A gentle suggestion for Alex before I start the review: a character guide or brief synopsis tucked away somewhere on the inside front cover would be a good idea going forward. That’s true for roughly every ongoing series where the issues come out several months (or years) apart, and I was able to keep it all straight this time, but if this turns into a homespun behemoth, it’ll be helpful. So what’s this comic all about? It’s a series of stories about various people who live in a small town, with several of them bouncing off each other. Things start off on the inside front cover with a brief check-in with Sherman, who has a new lady in his life. Obviously I’m going to be referring to some things that happened in the last issue, so if you haven’t read it, prepare to be occasionally confused! From there we see how Stanley and Luann are dealing both with them having the house to themselves for the first time in decades (their son grew up and moved out) and the closure of the plant that previously employed Stanley. Next we see how Suze (Sherman’s new lady) is doing, which is quite well, thanks! From there we go to the heart of the book, which is the story of Don in his later years, dealing with his children, going about his days and how suddenly grief could still creep up on him. I’m leaving this as vague as possible because it was occasionally gutting and I’d rather not spoil some of Alex’s best emotional writing that I’ve seen. Next we get a grim story from the early years of Andy, the helplessness of his mother in the face of abuse and indifference from the authorities, and what he’s doing now. Finally we end up with another look at Sherman and how he handles Wally showing up at his job. Oh, and I forgot about this: there’s one more story on the back inside cover, written up like a newspaper story that covers the closure of the plant and the reactions of some of the former workers. You know, maybe Alex just didn’t have the space to put in a synopsis at the start of this comic, as this sucker was packed with stories. A book like this could get maudlin in a hurry, and it does at times, but as a whole Alex does an excellent job of modulating the tone of the book so that things never get too high or low for long. This is not a man where I’m comfortable saying that something is his best work (he has way too many good comics out there to be sure), but when it’s all said and done it might end up being just that. $8
Well, so much for that “I’ll just write reviews during the week in real time” idea, huh? That’s what I get for making promises about reviews. New review today for The Way of the Hive by Jay Hosler, which some of you old timers may remember as Clan Apis, but in gorgeous full color this time around.
Like it says on the cover, this was previously published as Clan Apis a whole lot of years ago. And a whole lot of years before THAT it was published as five comics. So is it cheating if I review something twice? Eh, sort of, so please send any formal complaints to my manager, who is me, so they can deal with them appropriately, which is to either ignore them or laugh if they’re well written. Also the original graphic novel was black and white and this is in full, glorious color, which was always the best way to read it. So what’s this book about? Well, you should know that this is an “all ages” book, that Jay is a biology professor, and that he is a pioneer of using comics to impart scientific information to his students. You’re going to learn a lot here, is what I’m trying to say, and that’s almost certainly true even if you think you know everything there is to know about honey bees. There’s also a fairly engaging narrative going on, so even if you’re trying your very best not to learn anything new, you’ll still be invested enough in it to keep going. Also, you’re going to learn plenty of new things, so just accept that now. This is the story of Nyuki, and we’re taken through her larval stage, her process in becoming a bee, an understanding of the various jobs of the different types of bees, and the dangers that are present in the outside world. We also see how different hives interact with each other, how queens keep control, how they keep it down to only one queen at a time and what happens when an insect or animal dies in the hive. I am exceedingly tempted to throw a whole lot of bee facts at you right now, but I’ll limit myself to one: did you have any idea that bees could sting other insects without their stingers being pulled out? I did not, but found it fascinating. And that they kill invader bees by swarming them and flapping their wings so fast that they basically cook the rival bee? OK, that was two facts. Bees have an exceedingly short life span (less than two months), so Nyuki was never going to fly off into the sunset at the end of the book, but it does a fantastic job of showing the importance of all bees working as a unit and how all of their actions are designed to keep the hive going. There’s also an appendix in the back filled with even more facts and Jay walking the reader through his creative process, including how he managed to show emotions while still getting around the whole “bees have no facial expressions” thing. It’s an engaging, informative book, and forgive the incredible tackiness of this, but I’m going to quote the final line from my original review now: Fun for all ages, in a way that few things are. $12.99
Optical Sloth behind the scenes: I’ve probably mentioned this before, but for the past few years I tend to write the reviews on the weekend, then just schedule them to post during the week. Well, this weekend was stupid busy, but I made a promise last week to review comics this week, so: live reviews! Boy oh boy is that meaningless to everybody but me. I also have no idea how many days I’ll be able to do this, and I already know that tomorrow is out. Still, new review today for So Buttons #12 by Jonathan Baylis (and friends)!
Jonathan has never been nominated for an Ignatz award? Seriously? That seems like an absurd oversight to me. Oh hi, did I already get distracted from my review? Sorry about that, but he mentions that fact a couple of times in here, and it’s ridiculous. But hey, maybe this issue will get nominated next year, because it’s packed to the gills (a phrase I’ve never understood, but never mind that) with winners. First up is the tale of how he settled on his facial hair, how it ties in to Ethan Hawke and what happened when they met (Rachelle Meyer). Next is his memories of sitting with Tom Spurgeon and Carol Tyler at the aftermath of an SPX, which I really have to get to next year (Lance Ward). Then there’s a page by Carol freaking Tyler herself, which is all her, as she agreed to let Jonathan publish one of roughly 100 unpublished pages she found recently. If you were wondering whether or not Kerry Washington was a mensch, does Jonathan (and Ben Passmore) have a story for you! Next up is his story about Grant Morrison, and I have to take a minute here, because it’s about an original page of art he bought from All Star Superman years ago and his debate about whether or not he should sell it, as times were tough during the pandemic. I read All Star Superman literally last week (not for the first time, but in the fancypants “Absolute” edition) and he’s right, it’s the best Superman story ever told, and the only one I’ve seen where the Clark/Superman difference was actually portrayed as big enough to fool people. He also mentioned something I’ve noticed, where I’m roughly 50/50 on Grant’s work, but the 50 on the positive side is VERY positive. But he did this over his own talking head, so now I’m thinking our lists don’t coincide. Doom Patrol in the “bad” pile? Madness (art by Tony Wolf). Josh Bayer draws a true and necessary story about Johnny Rotten, and how inexcusable it was that he ended up a Trump supporter. “The Monkees of punk” was dead on, and if anything maybe a little unfair to The Monkees. Next is the story of a real punk band, Fugazi, his meeting Ian MacKaye and Ian’s story of his time in the crowd at SNL when Belushi wouldn’t go on stage unless a punk band was the musical guest (J.T. Yost). The quality didn’t dip a bit for the last few stories (how could it when Josh Pettinger, Noah Van Sciver and Miss Lasko-Gross were involved, among others) but it’s best to leave a few surprises for y’all, right? Also, I’m going out on a limb here and saying this was my favorite issue of the series so far. Have I said that before? Maybe! But this is the latest issue, so if I have ever said it before, this is the NEW favorite. Pretty good sign when somebody can keep topping themselves like this, huh? Give it a shot, why don’t you? $8
New review today for Tortilla #7 by Jaime Crespo, and I hereby solemnly swear that I’ll put out a few reviews next week to start to make up for lost time.
So I finally got the chance to meet Keith Knight at CXC this year (a story for another time), and I was wearing Jaime’s Tortilla Comix t-shirt. Keith has been friends with Jaime for years (he also told me that Jaime did the artwork for the second season of his Hulu series “Woke”), and he let me know that Jaime had intended to be at the convention too, but was dealing with some serious health problems but that things seemed to be looking up. I mention all this mostly because Jaime uses his introduction on the front inside cover to tell the reader all about it: he had a heart attack. And had two stents put in, but they got infected but he ended up needing open heart surgery. So yeah, there was a bit of a delay in getting the issue out! He does mention in his intro that the year pushed him into finally putting out a story about his dad, as his health problems put some things in perspective and made him want to get some of his more personal stories out before they “are lost to time.” That’s a lot before even getting into the comic, but it seemed like some context was important. Jaime has three stories this time around, and they really run the gamut. First up is a piece on his memories of Saturday morning as a kid in the early 70’s. His mom worked all day on Saturdays, so that meant he had that time almost completely to himself. The cartoons are the one thing that I wish kids today could relate to, but since every cartoon ever made can be watched at any time now, having that chunk of time set out specifically for certain cartoons is a lost concept. Still, it brought up a lot of memories for me, even though mine were mostly from the early 80’s. Next up is the story of the time he owned a new and used record shop in California, meaning that famous musicians would occasionally pop by. One time Carlos Santana and his younger brother came in and were having what seemed to be a personal and private conversation in Spanish, so Jaime politely asked them (in Spanish) if they needed any help in the store to show them that their conversation was not as private as they might think. They left, Carlos came back several times over the next few months, and it ended in a hilarious conversation I’m not even going to try to recap. Finally there’s the story about his dad. This is one of his more personal stories, and it’s a heartbreaker. His dad was drunk and abusive, to the point that his mother left him when Jaime was four years old. They spent a year in San Francisco, he eventually convinced Jaime’s mother to come back to him, and you can probably guess that things don’t have a happy ending. It’s a poignant reminder of the impact family can have even if they’re only around for a short time, and how even the most terrible people can leave you with at least a few positive memories. If you’re already a fan of his this is obviously a necessity, and if you’re new to his work this is as good a place as any to hop on. And if you’re a publisher reading this, for the love of all that’s holy, the man has been making comics for 30+ years. Get in touch with him and put out a complete edition of his comics already! $5
Sorry about yet another gap in reviews last week, but these elections are taking more and more out of me lately. Where’s a benevolent (but hand’s off) billionaire backer when I need one? Anyway, there’s a new review today for Zombie’s First Time by Brandon Lehmann.
There are times when the title tells you everything you need to know, and this is another one of those times. Brandon actually sent along a couple of new comics for review, but since I recently watched the fancypants Criterion edition of Night of the Living Dead, reading this sucker first seemed like a no-brainer. Oh dear god, I had no intention of making a zombie pun there, so let’s all agree to ignore it. This is the story of a new zombie running across a terrified and cornered human for the first time, and he knows what comes next. He does, however, have a few questions, so it’s a lucky thing for him that he’s next to an old timer zombie who can guide him. This is the part where I refuse to walk you through that conversation, as several parts of it were things I had wondered myself, and the older zombie came armed with a few surprising facts. It also had several funny lines that I have no interest in spoiling. Looking over Brandon’s shop I was once again reminded that this man is prolific, and that one of these days I should really check out some of this older stuff, as it pretty much universally looks like the kind of thing I’d like. And since I have liked everything else I’ve seen, very much including this one, it seems like another no-brainer. Oh no, not again! $6
New review today for Forget Me Not by Gabriel Howell! Quick note for anybody who has tried to email me over the last several months: unless you were very creative in your subject line, maybe send it again? I’ll be changing my email soon, but meanwhile I’m cleaning out the old one, and boy howdy is it ever overrun with spam. What could any one man do with that many ball bearing, I ask you?
Fair warning here: this is going to be one of those reviews where I try to interpret some fairly abstract stuff, while also engaging a book that’s at least a little bit about how much you should put yourself out there while also maintaining your own health and sanity. As I’m somebody who doesn’t use any social media and has no advertising for this website (meaning that I’m basically content to shout my opinions into the void, with little to no idea how it’s being received until I meet people at conventions), this makes me uniquely unqualified to talk about this graphic novel. And yet! Page by page, message by message, I found myself being pulled into this story and wishing there was any reasonable way for things to get better for the dirty moppets depicted in it. The main characters are introduced as Complications, Heartache, Rebellion and Commitment, to give you some idea of where things are headed right away. The art style reminds me a lot of Dame Darcy, but her work usually had a playful edge that is not present here. Which is why it’s always folly to compare artists doing their own thing roughly two decades apart, I suppose. I’ll confess to not being all that invested in the ongoing narrative of this book, but several pages struck me as being full of wisdom, and not the usual motivational poster level of “wisdom” that’s often mislabeled as such, but beautiful and true things that people should be following in their daily lives. Is there a more tiresome thing that a reviewer quoting such things? Fine, I’ll only indulge myself once: “I’m not an algorithm, I’ll fucking stab you.” Most of them were more about life, muddling through it and being judged by others, but that one really spoke to me. If this seems like a so-so review, it’s more because of my style than the book. If I go back and flip through something a few times after finishing it, like what happened with this book, the author did something very right. Check it out when you’re in an introspective mood, or if you’re ever feeling like being a happy creative person in a constant spotlight is an impossibility. $19.95
Back from my work break, just in time for a holiday week. New review today for Applewood Canyon #6-8 from Brian Canini, and yes, that means that I’m reviewing some books in chunks now. Progress?
Well, it’s official: Brian broke the website. His productivity did it, specifically, and it’s not like he held a gun to my head so I’d review his books a few at a time. Still, this might have to be the norm for a few of his series. When you last saw me talking about Applewood Canyon, I was assuming that that was it for the series and that it had wrapped up in fairly confusing fashion after five issues. I was wrong, which is a thing that happens on a regular basis, and Brian was nice enough to give me the next few issues at CXC in Columbus last month. So, breaking this down by issues, #6 had the escape of our “heroes” (probably need to come up with a better descriptor for casual murderers and a dummy) through the sewer system along with some narration that described what they were all going through, #7 showed them the horrifying truth about Coconut Valley, and #8 had their new plan after being denied entry back into Applewood Canyon. I can instantly see that my problem with spoilers is going to be a big deal while covering a few issues at a time, so let’s just say that any review with more than one issue involved is going to have at least a few spoilers. I liked their trip through the sewer, as we learned a lot more about the characters through an issue of conversation and narration. I would have liked to have learned more about Coconut Valley in the seventh issue, but I get why he’s trying to keep it vague for the time being. And #8 was great for showing just how diabolical this crew could be, with some mayhem sure to follow in future issues. I’m no longer making guesses for how long this series will last, but I am enjoying the ride.
New review today for Wrestling and Mania Part Two by Andrew Neal, which concludes my brief return to the world of weekly reviews of the Meeting Comics series. That’s it for me for a week or so (depending on what happens at work), so dig through the archives for a bit, and vote!
It’s time for a rasslin’ show! Andrew starts this off with something that I didn’t know I needed: a flow chart of every character, with links to their exes, friends, enemies, casual hookups, and secret identities. Things were getting a little out of hand, so this is welcome information to have all in one place. A big old wrestling show needs an opening number, which involves Kevin maybe letting his hatred for the police get the better of him. The matches themselves start off friendly enough (between two new characters, who I’m guessing we never see again, but who knows in this comic?), but things get personal in a hurry when it’s Marisol versus Tina. A double page center spread of some wrestling action follows (as is almost mandatory for this particular clash), and it ends in the only way it really could, but I’m not spoiling a bit of that perfection. Also Dick Punch (the former mayor) is scheming behind the scenes, so you’d better believe that that comes into play later. There’s one final match, a few characters really pour their hearts out, and that’s the end of that. I honestly have no idea where Andrew is going from here. This feels almost like it was wrapping things up, but there are still dangling plot lines all over the place, so who knows? It’s definitely a satisfying conclusion to this little wrestling storyline, and I’d very much recommend getting these two books at a minimum. He even catches new readers up! $5
New review today for Dodo Comics #7 by Grant Thomas, and this will almost certainly be the last week of comics reviewing until after the upcoming election. If you live in a state where you can, vote early already. And if you’re a woman who’s still biologically able to have children, or if you know anybody like that, for the love of all that’s good in the world, vote for Democrats down the line. Or if you like state mandated pregnancies forced to be carried to term, don’t vote at all and please fuck off from this website forever. Thanks bye!
Grant’s back to working on Dodo comics, after roughly two years away. Not that there was a pandemic in the middle of that that might account for a delay or anything, right? Right away I want to mention something he does perfectly here, and that’s the recap. With this long of a gap between issues, and a fairly complex story, (including a fight over potable water and basically the origin story of Medusa), something to remind readers of what happened before is essential. Take note, other comics people with ongoing stories who take long gaps between issues! This one is mostly silent, and it deals with an attempted theft in the temple of Hermes. It’s also ten pages long, which isn’t much space for the story to progress, if you’re wondering if I have any quibbles about the comic. “Want more comic” is generally a good problem for a writer/artist to have, but it makes it tough to review anything specific without giving the whole thing away. So I’ll just say that it moves the story along a bit, and sooner or later this will be one of those series where I read the whole thing in a chunk rather than counting on this lousy memory of mine. Also included in here are a few pandemic strips, from the early pandemical times of 2020. They’re brutal, as far as pandemic stories go. There’s one funny strip out of four of them, the rest deal with the death of this grandma (whose husband wasn’t allowed to be with her when she died because of fears that he’d take covid back to his nursing home) and the death of a friendly neighbor of his. Now I’m wondering if he did more covid strips, but if they’re all this grim they’d probably be a tough read. Not that that’s a bad thing. I’m as cynical as anybody and even I’m shocked at how quickly any and all precautions (and memory!) of the pandemic have vanished. I at least thought everybody would remember that there was absolutely no reason for work meetings to still be held in person, but now I’m just rambling. I’m a bigger fan of his My Life in Records comics, to be honest, but I do think he’s building something here too, so check it out. $3
New review today for It’s Oola! by Karl Christian Krumpholz, meaning that CXC week is now two weeks long. It’ll end up being longer too, before it’s all said and done. What can I say, I’m terrible at math.
Less than a year in their household, and Oola already has her own comic. I see big things ahead for this cat! If you’re not familiar with Lighthouse in the City (Karl’s ongoing daily strip series), Oola came onto the scene in November of 2021, several months after both of the cats who had been with them for many years passed away. She made an instant and gigantic impact in their (the other half of “their” is Kelly, his partner) lives, so naturally Karl decided to put together this collection of strips where she was the star of the show. Is it technically kosher for me to review a book where I’ve probably already read half of the strips in other comics? Well, since I don’t have a boss, the only one to decide that is me, and my answer is: when it comes to cats, all rules go out the window. Reviewing something like this, as is the case with the vast majority of comics involving cats, my objectivity goes out the window, so if you’re looking for a detailed, erudite review about the linework and the meaning behind certain strips, move right along. What does that crazy cat get up to in here? Without giving too much away, there’s her introduction to the house, some odd leftover behaviors from her early life on the street, her Halloween cat arched back (the same thing my old cat, Sassafrasquatch (20 year mascot of this website), used to do), the futility of their trying to sleep when she wanted to play, her great escape, her SECOND great escape, what always happens when glass items on a mantle and a cat come together, and several strips based on great comics artists from when Karl was overdosing on comics with just himself and Oola in the house. I was also fascinated by the single image strip of her sitting on a hardcover collection of comics with one of those fabric bookmarks attached to the spine. Somehow she was just sitting there and NOT attacking the bookmark, so I can only assume that he was taking some artistic liberties with that strip. It’s a funny and adorable comic, what more do you want? Check it out already! Unless you hate cats, in which case I can’t believe you read this far into the review. Oh, one last note for Karl and Kelly: I noticed a small continuity error. In the first strip, while you two were discussing whether or not the time was right for another cat, you mentioned getting a pair of cats. But (as of this writing, anyway) you still just have the one cat. Any plans to rectify that? $6
New review today for Wrestling and Mania Part One by Andrew Neal, so it’s technically still reviews from the CXC show a couple of weeks back. Nope, work hasn’t swallowed me up yet!
Posted by Kevin 
