Another from the long list of people who should have been up here ages ago. Matt Feazell has been doing minis since the 80’s and his books are some of the best around. Don’t let the stick figures fool you. There’s a lot going on in here, and if you blink you’ll miss if because it all seems so simplistic. This one is a tiny collection of his weekly strip. which is news to me. There’s a certain mindset you have to have to really enjoy these comics. If you like the sample, you’ll love the rest of it. If you don’t, well, go to his website and look at some other stuff. Plenty of samples, you’re bound to find something you enjoy. If this world is a just place, there will come a time when he has a giant book with all kinds of Cynicalman stuff in it. Until then, his site has all kinds of back issues, and for $10 you could have a pretty extensive library. His books are small but cheap, and, more importantly, extremely good. I picked this out of his books kind of at random to review because there really wasn’t anything that much higher or lower than this on the quality scale from the 4 issues I got. It’s all good. You know I have no command of the English language, right?
Feazell, Matt – A Date With Nerdy Girl
April 23, 2010
Comments Off on Feazell, Matt – A Date With Nerdy Girl | 
Reviews | Tagged: A Date With Nerdy Girl, Matt Feazell | 
Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Feazell, Matt – Junior Librarians #1 (with Jim Mackey)
April 23, 2010
Junior Librarians #1 (with Jim Mackey)
Well, that was dumb.  Let me explain: I’ve long wanted more Matt Feazell stuff on my site, as I’ve been vastly entertained at his stick figure adventures for years. This year at SPACE, once again, I got to his table when I was almost broke and could only afford to get one thing, so I randomly grabbed this one. That makes it at least partially my fault, as few people in comics are more prolific than Matt, and I’m sure many other things on that table would have amused me greatly. This one, however, did not. It’s not a bad story: junior librarians are given a challenge to reshelve a huge pile of books in the correct order. Then a hulking bully comes by and kicks the ladder down… and then apparently the ladder disappears, as they are forced to come up with another solution to their problem. It’s a mildly cute ending, but that’s what it is, after only three pages: an ending. The next two pages name all the characters, an utterly worthless exercise, and the back cover contains original sketches for the characters, which is also at least slightly worthless. Unless this all turns into a much bigger series and all of this is important in the long run, which is quite possibly the case. And why were two people needed to write/draw this? OK, enough bashing of the guy. He’s one of the stalwarts of the small press world and I have nothing but good things to say about him as a human being and about the vast majority of his work. I just wasn’t impressed with this particular comic. $.50
Comments Off on Feazell, Matt – Junior Librarians #1 (with Jim Mackey) | Reviews | Tagged: Jim Mackey, Junior Librarians, Matt Feazell | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Farkas, Josh – Nothing Left to Lose
April 23, 2010
Nothing Left to Lose
Does that cover looked smudged and crinkled to you? That’s what it looks like, I didn’t throw it down the steps or anything. I should also point out how great that is, that this book (even the spine) looks like it’s been read a hundred times and is about forty years old. In terms of layout and appearance this thing is a masterpiece. To the cover (and it’s possible that I love that too much but you can’t bring me down about that) to the inside to even the acknowledgements in the back, it’s hard for a graphic novel to look much better than this. The story is a harder thing to nail down, with a big cast of peripheral characters, some of whom you never figure out what their motivations things were. I can’t really go into it more than that without ruining the ending, but trust me on that. Not that that does a thing to affect the larger story, mind you. That’s about a young man who checks himself into a mental health facility after experiencing visions and another recent “graduate” of the same facility. The first man sees the world ending, over and over, with everything destroyed and people melting in front of him. The second man seems unable to let go of his past. Oh, and than there’s the incredibly creepy thing they both keep seeing, which seems to have something to do with the end of the world. It’s a good little mystery, although, oddly, I think this is one of those cases where he could have done with another 50 pages or so for character development. Which is probably one of the nicest things you can say about a book: that you wanted to spend more time with it. Oh, and it’s also really cheap at $6.99, so click on that website up there if you’re curious…
Comments Off on Farkas, Josh – Nothing Left to Lose | Reviews | Tagged: Josh Farkas, Nothing Left to Lose | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Farkas, Josh – Qwerty
April 23, 2010
Qwerty
That might just be the laziest title I’ve ever seen. If you don’t believe me take a look down at your keyboards. Or maybe it’s not lazy, maybe he’s just going for simple and I shouldn’t worry my pretty little head about it. Sure, I’ll go with that. This comic (which is called an APE Special Edition, but I’m guessing it’s available because he sent it to me) is all about a young woman with a small child who’s trying to manage her life while still raising her boy. It shows a lot of the harsh realities of trying to raise a small child on your own without ever getting overly preachy, which is pretty hard to pull off. Oh, and there is a robot, just in case you’re not the type who likes a quiet personal drama. Good ear for dialogue all the way through (and the art wasn’t bad either), it’s a little pricey at $4, but it’s also a pretty big book. Worth a look, and he also sent a graphic novel that I should have up here in a week or so if you’d rather reserve judgment until all the facts are in…
Comments Off on Farkas, Josh – Qwerty | Reviews | Tagged: Josh Farkas, Qwerty | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Fagan, Matt – Domestic Partner of Frankenstein
April 23, 2010
Domestic Partner of Frankenstein
Man, I hate this scanner… Take a look at that title. Right away you can tell that there has to be something worth looking at. The question is, of course, whether it’s worth looking at because it has a great title or it there more to it than that? Let me tell you the concept and you can figure it out for yourself. There’s a mad scientist who’s trying to make a monster. He uses body parts from a fire at an Antique’s Road Show, but the monster ends up having trouble meeting another gay monster. So he goes back to his creator and, luckily, one of the floats in the gay pride parade is struck by lightning. Another monster is made, but can they get along? A great concept for a story and I think he pulled it off really well. $3.50 is a bit much but it is a big book, so it depends on where your priorities are. E-mail the guy or send him money at: 1573 N. Milwaukee Ave. PMB #464 Chicago, IL 60622.
Comments Off on Fagan, Matt – Domestic Partner of Frankenstein | Reviews | Tagged: Domestic Partner of Frankenstein, Matt Fagan | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Fagan, Matt – Love #4
April 23, 2010
Love #4
Aspiring comic folk, THIS is how you do a recap for a series. Obviously this is #4, meaning that some probably important events have come before this issue. On the front inside cover, Matt said that a lot of important things happened in the first few issues and he hopes the reader hasn’t missed them, but just in case they did, he goes on to mention just about everything you could need to know, while still leaving enough room for curiosity that people would still want to check out the earlier stories. Kudos, Mr. Fagan. As for the rest of the comic, this is a behemoth of a mini. This issue deals mostly with the lives of Jack and Pokie, two lovers and the main characters, as Pokie gets arrested for having a naked Flash run down the street and Jack composes and puts on a play about a zombie unicorn and the virgin who’s the only person that can see it. Lots of other minor characters flit in and out, which would have been confusing if it wasn’t for that amazing recap of the past issues. These are done mostly in a page by page format, with something vaguely resembling a punchline at the end of the page, until they get to the actual play, then it’s damned near a mini on its own. All told, this comic works in all sorts of ways. It works as a relationship book, it works as a comedy and hell, it even works on an inspirational level, as the fact that these two characters are able to get their bizarre artistic visions made into reality is downright inspiring. $3
Comments Off on Fagan, Matt – Love #4 | Reviews | Tagged: Love, Matt Fagan | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Espey, Eamon – Wormdye #3
April 23, 2010
Wormdye #3
This comic is for people who have always wondered: just where did women come from anyway? Sure, you have the loons who think woman was created from a rib of Adam, and you have the more reality based folks thinking that woman evolved over a period of millions of years, like man, from a pile of goo in gradual steps. It turns out that Zeus created woman “in an attempt to increase population while simultaneously bringing about the ruin of man”. This comic tells that story, from Zeus pushing a woman onto a reluctant man (well, his brother was reluctant anyway, at least at first) on to the birth of a fantastical box that hatches a stunted dog, which does indeed seem to bring about the ruin of man. The second part of the book is a creepy retelling of the Red Riding Hood story and yes, it’s even creepier than the original fable. It also deals with voyeurism and the continued presence of the stunted dogs, in case you were curious. Once again this is a gorgeous book, and while it may not be kosher to sample the last page of a comic, it was too beautiful not to and it doesn’t give away the ending or anything, so stop being so damned uptight. $3
Comments Off on Espey, Eamon – Wormdye #3 | Reviews | Tagged: Eamon Espey, Wormdye | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Bell, Marc – There is Nothing!
April 23, 2010
There is Nothing!
Oh mini comics time machine, why can’t all comics come from you? Ok, maybe I’m not THAT in love with all old mini comics, but nostalgia is a powerful thing. I vaguely referenced the fact (in an older review for Marc) that I wasn’t all that fond of this comic, but reading it again now I have no idea why that was the case. There are a couple of pieces that aren’t great, granted, but this is a hefty 38 page book. It reprints strips from back in the day when Marc was doing weekly comics, a format that is sadly lacking in quality these days (or at least it is in most of the papers I see, online is a different story). It’s difficult to sum up Marc’s work if you aren’t already familiar with it, as the Shrimpy and Paul collection (while a masterpiece) came out ages ago, and there’s a generation of comics folks now that may not have seen it. To put it succinctly: he’s absurdist, funny, ridiculous, insightful, nihilistic and gooey, while being none of things a good chunk of the time. He’s a damned unique voice in comics, and it’s a shame that I haven’t seen more from him over the years. It’s an even bigger shame that I can’t find a single place online to buy his comics, although you could still find copies of that collection. This is mostly to bring his name up again, and to point out that if you do see his comics anywhere in your travels, buy the hell out of them. Stories in here include fighting against nothing, cutting the sausage casing, making a list of things to do, a house getting up and going, smashing something loved and the guilt involved, angry friends and a relentlessly happy worm, a piece of sheer beauty in tiny tiny panels, poor poor Big Boy, The Sensitive Sausage trying to go about his day amidst all the ugliness in the world, humping and mustard, a beautiful day ruined by cheating, one hell of a centerfold, a tale of Hercules, getting a head off your head, losing your mind and getting it back by washing dishes, rock & roll being dead, drunkenly trying to get noticed as a writer, an enviro suit, a zine writer’s crush destroyed, Sweet-Cakes, Ol’ Simp, a free box, and being freed by orange juice. That’s some of the goodies in here anyway, I’m leaving out some surprised in the hopes that you can track this down. If you can it’s only $4 for all this…
Comments Off on Bell, Marc – There is Nothing! | Reviews | Tagged: Marc Bell, There is Nothing | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Espey, Eamon – Wormdye #1
April 23, 2010
Wormdye #1
Is Renee French still doing comics? I ask this because Eamon’s work reminds me just slightly of hers, and I can’t remember the last comic I saw by her. Anyway, for the short version of this review, just skip the text and check out the sample. If you like that, you’ll love the rest of the book. If it doesn’t make any sense to you and you hate it, well, chances are the rest of the book isn’t going to do much for you either. I thought it was brilliant, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much attention to detail in every single panel. Really, if he took any shortcuts here at all, they were well hidden. So what are the stories about? Well, King Tut, pee, suicide, cockroaches, Most Valuable Employee, maggots, and a robot. Then there’s another, smaller book connected with a rubber band (called All Green Places Are Lost) that’s all about an incident from the reign of King Stephen involving a couple of green skinned children who were lost. The story of their life ensues, sort of, but I don’t want to ruin anything. I’m curious to know how much of it was based on true events though, not that’s very possible to check the veracity of a story that over 800 years old. This one is a steal at $2 and you can send the author an e-mail if you’re interested.
Comments Off on Espey, Eamon – Wormdye #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Eamon Espey, Wormdye | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Espey, Eamon – Wormdye
April 23, 2010
Wormdye
You know, this is the type of book that probably would have never been made without the new publishing group, Secret Acres. Not that I want to make this a commercial or anything, but they’re pretty new at this and have put out a few incredible books so far and I think that people should give them as much money as possible to encourage them. Take Wormdye. Maybe one of the “big” publishers would have given it a shot, maybe not (I have no idea of sales figures or whatever else those folks take into account when publishing a book), but it’s all rendered irrelevant by the fact that Secret Acres was able to do such a tremendous job on the production value. The book looks gorgeous and it’s affordable ($13 for I believe 7 collected issues). What more can you ask for? What about the contents? Well, the first few issues are reviewed below, although I seem to have been rushed for at least one of them. I didn’t remember the first part of things though, the parts involving a cat, a microwave, and a confused teen girl in a bathroom, nor do I remember the man who pretended he was dead so he could go have the time of his life. Also, in case I didn’t make it clear enough in the earlier reviews: the bit with the power mad Pope and the ten virgins to be sacrificed was delightful. Next up are a couple of silent pieces, all with full pages layouts, that I’m not even going to try and review. I’ll just say that it looks like most of the images from Cremation of Care and Giants in Heat are up on his website and mention that these are the sorts of drawings that deserve to be blown up and studied, the sorts of things that you could randomly open a book and turn to at any moment and discover something that you missed completely the first time around. This all brings you to the biggest story of the book, The Blood is the Cow. A two part story, this tale involves milking, two brothers, a secret conspiracy (although that’s probably the only kind of conspiracy), slavery, sacrifice and an old man trapped down a well. This would all be fantastic enough if some yokel was drawing it, as these stories are completely unique in their own right. Luckily for the reader Eamon is in a class by himself when it comes to the drawing business, with an uncanny knack of finding just the right expression for the humans and able to plumb some serious depths of imagination when it comes to everything else. A guided tour through his brain would probably do you some serious damage, but you’d also come away a lot wiser. Great stuff, in other words, and here’s hoping that new publishing company ends up taking over the world. $13
Comments Off on Espey, Eamon – Wormdye | Reviews | Tagged: Eamon Espey, Wormdye | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Enrico, Robin – Stupid and Unkind #2
April 23, 2010
Stupid and Unkind #2
Robin re-released the first issue of this too, with the same type of cover as this one. I’m leaving the old one up because I’m a big fan of his “busy” covers, even though the new one looks better and they make a much better set together. So how does his first fictional story hold up? Pretty well, I thought. This issue deals with Ronan predictably losing interest in his new “girlfriend” and conversations through his friends and his ex that end up painting a pretty clear picture of the guy. I did think that things wrapped up a bit too neatly, although part of the beauty of the ending is that you’re not at all sure how neatly things really were wrapped up. And no, I can’t really go into why that is, or it would ruin the ending. Duh. So good stuff from him again, and I look forward to reading his stuff evolve over the years.
Comments Off on Enrico, Robin – Stupid and Unkind #2 | Reviews | Tagged: Robin Enrico, Stupid and Unkind | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Enrico, Robin – Stupid and Unkind #1
April 23, 2010
Stupid and Unkind #1
First off, before anybody thinks that this is a regular series or anything, Robin just had a lot of the story done and wanted to have something available for MOCCA, so he decided to do the story in two parts. And he says that the second part will be available at SPX this year (which I’m going too barring death or dismemberment), which isn’t long at all to wait for a resolution, especially not in the small press comics world. This is about a guy named Ronan who’s trying to get over an ex. He wants to rejoin the dating scene but can’t find anyone as perfect as his ex, which is, of course, what happens to everybody, even if their ex was never all that great to begin with. It’s fascinating to watch this new “relationship” happen, as Robin has an unmatched ear for dialogue that people would actually say in these situations. Great stuff again, and if anybody out there has a tough time meeting the ladies, might I recommend the tactic used to Roman in the sample below…
Comments Off on Enrico, Robin – Stupid and Unkind #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Robin Enrico, Stupid and Unkind #1 | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Enrico, Robin – Rebel Girl
April 23, 2010
Rebel Girl
Here’s another good comic from Robin, this time about 9/11 and his immediate reactions to it. He joins a protest with some friends from school, protesting a possible war with Afghanistan. Granted, the aftermath didn’t go well at all, but here’s a question, and I mean this sincerely: what did protesters want to do after 9/11? Anybody who could answer that question for me would be a wonderful human being. I’m against war in most instances, but how could you argue against removing the Taliban from power and hitting back against the people who were responsible for 9/11? The aftermath hasn’t gone well at all, and don’t even get me started on Iraq, but I’m curious as to what any protester, or person against the war in Afghanistan, would have done differently, given the opportunity. OK, rant over. This is shorter than his other books, and it focuses on his girlfriend at the time and his problematic relationship of the organizer of the protest.He says that his next comic is going to feature someone other than him. Hooray for range! Contact info is up there, let’s say it’s $1.
Comments Off on Enrico, Robin – Rebel Girl | Reviews | Tagged: Rebel Girl, Robin Enrico | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Enrico, Robin – You Can’t Help But Feel Estranged
April 23, 2010
You Can’t Help But Feel Estranged
Have I made it clear yet that I really like this guy? If I had any doubts after the first issue, they’re gone after this one. Yeah, the heads could be a little more consistent at times, and yeah, it can be a bit difficult to tell who is who. Both minor things, and the second thing wasn’t an issue at all in this issue. There are three stories in here, but one thing holds them all together: loneliness and uncertainty. OK, that’s two things, but you get my point. The first is about going home to visit the family and not having a place to stay. Then there’s a sudden e-mail breakup and a friend who doesn’t want him to hang around that long and you have a genuine feeling of being lost in the world. The second story is about a chaotic drunken night at a Troma party and how it’s possible to be completely alone in a crowd of people. The last story, part 2 of “You’re the one for me fatty”, details a crappy relationship and why it’s so difficult to keep going back for more, even when there are other people on the horizon who obviously care about you and would like to be with you. Fantastic book all around, I really can’t recommend this enough. Any of you publishers out there want to make this guy “famous”? I’d guess this is a dollar or two, but whatever it is, it’s worth it. Here’s a website, go and convince yourself…
Comments Off on Enrico, Robin – You Can’t Help But Feel Estranged | Reviews | Tagged: Robin Enrico, You Can't Help But Feel Estranged | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Enrico, Robin – No One Wants To Pay Me For My Broken Heart
April 23, 2010
No One Wants to Pay Me for my Broken Heart #1
What a great title! Sure, it’s a pain to type, but it really sums everything up after you’ve read the book. My computer decided that it didn’t like my last review so it’s gone, but I’ll try it again. It’s tricky to pull off a book like this. Relationship books have to make you care about the people involved and they have to make you believe that said relationship could happen, and this book pulls off both of those pretty well. The art’s adorable, the characters look a lot like those Fischer Price figures. The writing seems real and believable, which is essential. The story here is basically about a young man and his new girlfriend. The girlfriend has a comic strip in a school paper and the young man has just made a video about his feelings of his breakup with his last girlfriend. The video gets him his first real responses for his work, but it’s strained his current relationship a bit. This isn’t a perfect book, as there are times when the panel layout is confusing, and the art is so simple that at times it’s hard to tell some characters apart. Still, it’s a great first effort, or if it’s not a first effort then it’s still a really solid book. Send the man an e-mail or check out his site, I think it’s a buck of two…
Comments Off on Enrico, Robin – No One Wants To Pay Me For My Broken Heart | Reviews | Tagged: No One Wants to Pay Me for My Broken Heart, Robin Enrico | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Enrico, Robin – Jam in the Band Preview
April 23, 2010
Jam in the Band Preview
OK fine it doesn’t say “preview” anywhere on the cover, but Robin makes it clear in the afterward that this is a sampling of projected 300 page or so graphic novel dealing with the rise of Pitch Girl, how a romance causes issues with the band and their “rise to small time fame”. This preview briefly introduces the members of the band, a love interest of one of the members (or more possibly, maybe that’s part of the conflict, pure speculation on my part), and a music reviewer. This issue on its own feels unfinished and a bit light, but yeah, that’s what a preview is alright. Without that afterward I wouldn’t have had a lot of good things to say about this, but as the start of a long project it’s damned intriguing. Robin’s work has been consistently engaging and fascinating for years, and I have no reason to doubt that this’ll end up any different. This is $1, and Robin mentions that he hopes to have the first book of this mammoth story done by SPX of 2008…
Comments Off on Enrico, Robin – Jam in the Band Preview | Reviews | Tagged: Jam in the Band, Robin Enrico | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Enrico, Robin – Controller
April 23, 2010
Controller
Just so every non-dork out there gets it, that slip cover is a damned near perfect replica of the slip cover that old, original Nintendo games used to come in. When you slip it off even the back looks like the old video games, complete with (what I believe are) the warnings about extreme temperatures and how you shouldn’t clean the games with alcohol. This is a long-winded way for me to say that you didn’t have to be a video game geek in your past or present to enjoy this comic… but it would help immensely. This is, as Robin puts it, “loosely autobiographical”, and involves a long conversation with the Robin character and his friend Katherine. She wants to know where his obsession with video games came from and the bulk of the comic is dedicated to his detailing that obsession, from being one of his first memories through the really obsessive years all the way to finally realizing that there are other things in life besides video games. I can relate to this to some extent, as can practically every male I know of a certain age group, but this is also a great comic for anybody who’s ever known somebody who’s been obsessed with video games. He lays it all out clearly here (or clearly enough for these biased eyes) and is self-deprecating enough to make this funny for just about anybody. This is probably $2, well worth a look to dorks and lovers of dorks all over the world…
Comments Off on Enrico, Robin – Controller | Reviews | Tagged: Controller, Robin Enrico | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Enrico, Robin – Party @ Horror Beach
April 23, 2010
Party @ Horror Beach
Yes, as a matter of fact, I did have to use the ampersand in the title. As for this book, it’s always a treat to get something from somebody I like quite a bit after a few years, and Robin was nice enough to send a few books along, so he should be updated again over the next month or so. This is a collection of stories loosely related to horror and/or Halloween. First up is the tale of Crinkleman who is, clearly, a killer that comes out of the mirror and smothers you in your sleep. Next is the story that takes up the bulk of the book, Trapped In The Closet, which deals with Robin making out with a girl who is engaged while her fiancee is at the party in another room. He’s not depicted as a total asshole, as he does have some moral issues with it… until he’s good and drunk. Then there’s the story of a girl who waited far too long to go to the dentist, although she did at least get a gold tooth out of the whole thing (spoiler alert!). Finally Robin tells us all about a recurring dream he had as a kid about fictional Nintendo games and how that dream has changed as he’s gotten older. A pretty solid bunch of stories, as per usual from Robin, but nothing that really blew me away. Could it be that I like his longer stories better? It could be, and it could be that the other comics he sent may give me a chance to test that theory…
Comments Off on Enrico, Robin – Party @ Horror Beach | Reviews | Tagged: Party @ Horror Beach, Robin Enrico | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Ennis, Garth – Preacher Book 9: Alamo
April 23, 2010
There was one thing that bugged me about this series, right up until the very last issue: how the hell are they going to finish this? Take a great story, ruin the ending, and the story doesn’t seem like it’s that great anymore. I remember going to see L.A. Confidential a few years ago, absolutely loved the whole thing, then had to swallow one of the main characters getting shot in the fucking head and still saving his partner. It ruined the whole thing. Granted, since then I’ve thought that I was too hard on it, that maybe it really wasn’t as bad as all that, maybe there was a way that he could have survived that bullet without totally destroying the credibility of the movie. Preacher was kind of the same way. I felt a bit cheated by the ending. Not quite to the same extent, but cheated nonetheless. I’ll tell why exactly in the spoiler section because, hey, spoilers don’t get much bigger than that, right?
The book tries to wrap up all of the loose ends and does a pretty damned good job of it. Arseface, Starr (or what’s left of him, mentally and physically), Saint of Killers, God, Cassidy, Jesse… they all have something that they desperately want. Are they all going to get it? Are any of them? Would they want it if they could have it? This book was tough as hell to read when it came out. I really envy anybody who just finds it now. When it came out, there was a delay of a couple of months between the last two issues, and if you knew how the second to last issue ended, well, you’d wonder how I was still sane. Couldn’t imagine how they could fix everything then, but they pulled it off. I’ve mentioned this at least twice already, but it bears repeating at the end of this wrap-up: this is one of the better series ever done. I felt like I had gorged on candy at times, maybe because I don’t read anything else at all that’s color regularly (hah! I’m so much more obscure than you! Indie rules!), I don’t know. Listen, I’m going to talk plenty about this in the spoilers section because there are still some things I don’t get. All I have to say about this right now is that I really don’t see how it could have ended any other way, and that’s a pretty big compliment.
If you find out, like me, that Garth Ennis is good, I have a warning for you: it seems to me that he’s only good when he’s paired with Steve Dillon, like he is on Preacher. He’s somewhere between OK and god-awful otherwise. Anyway, if you read all the Preacher stuff and find out that you love it and want more, here’s what else he’s done with Steve Dillon.
Comments Off on Ennis, Garth – Preacher Book 9: Alamo | Reviews | Tagged: Alamo, Garth Ennis, Preacher, Steve Dillon | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Ennis, Garth – Preacher Book 8: All Hell’s A-Coming
April 23, 2010
Preacher Book 8: All Hell’s A-Coming
If anyone tries to tell you that not a lot happens in this book, well, punch them in the nose. We finally get the backstory on Tulip (just when I thought he forgot all about that), we get the real story of Cassidy, and Starr has to deal with a threat from within the Grail. Combine that with Jesse coming back to find Tulip and meeting everyone who thought he was dead and, well, you have one of the better books in the series. Quiet, but absolutely essential reading.
The only dark spot in the book is the inclusion of the special Tall in the Saddle. Just not a good story. I was really excited to read this too, because I didn’t know anything at all about it until I got the trade for this storyline. I just missed it when it came out, apparently. I could have easily gone the rest of my life without reading it and wouldn’t have felt like I was missing a damned thing in the story. That’s one thing you can say about the other specials, good or bad: they told you something that you needed to know. The story of Arseface, Saint of Killer, Starr, Cassidy finally meeting another vampire… all of those were things that might not have fit directly into the tight structure of the story, but they were important to all of the characters. Sure, you could just say “And Saint of Killers went to hell and the place froze over” and move on with your story, but it’s necessary to see exactly what happened down there. This story was a total waste of time. A tale of Jesse, Tulip and Amy from back when they were younger and happy, this is basically about a bunch of horse thieves. I don’t know, maybe Ennis thought that that was the quintessential western story or something. It’s still not a terrible story by any stretch, but it’s average at best and does nothing to develop any of the characters. Amy, at least, could use some fleshing out, and we really don’t get it here.
So, is this book worth getting? Well, didn’t I tell you a second ago that this was one of the better books in the series? I’m sticking by that. Honestly though, I’d say that you could safely skip the last story. Unless you’re an absolute Ennis/Dillon junkie, that is.
Comments Off on Ennis, Garth – Preacher Book 8: All Hell’s A-Coming | Reviews | Tagged: All Hell's A-Coming, Garth Ennis, Preacher, Steve Dillon | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
