contained, so don’t fret about being lost.
New review today for Must Be a Happening by Fran Lopez, happy weekend y’all! Assuming that you hadn’t started your weekend a few days ago, what with the holiday and all…
Oh, random comic review mailings. You’d think that after 23+ years of reviews that I’d be numb to them, but nope, every time I crack open a mailing with an unknown name on it, I’m still hopeful and delighted. Eh, don’t mind the corniness, I’m feeling sentimental for some reason. Fran was nice enough to send a few comics (and he has a few more available at his website), so you’ll be seeing more of his stuff here soon. I honestly liked one of the other titles better and was going to review that first, but that horse head on the cover sent out a siren song to me that could not be denied. Like it says on the cover, there are two stories in here. The first one is all about the horse head, and things start off with a local old man setting up a lawn chair near the horse head in the street. It’s art, not an actual horse head, so don’t get all grossed out. People come by, ask about the head, the old man does an admirable job of avoiding the subject, a dog makes its own opinion known, and we see a completely different side of the horse head when everybody goes to sleep. The other story deals with a space explorer who has to wait a thousand days to get any response to his messages, which leaves him a whole lot of time for his thoughts to wander and for any locals to check him out. I liked the diary style entries, as each was sent off as his own thoughts for the day, before things take a real turn that I’m not going to spoil here. The art was a vaguely sloppy but meticulous combination (I’m aware that that makes no sense) that had the effect of making everything seem to be constantly humming, not moving but vibrant. Kinda like the old Dr. Katz cartoon, which is only a reference for my fellow olds. Anyway, two great and completely different stories, well worth a look is what I say. $5
You know, I thought that “Bald Knob” sounded familiar, but this old brain ain’t what it used to be in regards to remembering specifics like that. Luckily, I have an easy cheat option: use the search function on my website! I can’t decide if that’s pathetic or hilarious. Both? Anyway, I was right: John Hankiewicz put out a mini probably 15 years ago or so with the same title, and Robert Sergel put out a graphic novel called Bald Knobber about 6 years ago. Relevant? Related to this comic in any way? Not at all! But if you’re curious, look them up yourself and be amazed! Now that that bit of nonsense is out of the way, what’s up with this comic? It’s the start of a series (and the second issue is already up on his website, which is promising) about two guys who are staying at a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Glenn is trying to make the next great American rock album (it’s more specific and defined than that), and Shad is mostly there to help and/or keep his eye on his troubled friend. Glenn had been through a breakup recently and he wasn’t taking the whole thing very well, so to Shad this seemed like the perfect distraction. Things start off with Shad trying to convince Naomi (who he’d hooked up with the night before) to leave before Glenn saw her in the morning, as he didn’t think that would help Glenn’s mood, but that plan did not work out. We spend a lot of time getting to know all three of these characters, which is crucial to any kind of lengthy series. The two of them get to their job, Shad takes off his shorts for his walk (which, creepiness aside, does seem like a great way to enjoy nature if you’re alone), and they discuss how they still need a drummer for their band. Meanwhile we see a lot more about Naomi’s life with several generations all in one room, which seems like the sort of thing that’ll come up again later. Finally they all go to a local music show in the hopes of finding a drummer or at least having a good time, and we even get a bit of a cliffhanger in terms of Glenn’s love life, even if it seems like he’s heading towards a disaster. I’d call this a solid first issue with plenty of avenues he could still explore. $6
New review today for It’s Oola Too!! by Karl Christian Krumpholz. Technically this is a review for a comic he sent me in the mail, but if I’d returned to his table at Cartoon Crossroads when he was busy like I’d intended, this would be another CXC review. Just in case anybody is keeping track of these things…
The people have spoken, and I’m assuming that what they said was that they wanted more adventures of Oola as quickly as possible. If you’re unfamiliar with Karl’s work, Oola was a cat that entered their lives (Karl and his partner Kelly) after both of their long term cats had passed away. They didn’t have specific plans to get another cat, but cats don’t wait on human timetables for such things, and the little creature quickly took over a solid chunk of their home and lives. A few of these strips first appeared in other comics, but mostly they’re new, and if you’re at all a cat lover then you’ll be delighted. If not I’m not sure what you’re doing here to begin with, but I suppose you cold-hearted cat haters could also take some joy in how much disruption Oola causes in their lives. Also sometimes it’s tricky to pick a sample comic, but this time it was a no brainer. Hanging something over your bed with a cat in the house is just an invitation to head trauma. I know, it always seems like they couldn’t possibly reach/destroy/knock down at item that high up, but they tend to take that sort of thing as a challenge. Other stories in here deal with the lesson of a cat jumping into the shower, the quiet moments (they exist, even for the most manic of cats), her imaginary spy adventures that always seem to devolve into biting, her opinion at being left alone in the house for a few days, Oola as the mighty hunter, the unfortunate meaning of Oola in the Tamil language, and the true origin of her zoomies. Lots more, but I’m not going to spoil all of her adventures. I know they’re happy with just Oola in the house, but from a pure storytelling perspective, introducing a new cat would set up all kinds of great story possibilities. Sure, it might completely upend their lives, but think of the mayhem! Eh, I might have to work on my sales pitch about this. Anyway, it’s another great issue of Oola fun, and if you need a laugh in your life you should get both of these issues ASAP. $10
New review today for Clutter by Ariel Bordeaux, as I continue the seemingly eternal task of getting to the bottom of my pile of comics from Cartoon Crossroads this year.
I was wondering if I had many reviews of Ariel’s comics on this here website, and it turns out that I did review a few of her minis, including a couple from the last time I moved to Champaign Illinois. Time is a flat circle? Is that what that means? Anyway, she’s on the very short list of people who got me into the world of zines, she’s always funny, and I was thrilled to see a book from hers that I hadn’t seen at CXC this year. It’s been out a few years, it’s just new to me, and… this is not one of those funny books. Which should be clear from the subtitle, but trigger warning for anybody who’s had to deal with this in their lives. The book bounces back and forth a bit between a linear narrative and her thoughts and memories, and I probably shouldn’t say that nothing here is funny. Just not, you know, most of it. Things start off with a couple of disturbing incidents, one involving a stranger wanting to take pictures of her, another with a stranger resting his hand on her knee in a movie theater. She was a small child for both of these and didn’t know quite how to take them, but it was clear to her that neither incident was normal. Next we see the routes of some of the many cockroaches in her home at the time, followed by the worst sexual assault incident of them all, which was possible because of a ladder that was left outside by some handymen. This incident is the background for the rest of the book, as it’s the kind of thing that never fully leaves her mind, or at least not for long. Still, life goes on, and we see some happy times with her friend, laying a field of clovers, somersaulting to music, and her friend’s secret candy stash. The story eventually moves on to her current life (as of 2010ish) with her husband and child and her attempts to find peace and grace. It’s a solid, occasionally disturbing book, and it could help a lot of people who have had similar experiences. On a completely unrelated note, she also mentioned that she’s been doing daily strips for several years, and wow do I ever want to get a look at those. I’m guessing they’re some of her “complete” work that Silver Sprocket is putting together into one volume. Here’s hoping, anyway! $20
You know how sometimes when you’re watching a great show, you’ll notice that in the middle of a season you’ll get an episode or two that contribute to the greater story but don’t have a whole lot to say on their own? You still need them for the complete picture, but there just isn’t that much to talk about after the episode is over. Welcome to The Re-Up #5! Things happen, but nothing too serious, and the story continues. I’ve established that I’m hooked on the series overall by now, right? Good. So what’s there to say… that “buried” statue in the sand makes a hell of an impressive wraparound cover. Things start off in the issue itself with Chad dropping a class and making a much larger monetary commitment to dealing, which I’m sure will come into play later. We see his “base” (i.e. the apartment for a couple of college girls who let him do his thing while they hang out), we get some possibly significant foreshadowing of how the other weed dealer in town is pretty pissed at him, and we see how he’s able to get out of a situation where the cops pull up right behind the car as he’s making his drop. It’s to the perpetually late lady, and I’m honestly curious what his plan was to get out of that if she hadn’t taken the lead. So yes, all around another solid issue, it moves the plot forward a bit and it probably won’t be one of the issues that sticks to my brain when it’s all said and done. And there’s nothing wrong with that in a long series where the issues come out on a consistent basis like this. $8 (or get the set up the first six through the link)
New review today for Fugue Omnibus by Beth Hetland, and if you’ve mailed me review comics over the last couple of months, yes, the Cartoon Crossroads pile is almost gone and I’ll be getting to your stuff soon. There aren’t enough hours in the fricking day…
Posted by Kevin 
