If you think you don’t need these books because you already have the collections, you’re absolutely wrong. Packed to the gills with funny and a lot of it is never reprinted, there’s little I look forward to when it comes out more than this. $2.95
Henderson, Sam – Magic Whistle #5
April 23, 2010
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Posted by Kevin
Henderson, Sam – The Magic Whistle Blows
April 23, 2010Apparently, in one of the great crimes against humanity, this is the only volume of Sam’s work that is currently available. I’ll look around more and try to bring more of these to you, don’t worry. Listen, there are a few things I read when I’m really down. The Milk and Cheese Collection or some of the issues of Dork from Evan Dorkin, some of James Kochalka’s stuff, and anything by Sam Henderson. He has three collections out that I know of, but I already have most of the stuff in them in various mini comics. It doesn’t matter because these books always have at least a few new stories in them from other publications, and anything new from him is a treat. Stupid, stupid, humor that is, naturally, the best kind. This is going to get a longer review later, don’t you worry. For now, if you like laughing, you’ll love this book. If your soul is too dark and empty for laughter, well, buy this book, give it to a friend and have them explain to you why it’s funny.
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Posted by Kevin
Henderson, Sam – The Magic Whistle #2 (mini)
April 23, 2010
The Magic Whistle #2
Am I wasting my time with all this mini comics nostalgia? Possibly, yes. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that there’s a younger generation of comics readers who may have heard some of these names but haven’t seen much of the actual work outside of what’s available in whatever collections happen to still be in print, in which case this is a vital service to the world. The world that reads this website, that is. This is another packed collection of funny, starting with another page of jokes from the 50’s (my best guess on the time period, anyway. Sample joke: When is a steamboat like a witness in a trial? When it is bound to a pier), and then moving on to the comics. Again, reviewing one panel gag strips is one of the dumber things a person could do, but that sadly prevents me from going into detail about some of the funnier stuff in the book. Other stories include Li’l Brainy and his calculations, three men at a urinal, the man and the bear (sampled in the last issue) with a center spread of silent hilarity, how a “got any pictures of your wife naked?” joke went horribly wrong, and the story of Sam and the Secret Service. Sam, see, sent a nasty letter to the first president Bush (under his friend Scott Russo’s name, who did a comic called Jizz for years that I should probably put up here at some point too, lack of being in print be damned), but had the whole thing traced back to him only after his friend had gotten in big trouble. This story details Sam’s side of the story (which is mostly “boy was I stupid”) and how he avoided Scott and his friends for years at cons because he thought there was serious bad blood. Other bits of this book include more “always funny” jokes and a review of a number of zines he’s heard of (or was just making up, this far out it’s impossible to know), including one called Time that’s been running since 1923 and seems to have a bright future. Basically these old reviews serve two purposes. 1. When this rental project gets off the ground at least a few of these creators are going to give me permission to use my copies of their older books in this idea, which means these reviews will serve a useful function now or 2. If you are lucky enough to go to a comics shop with a box of old minis and are digging through, not sure what to buy, maybe having these names brought to your attention will help. Either way, if you see something with Sam Henderson on it, but it.Â
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Posted by Kevin
Henderson, Sam – Magic Whistle #1 (mini)
April 23, 2010
Magic Whistle #1 (mini comic)
It’s another trip down memory lane! This time it’s the first issue of the Magic Whistle comic, and shame on you if you don’t know what this is. If there is a hierarchy in my head of comics folk who got me interested in this small press business, it’s people like Sam Henderson who KEPT me interested. This was always one of the funniest books out there, and at the time he was fairly prolific for the field, putting out four or five books a year. Possibly a little more or less, but he was always one of the few people to consistently put out funny work. This is the first issue of the comic, but not the first thing he’d done, as a number of his even smaller minis were collected in a Magic Whistle #0 set. So how about it? Does it hold up? If it isn’t already abundantly clear, it’s difficult to judge things objectively through a cloud of nostalgia, but… yes. Yes, it is still hilarious. He’s funny before you even get to the comics, as he mentions in the intro that if you got this book through a boyfriend or girlfriend, you should think about whether you’d still be with that person in a few years and how you should probably go ahead and get your own copies of his books just in case. Now that’s salesmanship! Some of his funniest comics are of the single panel variety, so it’s pointless to attempt to describe them. Longer stories in here include hippy high school, Monroe Simmons and his unknown popularity, how beer will make girls you don’t know want to fuck you, and his “always funny” series. That, kids, is something you’ll have to see for yourself in the collections, as I couldn’t put any of them up here without somehow making them unfunny. He also includes a couple of pages of humor from the 50’s, which are funny in their own special way. Really, what I always loved about his books is how they were more of a complete reading experience. Sounds stupid, but bear with me: there was always a bunch of single panel comics, a few longer stories, the “always funny” series, oddities (like that stuff from the 50’s), and some obvious personal care that was often oddly lacking in other minis. Of course, it’s possible that you just don’t share this sense of humor and think it’s all stupid, but I can’t relate to that. The link above has all kinds of his stuff up for free, so if you’re not familiar with the man that’s an excellent place to start, as I’m sure this is way, way out of print.
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Posted by Kevin
Hellman, Danny – Legal Action Comics Volume 2
April 23, 2010
Legal Action Comics Volume 2 Now Available! $18.95
It’s always a copout of some degree to just list the contributors involved in an anthology as proof of it’s greatness. Why not go into greater detail about the (in this case) 73 cartoonists and their individual contributions? Well, to me, the joy of a good anthology is discovering things as they come, finding new artists that you like, taking a chance on all sorts of people you’ve never heard of, that sort of thing. So nailing all this down specifically (outside of it being, in that case, by far the longest review I’ve ever written) kills a lot of that sense of discovery. But none of that is really the point of this book anyway. It’s about trying to help Danny Hellman pay some huge legal bills in a lawsuit that is still apparently ongoing (the only update I managed to find about it (as of 8/15/07) is that only one count is left in the lawsuit and that it still hasn’t gone to trial) and, on a selfish level, getting to see a bunch of the best cartoonists working today all gathered into one book. So how about that list? OK, here’s a few names: Sam Henderson, Carol Lay, Doug Allen, Art Spiegelman, Kim Dietch, Kaz, Johnny Ryan, Tony Millionaire, Ted May, Hans Rickheit, Dave McKenna, Michael Kupperman, Miss Lasko-Gross, Pshaw, Lauren Weinstein, Patrick Dean, Mike Diana, Rick Altergott, and Dean LeCrone, to name a fraction of the people that I had already heard of. There seems to be a bit less personal animosity towards Ted Rall this time around (although there’s still plenty here), with the stories being all over the place. It’s a great anthology whether or not you agree with Danny’s legal case (and what’s not to agree with?), and something that everybody who enjoys this genre at all needs on their bookshelf. $18.95
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Posted by Kevin
Heisler, Matthew & Michael – Milkbaby #7
April 23, 2010
Milkbaby #7 Now Available! $2.50
The Heisler family must have done something right to produce two kids whose imaginations are this delightfully screwed up. After all, most families are lucky to produce one person who does comics in some way, so kudos to them for that. What’s this comic about? Well, if you take a look at that cover you can see almost everything that goes on in here, except for Rasputin. You have an adorable boy and his friend the elephant who get tricked into selling drugs, an act of sheer heroism, wacky silent hijinx, Detective Barney Miller on the job, and Rasputin, who has been done before in mini comic land, but it’s a great story and it’s always nice to see it done well. This is one of those comics where you can find little things in the backgrounds of the panels when you dig a bit, which is the best kind in my book. As for who does what in the comic, well, they both write and draw their own pieces, and as far as I can tell don’t collaborate directly on stories. At least not in this issue. I was going to say that Matt seems to be the more bizarre of the two, but after flipping through this again I have to say it’s a tie. An interesting collection of stories, worth checking out.
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Posted by Kevin
Heisler, Matthew & Michael – Milkbaby #6
April 23, 2010
Further proof of the potential wonderfulness of these two exists in this book, in case anybody out there was curious. First up is a story by Michael about all the Robot Gods and their own petty squabbles. They also threw in a few of the Aztec gods, who were apparently also robots. Plenty of mayhem and destruction here as well as some funny. Next up we learn (via Matthew) the origin of that walrus-looking dude from #7 after the kids take some drug-laced candy and one of them ends up blind. Whoops, I spoiled the ending! Finally there’s a short adaptation of a RZA song involving gunplay, a crash and a monkey, so that’s most of the ingredients needed for a successful comic right there. Color me thoroughly impressed, as I think I was also after #7 (I’m reviewing this one later, for everybody who’s reading this years later, theoretically)
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Posted by Kevin
Hawley, Geoffrey – He Could Fly If He’d Only Let Go
April 23, 2010E-mail (possibly)
He Could Fly If He’d Just Let Go
Warning! This review is a cheater! Mostly because there’s only so much you can say about a series of drawings. In here he draws a whale in an exoskeleton playing Hamlet, some robots, an anteater, a moth and some other odd things. The art was gorgeous, if very, very tiny. Anyway, I like his stuff, as you can tell from my review of his other book. Wait until he puts out a proper book and then buy the shit out of it. Contact info is up there!
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Posted by Kevin
Hawkins, Matthew – Unlucky #3
April 23, 2010
Unlucky #3 Now Available! $2
I’m going to assume that these things are just called “preview minis” and leave it at that. Maybe there’ll be a graphic novel of all these at some point and the name will make more sense, or maybe he’s coined a new term for mini comics, but who cares when the stories are this entertaining? Two more new stories in this one. The first, possibly the best of the entire series so far (and drawn by Matthew Bernier), deals with a young vegetarian woman who inhales most of a chicken after not eating meat for 6 years. To say there were disastrous results would be a bit of an understatement, but you have to add to the mix the fact that Matthew had a serious unrequited crush on the girl… and then she spent the better part of an evening puking and pooping in his bathroom. The next story, dealing with a random dead guy in New York (and drawn by Toby Craig), is surprisingly bland, given the subject matter. It’s mostly just Matthew and his friends driving around, trying to avoid dealing with the guy until they eventually have to call 911. Not a bad story, it’s just that the previous two issues and the first story here set the bar pretty high. Also, you may notice that there are new covers for issues 1 and 2. I think they’re a vast improvement on the old covers, but I’m keeping them both up here so you can decide for yourselves and to show off how awesome and “old school” I am for getting them way back when they had the old covers. $2
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Posted by Kevin
Hawkins, Matthew – Unlucky #1
April 23, 2010
Unlucky #1 Now Available! $1.50
If you’re anything like me, you probably never imagined that a school principal dressing up in a gorilla suit could ever have anything but a hilarious ending. Well, not so much, at least not according to the second story in this mini of true stories from Matthew, Katie Skelly (for the gorilla story) and Joe Simko. It’s especially horrifying because few artists out there have a more consistently adorable style, and the ending of this one is anything but adorable. There’s also a story about young Matthew trying to relate to his Father as a kid, asking any question in the world in the hopes of sparking a meaningful conversation. Good stuff all around, and this is called a “preview mini” because there are plenty more true stories to come, which sounds like a good thing to me after reading these first two. $1.50
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Posted by Kevin
Havert, Nik – Dare (with Renatus)
April 23, 2010
Dare (with Renatus) Now Available! $7.95
I’ve never been sure whether to take porn in comics seriously as a storytelling device. Nik says in the introduction that this was a lot wackier before he started writing it, then stripped it down into more of a spy story with some sex. The problem is that if I’m supposed to take all of this seriously, where do the silly scenes end up? This follows the story of Sylvia Dare, a woman who has risen through the ranks of spydom and eventually ends up in a practically invisible section, dealing with missing classified information and things of that nature. If I have to take everything here seriously though, it must be hard to be a super spy when you’re also a nyphomaniac. Generally speaking, I can’t imagine many spies get distracted with having sex with random people when they’re searching for information. Or, according to the James Bond movies, maybe they do and I shouldn’t take it all so seriously. It boils down to that, more than anything. If you can laugh along with some of the sillier scenes, there’s plenty to like here, and yes, I do mean more than a lot of naked people. Some of the fight scenes are done really well, and I thought her origin story was handled nicely. If you must take everything here seriously though, you’ll probably have a hard time with it. Unless, of course, all you’re looking for is some serious nakedness, in which case you’ll probably come away happy. $7.95
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Posted by Kevin
Havert, Nik – Act of Contrition (with Craig DeBoard & Wes Sweetser)
April 23, 2010
Act of Contrition (with Craig DeBoard & Wes Sweetser) Now Available! $5
The Pickle Press empire keeps wandering off in different directions, and that’s fine with me. This time out Nik has the story of a mystery involving a wide cast of characters, with the only thing that they seem to have in common being the local priest. The main thing needed to keep a story like this entertaining is suspense, and it did take about half of the comic for me to figure out for sure where this was headed. Take that as a measuring stick, I suppose. If you feel that you’re required to be fooled until the end of the book, you’ll go away disappointed. Or maybe I’m just the smartest man alive, who knows? The story begins with a man in a confessional, always a good way to go, telling a priest that he’s killed someone. The rest of the book is a flashback to the actual story, starting with a dead young woman, a crazy old woman who sees people in her bushes, a boyfriend who may or may not have had anything to do with the young woman’s death, and a priest who’s dealt with them all. Great dialogue pretty much the whole way through here, and those fat black shadows were perfect for the theme. Worth a look if you like the murder mystery/suspense type of stories. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Havert, Nik – Rocket Girl #2
April 23, 2010
Rocket Girl #2 Now Available! $2.25
So how do super heroes learn how to use all those silly gadgets they wear anyway? This issue is a mostly embarrassing look at the early superhero life of Rocket Girl, as well as her first accidental “win” and subsequent earning of a nemesis. The glow wore off on me a little bit for #2, frankly. My earlier enthusiasm for the potential of the series remains, but something didn’t click for me here like it did for #1. Not the dialogue, which is still at least pretty good (it is a superhero book, after all, and some dumb phrases are bound to make their way in), or the art, which is still mostly great, or the general direction of the book, which is still, as I said, intriguing. Maybe it’s the fact that the story ended with “Find Out Next Issue… If There Is One!” It just drove home the futility of getting invested in books like this. Sure, these two issues were better than OK, but so what if they just dump it and move onto something else, or quit comics altogether? Here I am, trying in my own puny way to get the word out for a book… and they may have quit on this title two years ago and are just trying to sell off the backlog now. Cynical as hell, sure, and not a rant I intended to fall into, but there you go. That being said, um… this comic is now available in my online store!
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Posted by Kevin
Havert, Nik – The Three Keys #1 (with Paul Schultz)
April 23, 2010
The Three Keys #1 (with Paul Schultz) Now Available! $2.75
You probably know already: do you like fantasy comics? I like fantasy books, on occasion, but the comics have always left me kind of cold. Purely a personal taste, as I’m aware that most mainstream comics have at least some element of fantasy to them, and a whole bunch of them do quite well. This is the story of a battle, told from the point of view of the three main characters: a magician, a rogue and an archer. Or possibly those aren’t the technical terms, I’m a bit rusty at the terminology. Anyway, the dialogue is more than a bit cheesy, but as they’re all telling increasingly fantastic tales, I think that’s perfectly OK. The art was great for the wacky sort of thing that they’re trying to do here, but the whole thing didn’t do much for me, as these comics usually don’t. Still, if this is sort of thing you’re into it’s a pretty fun comic.
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Posted by Kevin
Havert, Nik – Agent Z #1 (art by Federico Zumel)
April 23, 2010
Agent Z #1 (art by Federico Zumel) Now Available! $2.50
Want to get somebody hooked on a title right away? Shoot the main character in the head and leave him for dead. Then shoot him even more, but he just keeps on ticking. Why? What the hell is going on? I’m intrigued for #2 because of all that, so kudos to the crew. This is about an agent and his partner checking out some shady dealings at a lake. One of them gets shot, so the other agent, under fire, leaves him there in the lake. But the isn’t dead, and nobody knows why. Or maybe Agent Z (I’m just guessing that the guy who was shot turns out to be Agent Z) knows and isn’t telling anybody? Like I said, I’m intrigued. Good art, good writing, now all they need to do is keep this thing going so they can make a real story out of it. Worth a look, if you’re into the mystery/espionage stuff…
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Posted by Kevin
Havert, Nik (editor) – Syndication
April 23, 2010
Syndication     Now Available! $4.99
Ah, the anthology. Practically always a mish-mash of good and bad, but it is one of the few places where you find new voices (or, in this case, new teamings) doing different things. To me a 75% success rate in these things is all I hope for, and I define “success” as either a genuinely great story or something that looks like the people involved have some serious potential. This one, I think, cleared that hurdle. It starts off with a genuinely thoughtful introduction by Ben Avery, in which he honestly lays out all the reasons why anthologies aren’t popular and don’t “work” (but why he loves them anyway) and then follows up with a peek into the basic contradiction at the heart of most artists. Note to anthology editors: an intro like this works wonders, as I was curious to see how these people worked together after he described some of the issues in getting these pieces in and how some of these people will probably work together in the future… and some of them certainly won’t. First up is a piece by Jedediah Walls and Gloria Hollier, dealing with the nature of narrative sequence and comics as art. Things get much more traditional from there, as mostly everything else is monster or superhero-related, starting with The Ballad of Dr. Ecula by Alan Schell and Jamie Hood. This is a surprisingly moving piece about two foes and their constant struggle, and how the villain deals with it after he finally gets the upper hand and kills the hero. Kelly Heying and Ron Schell Jr. are up next with a fairly standard piece about a former crook turning hero after his child is born, which is followed by a piece by Nik Havert and Ryan Sargent (in what is probably the best looking piece of the bunch) dealing with a young girl and her quest for revenge. This shows her first time out on her own, trying to kill 6 Spaniards in the early 16th century. Ben Avery and Mike Murphy follow this with a confusing piece (probably because the format shifted to sideways art and the binding of this book makes it tough to see tops of pages that way) about trying to kill what appears to be an alien. Jon Kulczar then has a thoroughly random two page story where his characters mostly complain about the tiny amount of pages they get and can’t seem to figure out what to do with it. Christopher Penzenik and Joey Allen are next with a story about a man who sacrifices himself for his tribe and in the process becomes a giant evil monster… who still seems to have pieces of the good guy left. Finally there’s Tim Kelly’s Bunnyman, which was thoroughly baffling. I tried flipping through it again, but there’s a hero (Bunnyman), a princess who’s in some sort of distress (who is saved by induced vomiting (?)) and a monster that seems giant in certain panels and the same size as Bunnyman in others. Seeing all these stories laid out like this it’s possible I was too optimistic in thinking this passed the 75% test, but it’s close if it didn’t quite make it. Bonus points for that intro too, so I’ll give it to them.Â
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Posted by Kevin
Haven, Eric – Tales to Demolish #3
April 23, 2010
Tales to Demolish #3 Now Available! $5
This particular page on ye olde Optical Sloth has sat idle for far, far too long. Tales to Demolish #1 and 2 were tremendous things, a joy to read for completely different reasons. Of course, this did come out a couple of years ago, meaning that it’s me who wasn’t on the ball, but the wait was worth it. This one is in full, gorgeous color (hence the jump in cover price) and has a pile of different stories. There’s the one from the cover, dealing with the eternal war between mammal and reptile (and Eric was kind enough to show us the inspirations for the cover). This takes up the first half of the book, all told from the perspective of a guy watching a show on tv, and you just can’t go wrong with punching through somebody’s head. Next up is The Gunslinger, quite possibly my new favorite comic story, with exactly the perfect mix of dialogue and violence for the subject matter. And even after all that there are still 4 more stories, dealing with a campy midnight movie about a killer tree, a neighbor, the real story of Santa Claus, and the unfortunately named Dr. Arcanus. The coloring in this book is tremendous; everything jumps off the page, and it fills me with sadness once again that the world isn’t arranged so that the vast majority of the small press books can look this good. At any rate there’s not a bad story in the bunch, and it would be nice is Eric were made rich immediately so that he could concentrate on making comics. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Haven, Eric – Tales to Demolish #2
April 23, 2010
Tales to Demolish #2 Now Available! $3
The name of the story in here is “I Killed Dan Clowes”. What, I still have to write a review? Isn’t that enough on its own to make you curious enough to buy it? Well, what am I supposed to do now? This is a short book and each surprise in it was better than the one that preceded it, so I don’t want to give anything away. It’s $3 and I’d never seen anything from this guy (that I remember anyway, maybe something in a random anthology somewhere), but now I’m sold. Does that help? His art was tremendous, perfect for this adventure story. I mean revenge story! Oops. As you can probably tell by the title on the cover, there’s plenty of mayhem, death and God. I’m not even going to tell you who else gets killed in here, or if Dan Clowes actually dies. Check out the website or send him an e-mail, I’m sure there are samples there that will tell you more than I’m willing to. Hey, what can I say, I like a good surprise, and I’m not a fan of ruining it for others. Look, even the sample isn’t going to give too much away…
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Posted by Kevin
Haven, Eric – Tales to Demolish #1
April 23, 2010
Tales to Demolish #1 Now Available! $3
This series only has two issues in it that I know of and it’s one of the best things ever. This one is all about a man (a “glaciolologist”) who discovers a giant monster in a glacier. Huge, even. The monster eventually catches up with the guy, and I’m on the verge of giving too much away. These are tiny books, but I love the one track minditude of these things. He focuses on one thing in each book and just nails it, simple concept or not. This one is $3 too, you could probably read both of these in under ten minutes, but what a ten minutes it is. Contact info is down there!
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Posted by Kevin
Havasy, Joe – Misanthropic Cavalcade #5
April 23, 2010
Misanthropic Cavalcade #5
Joe seems to be moving away from the humans more and more, as this issue is 100% “A Scientific Fact” stories. Not that that’s a bad thing at all, as who doesn’t like mostly silent tales of various animals in emotional and/or physical distress? All that really matters is, once again, how it took me ages to pick out the proper sample, as almost anything in here could have been used due to sheer awesomeness. Stories in here include the revolving door of breaking up and drunkenly calling back, the cow with gills, getting bored already after a random girl agrees to go out with you, the taste of Mountain Dew, how lovesickness is cured, misidentifying a slug, a flying buffalo, being cured of a desire to kill yourself by a pretty girl, an unsatisfactory gift, the futile suicide attempt of a T-Rex, bug courtship, the anatomical impossibilities of the birds and the bees doing it, abandonment issues, a frightened sheep, commitment issues and what an actual tiger would do with Frosted Flakes. There’s also one story about a young woman who finds an old picture in her desk and how it unleashes a flood of memories, one of the rare thoughtful pieces in the book. For a book of humorous one-pagers, I don’t mean this as a bad thing. As always, it’s well worth checking out, and if the carefully chosen samples on this page can’t convince you of that fact, the pile of free strips on Joes’ website should do that nicely. $3
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Posted by Kevin
