Dirty Danny Hellman

December 28, 2004

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Posted by Kevin

Various DC/Paradox/Vertigo

December 28, 2004

This is an absolutely wonderful series of books that has been put out by DC for the past 8 or so years. Informative as hell and thoroughly entertaining, I have almost all of them and haven’t seen a bad one yet. If you feel like you haven’t gotten enough out of any particular story, there is an extensive bibliography at the back of each volume. Buy as many as you can, you won’t regret it. These are also an example of that rare breed of comic that non-comic people also enjoy.

Big Book of Death

Big Book of Freaks

Yes, I’m finally getting around to reviewing a Big Book. It only took me about 3 years after I put the page up, but it turns out that there are a lot of mini comics coming out on a regular basis, and that’s what the page is all about, after all. This is just in case there’s anybody out there who still doesn’t know about this marvelous series. What they do is take a subject (scroll around for more of the titles) and examine it from every angle, using a variety of some of the best comics illustrators out there. Here’s a partial list, leaving aside the fact that the whole thing is put together by Gahan Wilson, and shame on you if you don’t know who he is: Bob Fingerman, Hunt Emerson, Renee French, Ivan Brunetti, Rick Geary, and Glenn Barr, along with about 40 others that you’ll probably recognize at least a little bit but be unaware where you recognize them from, if you’re anything like me. Anyway, obviously, this one is all about freaks throughout the ages. Yes, they deal with the politically correct way you’re supposed to say “freaks”. In here you have ancient legends about giants and other oddities, freaks of nature like Chang and Eng (the first Siamese twins, and the reason that they’ve all been called “Siamese” since) and the Elephant Man, P.T. Barnum and his business dealings, flea circuses, snake charmers and “geeks”, bearded women and tattooed men, faked freaks, and personal lives of freaks such as Zip, Baby Ruth, Lobster Boy, and the gentle giant of Alton, Illinois. Whew! There are pieces, here and there, where you wish for a bit more personal detail, but there’s not going to be a lot of personal detail with a lot of these stories because it’s ancient history in a lot of cases and their real stories were usually closely guarded, so as to avoid people finding out the truth. That’s the only minor complaint I have with this book, however. If you’re curious about anything above what’s in here, there’s an extensive bibliography in the back. I love the fact that it’s a different artist for every story, as it gives a lot of incredibly talented people a chance to give their interpretations of many, many odd people. I remember this as being one of my favorites of the bunch, and I’ll probably put up a few more reviews before three more years pass, but I have to point out again how wonderful these books are. Anybody, comics fan or not, can pick one of these up, read it for a few hours, and come away knowing somewhere between a lot and a little more than they started with. There were a few things I picked up this time that I hadn’t before, and I’ve read this thing probably three times. A fantastic, indispensable book, and cheap enough at $14.95 that it’s hard to resist. If you haven’t seen any of these before, and you don’t have a weak stomach, I’d say start with this one.

Big Book of Weirdos

Big Book of the Weird Wild West

Big Book of Bad

Big Book of Little Criminals

Big Book of the 70’s

Big Book of Scandal!

Big Book of Losers

Big Book of the Unexplained

Big Book of Conspiracies

Big Book of Grimm

Big Book of Hoaxes

Big Book of Urban Legends

Big Book of Martyrs

Big Book of Thugs

Big Book of Vice

Bizarro Comics

Well, the book I’ve been holding my breath for since I heard about it in the planning stages is finally here. All the best small press people, all in one book! All Bizarro stories, all the time! Little seen talents finally getting a chance to shine on the big stage! And the end result is… mixed.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are moments in here that make it worthwhile, enough so that I can recommend getting it. You could probably wait for the softcover to come out and save $10 or so, because there’s nothing in here that couldn’t wait a few months. If you don’t know the concept, DC apparently decided to give all these “no name” people a chance. If anybody knows the complete story behind this book, let me know. I’m curious as hell to see how this got organized. And whose decision was it to put pairings on all of the stories instead of just letting one person shine? Granted, some of the pairings boggle the mind: Dylan Horrocks and Jessica Abel, James Kochalka (writing and not drawing!) and Dylan Horrocks, Jef Czekaj and Brian Ralph, Eddie Campbell and Hunt Emerson, Ivan Brunetti and Evan Dorkin, Evan Dorkin and Steven Weissman… it’s a hell of a list, don’t get me wrong. But most of these guys spend their time doing their own thing and I think it would have flowed a lot better if they had been allowed to do that here. Granted, you would have to bring in a color guy for most of these people that have never used it, but they do everything else themselves.

The story (such as it is) is this: a creature called A comes to Mxyzptlk’s world to try and take over. He challenges M to a best-of-seven of games, but M is disqualified and has to choose a champion. Remembering his past problems, he chooses Superman but can’t find an appropriate alternate universe substitute after the original one doesn’t believe him, and accidentally chooses Bizarro. Make sense? It doesn’t matter. Bizarro decides to win the contest by drawing a bunch of stories, and these stories are all the ones by the small press folks.  When it goes back to the “story”, these comics are promptly forgotten about and the challenges begin, but not before they get an insult or two off about the quality of the comics. Which, I’m sure, is just an insult in the story directed at Bizarro and not the creators, but it’s pretty easy to take it the wrong way. The main story takes up about 60 pages of a 236 page book, which wouldn’t be that bad if it didn’t mostly suck. It has a few moments, but the thought that this story was expanded upon at the expense of some of these extremely talented guys doesn’t make sense at all to me.

Flipping through this again to write this, I see that I enjoyed almost all of the shorts in this. I didn’t really like Wonder Girl vs. Wonder Tot, Help! Superman!!, Batman, and The Most Bizarre Bizarro of All! Compare that to the 23 other stories that I liked a lot, and it looks like they have a winner here. The Bat-man (by Chip Kidd and Tony Millionaire and strangely, the only black and white story in the book) is brilliant. Old school classic Batman here, and he’s ugly as hell. Hawkman (James K. and Dylan Horrocks), while not drawn by James, has the same feel that I’ve come to know and love from all his work. Kamandi (Nick Bertozzi and Tom Hart) takes the cake for me as the best story in the book, but I’m hopelessly biased because Tom Hart drew it. That’s Really Super, Superman (Ivan Brunetti and Evan Dorkin) is a close second, and First Contact (Mark Crilley and Andi Watson), about the Atom, is up there too.

I was expecting a hell of a lot from this book, and I’m not sure that I got it. What I did get, however, is a thoroughly entertaining look at a lot of DC universe told through the eyes of some of the most talented people working in comics today. If I cared at all about the characters this probably would have been a great book, or maybe if they had allowed them to work by themselves, or maybe if DC had given them a little more room (and a lot more people. The names excluded here are too numerous to mention, although I am surprised and gratified by some of the selections) to the creators. All in all, if you like even half the people in this book, get it. If you like Evan Dorkin, Sam Henderson or Dylan Horrocks, they’re all in here a few times writing and drawing but not, as I’ve made pretty clear by now, doing both things at once. The Matt Groening cover makes the book, too. And yes, I did see the Dan Clowes cover in The Comics Journal and I thought it was great, but I think this is a better cover for the tone of the book.

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Posted by Kevin

Various Young American Publishing

December 28, 2004

Website

Wild Penny #3

Three stories in this anthology, from three different creative teams. First you have Tod Parkhill & Gabriel Hunt with the cover story, about a panda warrior. That’s probably as ridiculous as it sounds, but it’s done without a hint of irony and has one of the best endings for an action packed story that I’ve seen. The second story is from Tod Parkhill, Briedis (sorry, no first time), and Brian Morante, about a young superheroine called Electrocutie fighting a random large woman in a story that didn’t do much for me, frankly. It was adorable though, which is maybe why it bugged me. The last story is by Tod Parkhill and Rebecca Flowers, about a man who’s weeding his garden for his wife when he’s suddenly stung by a bee in a story that was oddly moving. I say odd because it kind of came out of nowhere, but kudos on that one. Anyway, it’s $2, go to the website and check out everything else they have too.

Wild Penny #4

I think Tod Parkhill might do more comics in the course of a year than anybody else in the industry. This is another collection of stories; it looks like this Wild Penny series has three stories per issue. First up you have a couple of guys in Vietnam going AWOL and betting on cockfights (Parkhill & Menez), then you have a story about romance and incredibly shrinking text (Yost), and finally a story about a giant baby (Parkhill). The Vietnam story was pretty funny, the romance story was OK (and it’s hard to fault anybody who can throw in a Tom Waits reference), and the last story about the baby was pretty much pointless, but how much is there to say about a giant baby that gets bigger than the whole world? I think there are better issues than this out there, but it’s alright. $2, contact info up there!

Wild Penny #5

This is definitely the best issue of this so far. The first story is the origin of one of the characters from The Mighty Offenders, which is a good thing because I had very little who these people were when I read that comic. Then you have the second part of the Panda Warrior story, and I honestly still can’t see the point behind the story, other than the oddity of seeing a giant panda going around threatening people. This chapter was all about him getting hit with snowballs, then it was over. Not to give anything away, but I guess I just did. Oops. The last story is Tod’s from the 2002 SPX anthology. It usually bugs me when people pad other anthologies with already released stories, but this is a really great story that I had forgotten about, so this time it’s OK. No, that’s not consistent at all, but what are you going to do? It’s about Atari banking everything on the release of the E.T. video game and then rushing the thing out in time for Christmas. And if anybody out there has ever played the game, what an awful, awful mess. Contact info is up there, it’s $2. Oh, and Don McInturff wrote and drew the first story (don’t worry, Tod still managed to letter it) and Gabe Hunt drew the second story.

Red Curtain #1

If there has ever been a review-proof comic, this is it. You see, this is a story by a bunch of artists from Young American Comics (Parkhill, Bush, Mason, Briedis, Morante and Hunt are listed but there could be more) that’s done in as random of a manner of possible. Different people pick up after reading a panel or two from somebody else, with no idea of where the story is going, and make up something new. It’s passed around until its done, and it’s a five issue series, so it’s hard to say if anything here is going to work out in the long term. In the short term, it’s off to a good start. In here are Miss Cleo, God, an angry flower, a shadowy figure, poo, blue almonds, war, a parrot, and a fat man. In case you were wondering, no, it doesn’t make a lot of sense yet, and it might not ever, but it’s a great idea for an experiment and I’m curious to see where it goes. Taken as one issue, it’s funny, but that’s all that I can really say about it so far. $1, contact info up there!

Red Curtain #2

OK, it might be necessary to review this series in a different way than other series. On a page by page basis, it’s funny as hell. There’s all kinds of random stuff, the dialogue is great, God says “erf” instead of “earth”… all kinds of good stuff. In terms of a bigger picture, I honestly have no idea what’s going on. I mean, at all, not even a little bit. There’s also a synopsis at the end of the book (and if the folks at Young American Comics ever do this again, they should really put these at the start of the book) that really didn’t do much to clear things up. Tell you what: when I get to #5, I’ll read them all in a row and review them like that. Maybe I should have done that to begin with, but it’s too late now! Contact info up there, $1, check it out if you have a VERY short attention span…

Red Curtain #3

You know, I meant to keep reading these thing weekly so I would retain some semblance of a plot, but it got away from me somehow and here I am, a couple of months later, and I once again have no idea what’s going on here. Why don’t I just tell you what you can find in this comic? If you read this you’ll see a bimbo with her hand super-glued to her hip, a two-headed dog cut in half, a fatal sneeze, a serial killer of mimes, a fish with legs, and doom. All kinds of funny nonsense going on, start to finish, but it’s hard to recommend if you want something coherent. If coherent is a second concern to funny, well, go for it. I still plan on reading them all in a row when I get to #5, so maybe it’ll all be clearer then. Contact info is up there, this is a buck…

Red Curtain #4

This series is officially hurting my brain. I’m going to stick with it until the end though, mostly because there’s only one more issue to go. Whether or not I can manage to read all five of them for the next review is in doubt, as I’m not sure that I could take it. It’d be a weekend thing, some time when I can just lounge and try to make some sense out of this. Honestly, I mostly did this review so I could post the sample below, as I think it sums up everything you need to know about this series, and whether or not it’s something that you think you should be reading. In this one more of the characters die, the flower gets a new pot and any semblance of a story has completely vanished, at least to me. It’s a buck and I continue to insist that these guys do some good work on their own and you should support their other stuff. As for this one, eh, I’ll keep you posted…

The Bizmar Experiment

“Bizmar” stands for Bunny Insect Zombie Monkey Alien Robot, and the idea here seems to be to cram in all six things into a two page comic, making this the best idea for an anthology in the history of anthologies. Some names you might recognize from this site: Ben Snakepit, Tod Parkhill, Tom Manning, Stan Yan, George Tautkus, and Brian Morante. There are more people here (check out the website for ordering info and the complete list), but I want to talk about the comics! There’s a wide and completely absurd collection of stories, including all six things working in a pizza shop, a zombie becoming president, Ben going to see Gwar (yes, he does manage to fit everything in), A giant robot that is made up of 5 smaller pieces ala Voltron, renting movies for Halloween, bizarre sex confessions, a surprise party for a zombie, and even more stuff that I’m not going to ruin for you. Look, this is a brilliant idea that’s pulled off to perfection. What more do you want? $3!

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Posted by Kevin

Various Checker Publishing

December 28, 2004

Website

Hellraiser Collected Best Volume 1

OK, I liked Hellraiser a lot back when I first started reading comics, and obviously a “collected best” collection is going to have a lot to live up to. I should also mention that Amazon listed a Volume 2 coming out, and if I remember correctly there might even be more coming, so this one doesn’t have to be THE book to represent the series. So let’s just take it as a collection and see if I can slow down my rambling long enough to tell you what I thought. There are all kinds of big names in this. Neil Gaiman, Mike Mignola, Clive Barker, Marc Hempel, Alex Ross, Dave McKean. The problem with that is that Clive Barker’s stories were the weakest of the bunch. He has a two part story about the origin of what is essentially a superhero team that fights the Cenobites. I didn’t like it back then and I don’t like it now: if I wanted a superhero comic I would read one of the hundreds that are available. It was filled with cliched comic book dialogue too, with exclamation points at the end of every sentence! Man, I hate that. Luckily the slack is more than made up by the rest of the stories in here. They’re at their best, to me, when exploring the psychology of just why people would want to open that damned puzzle box in the first place, and that’s represented well here. “Like Flies to Wanton Boys” is probably the most haunting of the bunch; it’s a tale about a man who gets trapped in his own house, entering a room and finding each successive door a little bit further away. Marc Hempel has a very cartoony, loopy style (those aren’t technical terms), but he did some amazing work in Sandman and also has a great story in here about a pedophile. This is graphic, at times brutal stuff, but it’s more than that. These stories, when they were at their best, went way beyond the concepts of Clive Barker in the movies and turned into something much more interesting. This is a good, solid collection if you haven’t read any of these. It isn’t the best from the whole series, as I have plenty of stories that I remember from the series that aren’t here, but that’s why there’s going to be a Volume 2, right? It’s $17.56 on Amazon right now, if you were curious…

Tapping the Vein

Welcome to the largest, most expensive book that anybody ever sent me for free! That being said, you probably think I’m going to be biased towards it, right? Well, as this is my dime and I get to ramble, let me tell you a little about me and Clive Barker. I discovered his writings when I was probably about 15 or so, loved it and got as many books as I could. I devoured all of them, then went off to college and forgot about them. I read all the Hellraiser comics again recently and thought them mostly silly, although there were quite a few that were great. That being said, I’ve brought his books with me through a few moves, meaning to pick them up again and see what my opinion is now, but never seem to get around it. So, there you are, that leads up to when I got this book a week ago. I thought I’d go into it with an open mind and see what happened, and what do you know, I liked it. All the stories seem to end brutally and you can start to see the ending coming after reading the first few, but they were still incredibly imaginative (In the Hills, The Cities being one that springs immediately to mind with its giants composed of living humans). I couldn’t find fault with the art on any of the stories either, and John Bolton has long been one of my favorite comic painters. For those who are curious about which stories are adapted here, they’re all from his Books of Blood series, his earliest collections of short stories. If you’re a fan of horror comics, get this collection. If you’re squeamish or not a fan of Clive Barker, you’ll probably hate it. If you just don’t know, give it a chance, there’s plenty to convince skeptics in here.

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Posted by Kevin

Millionaire, Tony

December 28, 2004

Website

Maakies

A great newspaper strip collected in one book. I had this thing on order but somehow it got cancelled, so I don’t know what to tell you about this. There are some sample strips up at Fantagraphics. Go check them out and see what you think. I liked them, but what do I know? Check out the website!

The Adventures of Sock Monkey

Now this was a great little book. I met him out in L.A. a few months back and wasn’t quite sure what to expect out of this book. Surreal, creepy and funny, just buy it, won’t you?

Sock Monkey: A Children’s Book

I almost missed this one when I saw it on the pre-order page. I thought it was just a re-release of his older one, but it’s an all new book. Story on one page, picture on the other, so it’s not exactly a comic by some definitions. Here I’ve been typing these wonderful sayings down from A Hog On Ice and Other Curious Expressions when I could just be scanning them. Enjoy.

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Posted by Kevin

Weissman, Steven

December 28, 2004

Website

Champs

This is his first complete graphic novel after Yikes. If you’ve read any of that, you know what a talent this guy is and you already have this book. It’s basically the continuing adventures of a bunch of adventurous little tykes: Pull Apart Boy, L’il Bloody, X-Ray Spence and others. Good clean fun that you can share with the whole family, assuming that you’re raising them to have an open mind.

Don’t Call Me Stupid: A “Yikes” Collection

Remember how I was talking about Yikes being great? Well, here’s a collection of the great stuff. I don’t have it because I already have all the issues and it’s not like it was an ongoing story or anything like that, but all the issues were great. You do realize that most of these reviews are half-assed and I’ll add plenty more to all of them when I read the material in question again, right? Right. As for right now, I’m just trying to get a list of things that everyone should own on here.

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Posted by Kevin

Sakai, Stan

December 28, 2004

Website

There are a whole lot more Usagi Yojimbo books out there than I thought. Unfortunately, most of the Fantagraphics “complete” run is out of print, but there are various collections through them and Dark Horse that are still around. If you’re not familiar with Usagi, well, this character has been around forever. My first exposure to him was through a Commodore 64 game based on him when I was in 6th grade or so. He’s a rabbit samurai, and was one of the first (and one of the best) “funny animal” series around. This is one of those series that I’ll gladly order if I see it’s available, but I don’t go out of my way to find it. Mostly because there’s such a history with it that I don’t know where to start, but I’ve always been entertained by these books. Here’s what Amazon says they have available, in case you already know about it and love it or just want to give it a try.

Space Usagi

Usagi Yojimbo Book 1

Usagi Yojombi: Samurai (Vol. 2)

Usagi Yojimbo: Shades of Death (Vol. 8)

Usagi Yojimbo: Daisho (Vol. 9)

Usagi Yojimbo: The Brink of Life and Death (Vol. 10)

Usagi Yojimbo: Seasons (Vol. 11)

Usagi Yojimbo: Demon Mask

Usagi Yojimbo: Grasscutter

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Posted by Kevin

McCloud, Scott

December 28, 2004

Website

Understanding Comics

Reinventing Comics

These are probably two of the more controversial comics ever published, at least within the field. Meaning that the rest of the world could give a crap about either one of these books, but comics professionals the world over debate exactly what is right and what is wrong with each of these volumes.Website!

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Posted by Kevin

Cipriano, Sal – Altered Realities 2000

December 28, 2004

Altered Realities 2000

Welcome to an annual anthology of fighting, killing, and more macho cliches than you can shake a stick at. Most of the stuff in here is written by Sal (but not illustrated), which is why I chose to pick on him. Let’s get one thing clear here. I’ve seen a lot of comics like this in my day, and this one is better than most. That being said, most of them are really bad and this one is somewhere between bad and “his heart’s in the right place”. At least he knows how to spell, that’s always good for some easy points with me… Anyway, the comic. This has a story of a boy who hears voices (but the voices are real and the boy can command them, kind of), a breakup, mostly naked girls fighting, pinups, a boxer who was supposed to throw his fight, a reality eraser, and a bully picking on a fat kid and a slut. A lot there, obviously. The highlight of the book is the story of the fat kid, done by Darrell Landa. A cute story, if a bit predictable. Everything else is OK for what it is. Some of it’s good, some of it’s bad, but it’s mostly OK. He’s keeping it cheap (this is a fat book at 64 pages and it’s $2) and he’s trying to keep it on a yearly schedule. It might be worth a look for some of you, if you like a lot of mindless violence with a few interesting plot points thrown in amidst all the junk. Send some money to him at 1819 West 11th St. Brooklyn, NY 11223, or e-mail him to see what else he has available. This sample is from one of two quiet stories in the whole book, so don’t think that they’re all this heavy on dialogue…

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Posted by Kevin

Butler, Ronson – Antlusian Chronicles #10

December 28, 2004

E-mail

Antlusian Chronicles #10

Anybody out there still reading this expecting a great artistic achievement after that cover? If so, I’m going to have to burst your bubble. It’s garbage. Now’s as good a time as any, of course, to remind you that my opinion is my own and I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would like this. Here’s the thing about books for mature readers. You can show all the boobs you want (and these boobs don’t have any nipples, so I’m not sure how “mature” this is supposed to be), but it helps an awful lot to have a basic grasp of the language and how real people talk. Then again, real people don’t have giant breasts that point up at the sky, so maybe he was reflecting that. Anyway, I didn’t like it. No sense beating a dead horse here. It didn’t help that this is the last issue in the series and I had no clue what was going on, but I don’t think it would have made that much of a difference. Um, the art was pretty good. Not pornographic enough for porn and not intelligent enough for a good comic, you’re not left with much. E-mail him or send him some money if you like giant cartoon boobs at 10 South LaSalle #1500 Chicago, IL 60603.

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Posted by Kevin

Gregory, Roberta

December 28, 2004

Website

A Bitch is Born

Roberta is one of the most respected cartoonists going today, and for good reason. This is the first volume of her comic, Naughty Bits. The volumes are good but the comics have their own unique charm, what with all the news of the other stuff she’s doing and all the small press stuff that she’s constantly plugging. She’s been fighting the good fight for years and deserves all the credit in the world. Check out the website!

Bitchy’s College Daze

As Naughty as She Wants to be

At Work and Play with Bitchy Bitch

Bitchy Butch (World’s Angriest Dyke)

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Posted by Kevin

Young, Robert

December 28, 2004

Website

The Comics Interpreter #5

Reviews, interviews (Brian Ralph, Jef Czekaj and the Bipolar Twins), essays, and what appears to be a genuine love for the medium. How can you go wrong?

The Comics Interpreter #6 Now Available! $4.95

You know, I wasn’t sure if I should give this its own page or not. It’s not an issue of whether or not it deserved it, because I enjoyed both of these. It was just because it isn’t a comic, it’s a zine about comics. Then I remembered that my decisions only have to make sense to me, so here it is. This one has an interview with both of the Hernandez Bros, which is worth the price of admission right there. The rest of the issue is a tribute to them, with all sorts of people commenting on their place in comics and what the Bros’ contributions to the field have meant to them. And, while I never really got into him, there’s also an interview with Jamie Delano. You might be better off going with #5 if you’re shooting for more of an overview of mini comics, as the theme for this issue is pretty specific. As for the actual layout of the zine, there are a couple of things that I could nitpick about, but I just don’t see any reason to. If he keeps this up we might get a viable alternative to The Comics Journal after all. Well done, and everybody out there should send him money so he keeps it up. We’d all be a lot better off if this zine does well… Visit his page, e-mail him or send money or free stuff to: TCI 5820 N. Murray Ave. Ste. D-12, Charleston, SC 29406.

The Comics Interpreter Volume 2 #1 Now Available! $5

It’s things like this that make me wonder if I’m wasting my time writing reviews. I have fun rambling about comics, sure, and I like to think that I’m at least giving enough information away about something to make people interested in a book, but the way this guy writes reviews… He’s informative, funny, and intelligent without crossing that “Comic’s Journal” line of being overwhelmingly pretentious at times. Granted, it’s still not a magazine that any random person could pick up on my coffee table and enjoy, but it’s impossible to make a magazine about comics that fits that criteria. Looks like this issue finally got printed, which is great news, and it’s $6. In here are plenty of reviews that put the words on these pages to shame and two hugely entertaining interviews, especially when you consider that I knew nothing at all about Hans Rickheit and Paul Pope before this. There’s also a section where readers weigh in on the most interesting person in comics, and did I mention the reviews? Check this out, give those people at Fantagraphics some competition!

The Comics Interpreter Volume 2 #2 Now Available! $5

The Comics Interpreter Volume 2 #3

Why is this listed as quite possibly the last issue of this series? Is there really nobody out there who wants to find out about random small press people that you’ve probably never heard of? Is it blind, slavish devotion to The Comics Journal to the exclusion of every other magazine about comics? Whatever the case, it’s a damned shame that Robert is struggling to get to #4 of this series when he’s doing such a great job with this. #3 of this series has interview with David Rees, James Jean and Tak Toyoshima. He has a lengthy essay about whatever happened to the Moore/Sienkowitz project Big Numbers, reviews of a few comics and a special section dedicated to piling on that dipshit we have for President. In other words, a solid issue dealing with people I’ve never heard of and with more than a few comic strips. I don’t know what I can tell you about this, folks. It’s always kind of odd reviewing, um, a reviewer. I don’t agree with him on everything he writes (which is a good thing in my book), but I always find my position challenged by the way he tackles an argument or a particular comic. If you like this site because you like finding hidden gems in the comics world, you should do yourself a favor and check out this magazine. Any issue, from what I’ve seen, has all kinds of great stuff in it. And, of course, there’s the stuff that I don’t much care about, but it’s a 64 page magazine. I don’t mind “not getting” a few pages, and neither should you. Sorry if this review came off as even more of a rant than usual, but I think Robert should be given a chance to keep going with this magazine, as I want to see what it’s like 10 years from now. Check it out, contact info is up there…

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Posted by Kevin

Crumb, Robert

December 28, 2004

Misogynist? Racist? Somebody who hates the world? Or a master of social satire? Hell, I don’t know. But if anybody is curious to find out, there is certainly a pile of books out there that should help you figure it out. He’s produced some of the most talked about comics of the last 40 years and has (for better or worse) influenced an entire generation of cartoonists. I’ve read a bunch of his comics, but very few of these giant books. Luckily, most of them are at the library, so you should still get my two cents worth on these at some point. Until then, a good starting point would probably be somewhere in the middle of the Complete Crumb volumes. Why the middle? Well, this is a thorough synopsis of his career, and the first couple of volumes are kind of short on comics, focusing more on his illustration work with Hallmark and some other various things. If you’re just looking for the comics, they start to focus completely on that right around #4 or 5. As for all of the other books, until I find out what they’re all about, enter at your own risk.

The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book

Looks like a pretentious mess at the bookstore, but I think that’s what it’s supposed to look like. I still think the best way to go if you really like Crumb is to buy all the Complete volumes from Fantagraphics. If you just like him a little bit or are just curious, I guess something like this would be OK.

Odds and Ends

A collection of things done for greeting cards, advertisements and other random things. Probably only something you would really want to get if you’re a big time fan of his work, but what do I know?

Crumb Family Comic

If you saw the Crumb documentary, you know how messed up the rest of his family is. So please, join them all for comic fun!

Book of Mr. Natural

Remember that old bald man with a beard in a lot of his older comics? You know, the hippy. I never thought much of those stories that I saw (not that I saw more than a fraction of them), but if you liked them, here’s a collection of them for you.

R. Crumb Draws the Blues

I believe this is a collection of all the strips that Crumb did relating to people who played the blues of jazz back in the day. Seems obvious from the title, right? Anyway, I know he is a big record collector and I’m sure he knows a lot about most of those guys from the early part of the century. It’s probably fascinating reading and this is at least one of the ones that I’m going to get when I’m rich. What do you mean I’m never going to get rich running a website based on good comics?

The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics

OK, I don’t like his wife. I’m sure she’s a nice person and all that, but her comics have just never done anything for me. The parts that Crumb draws are OK, except that they’re few and far between. Stay away, Joe.

Your Vigor For Life Appalls Me: Robert Crumb Letters 1958-1977

I ordered this a couple of years ago and was told that it was cancelled, so I got my money back. This is the first time I’ve seen it since then, so I guess it does exist. Not a comic, obviously, but it has to be an essential look into the mind of a unique guy.

The Life and Times of R. Crumb: Comments From Contemporaries

My initial impression when I saw this at the bookstore was that it was probably way too biased to be fair, as it was edited by a friend of his. I still don’t know if that snap judgment was true or not, but if anybody out there has read this and can tell me, let me know.

My Troubles With Women

If you have some kind of problem with Fantagraphics or just don’t want to buy all 15 (and counting) volumes of his collected work, this would probably be the one to get. A lot of his neuroses come from his dealings with and feelings for women, and that’s what this book is dedicated to. I’d buy it if I wasn’t planning to eventually get all the volumes.

R. Crumb’s America

Well, the only review of this on Amazon says that it’s a jumbled mess, but what do they know? If you’re curious about his view of the country (and keep in mind that he left in disgust for good in the mid 90’s), then you should probably consider getting this. It’s apparently a collection of a whole bunch of his stories about America, from the 60’s through the 90’s, so it might be interesting to see how his views change.

Big Yum Yum Book: The Story of Oggie and the Beanstalk

This is a book that he did as a teenager with one of his brothers, I think. It’s (so they say) a remarkably innocent book, considering what his later work consisted of. Might be interesting if you’re a completist or something, otherwise it’s probably not essential reading.

The Life and Death of Fritz the Cat

This is a character that he killed off basically because he hated the movie that was made about the cat. Most of the stories are just dressed-up hippie stuff, so unless that’s your thing, don’t bother. I’d much rather read some of his autobiography or stuff from the 80’s on up than any of this.

Complete Crumb Volume 2: More Years of Bitter Struggle

Complete Crumb Volume 3: Starring Fritz the Cat

This is the only one of these volumes that I actually own, and it’s not very good. Too many greeting cards and things that, as a fan mostly of his comics, I really could care less about. I’m not going to comment on the other ones until I get them from the library (or find a box of money), so take what you can from the title or click the link to see what Amazon has to say about them if you’re curious.

Complete Crumb Volume 4: Mr. Sixties

Complete Crumb Volume 5: Happy Hippy Comix

Complete Crumb Volume 6: On the Crest of a Wave

Complete Crumb Volume 7: Hot ‘N’ Heavy

Complete Crumb Volume 8: Death of Fritz the Cat

Complete Crumb Volume 9: R. Crumb Versus the Sisterhood

Complete Crumb Volume 10: Crumb Advocates Violent Overthrow

Complete Crumb Volume 11: Mr. Natural Confined to a Mental Institution

Complete Crumb Volume 12: We’re Livin’ in the Lap of Luxury

Complete Crumb Volume 13: Season of the Snoid

Complete Crumb Volume 14: The Early 80’s and Weirdo Magazine

Complete Crumb Volume 15

R. Crumb Sketchbook Volume 3

I’ve never been a fan of sketchbooks. Probably because I can’t draw my way out of a paper bag, but there you have it. For those of you who have to have everything that this man has done, here you go. Each of these volumes represents basically a year of him sitting around drawing, and if that’s what floats your boat then I’m sure you could find the rest of them at the Fantagraphics homepage. Same goes for the Complete Crumb volumes I don’t have here too, probably.

R. Crumb Sketchbook Volume 6

R. Crumb Sketchbook Volume 7

R. Crumb Sketchbook Volume 8

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Dunlap, Rob & Lumby, Peter – Tozzer2 #1

December 28, 2004

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Tozzer2 #1

Just to make one thing perfectly clear: I’m basing my opinion on one issue of a mini series, and apparently there was already a mini series that came before this, so maybe I’m just a bit lost or behind everybody else. Still, this didn’t do much for me at all. What’s this comic about? Tozzer and his crew having adventures, I suppose. It’s so packed with parody that it was hard for me to make out the story. You have Michael Jackson and his ape traveling around and looking for Tozzer, Samuel Jackson (the Pulp Fiction character) and his Yoda puppet, Eminem, George Lucas, and more Matrix parodies than you can shake a stick at, if you have a stick handy. Oh, and judging by the cover, the next issue is about Michael Moore being very fat and trying to eat people. I’ll wait an issue or two until I totally make up my mind (the second issue is sitting here and I’ll get to it soon), but this looks to me like a bunch of tired, tired parodies being done one more time. There’s plenty good to be said for the art, and there were more than a few points that there was a gag or something that made me chuckle, but it’s more than a bit of a mess when you put it all together. Here’s a website, I’m hoping that this is just a bad first impression and it’ll get better later…

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Posted by Kevin

Kuper, Peter

December 26, 2004

Website

Stop Forgetting To Remember

Whenever anybody only slightly familiar with comics would ask me what were some of the great uncollected graphic novels (or something approaching the nebulous term “graphic novel”) out there, I would always lead with Peter Kuper. Bleeding Heart and The Wild Life were two of the great, though short-lived, titles of the 90’s. Or was it even as far back as the 80’s? Either way, they told, in small pieces, the story of Peter’s awakening as an artist and a human being, him experimentations with drugs and sex, and were told with such brutal honesty and artistry that is was impossible not to take them as the best of the craft. This book collects those stories, wraps them around new interstitial bits, and throws in some new material from the years since those two series were widely available. In this volume Peter, loosely disguised as Walt, grows up (trying to have sex, with little success, along the way), does a lot of drugs, bemoans at least one relationship that he was clearly better off without, and finally has a kid of his own. Peter’s work is pretty widely available for a cartoonist these days, there are plenty of things on this page you can get from Amazon, a little digging will get you through to most of his other published work. Still, I’d maintain that not only is this volume the best thing he’s ever done, it’s one of the best things ever done in the medium. Many people before and after (but mostly after) Peter tried to pull off autobiography like this, brutally honest but still not completely focused on self-indulgent navel gazing, and very few of them came close to pulling it off this well. This is simply one of the best books of this or any other year, and it’s about damned time that it’s available in a “respectable” format. It’s $20, cheaper through most of the online stores, and if you like comics even a little bit there’s no chance that you’ll regret getting this.

The Metamorphosis

There’s a reason why I don’t often update the pages of people like Peter Kuper. What’s left to say? What do I have to say about a book by one of the legends of comics that hasn’t been said before, by somebody who’s actually able to put together intelligent, coherent sentences? Then again, if I took that attitude with all these books I wouldn’t do anything, so screw it. This is an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, probably one of the most imitated books ever. For those of you who never went to a school that taught this, assuming that’s possible, it’s the story of a traveling salesman who wakes up one day to find out that he’s been transformed into a giant bug. His family and his employers, understandably, are more than a little upset by this development, and the rest of the story is a slow, painful descent into the inevitable. Kuper has adapted ome other Kafka stories over the years in various places, but he’s really outdone himself here. His dark, thick lines are perfect for the atmosphere of despair that’s so prevalent. Every character in this is adapted perfectly. The angry, bitter father, the mother in denial, the sister who cares for him but can’t stand to look at him, even his boss is nailed. If you don’t already love Peter’s work there’s probably not much that I can say to convince you, but this is an incredible, lovely book. I miss the comics he did that were more personal, but there’s a whole lot to be said for this. Check out his website, and you could probably find some of his older comics for cheap here and there, like at the Fantagraphics website.

Speechless

Give it Up: And Other Short Stories

Eye of the Beholder

Mind’s Eye: An Eye of the Beholder Collection

The System

Peter Kuper’s Comic Strips: A Journal of Travels Through Africa

World War 3 Illustrated 1980-1988

World War 3 Illustrated: Confrontational Comics

Stripped

New York, New York

Topsy Turvy

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Posted by Kevin

Hornschemeier, Paul – Forlorn Funnies #3

December 26, 2004

Website

Forlorn Funnies #3

This issue looks like the middle of a three part story, and in this case that means that’s in between the huge events. Or maybe that’s a simplistic way to look at it, I don’t know. Anyway, the father (David) copes with his deteriorating mental state and the son (Thomas) deals with his new life with his aunt and uncle. Overall it didn’t blow me away as much as some of his other issues have, but it’s like writing a review on a few chapters of a novel. I’ll know a lot more when I know how it ends. It looks beautiful, of course, and he does such a great job with that that it’s recommended because of that, if nothing else. I wouldn’t pick it up if you’re looking to try out his work though. Wait until the collected edition of this story comes out, then you might have an amazing thing to read…

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Posted by Kevin

Chadwick, Paul

December 26, 2004

Website

Concrete – Killer Smile

I know, I’m veering a little from the “indie” ideal that I’m trying to promote here. I don’t care. This page is dedicated to bringing small press things to the attention of a larger audience, true. However, I’m also here to show what I believe are the best comics currently on the market. And while Concrete hasn’t had anything new in a couple of years, it’s still widely overlooked and one of the better books of the past 15 years. If you passed it up because you think that it’s just some stupid superhero who’s covered in cement, well, you’re in for quite a surprise. If you pick up a volume or two, that is.

Concrete – Strange Armor

I guess you’d have to call this the “origin” story, for lack of a better term. This book wonderfully shows how a regular human being deals with being cut off from certain sensations by being trapped in an alien body, conceivably for the rest of his life.

Complete Concrete

And to think that I was talking shit about this book not being as polished as his later works. It’s not, I guess, but that doesn’t take away any of its charm. This is the original ten issue series from Dark Horse all in one volume, and it’s big. It tells the tale of Concrete scaling Mount Everest, attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean, helping a troubled farm out, freeing some trapped miners, being the bodyguard for a rock star, and telling his origin story to Larry. If these all seem like fantastic adventures, they really don’t feel that way in the book. That’s the beauty of this work. The main character is so down to earth that nothing fantastic that he ever does seems like something that the average person wouldn’t try, if given the same opportunity. I did mention at some point that he’s not a superhero of any kind, right?

The best parts of this book are the quiet parts. Concrete eyeing Larry when he meets his (unknowing) love interest, or his fear of scaring little children, or even the exact moment when he knows that he has jumped too far while avoiding the cops and he sighs before falling into a swimming pool. It’s the little things that make characters human, and these little things are done to perfection. I said before that this might not be the best starting point for this series because the writing and the art both get so much better in the later series. That’s true, but this is a good starting point. It may get a lot better, but this stuff is pretty damned good in its own right. And this way you get to see his evolution as a being who is trapped in a giant concrete shell, instead of picking it up at a later point and trying to figure out what’s going on. This isn’t the best book I’ve ever seen at dealing with interpersonal relationships, Love and Rockets takes the cake for that. But this series is one that I look forward to coming out more than most, and the lack of anything new for the last couple of years has been tough. This is quite possibly the best “ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances” story ever done in any genre, and that’s saying a lot when you look at all the movies I’ve watched and all the books I’ve read. If there are people out there who hate this book, please, let me know. I want to hear any possible argument against this series as being (all around) one of the best comics series ever.

Concrete – Think Like a Mountain

My personal favorite of the Concrete books. He spends time with a group of radical environmentalists and has to choose between doing what he thinks is morally right and what is legal. Fascinating and compelling.

Concrete – Fragile Creature

Concrete is commissioned to do stunts for a low budget sci-fi movie. Naturally, things get more complicated than that.

Complete Concrete Short Stories 1986-1989

It’s usually not a good sign when the author says in his introduction that he never had any intention of doing short stories with his character. It’s a good thing he did though, and he readily admits that later on. It helps a lot to have read the first book of Concrete before you read this, but it’s far from essential. A couple of things are mentioned, like his transatlantic swim and his experience on a movie set (from Fragile Creature, which wasn’t done until three years after the introduction was done) that it helps to know a little bit, but only in passing. And, as with all collections of short stories, the quality varies. Different stories were obviously done for different things. The enviromentalism short Stay Tuned for Pearl Harbor was probably good at the time but seems dated now. Of course, I remember reading science fiction stories from the 60’s and 70’s that had the same message and they were ignored too.

My favorite piece in the book (and I wasn’t expecting this at all, I remembered it as being Little Pushes) was probably the last one in the book, Visible Breath. A simple tale of Maureen and Larry stopping at a hotel for the night with Concrete staying out in the bushes to avoid paying a hefty insurance fee to have him sleep in the room. All of his fears about Maureen falling for Larry come to the surface and there’s also an adventure with a drunken man trying to find his room. Quiet and funny, it’s this kind of story that makes Concrete great. There’s plenty of good stuff in here. The two stories with the sitcom about the talking heads was obviously barely connected to Concrete at all, but they were both OK stories. We get to see Concrete try to fit in at a party and on a beach and fail miserably. We get to see his biggest fan, a Ms. Strangehands, and her thoughts about what kind of a man he really is.

There’s nothing really holding this book together though, and that’s its biggest flaw. I know, books of short stories aren’t supposed to have anything holding them together. True. That’s why I don’t like them as much as graphic novels. That’s my personal preference and I’m sticking to it. It’s not a bad book by any means. If you already have read other Concrete books and love the characters but thought that maybe the short stories sucked, you were wrong. If you’ve never read any of this stuff, don’t buy this. You won’t know who these people are and it isn’t a good starting point. It you want to start reading this series and don’t want to start right in the middle (which is where he’s doing his best work, assuming that right now is “right in the middle” and he still has a lot of stories planned), then buy the first book. If you like that, buy this book as something like a companion to it. The art gets a lot better later and so do the stories, but they start off pretty damned good. And he is not a superhero of any kind, so anybody who thinks that can check that idea at the door. It’s the story of the life of a normal man trying to do good with a pretty amazing situation that he finds himself stuck in, and there’s not really anything else like it in comics.

Complete Concrete Short Stories 1990-1995

More of the same, but his style was definitely becoming tighter and more focused.

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Posted by Kevin

Powell, Nate – Walkie Talkie #4

December 26, 2004

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Walkie Talkie #4

Three cheers for another brilliant comic by somebody I’ve never heard of. I caught part 2 of a 2 part story, so I missed a lot of the necessary information to make this make any sense, and I still loved it. The writing is incredible, the art is damned near flawless, there’s just nothing to complain about here. Has this guy been doing comics for years with me missing out, or is he just an amazingly gifted newcomer? I don’t know how much I should tell you about this because I’m sure to give a lot away for people who should really buy this (and, I’d guess, the other issues) for themselves. My take on it is that it’s about regret, a dog, a bird, loss, and a prophecy. And melting, but not really. Look, just buy it. If you trust my judgment yet, just trust me. If you don’t, well, buy this and you can decide if you like the same stuff as me, OK? Send him money ($2.95) at: 7205 Geronimo N. Little Rock AK 72116. Or e-mail him to see what he has available.

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Posted by Kevin

Leoncini, Mike – The Crash of Metal #0

December 26, 2004

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The Crash of Metal #0

I should point out right away that I liked this comic. The close ups on the faces in the early stories were creepy as hell and I thought he did an incredible job of illustrating the futility of daily existence and trying to fit in with people who are “out having fun”. My main problem is that some of his stories of things he had seen and heard were downright dull, which I guess is just the point he was trying to establish. Another problem I had with the book were the sketchbook pages, and I only had a problem there because there was a drastic drop in quality from the rest of the book. The stories were about as good, the art wasn’t. Other than that, fans of Ivan Brunetti rejoice, as all this guy needs is a loveless marriage to become equally miserable. Stories in here include Blind People Make Me Nervous, The Disquiet Is Deafening, The Kiss (one of the more disturbingly realistic stories I’ve seen in a while), Don’t Fuckin’ Touch Me!!! and a comic he did for his Granny. E-mail him to see if he’s still OK, or just where to send a couple of bucks, as this is one fucked up comic that shouldn’t be missed.

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Posted by Kevin

Kelso, Megan

December 26, 2004

Website

Queen of the Black Black

Anybody with any sense of the history of mini comics remembers Girlhero. This is a collection of the best of the short works in that volume. What the heck is she doing these days anyway? I read that she’s going to have something in the next issue of NON, but why doesn’t she have her own series of some kind? Anybody a really big fan who knows more that I do? I’m really curious.

Girlhero #4

Girlhero #5

Girlhero #6

Hooray, some of these are in print! Found ’em at Megan’s homepage, which also has an interview with Brian Ralph and all kinds of other things. Visit it and look around, won’t you? She’s also doing a continuing story over at the Highwater page. See, and here I thought she wasn’t doing anything these days…

Unspoken

Her website says that this was put out in 1995 and it had all of her non-Girlhero work in it. It’s only $2 and I’m sure curious to see what’s in there…

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