June 10, 2015
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The Jernagen Solution
OK, I’ll just tell you up front that this will be one of those cases where I dance around the substance of the story, as I’d like to leave it as a surprise for anybody reading it. Yes, even though the events of this comic should make it clear where things are headed. It’s based on events from 1898, which is far enough removed that nobody living then is still with us today (or if they are they almost certainly were too young to remember this), so why not leave it a surprise? Even if it is kind of a surprise that you can see coming? Let me just put my dancing shoes away and get down to it. This is the story of a revolutionary kind of technology that was discovered in 1898. A reverend (who claimed to have had a vision from god) and a chemist got together and found a way to extract gold from ocean water. As this would lead to gold being available in almost limitless supplies, they then went out to attract donors so that they could build more facilities and extract more gold. The story is told mostly from the point of view of a local journalist (Dan does a fantastic job on the back cover of going over which bits were real and which bits were based on his best guess, and he had to guess the personality of the journalist) and how he goes from skepticism to belief after seeing the process in action. He also documents the change that occurs over the town, as that much money coming in that quickly would be bound to cause some upheaval. There’s a bit of a twist towards the end, which you probably see coming even from reading this review, but I’m not going to be the one to spell it out for you. This is a thoroughly engaging comic that details a bit of American history that I was completely unaware of, and what better reason is there for a historical comic than that? Frankly, I wish more people did comics based on true events (Emi Gennis seemingly has a near-monopoly on it these days), as your options are damned near limitless. It’s a pricey $10, but it’s also a hefty book, so check it out why don’t you? $10
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Posted by Kevin
June 8, 2015
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Ink For Beginners
Tattoos! Going into this comic, I only had one opinion about them: eh, not for me. I thought for years that I would eventually find something that I wanted on my body for the rest of my life, but still haven’t come up with anything yet, so I figure the odds of it happening are decreasing rapidly by the year. That being said, I make no judgments on people who do get tattoos. It’s not my place, and I’ve seen some tattoos that are genuinely awe-inspiring. Anyway, now that you know my personal opinions going in, this comic is exactly what that title implies: a guide for people who are thinking about getting their first tattoo. Some of the advice may seem obvious, and Kate even admits as much, but it’s really best to think for a long time as to whether or not you want this image/message on your body for the rest of your life. Getting a tattoo with the name of a loved one on it? If it’s a sibling or somebody directly related to you, probably not the worst idea. If it’s whoever you’re dating/married to at the time, chances are that you’ll come to regret it eventually. She also has a helpful body chart, front and back, that shows the most and least painful areas to get tattoos. Some of them were obvious, others not so much. Kate also mentions that she heard from a number of artists that they spend roughly half their time covering up tattoos from other, crappier artists, so it’s clear that a large number of people go into this without doing much of anything in the way of research. She mentions tipping, what to bring the day of the tattooing, how to care for it after the fact… basically everything you would need to know if you’re looking into this at all. Overall this is a damned comprehensive guide for anybody who’s thinking about getting a tattoo, so I’d highly recommend this before you take the plunge, or as a gift for anybody you know who is thinking of doing so. The one thing I’d want to repeat is something that won’t get heeded by the people who need it most, because they are convinced they know it all: if you’re a teenager, maybe don’t get the lyrics for some Justin Bieber song tattooed on your arm? Chances are that you’ll regret that very quickly. $4
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Posted by Kevin
June 4, 2015
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Thanger Dangers
Just so you know, the title makes a little more sense when you actually read the comic. Not much, but a little. This is a collection of short pieces that J.T. has done for various anthologies for the last few years, so if you track down every single one of his stories, you may have already seen them. Well, except for the first story, as that is unpublished (at least as of the publication date of this comic). For everybody else, this is a nice mix of stories. First up is the story of his odd habit of curling up his tongue when confronted with something too cute, to help prevent himself from hugging or grabbing said cute creature too tightly. I’ve never heard of this, but am equally confused by the reaction of people confronted with overwhelming cuteness who proclaim their desire to murder said cute creature in various horrible ways. Next up is the mysterious case of the lead masks, which I read in another anthology, making this the only story in here that I’d seen before. For everybody else, it gets into two men who died mysteriously with no signs of foul play, mysterious journal entries leading up to it and all kinds of weird theories as to what may have happened. From there we get a short history of the mohawk, followed by the angst of a female preying mantis as she tells her partner what is going to happen to him when they have sex. Next is the “you should take some drugs while reading this” story of the batch, as Little Orphan Annie morphs into the Popeye comic strip, but not in the way you might expect and not completely. Eh, this one you’ll just have to see for yourself. Finally there’s Jon having an honest conversation with Garfield, and Garfield gives him the advice we’ve all been wanting to give him for many years now. There are also a few shorter joke pieces, but I’ll leave those a surprise. I laughed for some of them and didn’t laugh for others, which is how these things usually go, but humor is subjective, so your opinion may vary in either direction. It’s a solid collection of stories, and it’s pretty cheap at $3. You should probably buy it and see what you think of it. $3
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Posted by Kevin
June 2, 2015
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Dark Pants #2
A little note for future people who send me comics to review: if you include the phrase “a mysterious pair of trousers,” you have increased the chances of me liking your book exponentially. Of course, then you have to work up a plausible reason as to why there would be a mysterious pair of trousers in your comic, which is why it helps Matt that that’s already the subject of his comic (as the title may have implied). This is the second issue, but Matt assured me in the letter he sent with his comic that each issue follows a different person in different neighborhoods of Los Angeles as they each discover these trousers and experience some sort of life change associated with them. In this issue we start off with Milena, a young college girl who happens to be a virgin. Which wouldn’t be notable, but she’s also writing a sex advice column. Anyway, she’s still living with her family and is increasingly unsatisfied with the situation, and one night she finds the previously mentioned mysterious pair of trousers on her porch. They don’t belong to anybody in the house and nobody has any idea how they got there (although I’m guessing the previous issue might clear that up), but they increasingly weigh on Milena’s mind, until eventually she wears them and decides to go out on the town. The pants are a rousing success, or at least they are in regards to her finally hooking up with some random guy at a bar. From there we see her finally getting the nerve to ask out the creep on the bus that she has a crush on and what happens because of it. And far be it from me to give away the ending, but it looks like the pants will be moving on in the next issue to another person. Where do they come from? What do they do? Are they just pants? Maybe all these issues will get resolved, or maybe the pants are just a good excuse to tell a bunch of different stories. Either way, it was a thoroughly entertaining and engaging comic. That $10 price tag is a little steep, but there is a lot of comic here, and we do get some color before it’s over. Check it out, jump onto the journey of what exactly the deal is with those pants! $10
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Posted by Kevin
May 29, 2015
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Baseline Blvd
This is going to be another one of those cases where I can’t say much about the comic without giving away the ending, so for those of you who enjoy watching me dance to avoid such a thing, get ready for some fun! Generally speaking you can count on a comic to be autobiographical if a character in the story looks like the author and is referred to by his or her first name, so when I saw another character refer to the female lead here as “Emi” I assumed that would be the case. But you know what they say about assuming, so I went to her website and it’s true, this is autobiographical, and clearly deeply personal. This is Emi’s longest work to date (unless I’m forgetting something, but it’s 64 pages), and long chunks of it are taken up with her driving through Missouri or flashbacks. The flashbacks detail a deeply troubled relationship, or at least that’s the bits of it we see, and I’ve read enough of these types of comics to think I knew was coming. I was completely wrong. The conclusion smacked me right between the eyes, and going by the chain of events that led up to it, I’m glad that was her reaction rather than crumbling up into a ball and shutting herself away from the world. I can’t say for sure that that wouldn’t have been my reaction under similar circumstances, but from everything I’ve seen she has no reason to feel even remotely guilty. I hope that this is an older story from her life, one where she’s had a bit of time to heal, but if it’s still raw, and if she does happen to read this, her reaction was exactly right. Those types of people take their power where they can find it, and they’d probably be delighted to know that they still had power over you even when they can no longer do you any harm. Knowing that conclusion even gives those driving scenes more power, as that drive must have seemed like it took an eternity with all the thoughts that must have been swirling around in her head. Everybody reading this who has ever had a problematic relationship should give this a read, as it answered a pretty big “what if?” question that was in my head. $8
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Posted by Kevin
May 27, 2015
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Colonel MacTaggart in Colonel Cube
OK, granted, that cover image makes the lead character look an awful lot like another vaguely cubish character from a ridiculously popular cartoon. Assuming it’s still popular and, as I have no kids, I don’t know that for sure, so I’m talking about Spongebob Squarepants if it’s no longer popular or if you’re somehow reading this in the distant future. But what’s wrong with turning your lead character into a cube? It’s obvious even from the cover that this doesn’t really happen to him, that it’s just a dream, so where’s the harm? Who am I arguing with right now? Anyway, this is the story of a dream of the Colonel. We don’t see the reason for the odd dream until the end, but right away we see the Colonel coming to terms with his new form and learning that this form also allows him to transform other creatures (albeit with unpredictable effects). So our hero transforms a small lizard, turning it into a giant monster, and the monster is then killed by a tribe of “cone savages.” We get some solidly funny dialogue from the Colonel to this tribe, showing the delightful contempt that such explorers often showed for native people back in the day, which leads to their interaction taking a bit of a turn. I’m in danger of giving the whole thing away here, so I’ll just say that the eventual reason for his odd dream was brilliant. It’s a fun and funny book all around, and I’ll always agree with the idea that creatures who look like living candy corn should always be the villain. Oh, and it’s all in full and glorious color, assuming that such things matter to you, and why shouldn’t they?
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Posted by Kevin
May 26, 2015
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Last Mountain #2
Small press comics artists, take note: that is how you do a cover. I knew exactly what I was getting into before even opening the comic, and Dakota even added a subtle touch (that bug) that played a larger role than I would have thought in the story. The bulk of this comic is about a new kid at school, Danny, and his troubles fitting in. But we see the story mostly from the perspective of another kid, as she makes a few attempts to be his friend. The gist of the story is that Danny is a young man who had to leave his past school for mysterious reasons and that kids there called him “Buggy.” Just in case there are any children reading this who have a nickname that they’d like to get rid of and are moving on to a new school: don’t announce that nickname to your new class! Granted, with social media all nicknames are more or less permanent, but at least don’t make it easy on them. Anyway, Danny has a giant chip on his shoulder about all kinds of things, and his genuinely odd behavior around bugs doesn’t do a thing to ingratiate himself with the local kids. It’s a heartbreaking story where the biggest moments are played silently, giving you plenty of room to interpret some of the more ambiguous silences. There’s one other short story in here, basically dealing with working up the nerve to commit some vandalism when you’re a kid and the consequences that sometimes come with that. It’s a really solid comic all around and I’d recommend it for anybody who ever had issues fitting in as a kid or knew somebody who had those issues. So, everybody, basically.
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Posted by Kevin
May 19, 2015
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Inside Salmeck
How much do you know about where you live? Granted, if you live in your childhood
home, or never left your hometown, chances are you know quite a bit. But if you
moved away when you were younger, have gone from apartment to apartment a few times,
and wound up wherever you are now, how much do you really know about your
surroundings? Know any neighbors? This comic is an exploration of Vincent’s
immediate surroundings. That much is obvious right away, as his image of the
building he lives in has notations for which neighbors live where and the nature of
the building itself, including the history of it and the styles of construction in
various parts of the building. From there we get to learn a tiny bit about his
neighbor (who killed himself; when his mother came by to clean up she gave Vincent’s
daughter the childhood toy from her son, which he was rightly creeped out by), then
into Vincent’s apartment. From there he has a close view of his neighbors across the
street, and each of them has their own story (or story that he made up after
observing them for a time). It never gets too voyeuristic and we learn precious
little about Vincent’s life, but it serves as a fantastic portrait of a place and of
the time in which it’s being observed. Check it out, then just try not to look
around at your own place and wonder what else is going on around you that you’ve
never seen. $2
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Posted by Kevin
May 13, 2015
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Crawdads
Who loves teenage angst? Everybody, that’s who! Well, maybe everybody outside of
parents of teenagers, as they’re sick of dealing with it. And angsty teenagers
themselves, who are convinced that their angst is the one true angst and that nobody
has ever suffered as much as they have. Well, if you’re not in one of those groups,
you’ll probably thoroughly enjoy this comic. This is the story of a 16 year old boy
who gets talked into taking a family trip, complaining all the way. Also along on
this trip are the father (who is annoyed with the boy but gets the whole teenage
thing), the mom (who is also annoyed and much less forgiving) and his younger sister
(who is trying to emulate him out of a clear desire to keep him around for as long
as she can). The bulk of the comic is the conversations between various members of
this group, but the highlight comes from the title, as the two kids notice some
crawdads in the lake and decide to catch one. They end up catching two and, because
of the book our hero is reading at the time, he thinks they might be delicious. So
they cook them up, probably in about the most humane way that they could
(considering that they didn’t know what they were doing), and discover that they are
delicious. But this is when the mom catches them, and instead of joining in in this
moment of family bonding, things take a very different turn. There are lots of cute
and/or insightful little moments in here, and there’s a good chance that this could
even serve as a bit of an instructional guide if you are a parent of a teenager, or
somebody who will soon be a teenager. Either way, there’s a lot to like here for
just about anybody.
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Posted by Kevin
May 4, 2015
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Eyelash Out
You know how some reviewers refer to any comic featuring a drug trip as
“psychodelic” or just go with the easier “weird?” Yeah, I am very tempted to just
call this comic “trippy” and leave it at that. Still, that would be doing a
disservice to the comic, as there is so much more going on here. It is also trippy
as hell, and if you’ve done a large amount of LSD in your life there’s a chance that
various images in here could lead to flashbacks. That’s how that works, right?
Anyway, this comic starts off with a young man who is barging his way to the front
of a… contest? Selection process? Whatever it is, it’s the process of another
person (?) trying to determine who is worthy to have one of his/her/its eyelashes.
One person goes through the process and is awarded one, while the young man from the
first page bursts through the crowd and just takes an eyelash. The rest of the crowd
apparently doesn’t take this well, but from that point on all we see is the
(distorted, surreal) world through the eyes of these two characters, on whatever
analogy to a drug trip that they’re experiencing, so they don’t have to worry about
an angry mob. And man, that imagery. Every panel has at least a little bit of
floating imagery, often unconnected from anything that could be mistaken as coming
from the “real” world. I often wish for full color in my comics these days, but I
don’t know if my senses would have been able to handle it with this one. From there
we get to experience their trip in all its glory, until the male in the group
chooses a confrontation, and things spiral a bit from there. I’d say I’m avoiding
spoilers by not going any further with the story, but I could tell you the story
from beginning to end and I’d still recommend getting this book for the visuals
alone. If I had to pick a style it reminded me of I’d say early Ron Rege, sort of,
but also entirely its own thing, so not a helpful comparison. Here’s a test to see
if this book is for you: examine that cover image. Really dig into it. If you think
you know exactly what’s going on there, and want to see more, then pick this up
immediately. If you’re not sure what it happening, well, doesn’t that make you
curious to see what you’re missing? $4
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Posted by Kevin
