Guldemond, Marcel – Dot Dot Dot

April 23, 2010

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Dot Dot Dot

Man, I sound almost eloquent in that other review. Luckily, the years of substance abuse have taken their toll, and now I’m left with a tiny, tiny brain. Sorry about the psychedelic effect on the cover, my scanner strikes again. Oh, and before I forget, this book was serialized on a website that I should mention a lot more, Serializer.net. Good stuff from lots of good people, but I never seem to find time to mention it. What about this book? Well, as a bunch or random, unconnected stories and ideas, it obviously doesn’t come together all that well. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t find some serious value in its parts. Explored in here are concepts of time, drunkenness, quiet, cows, working, commitment, and power. Some of the strongest pages of the book are the ones that are silent, exploring the quiet of certain stories, giving the reader time to sit back and just look. It’s a bit hefty at $8.95, but it’s a gorgeous book, inside and out. Granted, you can probably see most of the pages on the aforementioned website, but I’m a much bigger fan of the actual paper. One more website to give, and then you’ll have all three that are in the back of his book (along with the one you’ll get if you scroll up). Check this out if you’re in a quiet, thoughtful mood.

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Posted by Kevin

Guldemond, Marcel – Aporiatica

April 23, 2010

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Aporiatica

I usually don’t have to come up with a reaction to a book I just read, it’s already there. I liked it, I didn’t like it, or I was indifferent to at least some degree, those are the usual options. When I was done with this one I had a different reaction completely. Have you ever been at a play, or a spoken word show, or a comedy club of some kind, and had the performer or performance end before you were ready for it? The show was over, the curtain came down or whatever, and you were left feeling… incomplete, I guess? That was the feeling I had after most of the stories in this one. Everybody else was clapping and I was just left there wondering about what I’d just read. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but this definitely falls under the category of a book that I would enjoy immensely under an ideal set of circumstances. A certain clarity of thought is needed to really get this book, and that’s something I’ve been sadly lacking in the past few weeks, or some would say forever. Here’s the website before I continue, because I’m completely aware that nobody is going to know what I’m talking about until they read some of his stuff. The critics are right, he does have a unique approach to graphic art. He has a lyrical, poetic quality to his writing and art that almost everybody is lacking, or at least they communicate it in a different way. There’s a story in here about himself as an old man (maybe), another man having a normal start to the day, poems and drawings in the end, an essay on Borges’ work with all kinds of other stuff going one, and one that has a little to do with Orpheus. Maybe I should hire somebody to write for this site who has some communication skills… Anyway, this really is a unique experience. I recommend reading it on a day when everything seems to come into focus.

My main man Mike Bradecich has posted a rebuttal to my review of this book. Maybe he’s right, maybe I gave the guy too much credit. Maybe I’ll read it again at some point and tear it a new one, or maybe I’ll read it again and tear Mike’s review a new one, or maybe I’ll never read it again� I do remember that the poems in the end kind of bugged me though, I don’t think I mentioned that before. Anyway, without further ado:

AN open letter to Whitey: I don't think you should be so eager to place the blame on your own clarity of mind for feeling unfulfilled by APORIATICA. I found what samples I read of the book to be, more than likely, cryptic for the sake of sounding vaguely important. Like the movie musicals of the middle portion of the century, a string of random (but pleasing to the artist) images (as opposed to songs) were tied together in an all but haphazard manner. Then a concerted, but still forced-seeming, "plot" was created to act as a weak adhesive between the separate pieces as little more than an afterthought.

However, in the role of self-imposed devil's advocate, there are three reasons I would urge the reader to accept my comments with a grain of salt: first; I credit the original reviewer of this book with the necessary intellect to realize that this half-hearted attempt at plot and structure was just that, were it the case. and, had he found it to be so, he would have so stated. I will even go so far as to disregard the insecure modesty with which he assumes the fault lies with his interpretation, rather than placing the blame on the material itself for its vagaries.
Second, I have seen only a portion of the piece, and a very small one, so I have no fair concept of what the context of that limited material might be.
Thirdly, I am quite intoxicated and incapable of even undoing my own trousers before defecating. And my grandma told never to trust a drunk with poop in his pants, so there you go.

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Posted by Kevin

Grimbol, Justin – Desperate #15

April 23, 2010

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Desperate #15

See? This is why I’ve been waiting for a longer story from this guy. This is the biggest issue yet and, while it’s not an obviously continuing story, everything comes together wonderfully by the end. Or maybe it is obviously connected and I’m just slow, I don’t know. What you have here are a few main people. There’s a slut, a stupid man who’s just trying to have fun, and a few other people who have no interest in staying faithful to their significant others. Lots of stuff left unsaid here, which is the best way to deal with something like this. Justin’s not afraid to have a fair amount in his book either, so kudos to him. Well, there is now officially a “if you want to check out one issue, check this one out” issue for this guy. This is probably a couple of bucks and I can unreservedly recommend this to anybody. Lots of layers to go through here, a fully rewarding reading experience. My only complaint is that I wish he’d work on his spelling, but it’s not so hard to take when characters who are remarkably stupid are having a lot of trouble with grammar. Buy this book!

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Posted by Kevin

Grimbol, Justin – Desperate #14

April 23, 2010

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Desperate #14

I missed a few issues of this, mostly because I stopped getting them in the mail and haven’t seen them in comic stores (sorry, there are just way too many books that I’m trying to keep up with). Good to see that it’s still getting better, and it was pretty good a couple of issues ago. This one has two main stories. The first is about some bunnies in and out of love, with a few of the side-effects. The second is about a man on a beach who meets a strange woman. That’s all you get from me on that one, as it’s too short to say much more about without ruining it. The art’s better, the writing is better and the book is a little bigger than before. All that means you should check it out, and it looks like there’s finally a website to go with that old e-mail address. $1

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Posted by Kevin

Grimbol, Justin – Desperate #11

April 23, 2010

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Desperate #11

This one is absolutely my favorite of the bunch so far. It’s the story of a woman who’s occasionally a prostitute and the one man and one alien who watch her door to make sure that nobody tries to hurt her. It’s a funny issue, sure, but it’s also thoughtful. Add that to the fact that his art just keeps getting better and you have the best issue yet. This issue also has 16 pages instead of 12, so either I’m making an impact (ego alert) here or Justin just decided to give the stories a little more room to grow. Whatever the case, buy it. Contact info keeps getting further and further up the page, but it’s still there…

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Posted by Kevin

Grimbol, Justin – Desperate #10

April 23, 2010

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Desperate #10

You know, if I put the whole stack of comics together that I’ve gotten from this guy and read them all in a row, I don’t think it would take me longer than 5 minutes to finish them. This one, for example. probably took me about 30 seconds to read. Maybe he should think about putting out longer comics, but what do I know? If the point he’s trying to make only needs 12 pages per issue or so, who am I to tell him how to do his job? This one is about sex, mostly. A strange comparison between his mother and his girlfriend, and Mr. Bunny getting lucky, as they say. Solid art, it made me think (which says a lot in a tiny book), what more can you ask for? Contact info is still above, and his body of work just keeps getting bigger.

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Posted by Kevin

Grimbol, Justin – Desperate #9

April 23, 2010

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Desperate #9

Could it be? Is this issue really that much worse than his other ones, or am I just exhausted from moving boxes all day? Well, I liked his other stuff, I know that much. Didn’t get much at all out of this one. A pet peeve of mine is when artists address themselves in their comics, whether it’s about story ideas, their drawing style, or even just making fun of themselves. It’s hard to pull it off to make it look like something other than a self-indulgent page filler, and that’s the impression that I got with this. Again, I’m exhausted, but he makes such tiny issues that they really have to grab you right away or it’s over before you know it, and this one didn’t grab me. the two page story at the end with the bunnies was ridiculous, but at least it made me smile. Ah, one bad issue out of four isn’t bad at all. At least he’s still trying new stuff. Contact info is still above and I still think that you should check out some of his other stuff…

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Posted by Kevin

Grimbol, Justin – Desperate #8

April 23, 2010

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Desperate #8

Note to all comic people who send me their stuff randomly: chances are that I haven’t seen the other issues of your comic unless they’re already up here, so it’s not the best idea in the world to send me Part 2 of a dream issue. Unless the previous dream issue had nothing to do with this dream issue, in which case I apologize, but I kind of have to base my review on what’s here and not on what might or might not be in the other issue. Another short mini, this one is about a man who has to kill his girlfriend (?) if he can’t convince her to stop going insane. In his dream. The way to do this is apparently by yelling at her a lot. Not a bad issue. It’s kind of creepy at times, actually, and it works better than a 10 page mini probably should. Hell, I don’t know, send him a couple of bucks and find out for yourself. You have to at least give him credit for getting to #8 of a series, that’s hard enough on its own these days… Check the other issue for contact info because I’m the laziest man alive.

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Posted by Kevin

Grimbol, Justin – Desperate #7

April 23, 2010

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Desperate #7

Man, are these things tiny. Honestly, I’d have to say that your best bet would either be to wait until he has a collection available to read his work or buy a bunch of issues at once, as they literally take less than a minute to read. This one is the best of the bunch though, at least out of the three I’ve seen. Various short stories on sex and relationships. Definitely worth a look. Add that to the fact that he appears to be prolific (at least in the small press world; he already has two comics out this year) and this is a name you should try to remember. Contact info is above…

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Posted by Kevin

Grimbol, Justin – Desperate #6

April 23, 2010

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Desperate #6

I’d bet money that I’ve seen this art before. Probably some anthology somewhere along the line. Ah yes, I remember when I had a memory. Those were the days… Anyway, this was another one that was sent to me randomly in the mail. I try desperately to love these, I really do. This one is far from bad, it’s just not all that great either. There are two stories here. The Temptation, about Jesus being tempted by Satan while fasting in the desert, goes nowhere fast and doesn’t seem to serve much purpose except to have Jesus say “fuck”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just about the least religious person you’re likely to meet, it’s just that nothing happened in this story. Not to give anything away here, in ended in a jumbled mess. Or I missed something, I don’t know.

The other story, Dr. Mento’s Gruesome Revenge, is much better. The tale of a man who builds a robot body for his brain once he realizes that he has a disease that is eating away his body. His wife has a hard time finding satisfaction with his new robot body no matter what, um, improvements he adds on, and the story is basically about him trying to win her love back. Creepy at times, funny at others, there was nothing wrong with this one. Take away those four pages for the Jesus story and you have a great mini. Actually, the only part I had a problem with was the last panel, so I guess you could say I liked it up until then. And I had no problems at all with the art. It’s going to bug the hell out me trying to figure out where I saw it before, though. It’s worth a couple of bucks anyway, so why not e-mail the guy and see what else he has around.

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Posted by Kevin

Griffin, Erin – Ramona & Imogene

April 23, 2010

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Ramona & Imogene

And people say that can’t share any decent comics with their kids. This is the story of two mice who get tired of their life in the sewer and decide to visit a cousin in the city. Upon visiting said cousin, they discover a seriously swank pad and find themselves loving their new lives. Yep, just like that. No cynicism, no wicked twists, just a good natured and utterly adorable story. The art’s a little on the simple side but come on, it’s the story of two mice. Erin does do a nice job of things when the surroundings get complicated, but other than that less is more anyway. Well worth checking out, unless you’re one of those people who can’t stand to look at cute things for more than a few seconds. Actually, that’d be OK too, as this is a mini comic, after all. $3

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Posted by Kevin

Griffin, Erin – Cavities Comix Presents: Tales From the Tart 1992-2008

April 23, 2010

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Cavities Comix Presents: Tales From the Tart 1992-2008

Yeah, I gave away the secret inner title.  Spoiler alert!  This is an absolutely wonderful comic detailing the dating life of Erin, starting with her in fourth grade in 1992 all the way up to modern day.  And, to give you another spoiler, it does seem to have a happy ending, at least at the moment.  In between she takes a few pages each on everybody who she dated or wanted to date, including people in her experimental phase at college and people where it didn’t seem to work out for even a little bit.  She’s refreshingly honest in her break-up pages, telling them exactly why it’s not working out and why she’s moving on.  Who knows if that’s what she actually said at the time, and who cares if she didn’t?  There’s something in here for everyone who’s ever been dumped and for everyone who has done the dumping.  It’s really amazing that she manages to accomplish all this without ever getting graphic or too personal with the people involved.  In the end, this is practically as much of an “all ages” book than the one listed below, although with an entirely different subject matter.  No price listed but it’s probably about $3, and it comes with a nice little bow that also serves as the binding for the book.

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Posted by Kevin

Griffin, Erin & Warhaftig, Sarah Louise (editors) – Always Comix #4

April 23, 2010

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always41

Always Comix #4 edited by Erin Griffin & Sarah Louise Warhaftig

Once of these days I’ll settle on a universal standard for reviewing anthologies.  Is it best just to list the talent involved  and leave everything else a mystery?  Or is it best to go through every story and one page image one by one, leaving nothing for a future reader to discover? How about splitting the difference.  Here’s a list of the people involved, outside of the editors because duh: Falynn Koch, Jeremy Tinder, Will Kirkby, Josh Blair, Colin Tedford, Matt Wiegle, Alvaro Lopez, Colleen Macisaac, Amanda Kirk, L. Nichols, Ed Moorman, Box Brown, Alisa Harris, Josh P.M., and Joe Decie.  As this is the Activity issue, there’s plenty in here to do, for the active comics reader.  There’s recipes, a maze, even a mad lib.  Specifically I enjoyed the guide to getting over your cat allergies by Sarah Louise Warhaftig (because any “how to” guide that ends with acheiving Nirvana is hard not to love), the attack of the clouds by Falynn Koch (not so much an activity but still funny), Amanda Kirk’s cut and paste page, Ed Moorman’s guide to inner peace, Joe Decie’s guide to fun with matches, and Box Brown’s “wrestler or tattoo artist” quiz.  There, that still leaves plenty to the imagination, right?  It’s a fun anthology even without all the practical tips and with them, well, what more could you ask for?  $4

always42

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Posted by Kevin

Gray, Douglas – Old School Funnies #1

April 23, 2010

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Old School Funnies #1 Now Available! $2.50

Ah well, I don’t see Frankenstein here, so I’m obviously not going to like this one as much as the last one. It’s still a fun little comic, don’t get me wrong. This is basically a comic of the old Tom and Jerry cartoons, right down to the bit where one of the main characters pretends to be a mirror image of the bad guy to get him off his case. There’s a dog and a cat, see, and they both decide to take a job being a watchdog at a butcher’s shop. They are warned not to let anything bad happen OR ELSE, so of course as soon as the butcher leaves a couple of mice AND some huge dogs separately decide to rob the place blind. Hilarity ensues, or at least mild amusement, but then, I didn’t like the Tom and Jerry cartoons much after I hit my teens. Still a fun book, like I said, but you should check out the other one first if you want to see what Doug is capable of.

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Posted by Kevin

Gray, Douglas – My Freakish Love #1

April 23, 2010

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My Freakish Love #1 Now Available! $2.50

Again, in the interests of full disclosure, it should be known that I automatically love all comics with Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf-Man, or any of the other classics. You really have to go out of your way to get me to dislike your book after a cover like this one, and Doug didn’t manage to pull it off, as I liked this one a whole bunch. First you have Frankenstein forgetting his keys at home and stumbling upon a scene of betrayal by his wife, who happens to be having sex with a mummy. Then you have the circus strongman, after being thrown out by the fat lady, stumble his way back into the dating world. Following this is the most normal story of the bunch, about a man on a date with a girl who’s telling him about her dream, which only gets weird when the dog starts talking. Next up is a cautionary tale about why monsters and robots should never date, and finally a couple of one pagers, one of which is sampled below just so you’ll know if this book is for you. Like I said, I loved it, and you really can’t beat Doug’s brief intro to all of his past girlfriends on the inside front cover either…

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Posted by Kevin

Granton, Shawn – Complexificationstrategory: A Ten Foot Rule Suppliment

April 23, 2010

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Complexificationstrategory: A Ten Foot Rule Suppliment

I’ll say one thing for Shawn: he’s the master of the ridiculously long titles. He says in the cover that he’s “sold out” to Dylan William’s Sparkplug Press, which is good news for everybody who hasn’t heard about Shawn yet, as now he might get into some comic stores. Beautiful, painstakingly detailed artwork mixed with entertaining and self-deprecating writing is what you’ll find in his comics. This one has a strip about his feelings on the world today, one on the mystery that is Portland’s fascination with Pabst, a guide to cheap eateries, and a few other random things. I can’t wait to see what he puts in his published comic. Here’s hoping that he gets successful and has some of his older stuff see print, as I’m curious to see what else he’s done (besides the best of, I guess). New address is P.O. Box 14185 Portland, OR 97182-0185, or just e-mail the guy to see what else he has or to order this for a buck.

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Posted by Kevin

Granton, Shawn – 3.05 Metres: A Ten Foot Rule Primer

April 23, 2010

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3.05 Metres: A Ten Foot Rule Primer

More often than I like I’ll get a comic where I know there’s more out there that could help me make up my mind about it. It’s always better to see a wider variety of a certain artist just to get the complete picture. Well, this issue is as complete as it gets, for better or worse, and I’m going to treat it as such. This is the creator-determined “best of” from the five previous issues of “Ten Foot Rule”. And a sample of his best is, well, pretty mixed. There are quite a few comics that are just mini comics by the numbers. Bad work experiences, dating troubles, punk shows, it’s all here. The problem is that while the quality of the art stays just about the same (it’s good), the quality of the stories don’t. The writing style stays the same, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that he doesn’t seem to know when something is just too boring to write about. One example is a four page text story all about a train ride that he takes. No, no story there really that could be considered all that funny or interesting, just four pages of travel details. In a “best of” book, that doesn’t bode well. Still, there are some real bright spots in here. The story about indie rock people and their hypocritical standards is great, as are the ones about the things that people have told him while trying to sell his comic around. About 2/3 of this is really solid, really worth checking out, and that includes one text piece about ibuprofin. For $2 it’s still definitely worth checking out. Actually, my only problem with it was that some of the stories seemed to me like they were too dull to be printed, and that’s obviously a completely subjective thing. Everybody else in the world might love the whole thing.

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Posted by Kevin

Granton, Shawn – Better Looking Than A Blog

April 23, 2010

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Better Looking Than A Blog

You know, it ruins all the fun for me when somebody says right in their intro that their book has a few good moments but that’s about it. In this case he’s not nearly giving himself enough credit, but when they’re right I invariably feel like a doofus for pointing it out when they’ve just admitted it. This is a journal comic, and if that automatically sends a few of you screaming off of this page, so be it. Shawn decided that he needed more structure in his drawing schedule and if everybody else was doing it, why not him? His dedication is impressive, as I don’t think he missed a day for the first 3 months of 2007, or if he did he went back and did a strip for that day later. It’s not all formulaic either, as it’s mostly a three panel strip, but he’s not afraid to let it air out for several more panels of varying shapes and sizes if he has
a longer story to tell. Mostly this is full of stories about biking, being a vegetarian (but not in a preachy way, just pointing out meals and good places to eat), partying here and there, and everything else
you’d write about in a daily journal. For you biking aficionados out there, this goes into pretty serious detail about various biking events, zines and things that happened while biking. My eyes glazed over a bit
for those parts, but I’ll bet it’s fascinating to some people. All in all it’s a pretty solid journal comic, with a promise from Shawn about more “real” comics coming soon. It’s been a while since he’s put out a
comic, so huzzah for that news. Oh, and this is a hefty book for the cheap price tag of $2. Took me just under an hour to get through.
Shawn also bemoans the death of actual mail, so If anybody wants to check out his stuff, why not just send him a letter for it? I think that, rather than an e-mail, would make his day…

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Posted by Kevin

Granton, Shawn – Ten Foot Rule: When You Can’t Stand Yourself, Walk Outside

April 23, 2010

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Ten Foot Rule: When You Can’t Stand Yourself, Walk Outside

A note to any obsessive types out there reading this: the review for the Spring 2007 book was done today, 2/23/08, long after the review for the Winter 2007 book, which was done I believe in May of 2007. Any stupid things I say in that review about that comic being his first one in ages should be disregarded as I am occasionally a stupid, stupid man. This is from back when Shawn first started drawing every day, although he missed a few chunks here and there. It’s mostly about a trip around various parts of the country, hitting a few conventions, checking out the local biking scenes, and generally wondering (at least at times) if the whole comic thing was worth it. His conclusion seems to be “Yeah, but…”, which is right around where most people land on the whole idea. He also sent himself postcards from his various stops, which helps immensely to put some immediacy into the trip, even long after he’d returned. At the end of the book he has a long text piece on the virtues of Bikesummer, a sort of month long event dedicated to celebrating biking, something you biking enthusiasts should be looking into for this year. All in all it’s a solid journal comic, cheap and wordy, which is damned near the best thing in the world in my book. $2

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Posted by Kevin

Granofsky, Jai – The Wee Days

April 23, 2010

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The Wee Days

So what’s the best way to judge something that proclaims proudly on the cover that it’s supposed to be funny? Does that mean that everything has to make me chuckle, or just smile contemplatively? Anyway, think about it, because I have no earthly idea. Only one of these strips made me laugh out loud, so it’s the one I sampled below. As for the other ones, Jai deals with sarcasm, punching, pot, beer, and disemboweling. There’s also a five page story in the middle here that takes WAY too long to set up a completely unfunny joke that’s only saved (slightly) by it being a visual gag instead of just told at a bar. His dream strips were probably the highlight to me, just because they were all over the place and genuinely fascinating. Oh, and of course the squirrel strip I sampled here, which was only mildly amusing until the punchline. As for what I thought, I may have to punt on this one until I see more strips. It’s a cop-out, granted, but I really liked some things (sarcasm, squirrel and dream strips), really didn’t like some other things (five pager, or at least most of it) and was somewhere between on the rest of it. Oh, and $4 is way too much for something this small. Why, back in my day blah blah blah you know the drill. Give me more so I can get off this fence!

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Posted by Kevin

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