Emdin, Anton – Cruel World #1

April 23, 2010

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Cruel World #1

It’s not at all fair to judge this guy by his first issue, as it’s from 1996 and there’s plenty of new stuff of this to look at. Still, I only ordered this and #6 from Poopsheet, so this is all I have to go on at the moment. I can say just from flipping through #6 that the art in there has improved by leaps and bounds from the art in this one, but then, you would sure hope that would be the case. This is mostly about slapstick, manic behavior, mostly funny, sometimes not so much. You have a poorly planned bank robbery, a rabbit trying to work for the mob, Shooting Up With Sid, smashing faces, a cockroach as a sexual aid, Luke Perry, and another attempt at robbery, this time with a fast food joint. Like I said, more funny than not, so I’m looking forward to seeing more. $2.50


Ellsworth, Theo – Capacity

April 23, 2010

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Capacity

Probably the toughest thing about this “job” is reading something that is absolutely brilliant, existing in its own world and needing no further explanation or description… and then rambling about it for a paragraph or so.  This, like damned near everything I’ve seen from Secret Acres (what do they feed those people anyway?) is an utterly unique and fascinating thing.  It’s ostensibly a collection of the seven Capacity mini comics, but Theo takes the whole process apart and explains why everything happened the way it did, all the while never leaving his bizarre, only mildly realistic idea of the world.  The book starts with the reader pulled right onto the page, literally, as he often addresses _______ (your name here).  Instructions are given at various times as to how to improve your reading experience, and “you” end up being pivotal to how he solves all his problems.  If you think any of this sounds boring or ridiculous… OK, it may be mildly ridiculous, but never anything less than completely engrossing.  Theo’s version of reality only barely resembles any commonly accepted notion, and it’s a delight seeing where his brain takes him from page to page.  This is one of those rare books where just about anything would make an excellent sample, so in narrowing it down to one I just took one of the most gorgeous images in the book… and I can’t believe I’ve rambled this long without mentioning the art.  Stunning, impossibly intricate, mesmerizing, and plenty of other words that haven’t been invented yet.  I have no idea how he spends so much time in his own head coming up with these stories when each page much take him days and days to draw.  As for the story, we follow Theo as he tries to “do something” (the seven issues of Capacity), all while taking criticisms way too much to heart, and exploring every corner of his brain.  He also has a loop at the end where time goes back to the start of the book, but I don’t want to ruin anything.  And yes, that includes talking about the actual contents too much.  His website has loads of samples if you somehow have doubts about his art after viewing the sample, and seriously, these Secret Acres people need to know that their work is being appreciated, and that means buying their graphic novels.  Hey, it’s almost the holidays, you must know somebody who still reads.  Oh, and have I mentioned that this thing is a mammoth 336 pages?  $15


Hankiewicz, John – Tepid 2003

April 23, 2010

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Tepid 2003 Now Available! $4

Sorry, I still haven’t gotten any good advice for how to get rid of the rainbow effect on certain covers. I can mute it, but it just makes everything else blurry, so what’s the point? Looking back over past reviews for John’s work, I noticed that my reviews are a collection of generalities, mostly without any specific information about the actual comic. I guess it could be said that I do that a lot, but for John’s comics I do it for a couple of reasons. For one thing, everybody out there who reads this site knows how much I like his stuff, and I don’t feel like I should have to “sell” someone on this once they see a few samples. Another reason is that there are usually very few “conventional” story points in these, so giving too much away would take away from the experience. For instance, this one is about baseball, Eleanor, and an eyeball. If I told you how it was about those things, all you’re discovering on your own are the feelings you get after reading an issue of Tepid. It’s a look at the unseen world, things that you don’t usually think about. He’s in a class all his own, and that’s a fairly impressive thing to be able to say about a guy who’s only been doing comics for about 5 years. He finally got a Xeric Grant, so this book looks gorgeous. It must take him many hours for each panel, there aren’t many comics out there with this meticulous attention to detail. Send him $4, read this book, make him rich! But not too rich in case that would cause him to retire and stop doing comics…


Ellsworth, Theo – Sleeper Car

April 23, 2010

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Sleeper Car

It’s always a good day when I get a new comic from Secret Acres.  Sorry if that sounds exactly like the start of a commercial about Secret Acres, probably with Wilford Brimley sitting at a kitchen table reading from a teleprompter, but it’s the truth.  One thing that has changed about my comic reading habit since starting this website is that I get the bulk of my comics through the mail now, so of course it’s a good thing when one publisher, like this or Shortpants Press, is pretty much guaranteed to be good.  This is an excellent comic for anybody who was too scared of committing to a graphic novel to read Theo’s work, even though that’s a silly attitude to take and you should be at least mildly embarrassed by it.  There are many short pieces in here, dealing with a literal sleeper car, a car that collects information from a giant sleeping creature (not, however, using the sleeper car from the cover), how to build a pajama tent, Theo’s conviction about the 220nd President of the U.S., the creepiest train ride you’ll ever see, making it all the way to a big empty room, and a visual depiction of what happens when you let your mind wander waiting for a train.  These remarkable pieces would be enough for most comics, but wait, there’s more!  The main piece of the book deals with two robots making a bet.  One of them believes in the existence of living, breathing gnomes and one does not, so once the parameters of the bet are laid out, the first robot detaches his head and flies off to find the gnomes.  What follows is pages of that rarest of things: robot humor.  Nobody does it better than Theo, or really much at all that I’ve seen.  What you end up with is a book that is gorgeous and disturbing, funny and thought-provoking, wistful and disconnected.  Or possibly all of those things, or maybe even none, as few things defy description more than Theo’s work.  All I know for sure is that it needs to be read and enjoyed by everyone who still loves reading comic books, as nobody else is doing anything like this.  $6

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Elliott, W.E. – Almost Normal Comics and Other Oddities #2

April 23, 2010

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Almost Normal Comics and Other Oddities #2

Here’s another great anthology from W.E., with stories about making minis to impress a girl, snail wrestling, jazz pianos, adventurers getting an amulet, spying on regular people, not flying, controlling women and making money doing it, a man crashing a beauty contest, a stripper, fish, being abducted by North Korea, the good old days, a whiner, and trying to balance finding a job and finding a girlfriend. That enough for you? No? Well, I left out the parts from W.E., including the real story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an ancient talking box and an interview with Trent Haaga. Actually, that’s my only real complaint of the book: not enough W.E.! Those little one page stories make the book and there should be at least ten of them per anthology. Am I asking too much? Maybe. That’s what I’m here for! Here’s a list of the talent: Patrick Findlay, Alejandro Alvarez, Matt Levin, Ron LeBrasseur, Adrian Velazco, Phil McAndrew, Buck Weiss, Shannon Gretzon, Jeff T. Kane, Kel Crum, Peter Conrad, David Recine, Simon Mackie, Herve Largeaud, Yul Tolbert, and Anthony Hon. You can find plenty of those people on this page if you’re curious about this book, but seriously, it’s worth the price of admission to find out what really happened to those seven dwarfs, and there’s not really a weak story in the bunch, which is all you can ever ask out of an anthology. It’s $5.50 but it’s huge, contact info is up there!


Elliott, W.E. – Almost Normal Comics #1

April 23, 2010

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Almost Normal Comics #1

This comic, while being more than a little bit creepy, is something that I would recommend to friends. There’s one story about a half-man, half-alligator thing and one about a young boy discovering death. In between there are some pin-ups and a lot of newspaper clippings. I’m guessing that these stories are real. If they are, they’re kind of like the stuff from News of the Weird, but just the really disturbing death and cannibalism type stuff. Funny but slightly macabre, and when’s the last time I’ve used that word twice on one page? I liked his Almost Normal Comics, and I probably would have liked his other stuff too if I wasn’t so squeamish. Regardless of what I think, the fact remains that the guy’s an incredibly talented artist who also knows how to tell a story. Who knows, if he keeps this up he could start to fill the hole that EC comics left a long time ago. I’ll definitely be checking out his stuff in the future, but I’ll be sticking to the Almost Normal stuff and staying away from the Tale Teller stuff. Again, check his website to see for yourself.


Elliott, W.E. – Almost Normal Comics and Other Oddities

April 23, 2010

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Almost Normal Comics and Other Oddities #1

This anthology is huge! 96 pages and only $3.50! OK, now that my gushing is out of the way, how about the book? Here’s a few names: Mike Dawson, Jamie Craw, John Miers, Yul Tolbert and koak, to name a few. The problem with that list is that about half of those folks just put old material in here. Mike Dawson has two stories, but I’d seen them both before. John Mier’s contribution came from Slab #2. If you haven’t read as many mini comics as me, well, then you’ll be happy with those entries. Like any anthology, there are strong points and weak points, although nothing sticks out in my head as particularly awful. What holds this book together though, without a doubt, is the random observations that W.E. throws in. He talks about studies done on recently severed heads, a family of cannibals in the 1400’s, Spring Heel Jack, and even throws in an interview with a midget wrestler. If you’ve already seen all the old stuff in here, there’s still a ton of new material here, especially if you count it in the time it takes you to read. It’s a bargain, it looks great, and it’s informative. I find it odd that he doesn’t want submissions to have any boobies in them when he’s so happy to talk about severed heads, but I’m not here to judge. Contact info is up there, give him a reason to make a #2!


Elliott, W.E. – The Tale Teller’s Hammer of Witches

April 23, 2010

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The Tale Teller’s Hammer of Witches

I’m really torn with what to think of this guy, so I’m reviewing two of his books. This one was horrible. Not in a “boy, this book sucks” kind of way, just… horrible. It’s basically a detailed description of the way that witches were tortured back in the old days. The page I scanned was one of the few in the book that didn’t show a woman being graphically tortured, raped or ripped apart in some way, and I wouldn’t recommend this to most anyone. It plays as kind of an EC Comics homage, with the Tale Teller playing the role of the Crypt Keeper. The main difference, of course, is that most of the violence in EC comics was either implied or at least slightly shied away from, here it’s tackled head on. I should make clear also that if you’re into Faust and those kinds of really gross books, you’ll probably love this. The man (or woman, it didn’t say) is an incredible artist. Nothing to complain about there. Women being tortured isn’t really my thing, and this book, while informative in a macabre sort of way, was hard to read. If you like really disturbing things, order this book. Go to his website, look around. However, it’s not as easy as all that, because he sent me his other minis as well…


Eisner, Will – The Dreamer

April 23, 2010

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The Dreamer

I’ve decided that these are the books I’m going to get when I have a little extra cash at the end of the month Not that you need to know that necessarily, but that might help explain why this is the second review on the page for the next 2 years. This book is something else. Eisner was there at when comics were basically born, and this is the story of his experience, basically, put forth in a fictionalized manner. There’s a reason why the award for excellence in comics is named after him. I wish I knew more about the history so I could figure out who some of these people are supposed to be, but it’s a fascinating account regardless. The struggle to try and get comics made at all was a lot harder than I thought. If you haven’t been buying any of his stuff because you don’t know where to start, A Contract With God is still the place to start, just because it’s the first graphic novel. This is a great second book, especially at $7.95.


Eisner, Will – A Contract With God

April 23, 2010

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A Contract with God: and Other Tenement Stories

It’s strange how somebody can basically create the graphic novel and still have people not even touch his work, all these years later. This is basically a four part story, mostly about a tenement building in New York. The first story is about a rabbi and his contract with God, but that contract is broken when his daughter dies of a sudden illness. The second story is the tale of an alley singer who attracts the attention of a former opera star but, like most of these stories, a happy ending is hard to come by. Part three is about the superintendent of the building, a desperately lonely man who makes a fatal mistake with a ten year old (and good luck finding a story that evokes more feelings of sympathy for a supposed sex offender). The fourth tale is the most complex and satisfying of the bunch, about a variety of people away at camp for a month and how they deal with the opportunities presented to them.

It’s hard to say what my favorite story in this bunch is. They’re all essential to the continuity of the book, if that makes any sense at all when you consider that they have almost nothing to do with each other. My trip to the library was completely unsuccessful, meaning that I’m going to have to buy the bulk of these, and that might take me some time. As far as right now goes, if you have any interest in the history of comics and the worlds of Krazy Kat, Pogo, Popeye and some of the other greats seem too cartoony to you (and boy, are you in for a surprise when you eventually read them), then this is definitely the place to start. I was expecting this to be an interesting experiment, what with it being the first ever and all, but it turns out that the first ever was a masterpiece. I don’t know about the rest of his work, as I haven’t seen it, but if it’s half as good as this I’ll have nothing to worry about. One thing that might turn people off is his slightly too comic style (I know it’s ridiculous, but apparently it’s a real problem with some people). All I can say to that is: grow up. Look past the art and go to the story, and you’ll see that the art is perfect for the story anyway. Expand your horizons about the whole graphic art field and you’ll be a lot better off. Until I read the rest of these volumes, I really don’t know what to tell you. I’ve heard that Invisible People and The Dreamer are both great, but I can’t give a personal recommendation on any of these yet. If you’re adventurous, try them out. This guy is one of the heroes of almost everybody good working good today, and it wouldn’t hurt you at all to try and find out why.


Dwyer, Brad – Crimson Cloak

April 23, 2010

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Crimson Cloak

It’s times like this that I wish I had some sort of an organized filing system.  Or, frankly, an organized way to deal with submitted comics at all.  I really should get on that one of these days.  See, Brad sent this comic along with #6 of his regular series.  I love his regular series, as anybody who scrolls around this page will soon learn.  In the letter with the comics he mentioned… something about this comic.  I got them months ago, I have no idea what he said, and a dig through all the stuff on and around my desk did not reveal this letter.  What that means is that I have to review this comic as if I just found it in a store, or it just came all by itself without a letter, and that’s a shame.  Why?  Because this issue kind of sucks.  Granted, it’s OK for what it is, but a straight up superhero story just isn’t my thing these days.  This is the story of a scientist who is trying to develop an enlarging ray to help with world hunger.  The scientist’s assistant is actually a villain in disguise and he ratchets the ray up to full power, making a gigantic super pig.  After this villain is hilariously dispatched, the friend of the professor (secretly the Crimson Cloak, of course) spends the rest of the issue trying to defeat the pig.  It had a funny moment or two, but Brad mostly played it straight, and that included the use of an absolutely ridiculous amount of exclamation points.  There’s no reason to crap all over this, as I enjoy his other series and look forward to #7, but there’s not much in this issue that makes me want to recommend it to anybody else.  Pick up some of his other issues instead, you’ll love them.  As for this one, if you love superhero comics this might be for you.  As for price, I have no idea, as it’s not listed on his website, but let’s say $2.

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Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #6

April 23, 2010

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #6

If I had to pick one thing that I liked about Brad’s comics (other than the fact that the worst stories in them were still at least consistently entertaining) it would be the fact that he seems determined to cram as much comic as possible into each mini container.  Between the random shorties and all the strips (taken from his website, and it looks like he puts up another one every few days or so) you’re going to have a hard time finding a mini with more content.  That wouldn’t make much difference if the content sucked though, and this time around: no sucking!  This starts with a wonderful tale of playing an intimidating biker bar, getting drunk to compensate for feeling out of place, and having the night end with a brawl… but not that brawl you would expect.  Next up is a long chunk of mostly three panels strips, and these are distinct from most three panel strips in that the vast majority of them are funny.  I know, I couldn’t believe it either.  That should ensure that these comics will never be published in a newspaper.  Topics include the perfect evening, giving in to the iPod, worrying about life, bitching on the phone, the joys of camping, vomiting cats, raking in the dough from comic sales, the anime cock block, new glasses, drinking to help others and shark attack videos.  The rest of the comic starts to tell the Brad Dwyer origin story, as his older brother reads comics to his before he can read for himself, he spends his early years trying to make his art look like comic art, and eventually ditches the glamorous cartoonist life for a band and all the fun of puberty.  This is only the first part of the story though, and we all know how it turns out in the end.  I’m still curious to see how he gets there though.  It’s hard to get more bang for your comic buck (literally, as they’re still $1).  Buy his stuff and make him slightly less poor!

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Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #5

April 23, 2010

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #5

Brad’s taking a break from telling epic tales of his life and uses this issue to tell the tale of Brandon Huigens.  Or, more accurately, Brandon uses this issue to tell that tale, as he is the listed writer.  Brandon tells his story from a small child through getting constantly harassed at school to joining the military to get away from everything (and from how he describes it, joining the military wasn’t a bad idea) to quitting the military and ending up back home.  Not much in the way or happy endings or life lessons here, which is fine with me, as I hate those damned things.  Brandon also uses the extra space to get into a bit of his history with his grandparents, veering almost into adorable territory for a minute, but hey, it’s a true story.  Good stuff all around, as it’s an interesting story and Brad does a great job with the art.  You can tell Brandon has a lot to learn about this mini comics business though, as the pros can whine about their unhappy childhood for issues and issues before running out of material and Brandon took care of the whole thing in a single issue.  Still only $1, still worth checking out.


Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #4

April 23, 2010

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #4

If I can put my cynical hat on here for a moment, web comics have been a tremendous boon to the mini comics artist. After all, if they haven’t put a book out for a few months (or, depending on who we’re talking about, a few years), it’s easy enough to take the internet content and cram it into a mini, right? Not that I’m taking Brad to task or anything, the guy already has 5 minis out (#5 will be up here in the near future). And it’s not that I’m saying it’s a bad thing, I often don’t dig around into the online content of the people I like, so the “web comix” books are usually new to me. Actually, I have no idea of the point I was trying to make there, but it’s best to leave all this rambling up to show the world how my brain “works”. This comic is, as indicated, mostly stuff Brad has made for his website. In his letter with the books he says he doesn’t think they work in this format, but I thought they were fine. Granted, I can’t remember seeing two panel comic strips before, and that’s mildly odd, but not a bad thing. It’s more of a diary strip type setup than anything, so instead of one or two mundane days over the course of a comic we’re treated to more like a month of mundane. Brad goes to shows, drinks, hangs out with his girlfriend, tries to work up the energy to go to work, and attends a literature class with a Trekkie. More than a few funny bits in here and the man keeps his books cheap ($1), so it’s definitely worth taking a look.


Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #3

April 23, 2010

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #3

Here it is, that epic tale he was talking about in the title. Only one story this time around, and it is epic, and it is mundane. This is the story of the last night of work for Brad at one of the major box stores (probably Wal-Mart, as it’s always Wal-Mart, but people seem to think that Wal-Mart scans tiny mini comics and never use their actual name). He gets woken up by his alarm at 8pm, gets invited to drink with his friends (as the fun is just starting for most of the waking world at that hour), gets accosted by not one but two homeless drunks on his way to work, and finally figures out what a colossal waste of time the job is. Not that most people don’t figure out that working at a giant box store is a waste of time, but eating and paying bills tends to obscure that fact, longer for some people than for others. It’s a great story, something that everybody who has worked nights (or a really shitty, hopeless job) can easily relate to. From his website it looks like he’s up to #5, and I’m really curious to see what he’s done lately, as he sure seems to be getting better with each issue. $1


Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #2

April 23, 2010

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #2

More mundane tales from Brad, and this time around he’s stuck to mostly longer pieces. He still throws in a few shorties to mix things up, dealing with a drinking problem (and it is a problem, just not what you’re probably thinking), a crazy Jesus freak, and standing in the wrong line at a gun show. The meat of the book is in the longer pieces though, the first one being a continuation of his story from the last issue about how he’s sure to die in a fiery car wreck. More odd coincidences occur but, as the guy is clearly still alive, it’s bound to have a bit of a anticlimactic ending. Not that I wish him ill or anything. The bulk of this issue deals with Brad and a couple of friends jumping a house-sitter, their varying recollections of the event and the revenge that the jumped guy swore on all three men. Brad is nice enough to show what happened when the guy ran across the three assailants later, so all the loose ends are nicely tied up. It’s a pretty interesting read, all told, the only real issue I have with it is that the recollections of the fight get a bit jumbled towards the end, and I’m still not entirely sure how it all “really” went down, assuming it’s a true story and all that. Quite possibly an error in reading comprehension on my end, but thought I should throw in at least one complaint. Still, $1 for this many stories is hard to pass up.


Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #1

April 23, 2010

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #1

Brad certainly goes with truth and advertising here with that excellent title, although I think he sells himself a bit short with that sample image. Most of the stories in here are a bit more nuanced, although there is a bit of fecal humor if that’s your thing. This starts off a bit awkwardly with one page stories dealing with the tedium of work, brushing too hard, a dead ex and the medical effects of nicotine and caffeine, but Brad quickly builds a rhythm here once he gets to the longer pieces. In those he gets to tell us about the night before an extended period of abstinence (with more than a few of the gory details left to the imagination), crapping in a nasty toilet and having two car accidents happen right in front of him in a matter of days. It’s an interesting read, which is all you can ask for with these sorts of things, and Brad was nice enough to send a few more issues along, so I’ll be making a more informed opinion later. As for now, while there may not be a whole lot to separate it from most other autobio stuff, it’s done well and it’s cheap, with a bit of room for improvement. $1


Dunlap, Rob & Lumby, Peter – Tozzer 2 #2

April 23, 2010

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Tozzer 2 #2

OK, I didn’t like this one either. Which is putting it mildly, but I’ll get to the specifics. The only benefit of the doubt I have left for this series is that maybe in the previous mini series all of the characters were fleshed out so wonderfully that I’m just coming into this late and I don’t get these people. That’s a pretty shaky premise, granted. So what bugged me? How about Michael Moore squeezing into a phone booth to get a pizza? Get it? He’s fat, you see. Or Vin Diesel speaking only in unintelligible grunts? He’s muscle-bound, you see. How about George Lucas yelling at somebody for wanting to use latex for an effect in a movie? His later movies are crap because of all the CGI. Or Eminem yelling faggot over and over (he’s apparently a bit of a homophobe in real life), or Michael Jackson registering for school as a 12 year old. The problem is that, while some of these things are true and able to be poked fun at, this is a lazy comic that is making fun of the stereotypes of these people a lot more than the actual people, which is what a good satirist does. It’s like all the people since the early 90’s who have been imitating Dana Carvey imitating George Bush Sr. instead of trying to imitate him themselves. It still looks good though, and at this point I think that if something is stupid enough there’s bound to be a huge audience for it somewhere. There’s a website up there, and it’s entirely possible that these guys could put out something good in the future, but this isn’t it. Oh, and if this hasn’t convinced you one way or the other, the next issue is apparently about Lara Croft of Tomb Raider fame. Just in case that does anything for you…


Duncan, Sean (editor) – Tea

April 23, 2010

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Tea Now Available! $4

You can see the names on the cover, right? I always feel like these reviews are a waste of time, because anybody who reads the site on a regular basis and/or knows mini comics knows that it would be tough for a collection like that to be terrible. So what’s good? The story from Clutch, about a woman going on a first date with a guy she likes and having to break down and tell him that she really doesn’t like tea, Dave Kiersh getting grabby, Dan Zettwoch revealing a secret recipe, and Scott Mills talking about his mom. Nothing particularly bad about this at all, although I think I liked Garlic better. Probably just the subject matter. Oh, and these are both now available, so check them out, or just go to the website if you need more convincing.


Duncan, Sean (editor) – Garlic

April 23, 2010

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Garlic

I was going to just write the names of the contributors here to try and convince you to get this, but that scan came out nicely, don’t you think? You’ll notice that I really like most of the people on there, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I think this is amazing. I can’t even say that I didn’t like whole stories, just certain panels. People talking to cats in comics is either cute to me or way too cute, and Dave Lasky’s entry fell into the latter category. The rest of his story was good though. The bit by Austin English didn’t do much for me one way or another. Everything else is more than just worth reading, it’s required reading. That’s right, I’m forcing you to buy this. The only thing I’m not sure of is the price… $5 maybe? It’s a pretty big book. Eh, go to the website (down as of 7/22/07) for this (it’s the first in a series of anthologies about food) and e-mail the guy to see how much it costs. You can’t go wrong with this assemblage of talent.