April 26, 2010
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Crass Sophisticate #25
As I’ve been a fan of the past two issues, it’s only fair to start this one off with a complaint (even though I liked this one too overall): erase the damned pencil lettering! To those of you who don’t make your own comics (which is probably about two of you), writers often pencil in their dialogue in the word balloons and then ink over it, making it easier to change dialogue without having to redraw the whole panel. Sometimes writers get lazy and/or stuck at deadline time (usually meaning a convention) and don’t get rid of all the pencils. That can be mildly annoying or, as in the case of this issue when large chunks are unerased, very annoying. How about the comic itself? Once you look past that issue (which is, admittedly, probably a minor thing for most people), Josh and Justin have managed to put out another thoroughly entertaining comic. This time around Justin owns a smoothie shop, and the story begins with Josh coming for a visit, just in time for “chalk time”. This is the time of the day where the attractive girl from the cafe across the street comes out and writes the specials of the day down on a chalk board, which means she’ll have to bend over and Justin has the highlight of his day: seeing an attractive female bend over. He’s “fake dating” (just what it sound like) her as well as the lead singer of a band. Meanwhile, Carl is a slobbish regular customer (who plays a role in things later, as you can probably guess if I tell you that he’s the bleeding guy from the cover) and Josh has found a rotisserie chicken device by a dumpster, but can’t convince Justin to use it in his shop. Justin, however, sees an interview with his other fake girlfriend (the one in a band) and learns that her favorite things in the world are rotisserie chicken, smoothies and cigarettes (he also sells cigarettes). The rest of the issue involves Justin getting into more and more trouble for not knowing the first thing about raising chickens or hiring immigrant workers and tracking down his fake singer girlfriend in the hopes of giving her a flier for his smoothie/chicken shop. Like I said, this has been a consistently entertaining series, and kudos to them for making it to #25. Next time just erase the lettering, OK? $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Crass Sophisticate #23
Huzzah for Google and people searching for their own names! I don’t know how often that’s been the reason that I get new comics to review, but I’d have to guess it’s been responsible for a solid chunk of them. There’s only one big story this time around, the tale of young Justin (so maybe he’s the writer and Josh is the artist?) and his realization at an early age that he going to need some kind of help to attract the attention of women. He sees an ad in a magazine to learn how to play guitar and, as the guitar came included for $30, he went for it. Naturally, this was only a toy guitar, but he decided to make the best of it and even wrote a song for a girl at school that he liked (who happened to be dating a big dumb jock) and, well, you can probably put together what happened from there. The interesting thing to me about this story (as the conclusion was fairly predictable, if still funny) was how Justin wandered around so much during his issue-long flashback. His cousin wanders into the flashback a couple of times (with his ham), more or less just to liven up the action. There’s also a really hilarious moment when old Justin goes back to the fateful day, hoping to talk his younger self out of making a fool out of himself, but gets distracted by a phone call. In the meantime his cousin shows up, also attempting to talk him out of it, but young Justin just doesn’t believe that they’re all going to laugh at him. Of course, at the end of the day Justin has the comfort of knowing exactly how all those people who tormented him turned out, so at least there’s that. The comic kind of fizzles out towards the end, as it dissolves into an argument about Arby’s. Still, on the whole, that some funny shit. Worth checking out, and I will always be at least mildly impressed once somebody gets their comic over #20. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Crass Sophisticate #21
You know, I almost didn’t pick this up when I was looking around Quimby’s, as something about that art turned me off. Then I saw the “#21” (and yes, that is always enough to impress me), the cheap $2 price for a fair amount of content, and figured I might as well give it a shot. And, as is often the case, my initial instinct was wrong, as it turns out this comic is a blast. There are two stories here, one dealing with Josh and Justin (who are apparently cousins in real life, if this story is to be believed) having a lengthy conversation about which of them likes ham, which of them is a Jew, and why the hatred for ham is so strong with one of them. Sounds like you would get bored in a hurry, I know (and they wrapped it up with an excellent panel saying that everybody must have stopped reading long ago), but I was oddly engrossed. The second story is Josh on his lunch break, talking to a co-worker about the happiest time of his life. It’s sadder than you may have even thought (after seeing the guy on the cover, that is), but grade school humiliation due to a health freak mom packing all his lunches is always good fun. As for the art (I’m assuming that the traditional comics listing of writer first and artist second is in effect here), Justin, if anything, pays too much attention to detail. Granted, sometimes things look a bit smudgy, and he clearly tries to cram too much into the occasional panel, but I’m somebody who often complains about the lack of attention paid to backgrounds by a good number of comics artists. How he got to #21 while clearly spending hours on background art is impressive all by itself. So there’s an engaging story, art that challenges you to dig around and see what goodies the man put in it, and a hefty pile of story for a tiny price. Yeah, I’d say that you should try to find this. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Lovely Ugly Cruel World #9
Well, if I was hoping to nail down an opinion on Amanda’s comical prowess with this issue, it’ll have to wait until I find another actual comic from her. This issue is mostly a text story with bits of comic thrown in, as the “relationship” between Amelia and Francis is fully explored. The issue alternates between Amelia’s take (which is most of the issue) and a small bit where Francis discusses Amelia briefly with a couple of friends. It’s mostly about reading between the lines, as neither actually comes out and admits liking the other, but there’s plenty to dig into in this issue. I like my comics with a bit more, you know, comics in them, but it’s a fine line, and it’s clear that Amanda was trying something a little different this time around, which pretty much always gets a round of applause from me. The only part I didn’t like was the extended dialogue about being goth versus not being goth, and that’s mostly because I’m getting older all the time and that whole argument is utterly uninteresting to me. Overall it’s another solid issue though, with what appears to be something dangerously close to a happy ending. Worth checking out, especially if the “goth or not” discussion means more to you than it does to me. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Lovely Ugly Cruel World #8
Why do so many comics people not put their names in their books? I’ve seen one good reason for this so far (a teacher asked me to take his name off the page because he didn’t want his students to google him and find his comics), other than that it always seems like a simple thing that was forgotten. At least this one was easier to find than most, as it’s right there on her website. So if anybody out there knows a reason why I shouldn’t put Amanda’s name up here, by all means let me know. How about that comic? It’s clearly a transitional issue, so it makes me happy that I picked up #9 too. A young man named Francis whose mother has just died has a conversation with an older man, and a young woman named Amelia (who is either the girlfriend or the regular friend of the young man) strikes up a conversation with the roommate (Sam) of Francis. These separate conversations are going on at the same time, with pages flashing back and forth between them as the comic goes on until Francis finally gets home by the end. We learn that Francis has written a book that his friends think is quite good (but he has no interest in trying to get it published), that he’s looking for a job at the library, and that Sam and Amelia don’t talk to each other, but that they’ve found something in common by the end of the comic. An intriguing book, but it’s always weird to jump into the middle of a big story, especially without any sort of recap of the previous issues. Like I said, I have the next issue to read still (it should be up in a few weeks), but so far I’m cautiously optimistic. Amanda has a great ear for dialogue anyway. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Yeast Hoist: Does Music Make You Cry?
It’s always a joyous thing when a new Ron Rege book comes out, and I’ll get on with the unadulterated praise in a minute, but… $8.95? That’s absolutely insane. I’m aware that there’s no market for comics at all these days, and the book does look great, but it’s thin, and there’s no chance that anybody who hadn’t already heard of Ron would spontaneously pick up something this thin for that much money. That being said, it was an immensely rewarding thin book and took me much longer to get through than I would have thought by looking at it, mostly because Ron’s panels are some of the easiest in comics to linger over. It’s a collection of different stories, mostly about wandering and searching. I really liked his way of ending his stories, which is something that I’m going to leave for you to discover for yourself. I know, I just got done saying how ridiculously expensive this book is, but everybody who’s reading this page knows what an amazing creator this guy is and should feel a compulsion to get everything he puts out. The title is linked, go there to buy it or to look at more samples, of his work and that of a bunch of other amazing artist… A website!
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Skibber Bee Bye
Sometimes there are books that are so unique that they almost deserve to be talked about in a different way than normal comics. Then you realize that “normal” is almost impossible to define with the sheer variety of comics out there, and it looks like I’m just rambling again. What I’m trying to say here is that Ron, with this book, has a new kind of comic out. I couldn’t tell you the linear details of this story (boy meets girl, girl decides she likes dancing more, boy is actually an elephant), although it’s mostly about a girl and an elephant going through life surrounded by little creatures that seem to exist to help them. And I think they made the elephant. See, that’s why it’s worthless to try and talk about things like they should make some kind of linear sense. There’s a sense of longing and dissatisfaction that permeates this book and the color section (why not the whole book? Too expensive?) is one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen. If you see a Ron Rege story here or there in an anthology, that’s fine, I’m sure you saw it and at least kind of liked the story. This collection takes that to a new level, I think. OK, enough ranting. I loved the book, it’s around $20 as most graphic novels are, and I think it’s fair to compare it to Jimmy Corrigan as a book that changes the standard that everybody else should shoot for.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable in: “Horse Races”
Guess there’s almost no reason for me to type the title in when it’s that huge. This book is as funny as it’s humanly possible to be. He ditched the war theme (which is too bad, as he could have gone on about various parts of that endlessly, which is maybe why he quit) and this one is about a mysterious person in an office who’s using office resources to bet on horse races. There’s nothing I can possibly say to convince someone that David is hilarious. If you read his strips and like them, you’re a decent, worthwhile human being and you should check out his new stuff when it comes out. If you don’t like them, maybe you should go back to using babies as footballs and using the skins of puppies to make lamp shades. Contact info is up there, and if you go there you’ll have access to samples galore, so what could be wrong with that?
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Get Your War On
Why couldn’t I have found out about this while it was going on? Man, would that have been therapeutic. These are strips that start on October 9, 2001 and continue up through the middle of the next year. If you’ve seen his other book you know how he does his comics, with the same pictures being used with different dialogue. I thought his last book was hilarious and I hope it’s as available as this new one is. If you’re not convinced, or if maybe you just don’t trust me, you can go here and see all of the strips that he’s done so far (I think). If you can read even a page of that without chuckling, well, then I guess you shouldn’t buy it. It’s $11 and he covers things that I’ve barely even heard of and I thought I was keeping up with everything that was going on. Buy it and laugh!
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable
When the worst thing you can say about a book is that not every strip in it is funny, you’ve got something good on your hands. This is basically a series of strips about people having karate fights and talking shit to each other. Kind of in the same vein as Red Meat, he photo copies karate figures from the backs of old comics (I’m guessing here) and gives them dialogue, as well as introduces Karate Snoopy and Circulatory Man and some other creepy things. My copy was $5, so I’m assuming that’s what they all go for, but you should probably e-mail the guy first. Listen, this is the funniest random pickup I’ve made in a while. There’s not enough genuinely funny comics out there, which is why this one was such a treat. Think he’ll get mad if I put a couple of these strips on here to try to convince you to buy this? I hope not. Anyway, e-mail him at dr@mnftiu.cc to see if he has any more of these things laying around.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Pale Fire #1
Hooray for a new comic from MK! Before I get started on this one, she’s put together the whole Catfight story (which I’ll ramble about one of these days) for $10 on her website. This is the first half of her Pale Fire story, which (so far) is about a young lady who wants to try and date a guy who everybody says is crazy. We hear stories about how he blew his younger brother’s hand off and torched a textbook, although it’s still hard to tell what’s true and what’s just urban legend, which I’m guessing is why there’s a second issue. Good stuff again, although if you have some sort of phobia about whippersnappers standing around and talking at a party you might want to avoid this, you weirdo…
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Catfight#2
The saga of the fight continues, although it’s mostly a distraction compared to the other goings-on in the book. What’s Sam up to with the new boyfriend? What’s going to happen because of the fight? And how did that lasagna turn out, anyway? I loved scene about the aftermath of the fight, which showed completely how schools can’t do a damned thing to discipline people, although it was portrayed in a funnier way than that. Honestly, if you’re looking for believable high school dialogue that also smart (yes, those things can go together) then you could do a whole lot worse than this book. Contact info is up there, these are just review copies but they should be finalized and ready for when the distro starts!
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Cursed
Before I say anything, if you’re ever in a car with this woman or on the road with her somewhere, watch out. This is a book of car accidents and odd things that have happened to her while in a car. Granted, a whole lot of these things weren’t her fault and a few could just be chalked up to bad luck, but this is a comic about 21 bad things that have happened to her while driving in the past 4 years. The art’s not great (had trouble telling exactly what a few things were) but it’s not terrible either. You don’t need much to tell these stories, so the minimalist approach worked fine. Her stories are engaging and you feel nothing but sympathy for the poor girl when it’s done. Good stuff, I’d like to see the next issue, but I’m not sure if she’d survive another 21 bad things happening to her. It’s a couple of bucks (probably), send her an e-mail.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Pale Fire
Hey look, I finally got around to getting the collected version of this story. Scrollers should note that I had the first issue years ago and, thanks to Poopsheet, eventually got around to getting the collected edition. And it’s, well, a great story. This is about a young woman named Alison who’s getting together at a party with a young man who has a reputation as a firebug and a bit of a crazy person (Darren). Alison, of course, can see none of this, although she seems level-headed about everything else. More details can be found in my review of the first issue, I’ll just pick up when they finally do get to the party. Neither of them likes parties so they end up outside, where another boy from the party confronts the firebug and starts a typical drunken fight (typical because no punches are thrown). They leave the party because Darren has something to show her, and any more information than that would be telling. Alison’s slow realization of just who she’s dealing with is a revelation, and M.K. manages to pull it off while keeping everybody in the story fully human. No cartoon villains, no ditzy girls falling for the dangerous guy, no shortcuts at all. She earns that ending, and at the end of the day it’s just a great comic. I don’t see this available at her website, but there’s that Poopsheet place I mentioned before, and she does have other things there if you’re curious. No price, but it’s hefty… $8?
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Pubo #2
Looks like I’ll be getting these every year or so, just in time to forget what I read in the previous issue. Luckily my old review is right up there. This one picks up where #1 left off, with Pubo on the run from his captors and an angry bear. All the animals in the forest are betting on his death, and it’s a good setup for the last issue, which will probably answer a few questions. This one shows a bit more of his captors and a tiny bit more of the mysterious man in the forest. Looks like everybody is out to get Pubo, so of course there’s more there than it seems. Yes, I should have gotten the last issue so I could have had a more informed review of this one, but I’m not made of money. It’s an interesting story, and my fear of him “just spouting catch phrases” was pretty far off the mark. Don’t know if Dark Horse is ever going to put this all out in one volume, but I think they’re all still available at Leland’s website. $3.50 seems a bit steep, but what are you going to do?
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Pubo #1
Here’s another one of those random buys of mine. I don’t get much from Dark Horse since Sin City stopped coming out and Paul Chadwick stopped doing anything of note with Concrete, so I usually only take a cursory glance through their page for pre-orders. I saw this sitting there and it looked interesting, and that’s more than enough chit-chat out of me about meaningless crap. I swear, maybe I should hire an editor or something… Anyway, Pubo. The first issue is apparently going to set up a larger story, as we are only given a few tidbits about the creature. We’re not even sure that he’s human yet, although he seems to be an altered man. The story starts with some people transporting Pubo back from Tokyo to the U.S. You can see on the cover that he escapes, so I’m not giving anything away. From there it gets even stranger, with Pubo talking to all kinds of forest creatures and a strange man who offers to help, but only in the cryptic, useless way that smart people always seem to offer in stories. It’s a good little story, although Pubo seems like the type to possibly degenerate into a character that does nothing but shout catch phrases, so here’s hoping it’s not headed that way. Worth a look, although you might be better off waiting for the whole thing to come out so you can read it all at once. Here’s his website, find out more about the guy, won’t you?
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Duppy
Hooray for a bunch of little stories instead of just one big story? Don’t get me wrong, I liked the last issue just fine, but the way I usually tell if I’m going to like somebody in the long term is if I can see a variety of their stories and make sure it’s not just because I’m hopelessly biased towards zombie stories. Well, in this particular case, anyway. In here you have a giant robot who only wants to please, a young woman trying to take the garbage out and being harassed by all kinds of woodland creatures (including Zombre), a crying hippie, a lonely Sasquatch befriending Zombre, a case of mistaken identity, a story about Rudeboys (so THAT’S what the song “Simmer Down” is all about), something about fending off a Duppy of your own and some nasty zombie vomit. Yep, it turns out that I like all his stuff. Most of the stories with the zombie were wordless so the book kind of flew by, but there’s something in each of these stories to recommend the book, and that’s just about all you can ask for. Contact info is up there, this one is $3 (or $4 with shipping).
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Zombre Vs. Slappy: Megathunder Showdown
Well, it’s always good to have a great title to get things rolling, and that certainly fits the bill. I also couldn’t tell you which character was Zombre and which was Slappy, as this is mostly a wordless story, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the skinless, bloody mess is Slappy, just because of his general sense of whimsy. Hey, I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right. Zombre seems like a somber sort of guy, just wandering around and not wanting to hurt anybody, while Slappy wants to cause as much mayhem as possible. They quickly become friends, as they don’t really have anybody else who would want to be friends with them, but their differences quickly become apparent and the inevitable battle ensues. It’s a remarkably short battle, considering the title and all. I loved just about every bit of this, frankly, although I do have a soft spot for zombies. My only minor aesthetic problem is that the pages are a bit too dark a shade of gray, but that’s what they call a “minor quibble”. It’s $2 ($3 with shipping), send the man an e-mail why don’t you?
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website (music-related)
Sof’ Boy and Friends #3
Holy crap! A new Sof’ Boy comic! If these individual artist pages could have dust on them, this one would be covered. Scroll up to see my general thoughts about Archer if you’re interested, but I’ll just go ahead and spoil it by saying that he’s one of my favorites, and I had honestly given up hope on his ever putting out another book. It’s been, what 5 years since the last issue? Longer? I just thought he went over completely to making music, so it’s great to see how wrong I was. This one is about Sof’ Boy, a cat, a dog and a big pile of money. The story has never been the important thing about these books, frankly, it’s more about the sheer grotesqueness of the people and the environment combined with the shining, overwhelming purity of Sof’ Boy. Great stuff, as always, and I hope this means that he’s going to be doing more comics now. How about a graphic novel? Click on the title for the website, $4.95.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Please Release
Top Shelf needs to put out crappier comics. It’s no fun when I can’t do anything but praise their books. There, you’ve just read the biggest complaint I have about this book, such as it is. This is a collection of 4 stories by Nate, and I can’t think of the last time 4 stories in a comic connected with me emotionally as much as these did. First up is The Phantom Form, which deals with constantly moving from place to
place, saying goodbyes and trying to remember the value of constantly being on the move rather than settling down. Next up is The Old Haunts, where Nate deals with coming down after seeing a horror movie while also being completely alone and unable to sleep. It’s a bit more introspective than all that, going into little things like how the height from the bed to the floor stays mostly the same from when you were a kid, but you get the idea. Work At It is the story that hit me the hardest, as it’s essentially a day in his life as an assistant to developmentally disabled adults, something I did in some form or another
for years. Nate goes over the extreme highs and lows of the jobs beautifully, as well as dealing with the perception that he’s not doing much real good when looking at the big picture but still feeling essential in their day to day life. Or maybe I’m projecting a bit.
Finally there’s Seriously, where Nate tries to reconcile the meaning of still being a punk at 27 with the option of just being another generic has-been. When is it time to give up on that lifestyle and “grow up”?
He had already mostly stopped going to concerts, but what about the rest of it? It also goes into Nate teaching a bunch of young kids (8-14ish) about comics and marveling at their constant, effortless creativity. This comic is brilliant, plain and simple. It’s one of those rare reads that sticks in your head, forcing you to pick over choices made in your own life and where things are headed. Buy it already. $5
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Posted by Kevin
