April 26, 2010
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Krunk #5 Now Available! $1
Another short one from George, although I should point out that I got a much, much larger issue from him at SPX this year and should have a review up of that within the next few weeks. For anybody reading this in 2008, today is 12/4/03. Was I telling the truth about that review thing? Anyway, he won me back with this one. Not that I ever left, I just wasn’t sure after #4. This is about a man who, like many men, graduates with all the possibilities in the world awaiting him. He starts feelings years and years older every month, and decides that, as people value solid chocolate bunnies more than hollow ones, he’ll fill up his house to make it more valuable. I’ll say no more so you can discover a few things for yourself, but it’s brilliant. Contact info appears to be holding solid, scroll on up there…
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Krunk #4
Eh, I didn’t like this one so much. These things are way too tiny to say much about without giving the whole story away, but this one is about an old woman who goes to get copies as a favor for a sick friend. Then something happens that you can see in the sample, and hilarity ensues. Or not, it depends on your point of view. Here’s hoping that George makes these things longer than 8 pages at some point, because at least then if you had parts that you didn’t like so much they could be balanced out by other parts that you did like. Contact info is above, I liked the other issues at least…
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Krunk #3 Now Available! $1
Three cheers for somebody putting their contact info all over the cover! It looks kind of gaudy, sure, but it sure is easy to find. Two main stories in this one. The first, It’s Your Fault, is about a man as he yells to some people on a bench about how much he hates their clothes. Then God comes down and another man has a powdered milk sandwich… I have mentioned that George is very much in his own world and that’s one of the nicest things that you can say about people in comics? Good. The second story is about a man who’s lamenting the fact that his town doesn’t have a football team and that the factory is the highest that anyone can hope to go. Insightful, entertaining stuff, and it’s definitely the start of the career of a unique voice in comics, assuming that he keeps going. Check him out, it’s $1 for the issues and there are four that I know of out so far. Contact info is above, or read the cover.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Krunk #2
I’ve never been a big fan of people putting quotes on the cover of their book, but I can see why he’d want to quote James Kochalka on here. Anybody who looks at comics is going to have some kind of reaction to the name, positive or negative, so chances are they’re at least going to pick it up to see what it’s all about. I really wanted to scan the back cover of this. I don’t laugh out loud at comics very often, and this one made me laugh out loud. The scan sucked and I couldn’t do anything about it though, so I guess you’re going to have to buy it to see what I’m talking about. The comic is about a floating bag and the effect that it has on the neighborhood watch. Kind of obvious, I guess, but still a good short story. The one story on his website (about how people can’t commit to anything) is great too. I like the art, but I especially like his mindset. If he keeps putting stuff out I’ll keep buying it. What’s a better recommendation than that?
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Funny Man
My general rule of thumb for comics is that if I read three things from a guy and I like them all, chances are I’m going to like everything he or she does. One comic, it could just be a fluke. Two, the chances are that I’m going to like them from then on but, say, I probably wouldn’t buy their next book if it was a $20 graphic novel. But once you get to the third book, forget about it, I’m hooked. Jamie has reached that plateau. This is the story of a man with no arms and legs who manages to become an unfunny comedian, mostly because of the novelty of having no arms or legs, and his rise and fall back into obscurity. Mostly his life after his fall though, in case you were hoping for something cheery. Oh, and don’t forget the dream scenes and/or hallucinations. Great stuff again, like I said, more than slightly disquieting. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Unraveled Bandages
There are certain comics where the general point of the whole story doesn’t matter so much compared to the random little things that are happening. Does that make sense? Well, if it does, then this is a great comic. Otherwise it might be in trouble, but I’m going for the first choice. What you have in here are a bunch of people in masks, a mannequin in love, a cat in jail who makes fun of the guard, an old man with a sleeping prostitute, a drunk young man, and a dog that says “Rather high-strung young fellow, I daresay.” Does it all make sense now? So, in cases like this where the official whys and wherefores of the comic aren’t readily apparent, it’s best to go on little things like dialogue, which Jamie has perfected from what I can tell, and the art, which is splendid. Hey, if you can pull off an angry cat in jail, you have my vote for whatever it is you’re running. Contact info is up there, he has a few books out and everything I’ve seen has been interesting.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
The Social Circle of Professor Winterbottom
What a delightful comic. I’m not sure if that’s an appropriate thing to say for something that has more than one person get their head knocked off by a robot, but it’s true. This is the story of a dog and a man who program a robot to like gin. It is apparently also a pugilist, but wasn’t given any kind of safeguards to avoid killing people. That’s all well and good, but the dialogue is what makes this worth seeking out. English dialect between a genius dog and a robot needs to be read to be appreciated. Turns out that he has all kinds of other minis available at his website, which is always great news when something makes my day like this one did. It’s probably a couple of bucks, get it right away or check out what else is available.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
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Amber
To those of you who think my opinions my be a bit dense at times, let me prove how right you are: I just now got the fact that these comics, while maybe not necessarily parts of a large cohesive story, definitely have characters that bleed over from comic to comic. If you’re sitting around with a pile of Jamie Tanner comics this is the most obvious thing in the world to you, although in my defense I’ve been getting about one of these a year. This comic is about a young man who drinks himself to death but hangs around as a ghost, so he decides to keep drinking. The only way this is possible is to inhabit the bodies of other people until they drink themselves to death, which never seems to take very long with a ghost inhabiting them. Meanwhile the whole town has been flooded and most people are already dead anyway. And that robot bird, Christ, the look in his eye on that last panel is going to haunt my dreams for weeks. It’s really a melancholic comic, with the whole town underwater and everybody else sitting around in bars there’s a sense of hopelessness that permeates the whole thing. Also in here are that dog and the robot sitting at the bar, and I believe the mannequin from one of the earlier minis. Pick up everything Jamie has available and start drawing connections, I have yet to see anything resembling a bad comic from this guy…$3
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
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Writer’s Block Now Available! $3
This is the last of the three books that Diana sent me, and this one makes it a clean sweep. They all have something to offer. My only problem is that the main problem with the book (I don’t think I’m giving anything away here by saying that the main character has writer’s block) gets resolved a bit too quickly and neatly. Can’t really go into more detail about that without giving the whole thing away, as it’s fairly tiny, so you’ll have to take my word for it. The story is about a man who has a wildly successful first novel but finds himself unable to come up with anything for a new novel, despite the fact that he’s already spent his advance. Anybody who writes at all can find plenty to relate to in this one. The art’s tremendous, as always, contact info is above and it’s $3.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Duty Must Be Done Now Available! $2
It figures that Time named SPX 2002 as one of the years ten best graphic novels and I thought it was the probably the worst of the bunch. Of course, who knows what other nine books they put on the list? Yes, I know they were probably all great. Why am I bringing this up? Well, besides my innate tendency to ramble aimlessly, this mini is a story from said anthology. It was one of the stronger pieces in the book, but that’s not why I had a problem with the book. This book is about Frederick Banting, the man mostly responsible for insulin and a tireless scientist who just wanted to be an artist. He’s apparently something of a national hero in Canada, and for good reason. Here’s another book from Diana that I liked, mostly because her artwork is tremendous. She obviously takes a lot of care in making everything look just right, although I did have a problem with her depiction of the plane crash. Not that I’ve ever seen a really great plane crash in a comic, but her three panels were pretty bad. First a nervous pilot, then a plane in the snow, then (what looked like, although I knew from the context that it wasn’t) a peacefully sleeping pilot. Still, a minor gripe, it’s just one of those odd things this brain of mine retains while writing a review. Contact info is up there, it’s $2.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
That Thing You Fall Into
Never, ever tell me that your book was nominated for an Ignatz for best mini! Seriously people, it’s just a good rule of thumb. That way it’s OK for me to not necessarily agree with the nomination and not look like a doofus, or for me to love it and look like a genius. Or maybe it doesn’t make any difference, but I’m having a hard time just reviewing the comic. Deep breath… ah. Anyway, this is a mini about a relationship and trying to figure out where it’s going. Any more from me and I’ll be giving stuff away, so I’ll avoid it. The art is fantastic. She’s a cross-hatching machine, and the sheer amount of time she gives to the backgrounds makes this a pleasure to look at (take note, lazy no-background people). The story is good too. It’s simple and understated, which is necessary for such a short book. Was it one of the best minis of last year? Hell, I don’t know. My initial instinct was no, but then I certainly couldn’t name 4 that were much better. If this sounds like I’m at all down on the book, I’m not, don’t get me wrong. Stupid significantly raised expectations. Check out her website or send her an e-mail, she sent me some other comics too that I’ll be getting to in the weeks to come, meaning I’ll know a lot more about her style very soon. P.S.: In case you couldn’t tell, my scanner made the sample look like crap. Surprise!
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Robot 13 #2
My apologies for that giant scan, but I think an hour spent trying to figure out why the new scanner program isn’t working exactly as I’d like is enough time, don’t you? Especially considering the fact that this is a temporary solution and things should be back to normal soon enough. Or I’ll destroy my scanner in a fit of rage for the sole purpose of buying a new one and having the installation disk that I lost for this one ages ago. So how about this comic? Well, as I reviewed the third issue first, then the first issue, and now the second, let’s just say that it clears up a little bit of confusion for me. We get the introduction to the head monster who’s annoyed with Robot 13 for killing his “children”, Robot 13 spends a little time reminiscing (even if he doesn’t seem entirely sure what he’s thinking about), and we get a real sense that these monsters are coming out of the woodwork purely because Robot 13 is newly returned to the scene. I also picked one of the non-mayhem pages for a sample because hey, I’m always up for a funny. Oh, and the monster for this issue? The Phoenix. I don’t remember it as being this violent from my readings of mythology, but as that was decades ago I could be completely wrong. The art is still incredible (and perfectly suited for this type of stuff), the writing is restrained but good (and hey, the man is trying to build up a story, it’s supposed to be restrained), and that color is gorgeous. In other words, unless you only read mini comics there’s no reason in the world not to check this out. $3.99
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Blog
Logjam #3
OK, now that I’ve read all of the Logjams that are available (and a look at the website tells me that there haven’t been any new ones in the six months or so that it took me to review these, which isn’t a good sign), I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the main story here has to deal with a progressive teacher and the fascinating conversations he has with a gifted young student. This issue shows how the town is reacting to having this strange teacher show up, and also has a long conversation about the merits of table tennis. I know that it probably sounds dull, but it really isn’t. It’s obvious that he’s leading up to something here, and the art makes me giddy to look at (although he does use shadows a bit too much here and there. You almost get the impression that he just doesn’t want to draw some of the people, unless I’m just not smart enough to figure out how it all fits into the master plan), so I’m willing to stay along for the ride. Hey, when you go to his website, maybe you should buy a lunchbox. You probably think I’m kidding…
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Blog
Logjam #0
One thing that I can usually get into in comics is two people just sitting around and talking. I know it must be a tough thing to plan out for an entire issue, so the people who try it usually (as far as I’ve seen, anyway) are able to pull it off. This issue is all about a teacher who gets caught in the rain and the priest who takes him in. A fascinating discussion of all kinds of things follows. Good art, although it gets better by the fourth issue, and a great pace are what makes this book stand out. He sent me this one and #4, which is all that he’s been able to print so far, so you can imagine that it confused me a little. That’s why this one is up, at least until I see the other issues and know just what’s going on. He says that he has over 150 pages done and is totally committed to the project and I have no reason to doubt him. Check out his website, send him some money for this one so you can get an idea of what he’s trying to do and eat pudding.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Aprendiz #4
This is one series that I had given up on completely. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed it and had no problems with quality, it’s just that the last issue came out 4 years ago, and this was only ever meant to be the story of his first year as a tattoo apprentice. Well, I knew what this was as soon as I saw the envelope in the mail, and good for him for at least seeing this through. This finishes off the tale of his first year, avoiding any kind of a happy ending and instead going with reality. Adam gradually starts doing more and more complex tattoos, under the “watchful” eyes of the two store owners. The trouble is that one of them is too watchful (often jumping in and taking over at the first sign of trouble but rarely teaching anything in the process) while the other merely shrugs when things go wrong but it happy to tell Adam after the fact that he knew exactly how to fix the problem all along. Adam was also making a pittance this whole time, starting with %20 of the sale, eventually moving up to %30 and getting to %40 by the end of the year. There was also a creative breakup between the owners, as one of them gave up ownership and became substantially less helpful. Still, at the end of all this Adam found himself the low man on the totem pole, without enough experience to be anything but last in line when new customers came in. Adam finished up with things exactly as they were at that point in his life: bleak. Luckily for the reader (in a way), this took 10 years to put out and Adam is nice enough to put all sorts of updates in the back of the book. We hear from both of the previous store owners, we learn that Adam is doing quite well these days (at least in part due to exposure from the comics), and we get to see a few amazing examples of what is now his “thing”: cityscape tattoos of various sizes. It looks like this is it for Adam as far as comics goes, as the man works with his hands all day long so it takes him forever to put one of these issues out. It’s damned shame, as he’s pretty good at this stuff, but I can see where he’d want to go with his first passion. I still think this is more than good enough for a graphic novel collection, possibly with a progression of his tattoos over the years if possible to showcase his improving skills. The first two issues of this are still available in my online store, and I’ll throw in a copy of #3 with the first person who orders the pair, as Adam sent along an extra copy of #3 with this one for some reason. $3.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Aprendiz #3
Well, it might have taken a year to come out, but this one was well worth the wait. Adam finally gets to start tattooing people in this one, after paying a few more dues and learning a few more skills. There’s some great stuff in here about just how much goes into finding a perfect needle and how the politics of working at a tattoo parlor are pretty much like the politics of working at any crappy office building with more than one person in charge. Great stuff again, and this is going to make a really amazing graphic novel, especially if he puts in a bunch of his tattoo designs (hint, hint). $3.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Aprendiz #2 Now Available! $3.95
More tales about learning to be a tattoo artist, with this issue focusing mostly on the dues he had to pay to get anywhere near a needle. It’s fascinating stuff, and it’s a side of things that I’ve honestly never given much thought to. Who goes into tattoo places? How often are people just there to kill time, and how many stupid questions does the average person who works there have to deal with in the course of a day? It seems that no fat women ever come in his store though, just skinny ones with enormous boobs. Hey, maybe he just likes drawing boobs, there’s no law against that. He also tells about his woes of trying to market the first issue, as this was his first comic venture on a large scale. It’s disheartening to see how many quality books are just ignored these days. It must be especially tough for something like this, because most comic people (not all, and I’m speaking generally here) aren’t the type to get a bunch of tattoos, so they probably can’t relate to a lot of this. Hey, why do you need to relate? The man is telling an interesting story about something that a lot of people have never given any thought Like I said before, the art is awfully easy to look at too. Maybe one of these days I’ll find him at a con and get a tattoo, he seems to offer them as a promotional thing. I think it’s $3.95, but there’s no price tag on the book so I’m not sure. Contact info is up there, it’s worth checking out.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Aprendiz #1 Now Available! $3.95
Here’s another random comic that I got through the mail, and it’s another good one. It’s all about the author and his early days as a struggling artist. Actually, the point of the series is to tell about his time as a tattooing apprentice, but this issue is all about him trying to find his niche after college and trying to get on as an apprentice. Kind of takes some of the suspense away when you know how it all ends, but it’s not a major thing. I like his art a lot… it has a loopy, whorly style that would be just great for a tattoo, if I ever got one. There’s no website that I can find, but feel free to e-mail the guy and he can get you a copy of this, along with whatever else he has available (it’s $3.95). If anybody out there thinks that I gave away the ending or something, he has his two teachers write a little something each in the back of the book and has a couple of pages of telling about himself too, so there’s really no mystery of where this is going. But hey, the journey is most of the fun anyway, right? He says he’s been doing comics forever, so I’d have to think that a new issue of this will be out pretty soon. Oh, you could also just send him money at: Urban Folk Art 335 Court Street #16 Brooklyn, NY 11231.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Return to Normal
‘m not sure exactly where to get this, but try e-mailing Drawn and Quarterly (click on the title to get to the home page) if you’re interested. There have been a ton of books about 9/11 since it happened, and I was really looking forward to seeing what James Sturm has to say about it. This is the danger of getting stuff before it comes out, because this is about trying to get a reaction out of us, not seeing his reaction. There are a few pictures and apparently it’s being used in classrooms to try and get kids to open up about the day. A noble idea and I hope it’s working well, but that’s not what I was looking for. I know what my reaction was, so this book is a tiny, expensive waste of time for me. Maybe some of you can get more out of it, I don’t know. It looks nice, I’ll give him that. No story means pretty much no interest from me though…
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
The Golem’s Mighty Swing
There are plenty of people out there who will tell you that Dan Clowes, Chris Ware and the Hernandez Bros. are going to lead comics into the mainstream, that their new work especially will get all kinds of people into it and get comics out of the underground. I don’t buy it. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t say enough good things about any of those people. I just don’t think that they will make comics an accepted form of literature. They’re catered to a small, elitist crowd and that’s where they will stay, just like the best movies. If comics are ever going to be genuinely accepted, we need more books like this. I can see this being adapted into a film years from now and getting commercial and critical success, where Ghost World only made it to the art theaters. It’s the story of a baseball teams of Jewish people in the 1920’s and what they had to deal with on a daily basis. Broke and desperate, they are approached by a huckster who promises them all fame and money if they only agree to dress the only black member of their team up in the gear of a golem, which is a monster of Jewish mythology. They play some places where they’re seen as heroes and others where they’re lucky to get out alive. Crisp, clean artwork too. Reminds me of Jason Lutes a little. The only thing that some people might not like about this is all the time he spends on minute details of baseball games. If you don’t like baseball at all it might leave you cold, but I don’t think much of baseball and I was never bored. And instead of rounding the team out and having everyone with their own story, he chooses to focus on a select few and really realizes the characters. This is good stuff, one of the better things I’ve read lately. Call me crazy, but I see this guy as being genuinely famous in the next few years. See what the fuss is about before there is a fuss…
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Posted by Kevin
