April 27, 2010
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In the Sea
It’s not easy to write a review about a book that I read literally walking across my apartment while I was making lunch. Yes, it does go by that quickly. Not a bad book by any means, it examines a man living underwater who tries to join society with disappointing results. A good story of isolation and trying to fit in, it’s just probably the quickest things I’ve ever read. You can get one for $2 from the Top Shelf web page. Murky and vague, it feels like you’re underwater and, as always, the packaging of these Robot Publishing books is fantastic.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Conversation #1 (with Jeffrey Brown)
This review is going to be a bit of a cop-out, as these sometimes are, but there’s a fairly simple reason for that. People are either going to be interested in seeing James and Jeffrey talk about life, work, art, creating and punching each other or they’re not. I wish they would put this in a format that wasn’t so expensive (and sorry, nice cover or not, $5 to read these two rambling makes little sense to me) but, as I like pretty much everything that both of them have done, it’s not like I was going to pass it up. Did that sentence make any sense? Oh well, let’s move on… I don’t know if these two settled anything, but it is fascinating watching them go over having a job (which Jeffrey does) and not having a job (which James doesn’t), the point of making art, if there is a point at all, and whether or not they should have a gratuitous fight scene. So the bottom line here is the same as the point I made right away. If you like the work that these two do, this is an insight into their minds that you rarely see, or at least you rarely see them playing off each other. If you don’t care about one or both of them, there are many other comics out there you should probably be checking out first. $4.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Reinventing Everything #2
It’s hard to say that this is his most personal work when he’s made a career (in a fair amount of his comics, at least) of laying himself open to the public, but I’m still saying that this is his most personal work. It’s all about his reaction to 9/11 and how it led directly into his decision to have a baby. If that sounds like it doesn’t make sense, check out the sample and the rest of the book. They (James and his wife Amy) talk things over, live it up before they get pregnant and just go over everything involved with having a baby. I wish he would do more mini comics, but his schedule is pretty full with putting out two or three graphic novels every year and his daily comic diary, so it’s hard to bitch too much about a lack of Kochalka. Contact info is all over the place, I guessed $2.50 for the first one, so I’m sticking with it for this one until I hear different…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Reinventing Everything #1
Looks like James is spending a lot of time with the mini comic format these days and, much as I love the vast majority of his graphic novels, his style is just about perfect in this format. This one is about video games, and spending time to see the beauty in everything, linked together with a fairly meandering central message. Which is fine with me, as I don’t read James’s stuff to see him take over the world with the power of his mind, I read it because I like the funny pictures and he invariably (when he wants to, anyway) makes me stop and think. His stuff is always worthwhile in my view and this is a much more affordable setting for some people, so check it out! If I had to guess I’d say it was $2.50, but that’s just a guess. His website is up at the top of the page, why don’t you go there and check out the other three (that I know of) minis that he’s done in the past year, along with the free daily diary strip? Oh fine, here’s the website, as all that scrolling could be a bit taxing.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Peanut Butter and Jeremy’s Best Book Ever!
I had no idea that he had done so many of these stories. This book is right around 300 pages, with commentary between stories from Peanut Butter (the cat, in case you were wondering) and Jeremy (the crow). A few of these stories were put out in comic book form over the last 4 years or so, and I’m not sure if some of the other stuff is new material for this or if it was only done for random anthologies. Whatever the case, and despite its length, I can sum up where most of the stories go pretty simply. Peanut Butter is working on a file for his boss (an unseen James Kochalka, or someone remarkably similar), and Jeremy tries to find some way to either steal his hat or trick him into giving it up. That’s the gist of most of the stories, anyway. This is an all ages comic, meaning that there’s no swearing and a few neckties, and it’s another fun book from the man. Good stuff to read with any younger relatives you might have wandering around, and the commentary from the characters between stories is funny too. If you’re looking to solve the mystery of human existence, you might want to read something else. Other than that, it’s Kochalka quality!
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Fantastic Butterflies
I’m still not sure how to review a James Kochalka book. If somebody was in the room with me when I was reading (for the ten minutes or so it took to read it) they mostly would have heard pages rustling and a chuckle every now and then. It has the best ending ever of anything, and I’m absolutely sticking to that until somebody proves otherwise. There’s a sad dog, a cranky James, an angry cancer robot, and a burst testicle. If that sounds depressing, you have to remember that this is a James Kochalka book. If I was king I think I’d make terminally ill people all over the world read this just so they could laugh and see what a silly farce the whole damned world is. The bottom line here is that this is another great book from the man if you like his previous stuff, and if you don’t like his previous stuff why are you reading this at all? Just go buy it already.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Sketchbook Diaries Volume 4
In this volume James stumbles on the cure for cancer and has to race against the evil government agents to get it to the people in time… oh wait, this is just another edition of his sketchbook diaries. Whoops. Not that I mean that in a bad way, but you could really pick up any one of these volumes and get the hang of his life in a few pages. He’s a man who enjoys his simple pleasures and I still love his take on the world. In this one (for real) his wife gets pregnant, James goes to many conventions, play video games and talks to all kinds of people. Vaguest description for something this big ever? Maybe, but if you’ve read the other volumes of this you get the idea. If you haven’t, why are you reading a review of #4 before you’ve read the other ones? And why is it that this page has (as of this writing) only gotten 19 hits since I put the new site up at the start of ’05? Just curious. It’s $7.95, chock full of comics and, still, some of his best work, although it is starting to get a bit repetitious…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Sketchbook Diaries Volume Three
Ah, life will be good as long as Top Shelf continues to put these books out. This one is primarily about 2001, so it also includes James’ reaction to 9/11. Not that you would care, but I thought it worth mentioning. If I have one complaint from reading a bunch of these it’s that if he has nothing at all to say in a day (and that could be argued for weeks, I’m sure), then he should really just wait until the next day and do two strips. I’m mostly talking about the times when he just obviously throws something together at the last minute because he’s exhausted/wasted. That’s fine, but I’d rather see a recap the next day of the previous night’s events. A minor quibble, as most of his “quick” strips are at least kind of funny too, but I thought I should complain about something. Other than that, his daily strips have never failed to cheer me up. The man has an optimism about life that just can’t be destroyed. You can read these daily for free at his website, or you could just spend $1.95 a month and check out the archives too. Make him independently wealthy! But not too rich that he stops drawing comics…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Sketchbook Diaries Volume Two
How do you follow up what has been called the best book of your career? With more of the same, apparently. I really thought that the first Sketchbook Diaries was probably the best thing that he had done for the sheer openness and honesty involved in it. This one followed that up, but it also made me realize that his life borders on dull. He’d often tell something in the four panels that would make me curious about the rest of the day, or about the thing that he chose not to write about it. The four panel structure was more than a little bit restrictive, but maybe that’s what he had in mind. There was also an extremely dull patch there right before he quit for a few months (he was obviously burnt out creatively and came back stronger than ever), but past that it was a solid work. His outlook on life is incredible and is something that simultaneously annoys and fascinates me. I’ll wonder for pages how Amy (his wife) could possibly put up with him and then I’ll go for pages wondering how she could ever possibly leave him. Whether that’s because of his strips or my own schizophrenia is up for you to decide. Anyway, both of these books are cheap (this one is $7.95 and it’s a much longer read than the rest of his books) and they’re both incredible. He’s right, if he spent more time drawing than he does playing video games he probably would be even more famous by now…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Magic Boy and Girlfriend
If you’ve read the rest of his work and wish for a little more, I don’t know, content to his work, you should go back and read this one. A collection of the “best of” his mini comics (call me a completist, but I really wish that people would just go ahead and reprint all of the stuff from their out of print minis, seeing as how nobody is ever going to see the stuff and a lot of it very important to see the development of the artist), this work is in a class by itself. Incredibly sad and introspective, it’s not the kind of thing you expect to see from this guy, and it turns out that it’s his first work. It’s probably because he was separated from his girlfriend at school, but this entire book just brings out feelings of loss and separation. I want to call old friends after I read this and try to figure out just why we don’t hang out any more. If you don’t like James Kochalka (and why are you reading his page if you don’t like him?), I still think you should get this book. It might show you a whole new side of the guy, which might make you appreciate his other books.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Kissers
How the hell do you write a James Kochalka review? I’ve been trying to figure that out since I re-read Kissers for this. It’s, at least on the surface, a story about love, I guess. Spandy the cat falls in love with a cute little bird and Magic Boy keeps acting stupid and pisses Amy off over and over. Everything works out OK, but the story doesn’t mean a damned thing here. All of his books are purely about the characters and the things that make them do what they do. Usually, that thing is “nothing”. They just do things for a certain amount of pages and then the book is over. These aren’t the kinds of books that you pick up if you’re looking to read an evening away, as I think this one took me about 20 minutes to read. It does come with a CD too, and I’ve read all of his other stuff at least half a dozen times (I was late in getting this one), so it’s not like it’s a waste of money to buy his books because you read them so quick. You can go back to them again and again. Most of his books fit a certain mood for me. I’ll tell more about the moods when I review the rest of them, but the point is that they’re all perfect for something. I don’t know how he managed to pull that off but hey, I guess that’s why he’s a superstar. Man, that blushing bird has to be one of the cutest things that I’ve seen in a long time…
Kissers
How the hell do you write a James Kochalka review? I’ve been trying to figure that out since I re-read Kissers for this. It’s, at least on the surface, a story about love, I guess. Spandy the cat falls in love with a cute little bird and Magic Boy keeps acting stupid and pisses Amy off over and over. Everything works out OK, but the story doesn’t mean a damned thing here. All of his books are purely about the characters and the things that make them do what they do. Usually, that thing is “nothing”. They just do things for a certain amount of pages and then the book is over. These aren’t the kinds of books that you pick up if you’re looking to read an evening away, as I think this one took me about 20 minutes to read. It does come with a CD too, and I’ve read all of his other stuff at least half a dozen times (I was late in getting this one), so it’s not like it’s a waste of money to buy his books because you read them so quick. You can go back to them again and again. Most of his books fit a certain mood for me. I’ll tell more about the moods when I review the rest of them, but the point is that they’re all perfect for something. I don’t know how he managed to pull that off but hey, I guess that’s why he’s a superstar. Man, that blushing bird has to be one of the cutest things that I’ve seen in a long time…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
James Kochalka Superstar #11
At this point it’s impossible to deny it: somewhere along the line I fell out of love with all things Kochalkian. Scrolling down this page it’s a bit baffling, as I was pretty biased towards just about everything the guy did. Still, I checked out his website before starting this review and his daily strips mostly just got on my nerves. Is it me? Have I finally become a joyless person well on his way into middle age? Or have I finally developed a more discriminating taste in comics? Eh, who knows, and despite many people thinking this is a blog, this is supposed to be about the comics and not me. I fail in that on practically a daily basis, but that has always been the goal. This mini is about the San Diego Comic Con in 1998, as James was there promoting his new (at the time) book Tiny Bubbles. This covers a five day span (8/12/98 to 8/17/98) as he attempts to draw on a plane, washes his hair with soap instead of shampoo, sticks a carrot in his ear, worries about not taking a shit in four days, is told he’s nothing like his Magic Boy character, pees in the ocean, pees outside of his room when he locks himself out, and mentions (but doesn’t go into detail about) his conversation about comics with Seth and Chester Brown. See, this was the kind of thing that bugged me even when I was hopelessly biased towards the guy: he would reference something that happened during his day that had potential to be genuinely interesting but, due to the nature of his daily strips, never had the chance to go into any detail. I don’t know if this disillusionment is permanent or just the result of a bad day, so maybe I’ll go back to a few of the graphic novels I loved back in the day soon and find out for sure. Either way, for the time being this struck me as being more obnoxious than anything else. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Bare Knuckles #1
What an eclectic comic. In here are a number of short pieces about a vampire surfer, falling in love with a cyclops, drunk God, and talking around a watercooler about becoming your Dad. These are all short, funny pieces, which makes the difference between these pieces and the large story, Spencer the Dog. It’s a story about a couple dealing with a dead dog and talking about the comforts of contemplating suicide, but it’s done with a fantastic mix of humor and deep sadness. I was really impressed with this whole thing, frankly. I don’t think I’ve seen a better dog in comics, and his sense of dialogue is flawless. It’s $2.50 and well worth checking out, so why not send the guy an e-mail? Oh, and here’s a website.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Dances With Sheep
There I was, at Quimby’s In Chicago, and I could have gotten both of the other Keith Knight books, but did I? How could I be so stupid? Granted, I had just spent something near $100 on comics, but still… I think this is his first collection and, while I think he got funnier after 9/11 when he started skewering news topics instead of just daily life, this is still some funny shit. That’s all you really have to say about a comedy book, right? Whether or not it’s funny? My only minor problem was that I don’t think the strips were run in order, or maybe Keith has a really confusing life. Doesn’t matter that much, it’s just that I feel compelled to be negative all the time about something. Topics in here are about all sorts of things, including roommates, Jerry Garcia, sheep, supermodels, cars, comic conventions, airplanes and old friends. And about a zillion other things too, but what do you want? The book’s 136 pages long, there’s bound to be all kinds of things talked about and you should really be reading that instead of thing anyway. Contact info is up there, spend money!
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Fear of A Black Marker
I’m afraid this review is going to be useless, because I can sum it up in one line: this is funny too. Sure, I’ll keep rambling for a while, but that’s what it boils down to. The art’s amazing all the way through (he had been doing minis for years, so it’s not like he didn’t get the practice in). It just looked in places like the format kind of limited him. Or I’m paranoid, take your pick. There’s also the fact that I don’t think he really hit his stride until after 9/11 and his strips got a little more serious. OK, just so this seems like a review that might be of some use to the reading public, here are the subjects of some of his strips: cops, Star Wars, viagra, roommates, San Francisco, Prague, and his first mid-life crisis. This is another pretty big collection of comics for cheap, so I don’t think there’s any good reason for you not to get it. Unless you don’t like laughing, of course…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
What A Long Strange Strip It’s Been
Anybody who is at all familiar with political cartoonists already knows all about Keith Knight. I’m not sure what category he falls in because plenty of his strips are just about everyday things while a few of them are political, but who cares? The important thing is that he’s damned funny. I read his “K Chronicles” and “This Modern World”, and that’s pretty much it for weekly strips these days. Granted, I only started reading this one a few months ago, but it’s good to see that I’m going to have this much fun catching up. My only problem with this book is that he doesn’t include dates on his strips. A minor thing, granted, but it would have been nice to have some reference points. The only one with a date on it is from 9/11/01 and that’s only because it was the only deadline he ever missed (it’s an empty page). Past that, his strips are busy, he has an energetic and cartoony drawing style that makes you smile just to look at it, and he makes a lot of really good points. Can’t ask for much more than that from a cartoonist. Check out his weekly strip here or just visit his website. It’s funny and you can find that out by reading a couple hundred of his strips for free, so what are you waiting for?
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Best guess at contact info (search for “Shiot Crock”, that should get you close to the guy)
Pete & Earl #1
Yes, I think the name he goes by really is just Klopner. That’s all I could find looking around online anyway, and this comic doesn’t do much to clarify. This is the story of a fairly obvious Batman and Robin duo (Earl and Pete, respectively) who come across a super villain known as the Bitch. This Bitch wants to fuck Batm… er, Earl, and vows to give up crime forever if he’ll just give it to her. But there’s only so far that a man will go to fight crime, and she pushes him past the line! Christ, I’ll never know how people write blurbs in those preview books without wanting to shoot themselves in the face at the end of the day. It’s a funny book, too short for the premise to get boring and they say “fuck” a lot, so what more do you want out of a comic? Oh, and this is another part of Shiot Crock #11, and I found another link with all the covers (and a link to more info), if you’re curious. No idea about Klopner’s website, or e-mail, or anything else, but I’ll update if I can find it…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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The Punch ‘Ems
I’m of two minds on this one, the latest in my random grabs from the Shiot Crock #11. On the one hand that’s a fantastic name for a book, great cover and the names and descriptions of the characters inside are some of the funniest I’ve seen in my years of reading super hero parody books. On the other hand, once the comics starts it’s mostly just them all trying to get together and find somebody to punch, which is fine to set up the characters, except for the fact that Joe says this might well be it for this bunch, so what’s the point of setting them up? Don’t get me wrong, there are funny moments in here, maybe I just got my hopes up too high from reading those brilliant character descriptions. Who knows? Either way, those characters are worth the price of admission by themselves, whatever that price may be. And no, I’m not going to give away any of the names, becuase it’s the names and the descriptions together that makes it funny.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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A Journey or On the Incapacity for Abstract Thought
Another mostly wordless book, but this one didn’t come from the folks at Stripburger (or if it did, that’s not how I found it). This is the tale of the author as he makes his way to the annual math championships. He hitchhikes to where he needs to be and tries to barter people down for food and lodging. Another simple, honest tale. Not much here, but it’s not a bad buy for $1 and it is entertaining. Feel free to e-mail the guy and see what else has laying around.
Adamiceva 17 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Rant Comics #3
How the heck could I have missed this guy? Sure, it’s only #3, but you’d think there would be a bigger stink about him. This was a solid, if not fantastic, book. A few stories in here. The first is part one of a larger series about suburbia and trying to get out of it. Yes, everybody and their brother has done a story about being tired of where they live, but Neil does it really well. Then there’s a tiny piece about Explodey the Clown, a great illustration that he can do humor as well as the serious stuff, and a great chance to see a ten year old child explode. The illustrated history of New Coke is great too, although the bit about the roller of spring rolls didn’t do much for me. But then, I’ve never had a job quite that awful, so maybe I just couldn’t relate. The art seemed a bit scrunched, if you must have a complaint. Was it shrunk down for the sake of fitting into the mini format or am I just being oversensitive? Whatever the case, get this book, read it, and enjoy it. Good work all around. Check out the website or send him an e-mail, this one was $2.
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Posted by Kevin
