February 4, 2011
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A Collection of Comics
It’s best to get my complaint out of way at the beginning: that title is stupid. There, I said it. Of course this is a collection of comics; every comic produced that doesn’t follow one story is a collection of comics. That being said, the content is various shades of brilliant, and I mean that literally. The first half of the book is a silent pictorial representation of the Tower of Babel being built followed by the deity that so many folks seem to actually believe in causing everyone to speak in tongues and wandering off in confusion. Every page of this deserves to be on the wall of a fancy art house somewhere, and I’d know more about where that might be if I had spent much time in fancy art houses. The colors are vibrant, explosive and utterly perfect for the story they’re telling. He also includes the relevant bible passages for this story so you can see exactly what he’s trying to convey on each page. Seriously, this review is about to explode from hyperbole overload, but I don’t know if I’ve seen a more appropriate use of the colors available to tell a story. Everything after this was bound to be a bit of a letdown, but John manages to hold it together for the other three stories. There’s a lost man trying to catch his plane, a man drawing a portrait of a woman and maybe being a bit too honest with it and a fight scene for all you action fans out there. That last one dissolves into blobs of paint and goo, which is some strange way was the perfect ending to a book that started off so tightly depicted. You can read all of these pieces for free on his website, although I’ll bet that you could also order the book if you asked John nicely about it. I have no idea of the price, but it’s in full color and it’s the size of a magazine, so I’d guess at least $7.
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Posted by Kevin
February 3, 2011
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Now Available! $4
It’s Dream Time, Snoop Doggy Dogg
You know, if J.T. is going to keep going with the dream comics (which he should) then he might want to think about drifting away from the Snoop angle. After all, Snoop can’t be in that many of his dreams, but he clearly has other interesting dreams to talk about. This one features all kinds of famous names in his dreams like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Roseanne Barr, Dick Cheney and Henry Rollins. Sadly no, they were not all part of the same dream, although if those four sat down at a table for a pay-per-view I’d watch it. Dreams include Snoop suddenly changing his facial hair and trying to sell t-shirts (although his facial hair had gone back to normal by that point), J.T. driving Cheney to his creepy house (Cheney’s, not J.T.’s) and then debating the wisdom of accepting a pill from Cheney, Roseanne (as his mother, apparently) worrying about evil spirits, Arnold giving him relationship advice and Henry Rollins selling deep fried hot dogs. He also throws in another dream with zero celebrities in it where he also talks about the dream that he has just had about Snoop for good measure, but there’s other worldly concerns mixed into it. I love the lack of any sort of fixed location in these dreams, as that can be something that dream comics get wrong. He has the feel of dreams pretty well captured, then combines it with a series of engaging stories. Yeah, I’d say that he should start thinking about a new title and maybe making this a regular thing. Either that or become best friends with Snoop Dogg so he’s more likely to have dreams about the guy… $4
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Posted by Kevin
February 2, 2011
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Skully Flower #3
Yep, that title sums this right up. Dragon (yes, that is her real name) starts off with a thorough and engaging introduction, which should come in the “Comics 101” class, but enough people making continuing series don’t bother, so I like to point out the ones who do. Anyway, Skull Flower is still settling in, getting to know the local stuffed animals, when Hydra walks in on them all meditating. Hydra is the woman who rescued Skully from the graveyard, in case you haven’t been following this series. Hydra can’t maintain her concentration and ends up in front of the teevee, until eventually a ghost unplugs it to free them. Hydra can’t see said ghost (despite being voted “most psychic” in high school) and the rest of the issue deals with them all trying to figure out who the ghost is, what it wants and how they can help it. There was also a mix-up involving a missing panel that apparently wasn’t noticed until after the books were printed, but Dragon managed to get it into the book anyway so that the narrative flow isn’t interrupted. I thought that was a nice touch, seeing as how she could have panicked and thrown the whole thing away or just given up on comics altogether at that moment, so kudos to her for that. I suppose that seems like a silly thing to praise somebody for, but you’d be surprised how many comics make it to me with glaring errors that almost have to have been caught at some point in the process, yet there they are, still screwed up. It’s another fun book in her series, and it’s hard not to like something that features a stuffed animal that tries to cheer people up by hugging them. $5
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Posted by Kevin
January 30, 2011
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Smoo #3
It’s depressing to think that this comic only has a print run of 50 copies. Oh sure, Simon can always make more, and he has plenty of free comics up at his website, so it’s not like his work is barely visible. Still, it’s a sad testament to a lack of any sort of financial reward for doing really exceptional work. Are you kids today even buying comics, or just sticking with the free stuff on websites? As I’m officially in my mid 30’s now and I’ve been saying “you kids” for at least 15 of this years, I think it’s perfectly appropriate of me to ask that question, as a general disconnect with what has been considered popular has been a constant theme in my life. As this isn’t supposed to be about me, it’s a good thing that the first piece in this book deals with Simon’s general annoyance with his cell phone while still understanding that it’s more or less a necessity at this point. Yes, people DO forget that it’s just a tool. It also fits in nicely with the overall theme of this book, which is dealing with anxiety. Simon tells the story of a peaceful time, or at least a time when things were getting more peaceful, before he started getting threatening phone calls. The specifics of this are left out, which is a good thing for Simon and a bad thing for nosy people like me who always want more information. Anyway, the rest of the book deals with Simon trying to get a handle on his fear, how it’s always lurking around him somewhere, how he really doesn’t have it so bad after all and how throwing himself into mindless tasks doesn’t always work as a distraction. I loved it, but I’m pretty much officially biased towards the Smoo series at this point, so what do I know? It’s listed on his site as (if I’m getting the conversion rate right, and I most likely am not) roughly $4, so if you hurry you’ll be able to red it and make up your own mind. If not, he has the first piece of this book up at his site for free, so you should at least go read that.
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Posted by Kevin
January 29, 2011
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Now Available! $7
Big Breasted Vampire Death
Go ahead, just try to not judge a book by its cover after seeing that. I dare you. As a reviewer, it’s a little tricky to tackle something like this, as reasoned analysis has very little place next to enormous breasts, so I’ll try to simplify this for potential buyers of this book. Is there nudity? Yes, plenty of it, and some sex too. Hm. Come to think of it, that’s probably the only question for a whole lot of people. OK, for whoever is still reading, how about this one: is there a good story? Surprisingly, yes. Well, at least mostly. It isn’t going to win any awards, that’s for sure, but I found myself surprised by a few swerves here and there and loved the ending. Overall, there’s not a whole lot going on. The comic is about four female vampires with very large breasts who are traveling to see a country music band. I know, it ruined some vampire stereotypes for me too. Three brothers are also driving to see the show, and they happen upon a massacre from the ladies along the way. It was a little odd how their constant murdering was met with a general “meh” from the guys once they met, but maybe the giant breasts had something to do with that lenient reaction. Anyway, one of the vampires left a memento from an old lover at the scene, one of the guys picks it up, and a budding romance is born. The rest of the book involves them all getting to the concert, plenty of fights along the way, and the possible death of one of the characters. I say “possible” not to be vague and avoid spoilers but simply because I don’t know. Things didn’t look good for this character, but then there was a distant shot of them all together before the comic ended, so who knows. Overall? Overall I can’t believe anybody is still reading this review, as your mind was probably made up one way or the other pretty early on. It’s occasionally fun and smart, but it’s also occasionally trite and silly, and not necessarily in a good way. It’s a decent book, if you were judging it as a regular book, but nothing that will set the world on fire, even if it is in its second printing already. $7
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Posted by Kevin
January 28, 2011
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Stargazer Volume 1
Anybody who reads this site with any kind of regularity knows my stance on spoilers (short version: I hates ’em), but I have to point that that little hairy man from the cover isn’t in this volume. Well, there are some shadowy figures, so I guess it’s possible that he’s in this volume, but it sure doesn’t look like it. Hm. Anyway, this book deals with a young girl who is very distraught about the recent death of her grandmother. The early moments of the book are all about this and the family dynamic that comes from it, but don’t worry, that title comes into effect before too long. Marni (the main character) eventually has a sleepover with friends, they end up camping in the backyard and eat too much pizza… then things get weird. Marni has inherited an odd artifact from her grandma, and they’re all poking around at it when something flashes and they find themselves in a strange land. Oh, and the artifact is gone. The rest of the book is essentially them trying to get acclimated to this new place, as they find an old statue, a tiny robot guy, a boat and a few other things I probably shouldn’t get into. To top it all off Von has decided to put his notes in the back, so we get to see his thought process for how this would all eventually play out. He did take out the spoilers for future volumes, but I still skipped over most of it because I don’t want anything ruined and I’m a big enough dork to go back and read those notes after the series is finished anyway. I liked it overall, as it has a ton of potential, but this is still very much the early days of this saga. Well, I’m hopeful that it ends up being a saga, but you never know with comic finances the way they are. One quibble is that the characters had a tendency to stutter to convey seemingly any emotion, as the mourners at the funeral were all about stuttering, then the kids were all about it whenever they ran into anything odd in the new world. That can be conveyed just as easily by a facial expression, says the guy who couldn’t draw a realistic person if his life depended on it. Like a said, a mere quibble, and it should in no way be meant to indicate a lack of overall quality. The art is amazing (although I’m thinking future volumes will give Von more of a chance to flex his artistic muscles), the writing was excellent overall and I can’t wait to see what happens next, so that sure sounds like a success to me. $14.95
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Posted by Kevin
January 27, 2011
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Bird Brain #4
Hey, all you bird watchers out there! Are there any of you? How many do you figure wandering around this country? Just curious. This here is a book for you, and as it’s already on #4, I’d say you have some catching up to do. Luckily there are a few things of interest to the rest of us too, not to mention the fact that reading about these different birds was vastly more entertaining than I would have figured. That’ll show me not to underestimate a book by this man. The only thing I regret was that it wasn’t in full color, but that would be insanely expensive for a niche project in a niche genre. We do get a color center spread, so at least there’s that. I feel a little silly doing a review, as it’s all about Francois bird watching, but I have to say something, right? In this issue Francois wanders around to different areas and makes astute and occasionally funny observations about the creatures he sees. No, they aren’t all birds. I also thoroughly enjoyed the afterward, as he talked about how happy he was that this project is giving him a reason to get out of city and connect with nature a bit. I had one question about this book, or maybe bird watching in general: in the text piece for the center spread Francois mentioned that he and a friend found this dead bird, so he picked it up, took it home and froze it for “future examination.” That part I could almost get, but they also named the dead bird, and that was downright baffling to me. Anybody care to clue me in on any aspect of that? Overall, yes, you’re still getting a Francois Vigneault comic, and after his “Friends” series you should already know that this will be a good read. Unless you only read violent comics, in which case you probably went to the wrong site to begin with. $3
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Posted by Kevin
January 25, 2011
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Unrequited Monsters
It’s tricky enough to review comics that are essentially visual poems, it’s even trickier to try to pick a sample image from the comic. Still, you can get people interested in a certain poem by a line or two, so maybe it works for comics too. This is a series of images of people, couples and not couples, that L. drew at some point and put together to form a story. Well, sort of a story, as it probably depends on your definition. It hits on all the “high” points of relationships and the effort to enter one: fear of rejection and/or solitude, the inevitable distance created, and secrets, but also the potential of making something better than you could on your own. L.’s choice of images, particularly those of couples who didn’t know that they were being observed (or, if they did, she managed to catch them in some candid moments anyway), really makes this comic, as subtle glances can mean everything. If you stick with comics with a linear story, I suppose you can skip this. If you like a little bit of poetry in your stories, this is right up your alley. If you’re somewhere in between, the visuals in this should bring the fence-sitters in. No idea on the price, but my random guess of the day is $4.
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Posted by Kevin
January 24, 2011
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Now Available! $3
Fear of Triangles #1
In case you were wondering, yes, that odd cover does sum up the contents pretty well. This is the story of a man who hates triangles (seen on the cover trying to kill himself) and how he runs into Sasquatch right before his first suicide attempt. The gun goes off accidentally, he scares off Sasquatch (who can talk, oddly enough) and ends up getting arrested for public drunkenness. This is a persistently depressed man, and he tries to kill himself a few more times, but is stopped by Sasquatch each time. I shouldn’t give a whole lot more away, but I think the fact that he doesn’t successfully kill himself is fairly obvious. Or it isn’t and I just ruined this. Sorry. Anyway, his hatred of triangles seems a little petty and ridiculous, but it had to be hard to come up with a way to justify that excellent title. Frankly, one of the more interesting bits came in the afterward, in which talks about how this comic was basically a test to establish a character (Frank, not the Sasquatch) that could be used in a later comic that they put together. In that case they got off to a good start, and there’s still more than enough mayhem to make this a solid comic in it’s own right. It’s worth a look for lovers of Sasquatch and irrational haters of triangles. $3
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Posted by Kevin
January 22, 2011
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Now Available! $5
Losers Weepers #1
Are you the type of person who picks up random scraps of paper if you see that they have handwriting on them? How about journals or notebooks that you see lying around? I’d answer “yes” to each question, provided that they’re not laying in a puddle of gunk or something equally nasty. J.T. uses a couple of found items as launching pads for a few stories, fitting nicely into the “tragi-comic” theme he mentions in his intro. First up is a journal that he found and decided to keep because only a few pages had been used. But those few pages… hoo boy. He’s also nice enough to reprint the entries in legible writing, and kudos to him for that, or this would have been a whole lot tougher to follow. The gist of it is that a young woman is dating a guy and doesn’t know how to get out of it because the guy is not all there mentally and she’s sure that her leaving will devastate him. Then there’s another entry much later (when she’s much less concerned about what’s going to happen to the guy) and one final entry dealing with her moving to a new town and having a hard time making friends. The story for this one bleeds into both of the other stories, and they involve a set of wildly offensive lyrics and one garbled note about watching a wallet and “borrowing” some coke. All of these elements end up jumbled together and we get a story about a new relationship, running into an ex on the street, an open mic night involving those lyrics, and the potential meaning behind that last note. It’s a combination of stories that could have fallen apart pretty easily, but J.T. makes good use of the material and crafts and pretty compelling piece about it all. There’s at least one more issue in this series, and I’m very interested to see if he can pull this off twice, but this issue was solid. Entertaining, darkly funny at times, and yeah, a little tragic. $5
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Posted by Kevin
