April 23, 2010
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Double Cross! #13
One of the difficult things about reviewing an ongoing series, mini or regular, is that it’s tough to unreservedly recommend something. Sure, one issue can be great, but the next can be just mediocre or something far worse. Some of these guys put pressure on themselves to put out issues consistently over making everything as good as it can be. Or maybe they think it’s great and I’m just being too damned picky sometimes, I don’t know. Regardless, I don’t have that problem with Double Cross. No, every issue isn’t brilliant. But every issue that I’ve seen has been consistently engaging, funny, and just plain fun to read. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why this guy isn’t working for one of the “major” companies. If Pete Sickman-Garner can get his book out with Top Shelf, Tony should be in there too. Not that I don’t love Pete’s work, but they are both two of the few people doing character comics consistently and well.
That being said, #13 isn’t a good starting point. It’s entertaining, like all of them are, and it could be argued that it’s worth the price of admission just for the rant at the end against comic stores and copy machines, but you’d be better off buying some of the later issues and coming back to this when you just need more Double Cross in your life. The main problem is that he doesn’t keep very many issues in print and #13 is one of them. I don’t know, e-mail him and bug him about it. Maybe he’s sitting on a big contract and he’s going to put everything into one book. Ah, if only the world worked that way… I’ll have reviews of some of the other issues up at a later date. Go to his homepage and find out what he does have available.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Morgenmuffel #13
If anybody was wondering if Isy was capable of putting together a great book of (mostly) one story, well, the answer is yes. She took a 3 month trip with her boyfriend from London all the way to Seoul, with stops on the way at all kinds of places. She has interviews with some of the more interesting people that she met in long text form, otherwise it’s just a whole pile of things that happened to her and/or impressions of all the things that she saw. In other words, it’s very much a comic with a story to tell, and she tells it very well.Other than her main story she has a couple of smaller pieces dealing with babies, cooking and bicycling, but the main story here is the fact that she was on a train for a combined 356 hours before all is said and done. Well, it is to me, anyway. All kinds of fascinating stuff here, told with somebody who has some obvious enthusiasm for traveling and seeing new things.This one is probably a couple of bucks, contact info is up there and if you’re just looking to get one issue of this series to try it out, I’d try this one…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross #12
Wasn’t this story collected in one his graphic novels? It seems like I saw this after this comic came out back in 1997. Well, if it wasn’t it should have been, as this is the essential “Tony working at the deli” comic. Granted, such a thing would probably not be considered essential by a lot of people, but those are stupid people who have no appreciation for Double Cross and his assorted other comics. Yes, it’s quite possible that I just called you stupid, and if you took the time to read a few of his comics you might just grudgingly agree with me, before becoming a convert. The story here is fairly simple: Tony has his day start off with some jerk on the train spilling coffee on him (so he’s going to smell like coffee all day), and is already in a lousy mood when he gets to work. When he arrives Chris (who he has a serious and obvious crush on) berates him for being late, he is told that he has to wear a hat with a salami on top of it and then the real fun begins: the store opens. If you’ve ever ordered meat from a deli counter you probably already have had a glimpse of the rampant stupidity of some people, but Tony lays it out in gory detail. There is also the small matter of somebody stealing money from a register running throughout the story, and the small matter of Tony trying to talk Chris into going out with him. While it’s not my place to say it, if you were out there hoping for the Double Cross experience, this is the perfect issue to get it. It’s the size of two minis, so Tony really gets a chance to tell a great story and it’s a damned near perfect “day in the life” comic. I don’t know if these are available anywhere, but they damned well should be.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross Assortment
Finally! I’ve been complaining for years that Tony seems unwilling or unable to keep his Double Cross minis in print. Well, here’s about 80 pages of that stuff, all in one handy volume. I’d only seen about 1/4 of this before, meaning that a lot of it is from his older books and stuff that probably hasn’t seen the light of day in years. Don’t take that as a knock on the quality of the work, as this is probably his strongest collection yet. Lots of stories about his job in the deli, a text story about his trip to a peepshow, dealing with his family, a few fiction stories… This is what all collections of older material should be. Does that make any sense at all? I just mean that if older stuff isn’t going to be kept in print, well, it’s not my call, but it’s good to at least keep the really great stuff readily available. It’s $5 and unless you’ve been reading this since he started doing the comic you’re going to find at least a few new things worth reading in here. Go to his website and buy away!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross: More or Less
Could it be? Has the independent comics scene finally woken up to the fact that Tony Consiglio is a lot better than most of the people that they publish? OK, maybe not “most”, but a lot of them. Top Shelf finally fixed that problem with the publication of this book. I think that this is a reprint of stuff from his mini, but it’s all stuff that I haven’t seen and it’s a great story. Tony admitted in an anthology or somewhere that he exaggerates his family a little, but that doesn’t make them any less entertaining. This is mostly about his crappy job and dealing with his girlfriend, her brother and his family, while all he really wants to be doing is drawing comics. These are the simple tales of a dreamer who’s stuck in the same crappy work-a-day world as the rest of us. For those of you who have been wondering about this guy, now’s your chance. This is $4.95 and worth every penny.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Titanius Now Available! $2.50
What the hell? So is this part of a series, or did I just miss the joke with the ending? Whatever the case, this is another comic about a super hero, sort of. There’s this guy, see, and he tried to rescue his kid from a burning building a while back. He handed his kid through an open window into a pair of outstretched arms, not knowing that he would never see his kid again. This whole comic is about the man, Titanius, in a diner, mostly trying to order his dinner. There’s nothing really resembling an ending, so I don’t know where it’s going from here, but it’s obvious that Tony has a lot of fun with super heroes. And that’s quite possibly the best costume I’ve ever seen. Another funny book, and if I ran the world I’d let him take over, say, Silver Surfer for a couple of years. Think of the possibilities! Oh, and that “T” is supposed to be silver, but my new scanner has failed me for the first time…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Artificial Flowers
What, doesn’t anybody order books online? This is a story that was published originally in the SPX anthology for 2002, one that I thought was just about the weakest of the bunch because of the guidelines. Still, there were some great stories in there, and this was one of them. This is the tale of Bobby Darin. You know, that singer. I’m not sure how accurate all the information in here is but hey. I’ll take him at his word. It’s basically a short version of his entire life, as Tony doesn’t choose to focus on any one time period, and that helps give the story a complete, well-rounded feel. Everybody who’s read the rest of this page already knows that I love Tony’s work and, if you haven’t seen this already, it’s definitely worth a look. Not as good as his more personal stuff, in my opinion, but still good…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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110 Perc
I’ve mentioned on this page before that Tony is a hero of mine in the
comics world, right? Just thought that might be relevant in case
anybody thought they were getting an unbiased review. This is the story
of three older female fans of the boy band 110 Perc (I can’t make the
“cent” symbol, sorry). There’s Gerty, the 30ish housewife who’s
neglecting her husband and kids in her mad obsession to collect
everything associated with the band. There’s Cathy, a lonely largish
woman who seems to fill up her life with trivia and keepsakes about the
band. And finally there’s Sasha, probably the only relatively normal
one of the bunch, a 50ish woman who has an annoyed but supportive
husband. These three form the center of a story of celebrity obsession
at the cost of everything else, and the costs for them as human beings.
Gerty ignores her kids and husband until it’s convenient for her, Cathy
lets people at work make fun of her just because it gives her at least a
little bit of attention, and Sasha seems to have been married for ages,
making her husband an unlikely but constant source of hostile support.
The trouble really begins when Gerty manages to get two tickets to the
concert, meaning one of them won’t be able to go, and Cathy snags a copy
of the unreleased new album from the band, 2 Good 2 B 4 You, but
discovers that it’s, well, crap. It’s a great story all around, full of
his usual funnies while still ending up with a deeper message, all while
not coming anywhere near preachy. Which is nice, as it’s hard to take
any story about 3 older women who like a boy band all that seriously.
Kudos to Top Shelf for putting this out, as his work is not nearly
widely accessible enough for my tastes. It’s great stuff as always by
Tony, perfect for any current fans of his stuff and just as accessible
to people who have never heard of the guy. $12.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Swell Now Available! $7.95
Another day, another random mish-mash of an anthology. I really had high hopes for this one too. It’s edited by Peter Conrad and here are just some of the names in it (don’t you hate it when people do that? You know that they’re always leaving off the lesser-known people for no good reason): Sam Henderson, Neil Fitzpatrick, Jesse Reklaw, Keith Knight, Carrie McNinch, James Kochalka, John Hankiewicz, David Lasky and Ted Rall. It’s an OK book, but very few things stand out when you get done reading it. The Sam Henderson and James Kochalka stories weren’t even funny, and those are usually a sure thing. Keith Knight, John Hankiewicz, Neil Fitzpatrick and Ted Rall were the highlights for me. Everything else was somewhere between pretty good and unremarkable. It’s cheap at $7.95 and you can’t beat that lineup, but… eh.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #9 Now Available! $6
I’ll get a real review up within a week or so, but for now you should know that this is shaped into a pack of cigarettes with 20 little 4 page comics included.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Blink: Let It Be As It Is
Here’s another one of those “tweener” issues, put out for SPACE 2006, but it’s hard to complain much about a free comic. Yep, this one’s totally free and it has a self-contained story, no preview of a larger work here. Full disclosure: I don’t care at all about the Beatles. Sorry, I know about their talent, effect on music in general, and the fact that a bunch of my favorite musicians probably wouldn’t exist without them, but I just can’t seem to care. I bring all this up because this comic is set entirely in a record store and deals with a couple of conversations debating the group in general. In the expert hands of Max I find myself actually interested in a conversation about the Beatles, no mean feat… and then Sam sums up my feelings beautifully. Great stuff, well worth the… uh, $0 that you’ll have to pay for it.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #8
Peter is another guy who is focusing a lot more on his daily web strip than mini comics these days (I’m also reviewing Neil Fitzpatrick), so it’s rare to see something from him. He says in this that this is a bunch of comics that he had laying around the house (which may or may not be true; you kind of have to read it to know what I mean), so let’s take a look. The first story is a minimalist piece about a man obsessing over a former girlfriend. I thought it was the strongest piece in the book. “Oh, The Joys” was an OK, if slightly confusing, story about Peter bickering with his wife over their new house. I liked the story about sledding a lot too, and the other story, Circulation, was good, but I had one problem with it: the setup. It’s basically a story about a guy Peter used to work with, but he sets it up by walking up to a guy at a library circulation (which makes sense if you read the story), saying “excuse me”, and launching into a long speech about this guy. It just didn’t strike me as something that happens in real life, at least not without the circulation guy running for cover at some point. Just a minor thing, but it bugged me. A solid issue overall, and it looks like the strip is funny a lot of the time too. This is $2, the site is linked up there…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #7
Peter is taking a new direction with this one and I think it’s great. He’s been funny throughout the ones that I’ve read, and the easiest funny stories are the shorter ones, so this one is a bunch of shorter pieces. It’s not all funny, as he addresses 9/11 in a couple of comics, but this is mostly a funny book. You can find his contact info elsewhere on this page, but if I had to pick my favorite from all these I think it would have to be this one. Check it out if you haven’t read any of these books, it’s only $1, you cheap bastards.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #6
I think all these free comics are spoiling me. Greg Vondruska sent this one to me with a few of his own, and I got a pile of stuff from Ben Steckler that day too. What that means, basically, is that I’m going to have to order a few more books from this man because I only got about 12 pages worth of stuff, and it wasn’t my favorite thing in the world. So then why would I buy more stuff? A few reasons. John Hankiewicz draws the story on the back and I’ve been following his stuff around like a little puppy dog these days. Peter has a story in the next issue of Tepid too, so that automatically makes me curious. And anybody in general who is liked by that many people is worth a few chances in my book. What didn’t I like about it? Wasn’t too fond of the single panel gag comics, or the “Your House” strip about things that go on when you’re not looking. I liked the first story (about a superhero who falls in love with a girl who loves indie comics), if it was a bit predictable. The dream stuff is a great idea and there’s been a real lack of quality dream comics lately. Overall, a mix of good and so-so stuff. Like I said, it’s hard to get a real feel for the guy in 12 pages… which is why the website was such a help. All kinds of samples there, so go figure out for yourself what you think of this guy, My opinion of him went up dramatically after I saw samples of other stuff that he had done, that’s for sure. It confirmed for me that the good stuff I saw in this issue is what he usually does. It looks like the other issues are a bit more coherent than this one too. Anyway, e-mail him or send him money (although I really think you should check out the samples on his page first): P.O. Box 64522 Sunnyvale, CA 94088-4522.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #5
Hey, how can you go wrong with a half naked anime looking girl right there on the cover? Turns out that she has nothing to do with anime and I was just fooled, or maybe it says something about me that I even thought she had anything to do with anime, I don’t know. Anyway, the main story in this one is called Breakfast Cereal Morning, a surreal story that reminds me of John Hankiewicz. Good stuff, although I have to say that I’d like to see what he could do if he stuck with a story for on entire issue. That might not make much sense when you stop to think that my favorite stories of his are the short dream strips, but I think he might have the ability to pull off a great longer story. We’ll see one of these days, I guess. Also included are a few of the dream strips, a fantastic Notes From the Field and a story that has the best title ever: It’s Not Easy Being Pants. If I had to complain about one thing in these last two issues it would definitely be the format. I know this is probably the cheapest way to print these, but they feel kind of like harsh toilet paper. You should all send him money so he doesn’t have to print on this stuff anymore. The fact that he’s somebody that you should all be watching anyway should help to make that decision a little bit easier, right?
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #4
Another good issue. He wraps up his messy (but still interesting) untitled story from the last issue and throws in a few pages of other strips. My main problem with these is that they’re so short. I know, that’s a lot to ask from a mini but it seems tough to come away from an issue with a comprehensive idea of what you just saw, if that makes any sense. Anyway, a couple of Weird Real Dreams are in this as well as the story of a couple of people lucking into a really cheap apartment and what they did with the piles of Nazi memorabilia they found laying around. It’s starting to become clear to me why another comics creator sent me the books of this guy because they thought he wasn’t getting enough exposure though, I can tell you that much.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #3
Peter was kind enough to send me some of his other issues so I could get a better view of what he was all about. Maybe the first review (for #6) came across as negative, I’m not sure. I meant it as more “eh” than negative, but getting these has really impressed me. This one has a rambling story about a man losing his job and smoking pot and a bunch of smaller pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the first story, it just didn’t go anywhere. He discontinued it after the next issue anyway, so he knew that it wasn’t going anywhere too. The shorter pieces are great. The Weird Real Dreams segments are almost always great (and at least always interesting), as are the American Encounters. I’d love to hear how he got his book into Tower Records. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but that’s a hell of a lot of exposure and I wonder who happened across his book. Overall a good read, and it’s starting to look like I was right about his earlier books being more together than #6.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Robots (written by Alice Connor)
You pretty much can’t go wrong with a comic about robots (monkeys and zombies also fit this description), and this comic is no exception.The first part of this is about the sibling rivalry between robots, with all sorts of robotic mayhem and torture thrown in. The second part is a look at the current robots in the world (except fictional) with nostalgic commentary about the good old days of robots. I should also mention that according to the inside cover of this thing only 25 of these were made, so you might want to hurry if you’re curious. A pretty solid effort overall, the robot mayhem and the “historical” piece make for a nice contrast. That being said, now that he’s had his fun with the robots, get back to work on Esoterica! Damned artists getting me hooked on a series only to go long periods of time between issues… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Esoterica #1 (Leighton Connor only)
Here’s an odd story about catching fairies. Um, maybe I should explain a bit more than that. There’s a class at the local college called “Esoterica”. It’s meant to teach all sorts of odds and ends, with the first assignment being that everyone has to catch a pixie. The cast of characters is six people, all of whom we see in some form or another, which serves to go a long way to set these characters up. I don’t know if this is going to end up being some sort of X-Files style mystery show, with different odd things going on each issue, or where this is headed, but it has potential. My problem is that’s where my feelings of this are: that it has potential. I don’t know if it was the complete lack of backgrounds, or maybe just the fact that he’s taking his time setting up the characters and the story so there’s not supposed to be a big “hook” this time around. Either way, I’m not sold that this is a great thing, but it sure could end up there. Great cover, anyway, that’s for sure. It’s $3, send an e-mail to see if this guy is planning on taking over the world or what.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Fuzzball and Scuzzball! #1
Ew, that’s not that color of the cover. Oh well, you can always count on my scanner to reinterpret things. The actual comic was a lot funnier than I thought it would be. Which just goes to show how stupid it is to have preconceptions in the completely random world of mini comics, I guess. I figured that a comic based on two blobs would mean that the artists couldn’t draw their way out of the proverbial paper bag and that their storytelling skills probably wouldn’t be far behind. Happy to say that I was way off. This was a collection of shorter stories and the funny parts were actually funny. What more can you ask for? Oh, and if you’re wondering, you can tell the two blobs apart because they have their corresponding letters on their bodies. And Scuzzball is a real prick, making the letters unnecessary, mostly. Stories in here include Scuzzball corrupting Fuzzball’s gay friend, their (the two main characters, that is) quest for an evil totem, and Scuzzball corrupting a nun. It’s $3 and mostly funny, so feel free to e-mail the folks responsible and check it out.
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Posted by Kevin
