New review for Kid Space Heater #1 by Josh Burggraf. Ah, you guys thought I would skip another Friday, didn’t you? That’s OK, the thought occurred to me as well…
Update for 11/18/11
November 18, 2011
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Posted by Kevin
Burggraf, Josh – Kid Space Heater #1
November 18, 2011
Kid Space Heater
Is it possible to smack a scanner into compliance? I imagine it actually involves learning how to work the thing and fixing it that way, but all these images being too large to put on my website (when they’re nothing of the sort) is getting on my nerves. Luckily I found another cover image online, not that you needed to know any of that, but I ramble even more than usual on Fridays. Kid Space Heater! A look at that cover would give you one impression for this book, and that impression would almost certainly be wrong. Things start off with the prospective lead character leaping from a plane. Why he was dropping was never fully explained, but his parachute didn’t open and he ended up as a splat on the pavement, so it’s a moot point. I also have to mention the fact that the pilots were an alligator wearing sunglasses and what looked like a mountain goat, purely because that image was wonderful to behold. So five pages in we have a dead hero and pedestrians are looting his body. Among these looters is a kid who touches a cube. This cube tries explaining what it is to the child, who couldn’t care less about long explanations and whines about it until he is let out of the training course. Unfortunately a couple of thugs are coming to steal the cube and the cube talks the kid into shooting the thugs. Or maybe they were nice people? Again, never explained, and I loved the ambiguity. The kid had no interest in becoming a killer, but the gun tricked him into it, which leads to the rest of the issue and a few more of his adventures (told in short, highlight reel-like fashion) before ending the same way that it started: with a leap from a plane. Fantastic shit all around, with Josh’s skills really shining through with some of those intricate and ridiculous backgrounds. Only real haters of anything to do with science fiction should avoid picking this one up, and even those people should probably at least give it a shot. No price, but it’s hefty so…$6!
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/17/11
November 17, 2011New review for It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream Business by Rob Jackson. Anybody out there want to buy large chunks of a comic collection mostly from the late 80’s/early 90’s with bunches of good stuff also thrown in? Let me know if you’re at all interested and I can give you some names. I got an offer for 1900+ comics from a comic store in Texas that was pretty brutal.
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Posted by Kevin
Jackson, Rob – It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream Business #1
November 17, 2011
It’s a Man’s Life in the Ice Cream Business #1
OK, maybe not the catchiest title in the world, but a new comic from Rob is always welcome around these parts. In this one he says he’s going “back to basics” and tells the story of how he quit his job and what he’s doing for cash these days. Things start off with a few pages of very simple, Austin English-esque pencil drawings explaining his motivation for quitting his pointless job and trying to sell ice cream at outdoor markets for a living. Once he starts telling that story the art shifts back to his usual, tighter style, and we get reports about the 21 markets he attended to start his new career. There’s a second issue coming, so we’ll see what happens next, but this tells a familiar story of fits and starts as he tries to get things going. Weather is key to selling ice cream (hot days are obviously the best), and he also has a lousy time of it during the early hours (nobody wants ice cream for breakfast). From there he tries to come up with unique ice cream flavors to make himself stand out, and when the weather gets lousy he branches out into selling cheese and some local delicacies. The key to the success of his ice cream operation seems to be selling it in hot places and/or locations where other events are occurring. I had an idea to help with his early morning problem: why not try more breakfast oriented ice creams? Granted, this is almost certainly going to sound ridiculous, but you could probably whip some ice cream up that would taste vaguely of pancakes. That and the world is just waiting for a bacon ice cream flavor. See, this is why I don’t go into business for myself, I’d spend all my time coming up with inedible flavors that made me curious. Another solid comic from Rob and I’m curious to see what happens next. Looks like the next issue is going to have some interesting scenes, as who wouldn’t want to see a fight between ice cream makers and cupcake makers? No price, so my random guess of the day is $4.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/16/11
November 16, 2011New review for Bizarre Love Triangle by Luis Echavarria. When exactly did Tuesdays become the bane of my existence?
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Posted by Kevin
Echavarria, Luis – Bizarre Love Triangle
November 16, 2011
Bizarre Love Triangle
Check any expectations you may have for happy endings here at the door. Ah, my favorite kind of comic, the one that doesn’t pander to anybody or let them off the hook with some happy nonsense when reality would go in an entirely different direction. This is the story of a man and his tiger as they spend a day shooting a movie. Or maybe it’s a commercial? Anyway, the tiger is needed for one shot, the actress (who the guy has a serious crush on) is nervous at first, but the guy talks her down and they get their footage. The tiger is docile as can be, but there is an incident where a photographer flashes in the tiger’s face, which could potentially set it off. The actress decides that she needs more shots with the tiger, the tiger is called back (against the better judgment of the man, but he does have his crush to think about), the photographers are again warned not to use flash photography, and things get ugly from there. It’s another solid mini from Luis in a constantly growing pile of solid minis. At this point I’d have trouble telling people which mini to get from this guy to check out his work and would instead recommend just sending him enough money for him to send you several comics. Hell, you can even let him pick which ones. So far I see no indication that you would be disappointed, unless he has a secret stash of lousy mini comics somewhere…
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/14/11
November 14, 2011New review for Rabies Babies by Mary Golding, another one of those comics that got hidden by the shifting of the various piles of comics around my apartment.
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Posted by Kevin
Golding, Mary – Rabies Babies
November 14, 2011
Rabies Babies
I’m clearly getting way too cynical in my old age if I read a lighthearted story about a baby with rabies and am disappointed when that’s not what was actually happening all along. Spoilers! Or maybe I’m lying, or maybe Mary was lying in the comic. Still, after that excellent (and apparently hand-made) cover, I was looking forward to some baby mayhem. Things start off with a baby who has been left alone in the woods, a fact that is never explained (which makes it much funnier). An ominous shadow approaches and it turns out to be a raccoon… who quickly befriends the baby and they have a very nice afternoon together. The parents (represented by pairs of legs, like all good parents in comics or cartoons should be) eventually remember that they have a baby in the woods and come to pick it up, and the trouble begins when they blindly drop the baby off at daycare. She finishes things off in a way that is probably a good defense against people who would call her a monster for even making a comic called “Rabies Babies,” but those are the types of people who will never be satisfied anyway. If nothing else this is worth buying just to leave it lying around your apartment for the horrified gasps you’ll get from any recent parents, but it doesn’t hurt a bit that there’s also a funny (if short) comic in here too. No idea on price, but contact Mary and I’m sure she’ll lead you through it.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/10/11
November 10, 2011New review for Dodo Comics #2 by Grant Thomas, a local comics hero here in Champaign Illinois. Well, he probably would be a local comics hero if such things existed, anyway…
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Posted by Kevin
Thomas, Grant – Dodo Comics #2
November 10, 2011
Dodo Comics #2
Does everybody out there know of Sergio Leone? I know that this is going to sound like a stupid question to everybody over 35 or so (I hope), but I don’t know how much the youth of today know their film history, and christ do I feel stupid saying “youth of today.” Anyway, Sergio Leone directed a few of the more famous spaghetti westerns (and who know what a spaghetti western is… aw, forget it) of all time, and the first story of this book is a silent tribute to his film technique. Before certain dramatic moments, like a gunfight, you’d see a series of quick cuts between the eyes of the gunfighters, the fingers twitching near the triggers, a bead of sweat slowly rolling down one of their faces, all that stuff needed to build tension without having to beat you over the head with it. Grant does a really nice job of conveying that feeling although, if I’m being honest, that last panel was a bit of a mess. Still, everything leading up to it was nicely done. The comic takes a turn from there to deal with the remaining three stories, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. There’s a piece about Grant’s early years with his first nude models (and how one of the ladies loved talking to the college artists with her robe wide open), a comic pantoum story (with tricky reading of the panels required) dealing with going to see an ex singing, and a nice little story with the devil trying to trick a hermit. A nice mix of stories, and there’s even a funny panel on the back showing Grant trying to draw comics while surrounded by his two baby daughters. It’s a solid comic and I’m enjoying his willingness to mix things up with his stories. Hey, that’s why these things have more than one story each, right? $3
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/9/11
November 9, 2011New review for King For a Day by Robert Kirby. I swear it’s not my intention to miss reviews on Tuesdays, but something always seems to come up. Oops.
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Posted by Kevin
Kirby, Robert – King For a Day
November 9, 2011
King For a Day
Silent comics! If I scared you away, you should come back and finish the review. This one is fantastic, not one of those silent comics where you have to try and figure out whether it actually meant something that you missed or whether the point of it was to mean nothing all along, which would mean that your first impression was correct. Anyway, this is the story of a man who goes out for a stroll to start his day. He waves to a girl he likes (who barely acknowledges his existence), gets crapped on by a bird, gets laughed at by some kids due to the aforementioned crapping, and finally trips over a rock while chasing the kids and knocking himself out. From there we get into “is it a dream?” land (yes), as he’s woken up by a song leading him to a crown halfway buried in the ground. He puts the crown on his head, undergoes a brief metamorphosis, and that’s when things start to get crazy. From this point on everybody treats him like a king, collecting other items that add to his regal appearance, including some kind of royal holy book. Things start to get a bit ugly later when the book… ah, but now I’m saying too much. The question of whether or not the whole thing was a dream does come up again later, and there is a damned sweet panel to finish things off, but I’m not going to tell you what happens. I can rarely “hear” most panels of a silent book, but Robert has done an excellent job of letting the readers know exactly what you’re listening to in each panel, which is also an impressive feat when there are no words involved. If you’re a fan of comics that improve your day, you should give this one a try. No price listed and it’s brand new, so… $3?
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/7/11
November 7, 2011New review for Sunnyville Stories #3 by Max West. Say, I’m just now starting to get a bit low on review comics, just on the off-chance that you’re reading this and have a new book coming out that you’d like to send my way…
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Posted by Kevin
West, Max – Sunnyville Stories #3
November 7, 2011
Sunnyville Stories #3
I was optimistic about the last issue, and there still isn’t much technically wrong with this issue, but I’m starting to get the idea that it just isn’t for me. First of all, the words are all spelled correctly and the perspective looks fine, which automatically puts it above roughly half of the comics I see. Max even has a few interesting shots, like the two visible upraised arms of a man who’s coming up over a hill. My trouble is that I’m too jaded for something this relentlessly all-ages. If you’re looking for a comic that’s safe for your kids, yeah, this one is pretty good. And possibly even parents too, I don’t know. This will probably make more sense if I summarize the plot. There are a few kids who are playing too loudly for their mother, so she sends them away to play. They run into more kids, who hatch their own plans. Meanwhile there’s an outlaw group on the loose who steal the detergent that the original mother was waiting for. The law gets involved, the kids dispatch the villains in some Home Alone-esque shenanigans, and all ends up being right with the world. Sorry if that comes across as revealing too much, but once you see “all-ages” you can pretty much count on “everything works out in the end.” Eh, maybe I’m just too damned cynical to be reviewing these things. The trouble is that there are still all-ages book like Nick Abadzis’ Amazing Mr. Pleebus series that I can see clearly as a good kid/parent reading experience, so my heart hasn’t become completely jaded yet. So that’s one more or less negative vote for this issue and one more or less positive note for the last one. Still one issue to go, which becomes the tiebreaker. The art has improved in this issue and Max clearly has big plans, which is what’s important in all of this, not one some guy with a website thinks. If even one creative person lets my reviews derail their planned comic career, I will find them and smack them on the back of the head. Just sayin’. $4
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/4/11
November 4, 2011New review for Jerkface Comics #1 by Zack! Empire. Happy weekend everybody!
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Posted by Kevin
Zack! Empire – Jerkface Comics #1
November 4, 2011
Jerkface Comics #1
That does it. Center for Cartoon Studies, I beseech you: if you don’t already offer a course on basic spelling and grammar, please start one up. Pretty please? At the very least make sure that it isn’t lost on your students that their comics can be the most visually pleasing things in the world, but if there’s a spelling or grammatical error on every page then it’s not going to make a bit of difference. Of course, I have no idea if Zack ever attended that school, so it’s probably a moot point, but holy Christ am I sick of reading comics by people who have no idea when to use “your” or “you’re” and seem to get tripped up on every word longer than six or seven letters. I am aware of the fact that this is my own personal crusade, so I’ll stop talking about it already. What about the comic itself? Well, I think Zack is a fairly young guy, so there’s all kinds of potential here. And he seems be be keeping a steady schedule of releasing comics, which is always a promising sign. The main problem is that there are three big stories in here and two of them are about how he usually can’t be bothered to make comics, which isn’t a great sign for his second book. The introduction page (where Jerkface battles with the words in the panels when they get a little too mean) was hilarious, and I also enjoyed the second big story about Jerkface and a friend dealing with an asshole. And it’s not like the stories about his lack of motivation were worthless, as that’s a pretty common staple of the auto-bio genre. The first one dealt with the problem in more general terms (he keeps getting distracted by thoughts of various lady parts), while the second story on this topic dealt with his inability to stick to a to-do list. There were funny bits in both stories, but a limit of one per comic might be a good idea in the future. And some of that dialogue was awkward as hell (saying it out loud and hearing how it sounds can help). Still, a fair amount of funny bits, and the back cover showing the things that weren’t in this issue was also nicely done. A mixed bag, in other words, but promising. Provided that you’re not as stuck on the spelling errors as me, that is, but that kind of thing should improve over time. Right? $3
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/3/11
November 3, 2011New review (ish) today for Foie Gras #3 by Edie Fake. Anybody out there know any secret way to get old PC games to play on a new PC? I have some games that I hate to get rid of but it’s just no longer possible to play them. Come on, there has to be enough geek crossover on the comics/PC front for somebody to know something…
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Posted by Kevin
Fake, Edie – Foie Grass #3
November 3, 2011
Foie Gras #3
Do you like random images of different types of foodstuffs being prepared that are accompanied by a strange but compelling poem? Then you have found your comic. My general impression of both issues of this series that I’ve read so far is that they’ve both left me with memorable images and phrases juxtaposed together, but not much of the experience as a whole. I have no idea if that’s a recommendation, but that was my overall impression. This series is damned near impossible to review in any conventional sense, which is why I’ve stuck with my tried and true “ramble until the review is over” method. The images don’t follow a linear order like they would if you were making a recipe, although the words do end up making a point of sorts. Kind of. Fuck, I don’t know. Look, it’s a gorgeous book (that cover jumps right out at you) that mostly flew over my head, assuming that there was a larger point that I just missed. It’s also possible that the lack of a point WAS the point, in which case I’m a genius, but I have my doubts on that one. Still no price, still no clue about a price, so this time I’ll go with $4 as my random guess.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 11/2/11
November 2, 2011New review for Three #2, which is an anthology edited by Robert Kirby and containing six other artists. Sorry about the missed update yesterday, I was going through everything I own and seeing what still has any value.
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Posted by Kevin
Kirby, Robert (editor) – Three #2
November 2, 2011
Three #2
Are there any homophobes who read small press comics? I’d like to think that the level of open-mindedness needed to read and support small press stuff would weed out those assholes, but just in case there are, I’d like to scare them off: there’s gay stuff in here! There, that should have scared them off, now the adults can talk. This is the second issue of what has been (so far) a damned good anthology with three stories each. All that color doesn’t hurt anything, but it also wouldn’t help anything if the stories were lousy. First up is a piece by Sina Evil and Jon Macy detailing a slightly awkward but also magical night in New York between cartoonists. Our hero the narrator has never been penetrated before, but things are going so well that he has to give it a try, caution be damned. It’s a great story about not being able to properly read the signals and knowing when to hold onto something and when to let it go. Next up is the story by Jennifer Camper and Michael Fahy, and this one gets a little tricky. Our hero meets the man of his dreams, but this man was recently a woman and he still hasn’t had the full surgery to complete the change. Then our hero’s sister comes to town and it turns out that she played a role in the past of her brother’s lover. There’s also a pregnancy in there somewhere but I’m not going to say where. Finally there’s the story by Craig Bostick and Michael Kelly which varies back and forth (with the color coding telling you which is which) between a traveling musician and a male prostitute that the musician falls for. Sort of. Also with violence! Each story is wildly different from the rest, but they all go back to relationships at some level. Sounds like a good recipe for a successful anthology to me. Oh, and if the people who sent me this review copy are wondering, the reason this one took so long for me to review had nothing to do with my usual losing/misplacing of the comic, and was instead due to the fact that this comic was making the rounds among my friends and I couldn’t get it back. So sorry about the lack of a timely review, but it was for a good cause. $6.25
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Posted by Kevin
