New review today for Lauren Ipsum #32 by Charles Brubaker. What can I say, the man makes a lot of comics!
Brubaker, Charles – Lauren Ipsum
December 10, 2025
Lauren Ipsum #32
It’s been a little while since I’ve reviewed a comic from Charles (the pace he puts these things out at puts even Brian Canini to shame, and if I were to review everything he makes this would become a Charles Brubaker exclusive website in a hurry), but I do like to check in occasionally to see how things are going. Big picture: yeah, the guy is still pretty funny, even battering his way past my natural indifference to the four panel gag structure to get a few genuine laughs out of me every time. That’s no small task! Smaller picture, or a review of the actual comic: yep, he’s still getting laughs out of me. I’m genuinely astonished that this is the first issue of Lauren Ipsum I’ve reviewed here, especially since it’s #32 (!!!). I was also curious about how far he’s gotten with his various other series, and was mildly baffled to see that the only books he has listed for sale are his graphic novel collections of these (and other) minis. I’m guessing that you can contact the man and ask for specific issues, but that’s just a guess. This issue has a few stories running through it, all neatly wrapped up by the end. There’s an ongoing (and hilarious) story about a man and his sidekick who go house to house, stealing used books, in one of the more unrealistic get rich quick schemes I’ve ever heard. As a man who just tried to sell two very full paper grocery bags of books/graphic novels and was pleasantly surprised to end up with $60 in trade-in value… let’s just say that it’s a very funny premise for a thief. There are a few assorted strips in the middle dealing with Lauren as an author and her general inability to relax, and the last chunk of the comic deals with Lauren summoning the spirit of Zeus, which gives Charles the opportunity to have a whole lot of fun with Zeus as a sex creep who can’t even help pestering inanimate objects. Some genuinely funny stuff here, even more so if you’re familiar with the myths. So yeah, the man still puts out comics that are well worth checking out. If you’re just a little bit curious I’d suggest checking with him to see if you could get a grab bag of minis, if you’re willing to dive right in maybe start with his Ask a Cat omnibus and go from there? $2 (probably)
Leave a Comment » | 
Reviews | Tagged: Charles Brubaker, Lauren Ipsum | 
Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 12/8/25
December 8, 2025New review today for Watch Your Tone!! by Gren. Did I pick this one up at Cartoon Crossroads this year or did it somehow just shift it’s way up to the top of a review pile of older comics? Lost to history, I’m afraid.
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Gren – Watch Your Tone!!
December 8, 2025
First off, don’t let my inability to properly size a scanned image fool you: this comic is tiny, maybe 1/10th the size of how the scan appears. It’s also roughly 800% more informative and educational than you may have guessed from the cover. Aren’t numbers fun! This comic explains several different types of toning that were used from the early days of comics to today. If you’re an artist and/or are wondering about specifics, those types of tones are halftone, benday, craftint, acetate and zip-a-tone. The comic lays out when they were invented, when they were used, which comics benefited the most from them, etc. There’s also some fun historical facts in the back; I had no idea that EC comics used 64 colors decades before DC comics did. So like I said, informative and fun. What more can you ask for out of a teeny tiny mini comic like this? $4 (on sale for $2.40 as I write this review, so act fast if you’re curious)
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Gren, Watch Your Tone | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 12/4/25
December 4, 2025New review today for The Bible Drawings Part Two by John Minkoff. And hey, I’m also throwing out a general mention that the comics I have left to review from Cartoon Crossroads are getting sparse, so why not send me some of your books to review? I’m getting perilously close to doing this for 25 years, so chances are pretty solid that I won’t just steal your comics and run. Unless it was YOUR comics I was waiting for before instituting my nefarious master plan…
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Minkoff, John – The Bible Drawings Part Two
December 4, 2025
After reading the first issue of John’s bible drawings I was very curious to see how he’d progress, and this one is if anything even more engaging than the first issue. If you’re not familiar with the book, or only familiar in the sense that it’s been in the culture for just about forever and you’re bound to learn a few things about it, don’t fret. John goes into great detail in his notes after the comics about the sources he uses, his basis for shifting to opinion a few times, even the debates about which translation is best. So yeah, even if you barely know anything about the bible, you’ll know a lot more about it after reading his notes. This one (no big shocker here) starts off right after the stories in the first issue, which John rightly refers to as the “patriarchal/matriarchal tales” of the first section of the bible. And, as those of us who have read the book know (it was ages ago, yes I read the whole thing, ask me about it sometime), those stories get problematic in a hurry. They’re also very much about the characters and/or actual historical figures, so expect to learn a lot about mistresses, kidnappings, exiles, sexual assaults, etc. Yes, including stories that involve some of the biggest names that are still revered today. It makes you think, and explains why so many of these stories were barely ever mentioned in church or Sunday school. It’s fascinating stuff, and his art really makes these dusty old stories come alive. I’d recommend checking both issues out, but if you can only afford one I’d suggest this one. $15
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: John Minkoff, The Bible Drawings | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 12/2/25
December 2, 2025New review today for Sleepless Sights by Dane Georges, a Cartoon Crossroads comic that almost snuck into a pile of other comics and was lost forever. Not this time!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Georges, Dane – Sleepless Sights
December 2, 2025
Now that was one heck of a comic. It all starts off casually enough, as our (unnamed) hero has insomnia, wakes up at 3am and decides to take a walk. I’d submit that nothing good in human history has ever happened after deciding to take a walk at 3am, but our hero obviously doesn’t subscribe to that theory. As he’s leaving his cat runs out the open door. Cat owners know the terror involved in that situation (remind me to tell you about the time I chased my very indoors cat through an open courtyard during, yes, the early morning hours with nobody around). Which maybe wouldn’t be that bad, as he lives in an apartment building and the cat is just loose in the hallway, but then the elevator door opens and the cat runs inside, leading to a whole thing. I’m not sure how much to give away here, but that sample image below, of our hero finally getting onto an elevator? If you can take one look at that other guy and think that situation ends well, do I ever have some bad news for you! From there it’s a steady escalation, as it turns out that there’s quite a lot of activity happening in that apartment building at 3am, along with the extremely disquieting sense that you’re never completely sure how real any of what’s happening actually is. It’s a thoroughly entertaining and more than slightly creepy book, so of course I think you should check it out. $5
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Dane Georges, Sleepless Sights | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/26/25
November 26, 2025Just when you were thinking that this year has been entirely terrible, at least there’s a new King Cat (#84) by John Porcellino out in the world!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Porcellino, John – King Cat #84
November 26, 2025
Have I run out of words to talk about King Cat? No! But I must confess, I’m currently spending a lot more time sitting here and thinking about the comic that I am writing about it. And if you were looking at a sped up recording of me typing this review (you creep), then you’d see me getting up and puttering around the house a bit rather than my usual business of madly typing until all of the thoughts are out of my head. Um, a peek behind the curtain there, I guess. Maybe it’s because these books are rare and I’m trying to savor it? Probably, because if you think this is the issue where I’m finally going to stop recommending this book, you are completely mistaken. There’s a lot of death this time around, as John’s mother, cat and one of his best friends have all passed away since the last issue. He’s as open as it’s possible for a person to be while talking about these events, and I doubt very much that you’ll be able to get through this comic without crying a few times. But there’s funny stuff in here too, so don’t go thinking it’s entirely grim. Other stories in here deal with John trying to get woodchucks to stop pecking holes in his gutters (in hilariously cartoonish fashion), tasting the dog, unwelcome visits from the cat while sitting on the toilet, how many geese are in the picture, trying to make the ultimate pattern for a dream machine, things left on the nightstand, remembering a trip to the circus and how Zorro fit into it, learning the Dewey Decimal System from a nun while having class outside, a few Buddhist stories, and several more quiet pieces. Of course there’s also his top 40 (and at this point I’d genuinely have to read all of his old comics again to see if it was ever actually exactly 40), several pages of brief synopses of dreams, how he picked out his dog Gretel, and several pages of letters. Look, his comics are a whole mood, and mine instantly improves any time I see a new issue in the mail or at a comics shop. If you’ve somehow made it this far if life without reading any of his comics, fix that already! $7
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: John Porcellino, King Cat | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/24/25
November 24, 2025New review today for Mach the Hedgehog by Stephen Pellnat. Oh, and today almost everything at Fantagraphics is 40% off. So if you’re reading this on the day it’s released, you’re in luck!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Pellnat, Stephen – Mach the Hedgehog
November 24, 2025
Is there a word for the feeling you get when you realize that the comic that you randomly bought from an artist at a comics convention was, in hindsight, probably not the best choice out of their available work? Eh, probably not. It’s just that in looking up Stephen’s info for this review, his Upstate series seems like it’s much more my type of thing, especially since I have no attachment to Sonic, or even enough knowledge of the characters to get what I’m pretty sure are most of the jokes in this comic. Still, I had a good time reading it, and that ending got a legit chuckle out of me. As you may have guessed, this is kinda sorta a parody of Sonic the Hedgehog, the lead character of a series of games, comics and cartoons, but set in the far future. Sonic (Mach in this book; if there’s a character actually named Mach and I’m getting this all wrong, I’m OK with that level of ignorance) starts off this comic in a grand fight with the evil Professor, and we’re quickly made aware that this is a flashback and Mach is actually an elderly hedgehog who’s being cared for by a robot. The rest of the book is an appreciation dinner for Mach (that he wants no part in), Mach catching up with an old enemy and, like I said, one fantastic ending. If you’ve got a lot of love for this character/series I’m sure there’s plenty here that I missed, but if you’re going into it fairly new like me there’s still funny stuff in here. $7
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Mach the Hedgehog, Stephen Pellnat | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/19/25
November 19, 2025New review today for Odd Clods #8 by Steve Steiner. The management regrets the lack of pictures and will clean that up at some point in the future.
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Steiner, Steve – Odd Clods #8
November 19, 2025Well, this is embarrassing. A review with no pictures? For a comic, which is the most visual of all mediums? Well, when I reviewed #7 of this series I had to grab pictures from Steve’s website, and this one is so new that it isn’t ON his website yet. And the book is too large for me to scan, so any pictures I’d put up would be unconnected snippets of much larger images, so basically worthless. Look, I’ll keep checking his website, and if he updates with images of this book I’ll, um, borrow them again and post them here. In the meantime, Steve has really outdone himself visually with this one, which makes it even worse that all I have to convey that for now is my words. Last time around I was impressed because Steve presented several larger stories in the comic, with my theory being that his style was evolving. Which was a ridiculous thing to think, because this one is almost entirely ad parodies, which by nature are rarely even a full page… and I’d still call this one a step up from his previous issue. Which I loved! Anyway, the framing device here is that an unemployed dude spends the day hanging out at home and reading the newspaper which, as is the case of the few remaining newspapers that have survived into 2025, mostly ads. To be clear, I would have liked this just fine if the book was all ad parodies, because Steve is a genuinely funny writer and several of these got a chuckle out of me. But no, he goes much farther than that. The ads are increasingly encroached upon by other ads as you go on. First there’s the acidic teeth cleaner that drips down onto the lady who’s trying to feed her cat a vegan diet, then the roided-up dude literally breaking the wall into an ad for drugged chocolate bars, or the job deletion robot’s laser beam bouncing off a protected brain in one ad an onto a real estate ad, and on and on it goes. The whole book (outside of wrapping up the framing device story in the end) is an engaging puzzle to read how the ads effect each other, which order you should be reading these (some are easy to follow the chain of chaos, others you as the reader could go a few ways), and the few ads that manage to stay walled off from the increasing madness. There’s also a reason for it all in the end, which I’m not going to get into here, but I thought it was nicely handled. This isn’t on his website as of mid November 2025, but I can’t imagine that’ll stay the case much longer, so check it out why don’t you? Don’t let the price tag scare you, you’ll be getting quite a lot of comic for that price. $15
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Odd Clods, Steve Steiner | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/17/25
November 17, 2025New review today for a comic that almost certainly isn’t actually called Oh Fudge and Flub by Glenn Baskin.
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Baskin, Glenn – Oh Fudge and Flub
November 17, 2025
Oh Fudge and Flub
No, that’s probably not the actual title, but after wondering what to call these comics the first time around I’ve decided to just go with the first phrase and call that a title. Just trying to keep these even slightly distinct from each other, since I have more of his comics to review eventually. This time around we get several excuses from our hero as to why he’s calling in sick to work on every day of the week, which is… exactly what happened in the last comic of his that I reviewed? Huh. Lemme just go back and make sure I didn’t buy two copies of the same thing… nope. It even has another recipe for a hot dog casserole, but here’s the twist: this one doesn’t have sauerkraut in it. But it does have peas, which is another instant veto from me. But if he keeps putting these recipes into every one of these comics, I’m bound to run across a recipe I like one of these days! So if you’ve already somehow picked up the previous issue I reviewed and see this one at a con, should you buy it too? I mean, yeah, probably. This one is longer than the previous issue, has more jokes, more excuses for calling off work (but probably fewer that have any chance of helping you in a practical sense), and hey, color covers are always nice. Two comics isn’t enough of a sample size for me to understand what Glenn is getting at here by making two minis with the same theme (and with covers that are very similar), but I’ll read a few more of these and come up with something. Deal? No price again, but maybe a couple of bucks?
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Glenn Baskin, Oh Fudge and Flub | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/13/25
November 13, 2025New review today for Eyeland #16 by Nick Forker. Hey look, it’s another unintentional theme week! This time it’s “ongoing comics series that come out on a regular basis by prolific artists.” Catchy!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Forker, Nick – Eyeland #16
November 13, 2025
Maybe some day I’ll understand why it’s so rare for artists to have simple ways to buy their comics on their websites, but that day is not today. The link goes to a store that is currently sold out, but hey, maybe they’ll get more copies! Also back in my review for #13 I figured out that Nick is doing more continuing stories now and that I should stop my habit of reviewing random issues. I then promptly forgot all about that before reviewing this one. Better luck next time! This is a collection of several short pieces that are almost certainly parts of larger stories, but I’ll do my best. First up is the story of a badger having a conversation with several animals. He tells them that he has a secret he’d like to share with them… but only if they give up something they value. Next up is the shortest story, starring our hero the eyeball, discovering drinking, dancing and fun. I’m guessing this would have made a lot more sense in context, but I’ll get there eventually. Next is an equally short piece about an amnesiac with a cooked chicken (attached to a penis) for a head waking up in the back of an unknown vehicle. The next piece looks like the start of a story, as it deals with a young man who gets in an accident, rejects death, comes back to life and has a series of visions when he’s drifting in and out of consciousness. Finally there’s a baffling piece about a snake and a… sentient zit? The management here at Optical Sloth (me, it’s always and forever just been me) regrets not reading the previous issues for context, and will get on that in the near future. Before the end of 2025 is my pledge to you! And since it’s already mid-November, that’s serious business. The bottom line is that Nick is still putting out quality comics at an impressive pace, and I’m content just to watch his mind work, even without full context. If you’re like that too, give this one a shot! If not, the man has at least two collections available, maybe start with one of those and see what you think. $7
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Eyeland, Nick Forker | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/11/25
November 11, 2025New review today for Santos Sisters #9 by Greg and Fake Petre!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Petre, Greg & Fake – Santos Sisters #9
November 11, 2025
I feel like there’s a certain type of old school comic reader who would still, somehow, in this disastrous world of ours, make a fuss over the fact that the image on the cover never occurs in the comic, so I’ll acknowledge that that’s the case. But what’s in the comic is even better than them somehow making their way to space, so don’t worry about it! There are four stories in this Eisner award winning series (hey, congrats!), along with the usual and constantly growing array of ads, and this time even a letters page. First up is the dramatic tale of Alana saying that she’s quitting the sisters to become a tattoo artist. How will her friends react? Will anybody take her seriously? Will she be any good at inking tattoos? OK, no more hypothetical questions in my review, but you know I’m not going to answer any of them. Next up is a story of the boys going nuts for Pokeman cards and buying them all up before some local kids can get theirs, which leads to them getting offered old baseball cards out of pity, which leads to the birth of a new and terrifying villain. Or maybe just a walking public service announcement? Dammit, I said I was done with the hypotheticals. Boozy Bee’s wife almost gets caught in the act, but can she manage to hide her lover before… ugh, once you start with the questions you just can’t stop. Finally there’s the story of a man, his wallet, the need for cash to buy shawarma and an irresistible ad for massage service. The need to ask another hypothetical question is killing me, but I’ll move past it. It’s another solid issue, and they’ve built up such a massive cast of characters that the Santos Sisters don’t even need to be in every story to still have a fun comic. Buy that collection from Fantagraphics why don’t you, then get caught up with the individual issues? They work fast, so you’re running out of time to catch up before it becomes a hopeless task. $5
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Fake Petre, Greg and Fake Petre, Greg Petre, Santos Sisters | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
