April 22, 2010
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80 Gun #1
Why aren’t there any political comic books? Or, for that matter, any comics at all that deal with events going on in the world, our place in it and where it might all be headed? Sure, there are plenty that are focused on where individual people are headed, and plenty more that are about characters who point you to lessons about the world in general, but where the hell are all the comics about the world? Sorry to go off on a rant there, but I was just curious. There are two stories in this one. The first is a story ostensibly about food and what happens to it every step of the way (getting it, eating it, digesting it), although it also veers briefly into how the US is capable of handing out food while we’re bombing the people who are eating it. The second story deals with television and the time-wasters that come with it, and how we can’t escape it in almost anything we do these days. If either of these sound overly preachy, somehow that’s not how they come across, which is the mark of a pretty successful piece of art, in my book. The writing and the art are sparse and effective, making this a pretty quick read, but something that sticks in your brain. Here’s a website with a little more info, I also have a few other books from this guy and I can’t wait to read more, as I was thoroughly impressed with my first look…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Quotidian
Because I make such a mess of trying to explain these things coherently, here’s the intro from the author: “Meet Quotidian, a joyful gent who’s fond of an adventure or two. Join him in his everyday life of exploring the world, fighting off wild beasts, getting loaded, and rocking out with his band”. It’s a silent tale of Quotidian, a “gent” that looks sort of like the blob in a gorilla suit. He does the things mentioned above and even falls in love, or at least lust. Pat’s work has vaguely reminded me of Jim Woodring’s Frank stuff for a while, but this is the closest it has come to that work in quality. I wouldn’t say he’s there yet, but give him another 20 years or so at this (like Mr. Woodring) and he’s got a shot at it. I love how almost nothing in his books comes from the real world. It’s a joy to see something that comes this purely from imagination, even if the mind behind it is a bit warped. Hell, especially if the mind behind it is a bit warped. Oh, and Quotidian also shoots what looks like a laser beam out of his groin. And have I mentioned yet that the whole comic is a story, no sketchbook pages or shorties in there to mess up the flow? Excellent stuff, and the perfect book to introduce people to Pat, as I’m pretty sure there’s nothing to particularly offend in this one…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Vagary Syntax
Pat seems to be all over the place with his issue titles, which is fine by me (and the title here is wonderful once you read the definition on the cover), as he doesn’t seem to be going for a long narrative at the moment anyway. This one is another collection of odds and ends. There’s the one coherent story from Creatures Saying Foul Things, a wonderfully disgusting story following a mosquitoish creature that infects an ape, a fat rocker eating dinner, some violence to an adorable creature, and, of course, a trip through monster forest. Tucked in with all of this are many pages of sketches and other shorties from guest artists, and it all rounds out to a pretty solid issue. As always, kudos to Pat for keeping these things cheap and I for one don’t mind a bit watching him figure out new and interesting ways to creep me out every few months or so…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Creatures Saying Foul Things
Were you one of those people who, while reading past issues of Revolution With A Catchy Phrase, thought “Gee, these stories are fine, but what I really want to see are those grotesque creatures conversing with other grotesque creatures in full page spreads, with all the horrific details clearly visible?” If that’s the case, you’re in luck! All manner of horrors are in here, with the added benefit of being funny too. He does “ruin” it in the end by throwing in a three page coherent story, but I think that can be excused just this once. This is not for the squeamish or for the kiddies, but there’s some funny stuff in here, providing that you’re not easily offended.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Badassitude (flip comic with Craig Coleman) Now Available! $1
Look out, it’s a flip book! OK, possibly nothing to get alarmed about after all. I wish more people would do comics this way; it’s a great way to see people that you’ve possibly never heard of. Pat has a couple of selections for his half. First there’s a silent tale with a rocking band, vomited from the very heavens to rock. Then there’s a shortie that you might have already seen if you’d ordered his stuff from the online store, as I was passing it out as a freebie, about a couple of, um, “guys” talking about a new hot chick at work while going about their business. Craig’s side of things is relatively simple: a whore gets shorted on her pay and takes it out on everybody near her, samurai style. Granted, the ending was something you could see coming, but it was nicely done. All in all, a pretty decent mix of stories for a buck.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Revolution With A Catchy Phrase #7
Pat seems to be getting tired of telling anything remotely resembling a traditional story. Of course, traditional storytelling is overrated anyway, so it doesn’t make that big of a difference. Even in his one “main” story here, involving people watching advanced aliens of all kinds have sex (until they eventually start having sex with them too, and then bad things are bound to happen), he breaks up the four page tale with a couple of asides. Then most of the rest of the book is simply images of various horrific creatures as well as a few one page stories about puking and a persuasive giraffe. Another OK issue but I prefer it with a bit more story. Purely personal preference, as it’s hard to look at that cover and not love this issue more than just a little bit…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Revolution With A Catchy Phrase #6
Who likes things growing out of places where they shouldn’t? Or a prostitute service where you get to eat the hooker when you’re done? Or Bananoid? This is collection of random short stories mixed in with a lot of sketchbook pages (or something that looks suspiciously like sketchbook pages), which is the kind of thing that usually annoys me as obvious filler, but in this case it lends to the overall creepy feeling you get when reading these stories, so it all works out in the end. Probably only half of this is “story”, but you won’t feel cheated on those sketches, I can tell you that. Sickened, perhaps, but if you’re looking for fluffy bunnies these comics aren’t probably the first place you would look. Although there are bunny slippers in this, and Pat manages to make even that look slightly deranged. Regardless, this is another good one, if you don’t mind a little bit of nastiness.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Revolution With A Catchy Phrase Collected Edition Now Available! $2
Who’s been saying all along that the comics are the best part of this zine? I think it was me, unless I kept those comments to myself, but I’ve been thinking it all along, I swear I have. Anyway, this isn’t a complete collection by any means, as those samples from the first two issues don’t seem to be in here, but all the good stuff from #5 and some other stuff that I’ve never seen is in here. There’s no way in hell that I can make this all make some kind of logical sense in a review, but it’s a blast and funny, so you could do a whole lot worse. Oh, OK, here goes: in here you have eggs, a recycled grandma, Boca, orange juice, and all the things I talked about in my review for #5. If that makes it sound like it’s not so complicated after all, that’s only because I’m not telling it right. Look, it’s a bit sloppy, granted, but this isn’t a story that you’ve ever seen before or will ever see again, which is always a plus in my book.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Revolution With a Catchy Phrase #5 Now Available! $1.50
Remember how my only real complaint with the first two issues of this series was the essays and things done by people other than Pat? Well, I’m not sure when it happened (missed a couple of issues in there), but it’s all Pat now, meaning that it’s all comics, also meaning that it’s all completely bizarre. Oh, and the art looks better too. Still not fantastic, but getting to be pretty good. Do I have to try to decipher this for a review? Oh man… OK, I’ll try. There are these three…um, beings. One is a knight trying to find a quest, one is an old man who happens to torture and kill things, one is a satyr who also kills things, and one is what appears to be mostly a regular guy, at least so far. They all meet in a bar, have some adventures… aw, forget it. You have to read this to get anything at all out of it. What I just briefly described was the bulk of the comic. Other than that you have a relentless quest for eggs, a searing hot french fry, serious bloodshed, Boca, a man with a gun in his back, recycled grandma and a faulty human mask. Any serious quibbles I had with this comic are gone now, and you could do a whole lot worse than to check this out. Unless you’re looking for a coherent story with a happily ever after or the wonders of page after page of angst, then there are other places you could probably go. Contact info is up there, this one is also in the online store, if you’d rather buy it there…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Revolution with a Catchy Phrase #2
OK, this one isn’t as good. The comics are hilarious, don’t get me wrong. They’re growing on me in a big way. This one is about an old man, a clown, a ninja, Scott Baio, some monsters, and LeVar Burton. I’m not even going to try and describe it, but I’d like four pounds of whatever he’s on, unless it’s just plain old human kindness, in which case none for me, thanks. There are also a couple of short comics by Simon Kugel, one of which is funny, and one of which mostly isn’t. Still, enough to spend a dollar on, as long as you don’t bother with the essays. There’s one by a newcomer, Justin Klugh, which might have been good (it was about video games), but the copy was screwed up and it cuts off the first few letters of every line. I tried, but it was just too annoying to deal with. Alan Ferich talks about his life and Simon Kugel talks about shoes. Neither one of those is as dull as I’m making them out to be, but they’re sure not as exciting as you might think. Still, the comics make this completely worthwhile, and I liked the other essays from these guys, so they could definitely put something good together for #3. $1!
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Revolution with a Catchy Phrase #1
I’m almost positive that I already have something from this guy up on the site, but I can’t find it. How sad is that? Anyway, this zine is ridiculous, and I mean that in the best possible way. The only comic story is about zombies who come to life while some people decide that they want to try and steal Tom Selleck’s soul. Jesus comes down to help and mayhem and hilarity ensue. It looks like crap, mostly, but there’s a sense of fun here that hard to completely ignore. Worth a look if you like old horror movies and Jesus. Then there are a couple of essays by Simon Kugel (and I know he’s around here somewhere) that tell about why a revolution isn’t going to happen and stuff about Capitalism. Throw in one final essay by Alan Ferich about why Adam Sandler and David Spade are stupid and you have a zine! It’s OK, overall. Not going to set the world on fire or anything, but fun. Oh, and there’s an interview with the band This Radiant Boy, another indie band I’ve never heard or. You damned kids! Here’s a website, this is $1.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Boot Legs
Wow, this page is so old that I didn’t even have a spellcheck option. Huzzah for clearing out ancient typos! This is the first book I’ve seen from Pat in ages (and there were plenty more in the package), and he mentions in the letter that I’ve been reading his comics since he was 14 (he’s 23 now). Yes, I am indeed getting old. This comic is just what it looks like from that cover: a parody book of Marvel and DC heroes. There are a few stories in here, all of which have at least something to recommend them. First up is Spider-Man hanging out with Lizard, eventually getting MJ in on the action. Next you have the X-Men (Gambit, Wolverine, Cyclops and Storm in this case) drinking, going to band practice and accidentally blasting a hole in the wall of the girls bathroom. The story with Daredevil and Punisher ends up about where you’d expect it to if you’ve ever read the comics, as those two are so clearly in love with each other. Next is my personal favorite: Ghost Rider versus Aquaman. Ghost Rider has gone green, switching to a bicycle, and is almost run off the road by an inexplicably driving Aquaman. A hilariously brief fight ensues. Finally there’s a Batman story in which he tries to convince Superman to drink and smoke pot, gets Catwoman drunk and has sex with her on a pile of money. It’s great to hear from Pat again, even better to get some good old-fashioned parody stories of Marvel and DC big shots. No price on this but I’d guess a buck or two…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Pat Makes Drawings #2
Here’s hoping that Pat keeps up this business of making drawings, because he sure has a knack for it. The images in this issue were consistently remarkable, to the point where I’m going to ramble about them in bit of detail, so be warned. First, the cover is full color (obviously), and he takes advantage of that fact on the inside cover but, as you probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you that it was a drawing of flowers, I won’t mention it. Then there’s another solid page of color in the middle, which means that there’s a full color centerfold. Much as I hate tearing apart comics I might just have to pull this one out and put it on my wall, as it’s a smorgasbord involving what appears to be a sun (vomiting geometric shapes), a creature wooing a snake monster, clipped images of people dancing and laughing, and a hollow giant. Or something like that. The other color images are of a hairy man and his boombox and a jam session involving Teen Wolf, Mr. T and E.T. He could have just left the rest of the comic blank and I would have been happy, but wait, there’s more! You have the summit of the kings, elephant pants, flower eyes, a fire creature reaching the top of the mountain, and the Creature From The Black Lagoon sharing a tender moment with his child. That still leaves plenty for you to discover, and I once again thoroughly enjoyed a comic without much of a coherent story. That’s still a rarity, so it should at least slightly stand out. No price again, but with the color pages I’m guessing $4 this time.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Pat Makes Drawings #1
Quick, what’s this comic about? Yes, this is the case where the title gives it all away, although technically that title could apply to every comic ever made. This isn’t a sketchbook though, as all the drawings in here are of higher quality than your average sketches. Pat starts off with drawings of cute animals (although he can’t help but put odd things on them) and moves on to kinky sluts. From here he has some regular old comic stories, dealing with two creatures walking on an indescribable landscape and talking religion, the strip I sampled below (and that “thumbs up” made my day), and the eternal question of whether that is, in fact, a banana in your pants. Throw in a few more drawings towards the end (which I’m keeping a mystery, as why not save a few surprises?) and voila! It’s a comic. Oh, I almost forgot the best part: the post-breakup letter to an ex (no idea if this is really Pat’s letter but I doubt it) that descends into madness involving mandatory metal teeth for all. His drawings have gotten a lot cleaner over the years, but he’s managed to hold onto that overall sense of unreality and insanity that suits his stuff so well. If you’re one of those comic readers who prefers all stories, all the time (like I usually do), there are plenty to choose from on this page, including a few things I still have left in the store. If you’re just a fan of his stuff there’s more than enough in here to make it worthwhile. No price, so let’s say $2.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Untitled
This is a collection of some of Pat’s shorter pieces and also includes Quotidian, which I reviewed ages ago and it’s way, way at the bottom of this ridiculously massive page. Short recap for today: I don’t remember it being nearly that, for lack of a better term, fucked up. I’d also swear that he either cleaned up the art a bit or he was better than I thought at the time, as the story really looks amazing. Tons of small details that I either didn’t see the first time through or have since forgotten because of the ravages of age. Other than that the short pieces include the joys of crossing the streams, the matter of perspective when it comes to giant creepy monsters, and how it’s always best to lull a creature into complacency before bashing its head in with a rock. Quotidian also comes across after those short pieces as being something of an epic, what with the love story, fighting off evil monsters and starring in a rock band. I liked it just fine as a stand alone comic (back then Pat was mostly doing comics with all kinds of stories), but these little pieces really serve to contrast that story. It’s probably worth picking up even if you already read Quotidian, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess most of you missed it the first time around. No price, but what with that fancy cover I’d say it’s at least $2.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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What a Whopper
A comic with a message! Sorry, even with all the chaos in the world I rarely see something cross my desk that’s this socially conscious, with all sorts of links to boot. This is the story of migrant workers in general and a group of workers in Florida from last year specifically. Did you know that a fair amount of migrant workers are essentially legalized slaves? Sure looks like it’s true. And don’t start with any crap about how they choose to come here and the free market has to regulate itself. One read through of this issue will show what a joke that is, not to mention if you happen to dig even a little bit through the links on the back page. The connection to Burger King is simple: even after several companies finally did the right thing and accepted some regulations, Burger King wouldn’t do so, offering increasingly ridiculous reasons as to why not. Dan says that after this was published BK did finally accept some of these conditions (like, for example, a 1 cent raise per pound of tomatoes) but it still holds up as a powerful, concise and even entertaining recap of the circumstances a good chunk of the unseen population of this country lives with every day. Or they used to, anyway. Things do seem to be improving, but man were they ever in the crapper to start with. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Archcomix #1
Huzzah! It looks like there’s finally a small press guy with a persistent social conscience! Not that there haven’t been plenty of comics here and there with a social message, but after seeing two comics now it looks like this is Dan’s motivating factor in making book, and it’s about time that somebody was doing this on a regular basis. It always boggled my mind that such a tiny community would focus 99% of its resources (feel free to quibble with that number) or navel-gazing or, you know, art. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I’m often quite a fan of navel-gazing (done well) and art. It’s just that there’s always a lot of shit going down in the world, and a lot of shit that has already gone down, that gets forgotten as soon as it happens. This comic also marks a departure by Dan from his last issue, as this one has a pile of stories instead of just the one hefty piece. First up (after the outstanding Noam Chomsky quote, just so you last surviving Republicans know to run right off the bat) is a conversation between a reporter and a Congressman turned lobbyist about the revolving door in Washington and how lobbying works. For those of you who are thinking “through legalized bribery” well, yeah, but Dan goes into a bit more detail. Next up is a haunting silent piece about a businessman who kills a deer on his way to work and can’t get the image out of his mind.  Then there’s the heart of the book, a longer story about the coup in Chile in 1970 and how it was financed and helped considerably by Nixon and the US government. Dan actually takes documents that have been declassified to show exactly how blatant and lawless this was, just in case you needed proof that our government was (and sometimes is) essentially a criminal enterprise, or they would be if they weren’t the ones making and enforcing the laws. Next is a short piece on gun shows, which is the sampled piece so you can see for yourselves but man are those exceptionally creepy things.  Dan then explains his love for a group of activist grannies (and their children and grandchildren) by showing how they protest and what they have fought for over the years. Finally there’s the heartbreaking tale (even for a cynic like me) of a beggar in Nigeria, how he keeps the bridge he lives on thanklessly clean and how the other beggar on the bridge wouldn’t take care of his gangrenous leg because he couldn’t imagine living without it. The amazing thing is that he manages to tell all these stories without ever getting overly sanctimonious or preachy, an occasional failing of leftist publications and commentators. Of course, lunacy is the failing of some of the more right wing publications and commentators, and I’ll take sanctimony over that any day.  If you only read comics for the escapism, move along, you have plenty of options. If you occasionally like to learn something, however, you can’t do much better than these comics. $5
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Grey Bear
So, who else out there thought that Graham only dabbled in funny comics? I confess that I sure did. When somebody is a master at one field, why mess around with the other stuff? Well, this is a serious comic, which was disconcerting when I realized I was still waiting for the punchline after I finished this little mini. It’s the story of an astronaut (with the code name of Grey Bear) and his wife or girlfriend. They’ve both been at their station for a long time and are having a fight which, in the isolation of space, can have some pretty serious consequences. If you’re just looking for a laugh, well, pretty much everything else on this page is a good place for it. If you’ve always wondered what else the man could do, this is an excellent place to start looking. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Commercial Success
This is for anybody out there who has heard of the genius of Graham Annable but doesn’t want to spend the $10 or so to get a good hefty graphic novel of his work. You’re cheating yourself, as this is tiny and not nearly as funny as his big books, but hey, it’s your money. This is done entirely in corporate logos, or at least mostly. It’s funny ’cause it’s true! This may have even been in one of the graphic novels, but I don’t have the capacity in my brain to remember trivia like that. Either way, if you’re looking for something tiny to try to convince your friends with, you could do a whole lot worse than this. Of course, the bigger books are mostly silent and as such are pretty good reads, but I seem to be traveling in circles here, so I’d best wrap this up. It’s cheap anyway, and available at the stupendous Poopsheet website… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Stickleback
Hooray for one of these Graham Annable books being cheap! By cheap I mean $6.95, but still, a much lower price is better for people who are willing to try new people, and there’s not much better out there to try than this. Stickleback is the story of a man named George (who makes figures out of toilet paper in socially conscious poses), his cat Patty (who likes to tear apart said figures), his friend Yanni (who is depressed about his fingernail and his finger becoming one long, disgusting thing), and three ass-heads at the cafe. It’s almost impossible to pick any one sample page to show you what you’re getting into, as Graham is so deliberate that most of the gags are either set up pages in advance or are just reaction shots to things that have been building for a long time. Or I could just sample the punchline, spoiling it for anybody going in blind and ruining the joke. This is one of those rare books you could give to anybody on the planet and they’d have a hard time not finding it funny, even if maybe it didn’t convince them that comics were the next step in great literature in the world. Of course, this is also the planet that I prefer to live on that I’m talking about, and that planet seems to diverge wildly from this actual planet at times. Click on the title for ordering info or contact info for Alternative Comics is up there too…
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Posted by Kevin
