April 23, 2010
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Windy Corner Magazine #2 edited by Austin English Now Available! $10
Why on earth would you put out a magazine like this (as it contains brilliant and vibrant colors throughout) and give it a black and white cover? Sorry, I just felt the urge to get my one tiny complaint about this issue out of the way early. This is more of an anthology than a traditional magazine, if that makes any difference to any of you. There are two pieces here that are full of text, one of which is Austin discussing the art of Lois Lenski at length and the other is an interview between Onsmith (interviewer) and John Hankiewicz (interviewee). This interview is absolutely priceless, as who in the comics world would you want to see interviewed more than John? OK, it’s possible that there are people you’d rather read about, but John’s work contains so much in every panel and every issue that it was greatly informative to see him break down what he’s doing (or trying to do, in some cases), how he manages to put that level of detail and crosshatching into every panel and how his creative process has evolved through the years. Then, of course, there’s the comics. This begins on the inside front cover with two short pieces by Mollie Goldstrom (contemplative pieces on the outdoors) and quickly moved to three stories by Austin. There’s a trip to the Planetarium as a child and his innocent and wide-eyed reactions, the second part of a series called Francis (and I really should have read the first issue before this), and the memory of a trip to the movies with his parents as a child. For anybody who complains about the price of these magazines, and they are a bit steep in these times, the fact that Austin’s work is able to be produced in color because of it is worth the price of admission. That still leaves two comics: a piece by Fiona Logusch about the entanglements of relationships and how hard it is to get free and an autobiographical piece by Dylan Williams about his mail relationship with Alex Toth, what he learned from him and Dylan’s own progression as an artist through the years. As a whole it’s damned near flawless, assuming you’re a fan of the people mentioned above, and why on earth wouldn’t you be? Even if you’re not, picking this up and reading this will make you a fan. Don’t take my word for it; a glance around this website will show you work from everybody in this issue, then you can make up your own mind. $10
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Reviews | Tagged: Alex Toth, Austin English, Dylan Williams, Fiona Logusch, John Hankiewicz, Lois Lenski, Mollie Goldstrom, Onsmith, Windy Corner Magazine | 
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Windy Corner Magazine #1 edited by Austin English Now Available! $10
For the curious: in this series I reviewed #2, then #3, and now finally #1. I plan on reviewing future issues out of order as well (if I get more than one of them at a time) just for the hell of it. Sure it’s a stupid way to go about it, especially as this issue details exactly what Austin hopes to get out of the artist interviews (he wants artists to interview artists about, um, artsy thing, which makes it especially impressive that all three of them have all been equally accessible to somebody like me, who is decidedly not an artist), and also has the beginning of the story of Francis. Austin was also against using punctuation in most of these strips, which has the disquieting effect of making everything seem like a deeply relevant run-on sentence. Anyway, stories in here include Francis parts 1-4 (involving losing the money for dinner, Francis finding a suspicious letter in his dad’s coat pocket (and showing it to his mother), buying toys and eking out a living, and Francis selling some of his art), Austin showing us a few of his earliest memories, some painting by Paula Salemme, Austin interviewing Andrice Arp (if the name doesn’t sound familiar, trust me, if you read small press comics you’ll recognize the art), a story of actually learning something in art school by Steve Lafler, and a wordless piece by Richard Hahn, who should really finish the next issue of Lumakick already. Unless he’s just working on other stuff that I’ve missed, which is entirely possible. I still think #2 is the best of the bunch, but that’s probably just because I’m so biased towards that Onsmith/John Hankiewicz interview. Still, there’s not a bad issue here, I just hope the price tag doesn’t scare people off. $10
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Christina & Charles Now Available! $10
I love a good story that throws you off of any preconceived notions you might have. I mean, obviously this is a story about two people named Christina & Charles, right? And if they’re not together instantly, you know that sooner or later they will be. Well, not so much. Ordinarily this would be a spoiler but Austin sums everything up beautifully on the back page, talking about how even though these two people never met they were really quite similar and could have benefited from knowing each other. The book is broken up more or less into halves, the first half dealing with Christina. It’s like a quiet conversation she’s having almost with herself, talking about a moment with her Mom, trying to fit in with her richer friends in high school, falling in love, and her jealousy of the careless ease with which a group of thirteen year old kids dealt with each other. The second half is about Charlie, told from the perspective of his brother, dealing with their rich fantasy life, watching how their cousin Tim dealt with being completely in love with a faithless woman, and how every girl wanted to be near Charlie in high school. I’ve thought highly of Austin’s stuff for years, and this still blows everything else he has done out of the water. He captures the quiet moments here in ways that would make even the most perceptive comic artists jealous, tells a variety of simple truths that I hadn’t even considered and puts such obvious love into each panel that it’s impossible not to be charmed. He says in the afterward that this is the first book of many and it damned well better be, because it’s people like him that, despite occasional boredom with comics, keep me coming back for more and excited to see new books. And if you’re thinking this isn’t for you because the art turns you off, or isn’t your style… no. It’s absolutely perfect for what he does. This is for anybody who needs a shot in the arm to re-instill their love of comics or just wants a reminder of why they started reading these funny books in the first place. $10
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Set of all three minis from the online store
III: About Yr Future Now Available! $1
OK fine, I can’t stall any more, I have to read the last of the comics from these giants of men (and women, although I meant “men” in the “mankind” sense, although some people take offense to that, so…). I’m not seeing anything new at their website either, other than some anthologies, which is a damned shame. Everybody who has read this site and/or these comics (and really, why would you read this site without giving at least one of these books a chance?) knows the general format of these books, so I’ll skip over that. Topics include the general awesomeness of Star Trek fans, the maid from the Jetsons, Mad Max vs. Power Rangers, Alphabot, and the single creepiest panel I may have ever seen in comics. OK, probably not ever, as I’m sure there are plenty I’m blocking out for the sake of my sanity, but a woman baby-talking to her cat about how she’s going to turn her paws into earrings when the cat dies had me almost snort the water I was drinking, vaudeville style. Kudos to the both of them for that. No more comics from these two, which means everybody reading this should buy all their books (from them as well as me) to convince them to make a whole bunch of comics again. Think of it as your civic duty to keep the quality books coming. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Set of all three minis from the online store
II: No Time Like the Present Now Available! $1
I’m going to assume that everybody out there is up to date about these wonderful people (or wonderfully creative people anyway, for all I know they’re both assholes (but I doubt it)) and their thoroughly unique take on comics and leave it at that. If you’re not, scroll around the page, that’s why I keep all these rambles up at all times, even when I read them years later and am horribly embarrassed by some remarkably stupid thing that I’ve said. This is the second part of their series for poor people, a sort of drug dealerish effort to get people hooked in with a cheap taste of their take on various stupid and ridiculous people taken in a snapshot piece of text describing that moment in their lives. Topics this time include crippled royalty, a Hitler moustache, a pickup gimmick, kids liking cake, awesomeness, office humor, pagans, and a musical interlude. Look, if you can look around at all these samples and not find anything funny, feel free to avoid these books. If you’re like most other people with a sense of humor, pick these up already, they’ve been up on this page for years now. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Icecreamlandia #3 Now Available! $3.50
Boo-hoo, this is my last issue of Icecreamlandia to review! Can you tell that I like this comic yet? This one has fewer isolated panels, which would be a bad thing, but they make up for that with more extended dialogue with swimmers and wrestlers, so the universe is at balance once again. Isolated panels include debating whether or not animals have souls, an adorable little girl, working at Family Video (or maybe I’m just projecting past experience here), the janitor, family vacation, 99 red bananas, ice skating, our one lord and savior, the artistic merits of Chumbawamba, and Geronimo. After taking an issue or so to get in the swing of things with this series, I have to say that I love what they’re doing and think that everybody reading this should sell all their belongings to buy their comics and make them as rich as is humanly possible. Come on, cough it up! Contact info is up there, these are $3.50 each…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Icecreamlandia #2 Now Available! $3.50
Here’s another of my lame attempts to define this series, as if attempting to define a comic was in any way a worthwhile pursuit: it’s kind of like flipping the channels late at night and not resting on anything for longer than a few seconds. Really, this is one of those cases where the only way this is going to make any sense to you would be to check it out for yourselves. I’ve probably said that more than a few times over the last three years, but I don’t think it’s ever been more true than with this. Snippets in this issue include forced dialogue from a game show, a chemistry joke, a wicked mullet, being totally freaked, a pregnant doll, Jesus, puking, having no gag reflex, and a Predator. See, I tried to tell you that it wouldn’t make any sense. This is one of the more innovative series that I’ve seen, and a trip to their website might just help to convince you of that fact. $3.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Icecreamlandia #1 Now Available! $3.50
Here you have a comic with no obvious plot, no recurring characters to tie anything together, and no obvious reason for being. I, for one, couldn’t be happier. What you have is a collection of one page testimonials from various people who are either living, dead or imaginary, loosely tied together by some sort of a newscast. I say “tied together” only because the newscast is the only thing in the book that happens more than once. Other than that you get to see a resigned old woman, a man in a rat suit, a small child, and Wonder Woman, among many others. There’s not a single thing I can compare this with, with possible exception of certain panels from Duplex Planet, but that’s a tenuous connection at best. The website tells you all you need to know, this is $3.50 and this is a comic you’re not likely to easily forget. Also, there’s a naked picture of the creators in the back…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Cruel World #6
MUCH better with the art this time around, so three cheers for that. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m just guessing that you already read the review up there. This one is from 1999, so that still leaves a bit of a gap from here to modern day. You also have a story about teenage zombies (with no actual zombies present), a hoity-toity sperm, a brown mose (believe me, regardless of what that cover says, you don’t want to know what it is), a vanishing penis, the birth of the mullet, and a few one page gag strips. As they’re all funny, there’s not a thing in the world wrong with that. No complaints at all this time around, I thought this was quite a leap in quality from #1. Granted, #6 vs #1 should be a huge leap in quality, but not everybody manages to pull that off, so kudos to Anton. $3.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Cruel World #1
It’s not at all fair to judge this guy by his first issue, as it’s from 1996 and there’s plenty of new stuff of this to look at. Still, I only ordered this and #6 from Poopsheet, so this is all I have to go on at the moment. I can say just from flipping through #6 that the art in there has improved by leaps and bounds from the art in this one, but then, you would sure hope that would be the case. This is mostly about slapstick, manic behavior, mostly funny, sometimes not so much. You have a poorly planned bank robbery, a rabbit trying to work for the mob, Shooting Up With Sid, smashing faces, a cockroach as a sexual aid, Luke Perry, and another attempt at robbery, this time with a fast food joint. Like I said, more funny than not, so I’m looking forward to seeing more. $2.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Capacity
Probably the toughest thing about this “job” is reading something that is absolutely brilliant, existing in its own world and needing no further explanation or description… and then rambling about it for a paragraph or so. This, like damned near everything I’ve seen from Secret Acres (what do they feed those people anyway?) is an utterly unique and fascinating thing. It’s ostensibly a collection of the seven Capacity mini comics, but Theo takes the whole process apart and explains why everything happened the way it did, all the while never leaving his bizarre, only mildly realistic idea of the world. The book starts with the reader pulled right onto the page, literally, as he often addresses _______ (your name here). Instructions are given at various times as to how to improve your reading experience, and “you” end up being pivotal to how he solves all his problems. If you think any of this sounds boring or ridiculous… OK, it may be mildly ridiculous, but never anything less than completely engrossing. Theo’s version of reality only barely resembles any commonly accepted notion, and it’s a delight seeing where his brain takes him from page to page. This is one of those rare books where just about anything would make an excellent sample, so in narrowing it down to one I just took one of the most gorgeous images in the book… and I can’t believe I’ve rambled this long without mentioning the art. Stunning, impossibly intricate, mesmerizing, and plenty of other words that haven’t been invented yet. I have no idea how he spends so much time in his own head coming up with these stories when each page much take him days and days to draw. As for the story, we follow Theo as he tries to “do something” (the seven issues of Capacity), all while taking criticisms way too much to heart, and exploring every corner of his brain. He also has a loop at the end where time goes back to the start of the book, but I don’t want to ruin anything. And yes, that includes talking about the actual contents too much. His website has loads of samples if you somehow have doubts about his art after viewing the sample, and seriously, these Secret Acres people need to know that their work is being appreciated, and that means buying their graphic novels. Hey, it’s almost the holidays, you must know somebody who still reads. Oh, and have I mentioned that this thing is a mammoth 336 pages? $15
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Tepid 2003 Now Available! $4
Sorry, I still haven’t gotten any good advice for how to get rid of the rainbow effect on certain covers. I can mute it, but it just makes everything else blurry, so what’s the point? Looking back over past reviews for John’s work, I noticed that my reviews are a collection of generalities, mostly without any specific information about the actual comic. I guess it could be said that I do that a lot, but for John’s comics I do it for a couple of reasons. For one thing, everybody out there who reads this site knows how much I like his stuff, and I don’t feel like I should have to “sell” someone on this once they see a few samples. Another reason is that there are usually very few “conventional” story points in these, so giving too much away would take away from the experience. For instance, this one is about baseball, Eleanor, and an eyeball. If I told you how it was about those things, all you’re discovering on your own are the feelings you get after reading an issue of Tepid. It’s a look at the unseen world, things that you don’t usually think about. He’s in a class all his own, and that’s a fairly impressive thing to be able to say about a guy who’s only been doing comics for about 5 years. He finally got a Xeric Grant, so this book looks gorgeous. It must take him many hours for each panel, there aren’t many comics out there with this meticulous attention to detail. Send him $4, read this book, make him rich! But not too rich in case that would cause him to retire and stop doing comics…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Sleeper Car
It’s always a good day when I get a new comic from Secret Acres. Sorry if that sounds exactly like the start of a commercial about Secret Acres, probably with Wilford Brimley sitting at a kitchen table reading from a teleprompter, but it’s the truth. One thing that has changed about my comic reading habit since starting this website is that I get the bulk of my comics through the mail now, so of course it’s a good thing when one publisher, like this or Shortpants Press, is pretty much guaranteed to be good. This is an excellent comic for anybody who was too scared of committing to a graphic novel to read Theo’s work, even though that’s a silly attitude to take and you should be at least mildly embarrassed by it. There are many short pieces in here, dealing with a literal sleeper car, a car that collects information from a giant sleeping creature (not, however, using the sleeper car from the cover), how to build a pajama tent, Theo’s conviction about the 220nd President of the U.S., the creepiest train ride you’ll ever see, making it all the way to a big empty room, and a visual depiction of what happens when you let your mind wander waiting for a train. These remarkable pieces would be enough for most comics, but wait, there’s more! The main piece of the book deals with two robots making a bet. One of them believes in the existence of living, breathing gnomes and one does not, so once the parameters of the bet are laid out, the first robot detaches his head and flies off to find the gnomes. What follows is pages of that rarest of things: robot humor. Nobody does it better than Theo, or really much at all that I’ve seen. What you end up with is a book that is gorgeous and disturbing, funny and thought-provoking, wistful and disconnected. Or possibly all of those things, or maybe even none, as few things defy description more than Theo’s work. All I know for sure is that it needs to be read and enjoyed by everyone who still loves reading comic books, as nobody else is doing anything like this. $6
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Almost Normal Comics and Other Oddities #2
Here’s another great anthology from W.E., with stories about making minis to impress a girl, snail wrestling, jazz pianos, adventurers getting an amulet, spying on regular people, not flying, controlling women and making money doing it, a man crashing a beauty contest, a stripper, fish, being abducted by North Korea, the good old days, a whiner, and trying to balance finding a job and finding a girlfriend. That enough for you? No? Well, I left out the parts from W.E., including the real story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an ancient talking box and an interview with Trent Haaga. Actually, that’s my only real complaint of the book: not enough W.E.! Those little one page stories make the book and there should be at least ten of them per anthology. Am I asking too much? Maybe. That’s what I’m here for! Here’s a list of the talent: Patrick Findlay, Alejandro Alvarez, Matt Levin, Ron LeBrasseur, Adrian Velazco, Phil McAndrew, Buck Weiss, Shannon Gretzon, Jeff T. Kane, Kel Crum, Peter Conrad, David Recine, Simon Mackie, Herve Largeaud, Yul Tolbert, and Anthony Hon. You can find plenty of those people on this page if you’re curious about this book, but seriously, it’s worth the price of admission to find out what really happened to those seven dwarfs, and there’s not really a weak story in the bunch, which is all you can ever ask out of an anthology. It’s $5.50 but it’s huge, contact info is up there!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Almost Normal Comics #1
This comic, while being more than a little bit creepy, is something that I would recommend to friends. There’s one story about a half-man, half-alligator thing and one about a young boy discovering death. In between there are some pin-ups and a lot of newspaper clippings. I’m guessing that these stories are real. If they are, they’re kind of like the stuff from News of the Weird, but just the really disturbing death and cannibalism type stuff. Funny but slightly macabre, and when’s the last time I’ve used that word twice on one page? I liked his Almost Normal Comics, and I probably would have liked his other stuff too if I wasn’t so squeamish. Regardless of what I think, the fact remains that the guy’s an incredibly talented artist who also knows how to tell a story. Who knows, if he keeps this up he could start to fill the hole that EC comics left a long time ago. I’ll definitely be checking out his stuff in the future, but I’ll be sticking to the Almost Normal stuff and staying away from the Tale Teller stuff. Again, check his website to see for yourself.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Almost Normal Comics and Other Oddities #1
This anthology is huge! 96 pages and only $3.50! OK, now that my gushing is out of the way, how about the book? Here’s a few names: Mike Dawson, Jamie Craw, John Miers, Yul Tolbert and koak, to name a few. The problem with that list is that about half of those folks just put old material in here. Mike Dawson has two stories, but I’d seen them both before. John Mier’s contribution came from Slab #2. If you haven’t read as many mini comics as me, well, then you’ll be happy with those entries. Like any anthology, there are strong points and weak points, although nothing sticks out in my head as particularly awful. What holds this book together though, without a doubt, is the random observations that W.E. throws in. He talks about studies done on recently severed heads, a family of cannibals in the 1400’s, Spring Heel Jack, and even throws in an interview with a midget wrestler. If you’ve already seen all the old stuff in here, there’s still a ton of new material here, especially if you count it in the time it takes you to read. It’s a bargain, it looks great, and it’s informative. I find it odd that he doesn’t want submissions to have any boobies in them when he’s so happy to talk about severed heads, but I’m not here to judge. Contact info is up there, give him a reason to make a #2!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
The Tale Teller’s Hammer of Witches
I’m really torn with what to think of this guy, so I’m reviewing two of his books. This one was horrible. Not in a “boy, this book sucks” kind of way, just… horrible. It’s basically a detailed description of the way that witches were tortured back in the old days. The page I scanned was one of the few in the book that didn’t show a woman being graphically tortured, raped or ripped apart in some way, and I wouldn’t recommend this to most anyone. It plays as kind of an EC Comics homage, with the Tale Teller playing the role of the Crypt Keeper. The main difference, of course, is that most of the violence in EC comics was either implied or at least slightly shied away from, here it’s tackled head on. I should make clear also that if you’re into Faust and those kinds of really gross books, you’ll probably love this. The man (or woman, it didn’t say) is an incredible artist. Nothing to complain about there. Women being tortured isn’t really my thing, and this book, while informative in a macabre sort of way, was hard to read. If you like really disturbing things, order this book. Go to his website, look around. However, it’s not as easy as all that, because he sent me his other minis as well…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
The Dreamer
I’ve decided that these are the books I’m going to get when I have a little extra cash at the end of the month Not that you need to know that necessarily, but that might help explain why this is the second review on the page for the next 2 years. This book is something else. Eisner was there at when comics were basically born, and this is the story of his experience, basically, put forth in a fictionalized manner. There’s a reason why the award for excellence in comics is named after him. I wish I knew more about the history so I could figure out who some of these people are supposed to be, but it’s a fascinating account regardless. The struggle to try and get comics made at all was a lot harder than I thought. If you haven’t been buying any of his stuff because you don’t know where to start, A Contract With God is still the place to start, just because it’s the first graphic novel. This is a great second book, especially at $7.95.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
A Contract with God: and Other Tenement Stories
It’s strange how somebody can basically create the graphic novel and still have people not even touch his work, all these years later. This is basically a four part story, mostly about a tenement building in New York. The first story is about a rabbi and his contract with God, but that contract is broken when his daughter dies of a sudden illness. The second story is the tale of an alley singer who attracts the attention of a former opera star but, like most of these stories, a happy ending is hard to come by. Part three is about the superintendent of the building, a desperately lonely man who makes a fatal mistake with a ten year old (and good luck finding a story that evokes more feelings of sympathy for a supposed sex offender). The fourth tale is the most complex and satisfying of the bunch, about a variety of people away at camp for a month and how they deal with the opportunities presented to them.
It’s hard to say what my favorite story in this bunch is. They’re all essential to the continuity of the book, if that makes any sense at all when you consider that they have almost nothing to do with each other. My trip to the library was completely unsuccessful, meaning that I’m going to have to buy the bulk of these, and that might take me some time. As far as right now goes, if you have any interest in the history of comics and the worlds of Krazy Kat, Pogo, Popeye and some of the other greats seem too cartoony to you (and boy, are you in for a surprise when you eventually read them), then this is definitely the place to start. I was expecting this to be an interesting experiment, what with it being the first ever and all, but it turns out that the first ever was a masterpiece. I don’t know about the rest of his work, as I haven’t seen it, but if it’s half as good as this I’ll have nothing to worry about. One thing that might turn people off is his slightly too comic style (I know it’s ridiculous, but apparently it’s a real problem with some people). All I can say to that is: grow up. Look past the art and go to the story, and you’ll see that the art is perfect for the story anyway. Expand your horizons about the whole graphic art field and you’ll be a lot better off. Until I read the rest of these volumes, I really don’t know what to tell you. I’ve heard that Invisible People and The Dreamer are both great, but I can’t give a personal recommendation on any of these yet. If you’re adventurous, try them out. This guy is one of the heroes of almost everybody good working good today, and it wouldn’t hurt you at all to try and find out why.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Crimson Cloak
It’s times like this that I wish I had some sort of an organized filing system. Or, frankly, an organized way to deal with submitted comics at all. I really should get on that one of these days. See, Brad sent this comic along with #6 of his regular series. I love his regular series, as anybody who scrolls around this page will soon learn. In the letter with the comics he mentioned… something about this comic. I got them months ago, I have no idea what he said, and a dig through all the stuff on and around my desk did not reveal this letter. What that means is that I have to review this comic as if I just found it in a store, or it just came all by itself without a letter, and that’s a shame. Why? Because this issue kind of sucks. Granted, it’s OK for what it is, but a straight up superhero story just isn’t my thing these days. This is the story of a scientist who is trying to develop an enlarging ray to help with world hunger. The scientist’s assistant is actually a villain in disguise and he ratchets the ray up to full power, making a gigantic super pig. After this villain is hilariously dispatched, the friend of the professor (secretly the Crimson Cloak, of course) spends the rest of the issue trying to defeat the pig. It had a funny moment or two, but Brad mostly played it straight, and that included the use of an absolutely ridiculous amount of exclamation points. There’s no reason to crap all over this, as I enjoy his other series and look forward to #7, but there’s not much in this issue that makes me want to recommend it to anybody else. Pick up some of his other issues instead, you’ll love them. As for this one, if you love superhero comics this might be for you. As for price, I have no idea, as it’s not listed on his website, but let’s say $2.
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Posted by Kevin
