I briefly thought that there was a printing problem with this issue, as the title and author is on the back cover, before I figured out that it’s more like a manga. A tip for you, gentle reader, so you maybe don’t fumble around as much as I did. Or at least part of the story is, while the rest starts from the usual (in America) front of the book. Although you can kind of read that part right after the initial story on the side with the title and author and it’ll still work in that order. OK fine I’ll fess up! This one didn’t completely click for me. Blame it on the manga aspects (I still haven’t read enough of that for it to feel natural to read a story in the “wrong” order), I’ll absolutely accept the blame for that. There’s still a lot to like here, even if I feel like I’m missing the big picture. The haunting cadence of a whole lot of the dialogue, the absolutely otherworldly sandy area where they’re all trapped, the inhuman masks on the walls (and how they may or may not tie in to the rest of the mystery), all that kind of stuff. And Yokoyama has put out all kinds of books, so it’s not like he’s some new artist which, once again, proves that I’m the dummy here. These things happen! On the other hand, what a great opportunity for you to just get the bundle of four comics instead of just one. You may find this one a headscratcher too, but even if you do, you’ll have the three other latest mini kus books to keep you entertained. $8 for this, or $22 for the bundle.
Was I expecting to get my heart broken while reading the latest Nugget comic? Reader, I was not. I mean sure, Tony’s work is getting better with each issue of Nugget, and it had already started off strong. But generally speaking my overall mood after reading one of his comics has been more “what did I just read” and/or “oh, so THAT’S what he was going for,” and this one… but hey, I’m getting ahead of myself. There are two stories in this issue, one very short to start things off followed by the much longer piece. Things start off with Nugget taking a walk in the woods with his mother, where he eventually finds and takes home a caterpillar. Anybody who’s done that themselves knows what’s coming next, and that’s the shocking discovery of that caterpillar somehow being replaced by a cocoon, and then a butterfly. It’s a sweet story about the inevitability of change and accepting it when it happens, which serves to make the next story all the more devastating. It’s told mostly (though not entirely) in alternating panels or pages, and it’s not apparent what’s happening for a couple of pages. One panel will depict Nugget’s mother in a variety of scenarios raising young Nugget, then the next image will show adult Nugget taking care of his visibly older and frailer mother. It’s relentless and the end of the story is inevitable; Tony has really stepped up his game with the facial expressions to really take the reader on a journey. Nugget was clearly trying his best but overwhelmed and so very sad, his aged mother was often terrified, confused and embarrassed, and the images of some of the best moments of his childhood juxtaposed with the heartbreaking reality of those final days and months of a life were just brutal. But not completely, because there was still so much love and joy in the memories of their younger days. It was reckoning with a complete life, good and bad, and it’s probably Tony’s best work. Plenty of people will find parallels to events they’re experiencing with their own parents and family, that’s for sure. If you’re looking for more mayhem I’d recommend some of his other issues, but the overall best issue is probably this one. $10
New review today for Perfect Love by Giovanna Fabi, which is the second to last mini kus book that I have left to review this time around. And I can’t believe this to be true, but it looks like nobody has donated to Ron Rege Jr.s fundraiser in a week? Shame on y’all. No, not you, you’re too broke to donate, nobody blames you. But the rest of you? Just throw a few bucks at the man already.
Just so you know, l’il reader, I used the Google translate option to link Giovanna’s website in English. If it doesn’t actually work that way you can do the same thing, or if you know Italian (or want to learn) there’s always the original version. The clues for this story are visible on the very first page, which makes it yet another one of those comics that’s tricky to talk about without giving too much away. Should I give up on my “no spoiler” stance? Maybe assume that 90% of the people who come to this website just click on the link for the artist and don’t bother reading any of this nonsense? Eh, I kind of have to assume that people do read this, so you all once again get to witness me dancing around a comic without saying too much about it. It went in directions that I didn’t expect, including an ending that smacks the reader right between the eyes, is what I can say without giving anything away. Things start off with <spoiler>, then we shift to a rapturously happy couple in bed. There’s a sudden strangeness in the air that they both notice, then one of them leaves, as that person obviously knows exactly what that strangeness signified. A plea is made and heard for more time together, and that’s right around the part where their partner also decided to leave the bedroom and find out what was going on. I thought that the little boxes all over the pages really added to the sense of claustrophobia of the whole thing, but it looks like Giovanna uses it in a lot of her work, proving once again that “what the heck does he know anyway?” is always a valid response to my reviews. Anyway, yes it’s worth a look, and as always the better deal is getting four of these mini kus books at once for $22 rather than just one for $8. But I’m not the boss of you!
New review today for Random Short Stories By A Future Best Seller by Brian Canini. Since I’m writing this on Sunday, I have no way of knowing if Ron Rege Jr.’s fundraiser has his 100% yet, but if it hasn’t, he’s almost there, so help the man out, won’t you?
What’s left to say about Brian’s work? It’s alarming to think about how much I must have repeated myself by now, maybe 50 comic reviews in and 20 (ish?) years later. So here’s something: I’ve seen a whole lot of collections of comics by single creators that have appeared in various anthologies over the years. I’m always a fan of the idea; far too many great stories disappear from memory because they were only available in an anthology that had a print run of 20 copies and disappeared forever. But a lot of people, at least some of the time, tend to phone it in for those types of stories. I’ve read several of Brian’s anthologies now, and I’ve never once gotten that impression. Anyway, hey, look at this, it’s a collection of short stories from various anthologies! Brian lists where these first appeared for the curious, and this might be the first time where I don’t think I’ve read even one of these stories before. This one has 11 stories (even though it looks like more when the four panel strips are listed separately), starting with Gilmore Girls Vs. Godzilla, just to warn you right off if you were in the mood for some quiet autobiographical stories. An excellent punchline to that one, and some oddly plausible action before that (OF COURSE coffee would affect the Gilmore Girls in roughly the same way that spinach does Popeye). Next up is some unwelcome relationship advice in dealing with an abusive partner, which I can’t say any more about because I’m not going to spoil a thing about that ending. Then there’s the story of Brian dressing up as a hobo for Halloween (as a small child), an entirely too plausible Jurassic Park sequel (which they honestly may have done by now), and a fantasy sword slasher, sort of. Probably the most disturbing story in the comic is next, and if I told you that it’s centered around a cheese ball and that’s it’s occasionally terrifying I doubt that you’d believe me. And yet! The other big story in here deals with a man driving to Texas, happy to get away from the snow, only to land in a blizzard. Was I expecting the punchline to this one? Once again, I was not! There are also a few more stories but hey, who doesn’t love surprises? It’s another solid collection of comics that requires reading no previous issues to understand, so if you’ve been seeing Brian’s name for years here but were never sure where to dive in, right here would do just fine! $8
That mini kus train just keeps rolling along, so here’s a review for The Big Spill by Janne Marie Dauer. You know, I was going to let the Ron Rege Jr. fundraiser thing go because he’s so close to his goal, so surely that’s good enough? But no, it turns out that I can’t stand the fact that it’s at 96%. That’s so close! As of this writing (on Sunday) that’s less than $600 away! Let’s wrap this up, shall we? Don’t make me post another one of these next week where he’s stuck at 99%…
So there are a couple of ways to interpret the fact that it took me roughly half of this comic to fully understand that it’s entirely fictional. One is that Janne is such an excellent storyteller that the same thing would likely happen to most people who read this comic. Another is that I’m a gullible rube. Luckily, both things can be true! This is the story of a young woman who’s trying to save up to leave her home town to go to college. She’s working a fairly brutal factory job at a candy factory and saving even more money by living with her grandmother, and we learn a couple of facts about candy factories that are more than a little gross and alarming (unless they’re entirely made up too; I can no longer trust my own judgment). One day her boss makes an offer to her: he needs a truckload of gummy worms disappear so he can get the tax write-off, and he needs somebody to do the dirty deed. Since her main goal in life is to get as much money as quickly as she can, she has no real choice but to agree to the scheme. She dumps them in the woods, but unfortunately a massive rainstorm washes them away and right back through town, where they’ve mixed with some other chemicals in the river and have puffed up to massive sizes. The story becomes a global phenomenon, she’s mortified and avoids work for a few days before finally deciding to face the music… and finds her life completely changed, but not in the way she was expecting. The rest of the comic showcases her new skill set and the whole story is told as a confessional that gets to the bottom of what really happened. See? Plausible that I could have bought into it! Check it out, it’s a hell of a story, and you can figure out if you would have fallen for it too without some advance warning. Be honest! $8 (or $22 for a set of four comics)
New review today for Animal Denial by Emilie Gleason, as we’ve now passed the halfway mark of mini kus books. Also Ron Rege Jr. is still trying to get to 100% for his gofundme after his recent accident. I blame the fact that I forgot to post the link the last time around on it not being 100% yet. After all, the people who read this nonsense all do it because they love comics, right? He’s one of the best artists around, so if you can throw any amount of dollars his way, please do so.
If you’re wondering which of the 8 comics that mini kus sent along this time had my favorite cover, well, you’re looking at it. Come on, that should win all of the prizes. Also I’m not going to do the thing I sometimes do where I post the synopsis on the back of the comic here verbatim, but it might be the most misleading one so far, in a hilarious way (the people who read that in the hopes of reading this comic to get better arguments in favor of being a carnivore had to go away disappointed). So what’s the comic about? Well, a doofus (depicted below being told that he should use his hat as toilet paper, based on his previous arguments) finds out that he can’t get anything with meat in it at a party. Furious, he leaves to find meat. Biting a dog doesn’t end well, so after his encounter below he chases a runner, because she must eat meat! Nope, she’s vegan too, and lists lots of famous people who are also vegan (with the important disclaimer that they’re all also rich). But he does finally make his way to the slaughterhouse, and there is where the fun really starts. Is it really fun? Good god no. It also passes up several opportunities to turn preachy, instead relying on the most terrible thing of all: facts. What the lives (and deaths) of the cows are like, the tortures that pigs go through (and how they’re forced to live before and during those tortures), and let’s not even get into the grim reality of chickens (what did you think their lives were like now that breasts and thighs are so much bigger)? The amazing thing about the comic is that it somehow manages to be hilarious at several points. It shouldn’t be! But Emilie gets there. Still, if you’re already vegan, you should pass these out to your friends who are still resisting. If you’re like me and still hanging on the meat eating lifestyle, this will thoroughly expose the fact that only argument you’re left with is “but it tastes good!” $8 (or $22 for a pack of four mini kus books)
New review today for Cities by Chris Auman! Also, “old man yells at clouds” rant incoming, so feel free to bow out now. I tried to order comics from several of the artists at CAKE (you remember, the show in Chicago I missed a few weeks back). And folks, it’s grim out there. No links to the creators on the CAKE website, which is a missed opportunity on their part, especially since several people share names with at least mildly famous people, so good luck finding their comics online. Then when I did manage to find the artist, over half of the ones I found didn’t have any link to buying physical copies of their books. Their choice, but I was desperate to give them money and couldn’t, so I guess the plan is working perfectly? Out of the ones that were left, one asked me to sign up for another subscription thing (nope, maxed out already), one only offered Paypal (even though mine seemed to be working fine, I’ll take the blame for my account not working properly with their website) and several didn’t have their latest comics listed and looked like their store hadn’t been updated in ages. Maybe everything is digital now and I’ve been left behind. I’ll get up to Quimby’s one of these days (after I find out what’s currently wrong with my car, which already ruined my plans last weekend), and I got frustrated and didn’t check every name on that list, but yikes. To the one person who read that whole thing, I apologize.
Cities! We all live in them (probably). This comic contains some of Chris’s ideas for what cities could be, or at least where they could be; he also has a lengthy introduction where he speculates on what could be going on in these cities, but since they exist in worlds that we can’t get to yet, it’s hard to say much for sure. This is a silent comic (after that introduction) with titles for what type of cities are depicted on these two page spreads, and since it’s silent it’s once again one of those things where I’d be giving away the comic if I said too much about what types of cities are depicted. There are some solid ideas in here (and some ideas that will almost certainly come true if humanity is going to survive all of the climate change going on), and if you’re the type with a solid imagination, you’re absolutely going to take a few minutes out of your day to wonder what a city in a tree would actually be like. Oops, I gave away one of the cities! Anyway, this is a fun (and occasionally gorgeous) comic, so give it a shot why don’t you? Especially if you’ve read some of his other comics and enjoyed them. Eh, you know how comics work by now right? $6
Is it possible for a comic to be heartbreakingly quirky? Devastating and darkly funny? It almost feels like “bittersweet” could work, but that’s still not quite right. Hey, it looks like another mini kus book where you’ll have to figure it out for yourselves! If you’re curious, “etchingroom1” is an artistic group comprised of Kristina Yarosh and Anna Khodkova; since I have no idea if this was a group effort or the vision of one of them, I’m putting the collective name in the title and their real names as tags. More information than you needed or wanted, but there it is! This one starts off as a typical day, until the author walks by a candy shop. This brings up all kinds of memories of a recent heartbreak, and what follows are a series of imaginary candies that depict what it feels like to be going through a breakup and what comes after it. Most of these are double page spreads (and somehow manage to be both hilarious, grim and entirely too true), and I don’t want to give them away in the review. Outside of the sampled image, anyway, which kind of says it all about the “I know we shouldn’t be dating but I can’t bring myself to say anything” stage of dating. A few of these felt like gut punches, and if you’re ever been in love and then had it end badly you’ll most likely feel the same way. If you’ve never been in love but are curious about heartbreak (or are that mythical creature who married their high school sweetheart and have never had any problems), then this comic would do you some good too. See how the other half (or really 99%) live! This is $8 solo or $22 for a set of four comics; this is also the fourth comic of that set, so if you go back over the last few weeks you’ll see my reviews for the other comics and maybe that can help you make up your mind?
Last week was crazy for a few reasons, so my apologies for the lack of updates. Specifically it involved almost going on strike and moving offices in the same week, if you’re curious. But hey, there’s a new review today for They Must Know What They’re Doing by Fran Lopez, so all is right with the world. Also I mentioned the fundraiser for Ron Rege Jr a couple of weeks back, and that’s still ongoing. It’s great that a small press cartoonist was able to get (as of right now) 84% of his goal. But that’s not exactly 100%, and there have to be at least a few people reading this who have loved his comics for possibly decades. If you can afford it at all, please throw some money at the man to help him get through a rough patch.
Is there such a thing as the perfect title? Maybe it’s just that I’m extrapolating it to also include the current state of the world and so very many world leaders, which was probably not Fran’s intention. But hey, it also works pretty damned well for these two stories, so kudos to him. As that cover says, there are two stories in here. The first one starts off with two revolutionaries in a situation that is rarely seen in popular culture: the moments before they go out on their dangerous mission, just making small talk and making sense of it all. The masks that they have to wear, for example, don’t let the person turn their head and still see properly. Part of the plan or further evidence that the bosses don’t know what they’re doing? One of the two revolutionaries has one opinion and the other chooses to be optimistic about the whole thing. We don’t see the actual event at all, but instead check back in with the two of them after things have gone horribly wrong, and this time they have to make a terrible decision by themselves. The second story is a bit more lighthearted, at least on the surface. There’s a monk who, after spending most of his life as a fairly normal and unremarkable person, suddenly shows up every morning in a new and ridiculous pose. He also can’t be moved from these new poses, despite the best efforts of the other monks and townspeople. Has he revolutionized how to practice his religion, or is there something else going on? Fran is becoming a master (if he’s not there already) of depicting the quiet moments and not taking anything at face value. This is another damned fine comic, so if you haven’t been reading his stuff yet, this is yet another good chance to get into it. $5
New review for Fire Rabbit by Yuma Wang, as the mini kus train keeps chugging along. I’ve mentioned several times that I usually write these reviews on the weekends and have them autopost during the week, but I’m mentioning it again because Ron Rege Jr. is still doing a gofundme fundraiser after a rough accident, and as of this writing he’s at 71% of his goal. Maybe by the time you read this he’ll be up to 100%! But if not, help the guy out, will you? He’s one of the best around at this comics business and he could use a hand.
I feel like if I say that this book had a slow burn that I’ll be cast out of polite society, but I’m saying it anyway. Of course, if you read the synopsis on the back of the book (or the website) the whole story is right there, but I’ll still try my usual shtick of avoiding spoilers. This one starts off with our hero asleep in bed, with both hands immersed in buckets of water. For the first few pages we see her going about her day, always careful to keep her hands covered, before running into a child who’s becoming encased in ice. She takes her hands out of the buckets and they immediately burst into flames, which turns out to be a lifelong condition for her. She also runs into a thirsty dog (and has to give a warning about the hot water) and an assault, which is a pretty easy thing to break up if your hands burst into flame. Finally things take a turn for the worse, with life or death stakes for our hero. Can she get herself out of a mess? It’s another delightful tale from the mini kus folks, and it even stays that way if you stop reading before the ending. Oops, that was damned near a spoiler. Anyway, it’s worth checking out, and as always you can either buy it for $8 or buy four issues for $22. The savvy shopper, of course, always buys in bulk. $8
New review today for Six Mini Comics by M.S. Harkness. Hey, guess who has two thumbs and got sick and didn’t go CAKE in Chicago this weekend? Yep, it’s this guy! It was also a solid reminder that if you can go to either day of a con, always go to the first one. I felt fine on Saturday damn it! So I’ll be using the old Google to search the artists from the show and buy some books online. Not as fun and more expensive overall, but I’ll get at least a partial sampling from the show.
Posted by Kevin 
