April 23, 2010
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Habitual Entertainment #3 Now Available! $3
OK, this is the third try at writing a review for this book. One more deletion and I’m just going to assume that the great holy Jesus God doesn’t want this thing posted. So! This is the story of a father and son, the father working the earth (along with his giant robots that look like tits) while the son wants more from his life. This is all in the shadow of the mother dying while giving birth. Well, as is always the case with entertainment involving giant robots, things get a bit ugly from there. Speaking of ugly, the solid red choice for the pages didn’t appeal to me. One man’s opinion, but there you go. Just… ugly. Of course, that’s not too big of a deal when the story is still fascinating, the art is still great and you have an ending like that. Still worth checking out and maybe the red (which is a deeper red than the scanner was willing to show for whatever reason) won’t bug you like it did me… $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Habitual Entertainment #2: Fool’s Gold
OK, I’m convinced. Whatever doubts I had after that first issue are completely gone. First off, the cover and the packaging are again just about perfect. Then you have the inside, which is its own pile of wonderfulness. It’s about a man, lounging on his bed, wasting the days away, until he gets a call from his temp agency asking if he wants to be a secret shopper. That’s one of those people who shop at a place and then write about it later for the company to evaluate the experience, just in case you’ve never heard of it. Anyway, this guy, an “aspiring” actor, decides to take this assignment and make a play out of it, putting up fliers all over town, talking to neighbors, even telling his ex-fiancee AND his nemesis. So the stage is set, the “play” is planned, and you have to read it to find out what happens next. What I liked so much about this is that there’s very litte internal dialogue or narration, so we have no idea exactly why this guy wants to turn this very brief job into an absurdist play seen by as many people as possible. There’s still plenty of meat on what could be a sparse character though because of his interactions with his ex and his nemesis, who seems awfully friendly with the guy to hate him so much. So kudos on the whole thing, and for once I’m not going to bitch about not having longer stories. I think his idea to have each of these start and end in one issue is perfect so far, so why not keep it up? $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Habitual Entertainment #1
Holy crap does this book look great. I’ll get to the inside in a minute, but the cover and packaging are fantastic. There’s a black filmy wrapping covering a blue and red cover that’s slightly thicker than the other pages. It’s all the more impressive because it looks like he did the whole thing himself, so kudos for that. As for the comic, that’s pretty great too. It’s a completely self-contained story about an office, the people who work there and the asshole son of the boss who’s going to wind up running the company some day. Oh, and it’s about what it takes to push a man to kill. Sort of. Good stuff all around and, as usual, if I tell you much more than that it’s going to start ruining things. I have another issue to review in a week or so that’ll help tell me for sure, but from one issue it sure looks like Will is a pretty damned gifted cartoonist and somebody you should probably keep an eye on. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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One Year in Indiana
My first thought upon reading that cover is probably pretty obvious: how much does it really mean to call yourself America’s smartest death metal vocalist? Granted, maybe the lyrics of most death metal songs are lyrical poetry, but I’ve never understood what difference that makes if you can’t understand them. And this concludes the “you damned kids with your loud music” portion of the review. As a comic this is a great ball of fun, as Kurt tells the story of, well, one year in Indiana. Kurt, after living in a bus for ages, finally “settles down” on a couch in a tiny house in Indiana and this comic recounts the history of Liquid Breakfast (a local tradition involving drinking heavily in the wee hours of the morning); his lovely temp job of, as he puts it, of “taking things that were NOT in boxes and putting them INTO boxes”; the difficulty of making a beer run when being utterly snowed in and the odd people he met along his walk; and how playing Tomb Raider for too long can make the rest of the world seem like an adventure game. The man has some chops in the writing department and that’s the kind of art I can look at all day, so there’s not a damned thing to complain about here. He even has web links to various people and events in the book so the reader can follow along at home. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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One Year In Indiana SPACE 2009 Edition
It must be obvious enough where most of the reviews have been coming from over the last few weeks, but the title of this one takes all the mystery away. There are a couple of stories in this one, and I have no idea if they’re brand new for SPACE or if they’re stories that he put together into this book to sell, but either way it’s a decent mini. The bulk of the story is taken up with a story of a recent short tour, detailing some of the dives he slept in and how he ended up with a fairly bizarre throat infection. And while I hate to make fun of the death metal crowd I just can’t resist: how exactly can you tell when a death metal lead singer has a sore throat? Kurt also explains how the antibiotic medicine ended up being a perfect mixer for whiskey, and while it’s something I’d never thought of, it makes perfect sense now. The second story is a shortie, and it deals with a conversation with two people smoking pot in stereotypical (yet all too true) fashion. Funny stuff in here, although as a whole it seemed a lot more light and fluffy than the last issue. Which, being a SPACE book, was probably the point. Worth checking out, if you can find it outside of SPACE, but I’d say to start with his meatier minis first. No price, so let’s say $2 or a trip back in time to SPACE 2009.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Untamed Highway #2
Ah, so HERE’S where whole traveling aspect of the series kicks in. Syd is on the hunt in this issue for that nasty lizard freak, but the people who sent him on the hunt don’t entirely trust him, so he’s being secretly followed by two other people. Oh, and he has a clamp on his leg so he can’t do much besides drive around. So, naturally, he runs into a naked fat guy who offers to help him out. Giving more of this away is silly, as it’s all about the journey. I will say that there’s a particularly satisfying fight scene involving a talking gorilla, a giant head and a shotgun, but that’s it. All kinds of detail in the art (even the backgrounds), a pretty compelling story so far, and a frantic quality to the whole thing, even on the pages where not much is actually happening. A pretty damned good comic, in other words, and it’s hefty enough so that the $3.95 price seems more than fair…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Untamed Highway #1
You know what I think would be a great idea for a comic? A chronicaling of all the various roadside attractions in the US. Well, these two thought the same thing and decided to make a comic about it, although they both seem to be extremely nervous about the comic being “successful”. Hey, if it’s done well I don’t see the problem, and the first issue was done pretty well. Granted, there wasn’t much in the way of roadside attractions in this one, as it was mostly trying to set things up for the rest of the series. You know, establish characters, motivation, those types of things. This is about a man named Syd who essentially gets snookered into looking for… well, that’s a mystery for most of the comic, so I don’t want to give it up here. In this comic he has bad dreams, sees the man in an ape mask who’s trying to kill him, runs into a woman who stood him up a few times, and tries to talk to Irving. Madcap insanity is all over the place too, just in case you were thinking that this was ALL about setting up characters. The art to me looks like what would happen if Hunt Emerson and Peter Bagge somehow had a baby who eventually grew up and renounced all ties to his fathers and the writing was funny at times and smart at others. Sometimes even both! Seriously, this is a great first effort, so good in fact that I’m convinced there must be mini comics floating around from these guys and these are probably names that some people will recognize. It’s $3.95 and a hefty comic, check out the website and see what you think.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Al Qaeda Funnies
The world needs more good political cartoons, so it’s always great to see something like this. Osama in 50 years, the cost of the war, leaving for Canada, comparing the Iraqis problems to ours, all kinds of interesting stuff in here. By the way, I hate Bush Jr. very, very, very much, just in case anybody out there was curious. I’d love to have more right-wing cartoons on here, just for balance (and isn’t it funny how Fox News has made that word a joke?). but it’s really hard to find any funny ones. Seriously, if anybody can recommend a funny, smart right-wing comic, e-mail me and I’ll put it up here immediately. Did I get off on a rant there? Gasp! I can’t believe it. Basically, there’s not much to say about a short book of strips without giving a whole lot of it away, so that’s all you need to know. There’s some seriously funny stuff in here. Not always about W., but a lot of it is, and there are a couple that aren’t that great. They’re in the minority though, and this is very much worth picking up, especially for $1 Contact info is up there!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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My Friend Dahmer
Before I get started, I should point out the interview on this site with Derf. Just in case you hadn’t seen it the first time. As for this book, I have to admit that I’ve avoided getting it for years. I thought that the guy was just trying to make a buck (although in an unlikely medium), or that he was just trying to put out a sensationalistic story, or maybe he just wanted to get some notoriety on his own. After reading this, I’m pretty sure that I was wrong on all counts. He has a lengthy introduction explaining why he had to do this book, and it was basically because he had a story to tell. Simple as that. Even so, it took him about 10 years after the crimes were discovered that he was able to put this together. So what’s this book about? Well, except for the gory sample I picked, there’s not a bit of violence in here. Instead, its a tale of obvious (in hindsight) signs of mental problems, a lack of attention paid by anybody in a position in authority, and a boy who pretends that he has cerebral palsy to get anybody to notice him. The picture in here is of a young man who had literally no friendly contact with the world, and his slow and noticeable descent into madness. The problem is that everybody has their own problems, and most people don’t have time to stop to try and fix something like this. Derf thinks that Dahmer could have been saved. I’m not sure, after reading this, if that was a real possibility, but at least the damage could have been minimized. This is probably $3 or $4, but it’s really worth a look. Not just for some sick fetish with serial killers, but to see what these people are like when they’re just trying to fit in. Here’s a website…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Ninth Floor #3
Another solid issue from Jason. If I had one wish about comics… well, scratch that, there are all kinds of things that I would change about the way comics are perceived. Still, I would love to outlaw the four panel newspaper strip comic. Come on, how many of them are funny at all? Again, that’s my main problem with this comic and, again, they’re not bad at all, it’s just my own personal prejudice. The bulk of this comic is a story about the Marfa Lights, a phenomena out in Texas. Jason seems convinced that they’re just headlights from passing cars, as they’re not that impressive and mostly resemble headlights from a distance. I would hope that people would have thought of that and ruled it out before now, otherwise the conspiracy theorists are a lot dumber than I would have thought. For whatever reason I have this theory that people who believe in conspiracy theories spend a lot of time researching their theories and only going with at least the scientifically plausible stuff. Yes, at times I really am that naive. Anyway, little strips include defective answering machines, lazy afternoons, work, tattoo interpretations and a pet dino. A nice, simple, well-rounded book, well worth a look for a dollar or two. Contact info is up yonder…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Ninth Floor B-Sides
Every time I see stuff from this guy I think of Martin Wagner. probably because of the University of Texas thing. I just checked my page and realized that he isn’t up there yet, and you can bet that’s going to change really soon, but I’m rambling here… Jason DePasquale is who we’re talking about here. This is a collection of stuff from various sources, even though the only thing I had seen before was the back cover . I’m not a big fan of the vast majority of newspaper style strips (you know, the four panel gag format) because most of them are just stupid and, honestly, so are most of these. A few of them are funny though, and that’s mostly all you can ask for from those types of things. The best story in the book is the tale of the horse who was “taught” to stomp his foot in conjunction with numbers written on a piece of paper, even learning to add eventually. I haven’t been in school for a while so I had forgotten the story. It’s a great cautionary tale. Past that, the comic is pretty much a hodge-podge of stuff, some good and some not so good, but it’s definitely worth a look for a buck. That and he says that if you just e-mail him your address he’ll send you free stuff, so how can you beat that?
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Ninth Floor #2
You know what I forgot about almost completely? The mini comics that are also zines. You know, the ones with comics and text pieces all mixed together. I don’t know why more people don’t use this format, but almost everything I see these days is either all comics or all text. This one mixes them both pretty well, with a text tale about the death of cassette tapes and his commentary of a muted episode of M*A*S*H mixed in with comics about indie rockers, Jesus cleaning his gutters and trying to escape the inescapable end of wasting your life in an office job. Nothing to set the world on fire, if you want to be negative about it, but everything in here was solid and showed to me that he was willing to try different formats to tell different stories, which is always a plus. Visit his website to see all kinds of samples and everything that he’s been up to, this one was only a measly buck. What are you waiting for?
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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The Doctor of Dolltopia
In case you can’t make out the fine print on the cover, this is the second book of the Dolltopia story (out of a projected four), so three cheers for her for getting back to this. She’s been a little busy with the Tough Love graphic novel and, judging from the impressive list of people praising it, it’s probably worth seeking out. Still, how about this issue? This time around we get to learn the story of Scotty (the boyfriend of Kitty from last issue) and how Kitty’s departure has led him to question his existence. His new girlfriend is a dolt and he eventually finds his way to the outside world… and he’s sadly not prepared for it. Meanwhile, the lone rescued doll from the last issue adjusts to her new home, the leader of the raid comes to terms with being a failure (as, in her mind, only rescuing one doll was unacceptable) and we get a clearer picture of the doll society as a whole. There’s also an excellent cliffhanger at the end, as it looks like Dolltopia might be found out by regular people. Um, spoiler alert. Hey, it’s a cliffhanger, who knows where it really goes from here? I love this kind of stuff, where the creator makes their own complete world, and Abby is doing an excellent job with the concept. Here’s hoping she manages to make a complete story out of this, as it has all the makings for a great graphic novel. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Dolltopia
Who out there ever wanted to throw off the shackles of oppression that were holding your dolls down? You know, back when you were kids and they were all so set in their roles, whatever they were? This is all about a couple of dolls (Kitty Ballerina and G.I. Joe) who are sick of their roles, so Kitty decides to leave her assigned husband and Joe wants to throw off his crappy clothes and get a kilt. Joe knows about a place for runaway dolls called Dolltopia, and they run off to check out this strange new world. There they find a world of new possibilities, as well as a doctor who does work on articulating elbows and facial expressions (although, and I’m probably a horrible person for even thinking this, no mention of new genitalia). Kitty and Joe eventually decide that they want to conduct a raid on the doll factory in the hopes of setting more dolls free before they’re forced into conformity, and any more information is going to ruin the whole book. Obviously things are happening here on many levels, as this is also an indictment of the blind conformity of so many people in the world, but it also works just as a straight up adventure stories with a couple of dolls. The artwork is suitably weird and creepy for the subject matter, and it’s an all around good time for anybody who’s ever had these sorts of thoughts about the rigid “lives” that these dolls were supposed to live. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Americanjism Book One
Do you want the good news or the bad news first? I’ll be positive to start. Joe’s art has improved by leaps and bounds since the days of Lechery (oh that long year or so ago). The sheer level of detail that he puts into the panels is tremendous and he should be commended. The rest of it, I’m afraid, is at least partially negative. His lettering is either OK or terrible, with everything crammed together into a tiny fraction of his drawn word balloons. There’s not much of a story in this book that I can detect, but if you find abortions, incest and constant cumshots funny, you’ll think this book is hilarious. Basically it’s six chapters of fucking, with an occasional insightful comment on the human condition thrown in. Still, that’s not the point here. At least I don’t think it’s the point, as it something of a mystery to me. If nothing shocks you anymore, check this out and test that theory. If you’re just looking for a quiet read, stay away. Not sure if I could recommend this to anybody I know, but everybody has their own tastes, right? The print job is great too, this book is $10 and pretty big. Here’s a website!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Lechery #4
Want a simple concept for a “dirty” comic book? OK. The wife (?) of one of the main characters, Don, decides to play a joke on him, but can’t think of what to do. A little friend pops up and tells her what to do, providing that he can have sex with her daughter. I shouldn’t tell you what the joke is because I already spoiled about half the book, but it’s kind of funny in a simplistic sort of way. Look, everybody who knows about Gibous knows by now that what you’re getting here is short, offensive, regularly scheduled and usually entertaining comics. If you have a problem with that, go elsewhere. If you think it’s fascinating to watch all this stuff come out like I do, stick around. I’m sure there’ll be another one of their books on my page in another month or so…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Lechery #3
You know, this one is downright tame compared to some of the other “explicit” books from Gibous. It’s pretty funny, and incredibly short, like always. The father of the fat man-child gets killed and has to deal with the afterlife. If you’re looking for a moral there, you’re reading the wrong book. I don’t know where he’s going with this, if anywhere, but it’s odd and it made me chuckle. What more can you ask for? Contact info is above, it’s probably a couple of bucks…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Lechery #2
You can say one thing for sure about these Gibous folks: they do not mind showing fucking in their comics. Hey, more power to them. Way too many people are scared of sex in this world and it’s things like this that’ll make it seem a little more healthy to some of those religious nuts out there. Oh wait, that’ll never happen. Anyway, this comic is pretty stupid. A fat girl with pig tails gets raped by a demon after eating some mushrooms. I know, that’s against my policy of saying much about the comic, but I’m still exhausted from moving all day and that might be why I’m not as cheery as usual. I like the art a lot, I can say that for it. All he needs is a story and he’s good to go. Unless, of course, he’s content to draw fat girls screwing, in which case he’s doing a great job. Have I mentioned yet how short these Gibous books are? Good. Anyway, it’s worth a look if you just want to be slightly offended or amused, otherwise give him time to work the kinks out. He’ll be great, it’ll just take a few more issues like this to get there… Contact the man at: Gibous Productions 16 Payne Avenue Sag Harbor, NY 11963.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Animal Stew
Unless you mostly hate animals, it’ll be tough not to find something to like in this one. It’s a collection of one page strips from the Small Press Syndicate newsletter, and which eventually found their way into various alternative newspapers, about various animals and/or the people involved with them doing strange things. You have remote controlled rats, giant cockroaches as pets, bugs breathing, the tiniest dog in the world, premasticated dog food, a dolphin going AWOL, termite flatulence, and more than a few other odd animal related stories. There’s something that I didn’t know in about half the stories here, which is always a good thing. Of course, if you have no interest in learning odd facts about animals you’ll probably hate this, but if that’s true why would you still be reading this review? Good clean fun to be had here and it’s only a buck…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Coexistence
This was one of those cases where the cover made it worth a shot all by itself. That’s one creepy image, and the inside doesn’t let up much from there. A Vicar comes home from a day at church to find the devil sitting in his kitchen. The devil says that he’s merely there to sit and that he won’t try to talk to the Vicar or convince him of anything, he will merely sit. The Vicar, of course, is confused by this, because the devil is always up to something, and the rest of the issue is spent finding out just what that something is. Oh, and I should mention that this is based on a short story by Slawomir Mrozek, for all you literary types out there (it’s not a name I recognize). Matt manages to pack a constant sense of dread throughout this mini. There’s not a speck of white in this outside of eyes and clouds, the rest is shades of grey and black. Great stuff and there’s even a message involved. And did I mention that it’s only $.50?
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Posted by Kevin
