April 24, 2010
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Raised By Squirrels
Call this an aesthetic problem if you want, but it’s really best to throw a “Book One” on the cover if you plan on keeping the story going, which it sure looks like they’re doing here. It just looks naked now. Minor quibbles aside, this was a fun espionage thrilller book, if a bit confusing at times and loaded with too many flashbacks in a row. They story begins with a woman (Rose) trying to get a man (Tyler) who has left a nebulous spy organization (S.Q.R.L.) to come back to the fold. She left him for dead previously, but he sees he has no choice in the matter so goes with her. No idea how he survived being left for dead, as that part was left out of the flashbacks. S.Q.R.L. (no idea what it stands for) develops and/or makes super beings for use in their black ops type missions, and we get to briefly see a few here. This looks like it has the potential to be a massive, sprawling, complicated spy story, so a suggestion at the start, which they already picked up on a little bit: throw in some history here and there. More of the bits of memos we saw, or maybe a timeline when they get another half dozen issues or so into the storyline. I like what I saw (the art was great for this type of story, all dark and smudgy), but rein in the story a bit, maybe focus on a character per issue or something for a bit. Just my two cents, such as it is. Worth picking up if you like this sort of thing, as I would say chances are good that there are better days ahead. Also, I just checked out the website and it looks like the story is moving right along there, with issues you can download for free, so at least you won’t be left with a cliffhanger for long. $4.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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FLUKE Nano-Comic
The scan’s screwed up for some reason, but you get the idea, right? The comic is in that case, and you’ll be able to see from the sample that the comic is the size of a staple. Hey, he doesn’t call them “nano-comics” for nothing. This one, appropriately enough for the title, was all about trying to convince someone about how comics are a valid artform…actually, I think it’s more about showing someone that they can be a fun and rewarding experience on their own and you don’t have to compare them to prose literature. It’s a bit of the strain on the eyeballs (probably less so if you’re less blind than I am), but it’s a funny little comic. Let’s say $2 just for the neat packaging, contact info is up there, and if you have no idea who this guy is you’re missing out in a big way…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Mumbeaux Gumbo #2
I’ve gotten a lot of comics since I started this site, and I’ve read a lot of comics since I started at age 11. Nothing I’ve seen reaches the sheer ingenuity that Caesar manages with these comics that he calls “Micro Comix”. It’s his dream that these comics will one day be all over the place. Thrown off of floats in parades, in gumball machines, everywhere. I’d love to see that happen at some point. It has also been tough on me, from time to time, to pick which issue I should review from a certain creator. That has never been tougher than this time. I picked this one because it’s one one of the few that’s close to “normal size”, even though that concept seemed increasingly insignificant as I read more of his books. I’ve said it a lot of times by now, but Caesar really deserves all your money. He handcrafts all of these tiny books (the comics are inside the robot and other things that you see up there, and everything looks incredible) so there’s a very finite number of copies out there. He has a weekly strip in a New Orleans paper, and I’m pretty sure it’s those strips that he shrinks down into microcomix format. The comics (haven’t even gotten to them yet, have I?) are consistently funny and inventive, the art is crisp and fantastic, and the packaging obviously won me over immediately. What are the comics about? This one has a bunch of his microcomix combined in one issue, so it’s probably the best starting point for those of you who are broke. Let’s see… you have drunk Santa, the real “Superbowl”, cloned foods, ravers watching snuff films, beads, the year 2002, and a hypnotized superhero. Go to his website right away and see what I’m talking about. I’d recommend the robot, or maybe the pyramid, or any of the boxes… pretty much, everything, which is of no use to you, the discerning consumer, but I mean it. Throw some money at him and see what you get back in return. Meanwhile, he’s jumped immediately onto my list of comics favorites. The pictures below are actual size. The one on the left is from this issue, the one on the right is a random sampling of some of the other stuff that he sent me. You can see clearly that the comics are barely twice the size of a staple…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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You Don’t Get There From Here #5
First off, sorry if I screwed up the images from the last review. I simply can’t see recent images when I’m editing these pages (anybody reading this familiar enough with WordPress to help me out on that one?) so… sorry. Carrie is back to the daily diary format with this issue, three panels per day, except for a longer nostalgic piece at the end about taking trips with her family when she was younger. At the very least, this issue helped clarify for me exactly what I don’t like about his format. After reading this and most of her other books in this format (and they are dense, dense things, plan on about an hour per comic if you pick one of these little things up), I still don’t know a lot of the fundamental details of her life. Is she seeing someone, and how on earth does she pay for anything, as she doesn’t appear to have a job? You could say that these things are none of my business, and you’d probably be right, but she spills so many intimate details on such a regular basis that these feel like vital parts of her story. For example, she often talks about overwhelming feelings of loneliness, of lacking any purpose at all. Is there somebody there with her, helping her through this, other than her friends? Occasionally a female friend is mentioned, and she talks about housemates, but most of the details there are left to the imagination. Anyway, it’s another solid issue, all my complaining notwithstanding. This covers almost a three month period, from June to September of last year (2007), in which Carrie deals with cancer in her friends, injuring her foot, jury duty, depression, and the loss of her favorite trail. You’re not going to find more bang for your buck anywhere, as $2 buys you a thickly packed little mini. I do worry about her though, which is odd considering that I don’t often feel that way after reading other intimate comics, so here’s hoping she settles into some sort of happy pattern with her life, even if it ends up making her comics less interesting…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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You Don’t Get There From Here #3
Huzzah, my favorite kind of diary strip: a travel diary! In this issue Carrie talks all about her trip to Rome and Venice, and she seems to take great care in showing actual buildings from the area. She does a really amazing job at conveying these places (check out the sample if you’re curious) but by the end of it I was wishing for bigger panels. Oh well, always something to complain about. This issue encompasses about a week, from packing and facing obviously angry cats (about the fact that she’s leaving, something a lot of cats seem to sense, and they can lay on the guilt) to walking around Rome to recovering from the whole thing after getting back home. She picked up a cold over there, which killed her sense of smell and taste for a few days, but she still saw plenty of sights and managed to eat many different pizzas and drink many different espressos. As is often the case with these travel diaries, I came away significantly better informed about an odd area of the world and more than a little bit jealous. If I ever get over to Rome I plan on taking this issue with me, as Carrie goes into detail about a lot of great places to eat and drink. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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You Don’t Get There From Here #2
The good news with this issue is that, on a personal level, Carrie seems to be doing better with life, although not so much in a “and she lived happily ever after” sense, as nothing in life is that simple. She’s essentially come to terms with the fact that she does drink on occasion and that she is getting older and, with that, is picking up a few new health concerns. The bad news, at least for me, is that she seems to have settled on doing comics in a daily diary format. It’s a format I loved for a while and something that has gradually worn on me through the years. Why? Good question. Part of it is the fact that almost everybody who does these things (or practically anybody on the planet) just doesn’t have enough going on in their lives to keep these things interesting. Remember that day a few weeks ago when you didn’t do much past check your e-mail and then veg out on the couch watching TV? Well, try writing a three panel comic strip about that day. There’s also the fact that every time something gets dug into with any kind of insight, the strip is over before things really get interesting. Carrie does her best to overcome that, as her strips are remarkably wordy for such a small setting. She also manages to put detailed backgrounds in all over the place, so kudos to her for that, as a fair amount of the daily folks have a tendency to let that slide on occasion. So essentially what I’m saying is that Carrie here has managed to make the best possible comic with a format that I like less and less all the time. Chances are it’s just me, so everybody else will love it. I just liked her longer stories. Even when they were only a page long she could pack more relevant content in there than anybody else. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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The Assassin and the Whiner #15
I have mixed feelings about this one, but probably not for the reasons you might think. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as I do pretty much all of her comics that I’ve seen. And I haven’t seen a new issue in a while (this is the first new one in three years), so it was more than a welcome sight. My problem is that this issue is all about her complete descent into drinking and depression, and I know this was probably therapeutic for her to write, but I feel like such a voyeur. I know, I know, that’s half the point of these auto-bio comics, but when it’s gotten to the point where she can’t even bring herself to say hello to an old acquaintance because she feels that she just has NOTHING at all to say about her life for the past couple of years… So, this is something of an “enter at your own risk” comic. It still looks great (but possibly with fewer backgrounds than past issues), and she still has a substantial gift of conveying emotions and telling a good story. It’s just more than a little heartbreaking. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Assassin and the Whiner #14
These just keep getting better every time. This one is from a few years ago too, so I still don’t know if she’s still putting these out, but it’s worth seeking out the older issues regardless. This one is about her complete loss of sexual desire, her constant struggle with alcoholism, her first crush and her newly saggy boobs. Hey, I wouldn’t mention it if she didn’t. Everything in here is told with her style of complete candor and, as always, is worth much more than the buck that she charges. This is auto-bio at its finest, contact info is above if you still haven’t read any of these (shame on you!) so you can send her some money.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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The Assassin and the Whiner #12
The thing about reading this comic is that Carrie doesn’t pull any punches at all. I was reading things that felt like they should only be told to her closest friends, and it’s incredibly brave to put everything out there for the world (or at least the tiny part of it that reads comics) to see. In this issue she sinks much deeper into depression over the breakup with her girlfriend and starts drinking again. People who have read this book for a while know that she fought a long battle with alcoholism, so this is a pretty sad step back. It’s weird reading this, knowing that it’s 3 years old. I’ve said it before, sure, but if and when one of these jobs comes through I’m going to send her some money and check out her latest comics. Assuming that she still has some copies around, this should come as a revelation to anybody who’s ever been in a breakup that happened because the connection just wasn’t there for both people.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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The Assassin and the Whiner #10
One of the first things I noticed upon opening this mini was all the solid blacks, and I’m a big fan of the solid blacks. And the occasional page with tiny panels, which always looks even smaller in the mini format. That’s not necessarily a good or a bad thing; it depends entirely on what’s being said (and how legible it is as some people have a real problem with that). It does feed into my misguided notion of getting more story on the page though. As for the comic itself, well, I loved it. It’s all auto-bio stuff and, when it’s done well, that’s pretty much my favorite kind of comic. This is done really well. This issue is all about moving out to Maryland to live with her girlfriend and the changes that she has to make. She’d never walked around in snow before this! There’s just a wonderful sense of playfulness and joy that permeates this book. She has a deal at the back of the book where you could buy #1-9 for only $6 (or $1 per issue) and I’d say get the whole bunch of them if you still can. This was put out a couple of years ago though so you might want to e-mail her and check to see what she still has available.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
You Don’t Get There From Here Goes Goes To Oaxaca
As someone who doesn’t get to travel nearly as much as I’d like, I love these diary/travel comics. It’s a great chance to learn about odd places from people who share a lot of my sensibilities, meaning that if I ever do manage to make it out of this stupid country I’d have some solid ideas on what to do. In this issue Carrie visits some friends in Oaxaca, explores the city in great detail, and even runs into Peter Kuper, as he apparently lives in the area. Along the way Carrie samples some of the best chocolates in the world, discovers that Doritos made outside this country are significantly more edible than the stuff we have here, gets a horrible stomach flu bug, sees all kinds of local art, samples all kinds of local cuisines (although can’t bring herself to eat insects), and just generally does a thorough job of exploring the area. It’s impossible to review books like this and do them any justice; if you’re remotely interested in the area covered or in the artist involved you’re likely to be curious enough to check them out on your own. For whatever it’s worth Carrie has been a favorite of mine for years, so I’m predisposed to like her stuff. Still, it’s an excellent, informative issue, and it’s even light on the introspective side that seems to bug some people who hate auto-bio stuff. Check it out, then go visit the place and see if this was helpful. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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The Gastometrist
Anybody out there like those old cheesy Tales From the Crypt comics? I think you can tell from the cover that this is in the same vein. It’s hard not to give anything away for an eight page comic, but the meaning of the title is also kind of the punchline to the book, so I’m going to have to work around it. Most of what we see in here is a couple of guys talking at a bar, with horrific images coming up whenever the main guy talks about past “jobs”. It’s creepy and short; Tony does a terrific job of mimicking that EC comics feel with the artwork. Worth a look, probably around $2. Contact info is up there, as there’s nothing in here at all and that’s what you’re going to have to go with.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Less Than Hero #3
I officially really, really like this book. Even though it’s been months since I read the last issue, all the characters in here are familiar and distinguishable, which is a considerable achievement considering that huge cast of characters. In this one, as you can see from that fantastic cover, The Punk’s girlfriend has been impregnated, and everything else that’s been going on is coming to a head, as #4 is the last issue of the series. They better keep this up with another title, as they’ll be sorely missed if they just quit altogether. There are very few characters more quotable than The Punk, and I think you should find them out for yourselves, as this book has funny or insightful stuff on literally every page. $3, I guess you could wait for the last issue to have the whole story collected in one edition, but the covers are worth the price of admission in my book…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Less Than Hero #2
This is a preview edition, meaning that any complaints I might have about the art looking awfully scrunched up are useless, as I’m sure it was eventually put into a larger edition. Everything is noticeably starting to come together in this issue. The characters are starting to become incredibly unique, the art looks great (except for the fact that it needs a little room to breathe, but see the first sentence), and the dialogue is phenomenal. All kinds of quotable stuff in here, but I’ll just put up a good sample and let you check it out. I can see why they’d want to rush to get a preview edition out for SPX, as people reading this are much more likely to get hooked on this story than people reading the first issue. This is probably $3 and you’re not likely to find a smarter and more realistic superhero story. I almost hate saying that because I’ve gotten pretty sick of the “real people with super powers!” idea, but I promise that this is worth a look. Come on don’t you trust me?
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Less Than Hero #1
I’m breaking with tradition here and putting the back cover up instead of the front. Why? Well, it’s better than the front cover, frankly, and I thought it would help anybody who’s reading this to refer back to this synopsis to try and figure out what the hell’s going on. This is the first issue of a projected 12-parter, so I’m going to reserve judgment on the storyline. I didn’t get what was going on, but that’s because there are all kinds of characters, they’re all kind of thrown at you without an introduction, and I think they were trying to introduce too much in too small of a time. Still, points for ambition, and it might all come together beautifully. That being said, it’s time to start complaining. I don’t know what it is that some people have against punctuation, but, seriously, use it. Plenty of sentences in here where it just went on and on and it’s not like I can say anything about that but doesn’t it help to have a comma here and there to break up the sentence throw a little inflection into it do you know what I mean? Ahem. Also, for some reason a lot of the “n”s were backwards. Not sure if that was a stylistic thing or just a screw-up, but it stopped me in my tracks and I think that’s a bad thing. All that bitching aside, it wasn’t a bad first issue at all. Tony was obviously influenced by a lot of the great older artists and the book looks incredible, even if I couldn’t tell what exactly the superhero guy looked like until the full page spread. The writing is solid and the dialogue is believable and funny, for the most part. Look, my only major complaint is that they should have taken their time, maybe putting only one character per issue for a while. Sure, that was probably impossible due to finances, but putting out a few minis before this might not have been a bad idea. Anyway, this is $3 and worth a look, although you might want to wait a few issues to you can have a fair shake at figuring out what’s going on. Send them an e-mail…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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The World is Our Icebox
This is a collection of what looks like three panel newspaper strips about penguins that was shoved into something that vaguely resembled a story. What you get because of that are really dumb punchlines every three panels or so and a very loose cohesiveness to the story, which doesn’t matter that much anyway. It’s all about penguins, so you have wackiness involving their trying to sweet talk a bag, avoiding a killer whale trying to talk them into the water, and trying to fly a paper airplane. Check out the Shellac Jones stuff if you’re really interested in his work, this isn’t a very good representation in my opinion. Unless the other story I saw was the exception and this is the norm, but I don’t like to think like that. Check out the website, there are a few other comics there too. I also found out on the site that this is a collection of strips. Maybe it’s an internet phenomenon or something that I missed, but I really don’t feel like I missed much this time around…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Shellac Jones: River of Love
I’ll waste no time telling you about the plot because I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about this. Shellac Jones is a man who’s encased in shellac. A great adventurer, somehow, and someone who has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. A man finds him floating along the river and recognizes him, remembers the curse associated with Shellac Jones and decides to take him home anyway. It’s unique, I’ll give it that much. While the comic itself was pretty free from silly spelling errors, the front cover was full of them. Hard to get too down on it for that, but there you go. It’s the first of ten projected issues, so I have no idea where they’re going from here. Some of the dialogue was hokey, as you can undoubtedly see from the cover, but it works. I’m curious to see what happens next, and that’s all you can ask from a first issue. Great art too. It almost looks like a Disney cartoon, but in a good way. It’s $2.50 for this, send money to: Red Feather Flying Car, Co. P.O. Box 48582 Sarasota, FL 34230.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Kosmostraitor #2 Now Available! $2
Hm. He seems to have forgotten how to spell the name of his comic, or maybe he just didn’t notice. Whatever the case, the main story in here is fantastic. It’s about some giant monsters who begin fighting in a city landscape, when suddenly the zippers get loose, some giant people come out of the costumes… and they start screwing like mad. Great stuff, as it just kept getting more and more over the top. Some graphic stuff in here, so don’t buy this for a nephew or anything. The bits in the beginning and end were kind of throw-away stuff. Not particularly bad, just not that great compared to the phenomenal main story. Contact info is up there, monkeys come free with a comic…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Kosmostrator #1 Now Available! $2
Here’s a pretty good random mini I picked up at SPX. Three stories in this one. The first is by far the best of the bunch, a break-neck retelling of, um, a blimp fight. Great stuff, worth the price ($2) right there. Then there’s the story of a movie shoot where a robotic dinosaur comes alive and starts killing people. Hey, I don’t know how you could possibly go wrong with a good robotic dinosaur fight. Then there’s “Secret Pornographer”, and I don’t get it. Maybe that ending will make sense to me at 3 in the morning tonight, in which case I’ll be sure to update the site again with my revised opinion, but right now it didn’t do much for me. Had to hunt down the contact info, as there was nothing in the book, but here’s an e-mail address. Check it out, it’s worth it.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Bling Bling
Well, the conditions for liking this one are pretty simple. Are you the type of person who would find a comic about the love of bling, done in a mostly hilarious fashion, humorous, or are you the type of person who would take one look at something like this and decide that’s stupid and move on? Well, it is funny, if you like this sort of thing, anyway. Especially the reference to his “international homies”. So do you like funny things or not? The choice is yours!
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Posted by Kevin
