April 24, 2010
Website
More!
Seems like it’s been a week for mostly tiny minis, and this one is the tiniest of them all. It’s only a quarter, as you can see from that giant price on the cover, and it’ll take you about 30 seconds to read it. However, they are a very funny 30 seconds, so take that for what it’s worth. How much is 30 seconds of funny worth to you� If it’s a quarter, you’re in luck! This is the story of the wonders of small children and their appreciation for the finer things in life. Or how they’re mostly obnoxious little assholes. Is it appropriate to call children assholes? Well, if not then they should stop acting like them. $.25
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
A Bad Time For A Polar Bear
Ah, the simple minis, I do love them so. This one is various different kinds of one panel scenes involving, oddly enough, a polar bear having a bad time. Visiting his father in a zoo, being lit on fire, trying to stay on the melting ice, waiting for a phone call from its friends, and having mixed feelings about the warmth of a bear rug are some of the problems this guy (or gal) must face. Sarah was kind enough to send a few more books along with this, so I’ll have the chance to check the rest of her stuff out soon enough. For now, what’s not to like about a polar bear having a bad time� Especially for a measly dollar, this is well worth a look.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Human
The mark of a great autobiographical story is, to me, the fact that I really want to see what happens next to the author when the story is done. That’s certainly true here. Sarah lays out her dating history, all the way from the first kiss on to current day, dealing in frank terms with screw-ups and STD’s along the way. OK, the STD was singular, but I’m pretty sure the screw-ups are plural. It’s a completely engrossing story; I wouldn’t have believed I just read 120 pages if I hadn’t checked on her website. She lays everything out here, hanging out with friends, trying to figure out the right person to date and who to keep as “just friends”, talking about where to live and who to be. And it’s funny! If you get the impression that it’s just a dryly told life store, forget it, I laughed out loud more than a few times here. It’s $9, which may seem steep to some of you, but there’s a whole lot of comic here, well worth it in my book. As for me, I’m still looking forward to seeing what happens next…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Brian’s blog
Slacker
Well, there it is, one more mystery of the universe solved. Turns out that Brian is a MUCH better artist when he takes his time (even though this is a 24 hour comic, it looks better than any of the other 24 hour comics I can think of offhand). One thing I miss about 24 hour comics, if I can be an old fogey for a second here, is that people used to put how long the things took them at some point in the comic. Alex Robinson is the best example I can think of, as he also pointed out how much of a bad idea the whole thing was the further along he got, and that’s the kind of insight I miss in these things. OK, trip down memory lane over. This is the story of an unnamed man (probably Brian, but who knows?) who watches a PBS special on String Theory. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is, you’re obviously on the internet right now and can find out for yourself if you’re that curious. He decides to make a portal to visit an alternate dimension, which just so happens to work on the first try, and it takes him to a replica of his apartment with a few minor differences, and one major difference in the world that he can see right away: Michael J. Fox was never on Family Ties. The rest of the comic is a wandering tale about dimension hopping and sitting on the couch, but this had more of a plot than a lot of the 24 hour comics in the first few pages, so what more do you want? Some funny moments and it’s always good to see Michael J. in a comic. $2, contact info is up there!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Brian’s blog
How to Draw
Is the polish of 24 hour comics getting you down? Then why not try a 15 minute comic! Sure, it looks like crap (although there are a pages of this that look a lot better than they should), but it doesn’t make any difference as long as there’s a good story behind it. This one has that. It starts of as another “how to draw” (not that the title gives that away or anything) and then goes a completely different direction, going into detail about how to make glass for a frame for your picture, among other minute details. It all ends in tears, of course. Hey, I liked it a lot. No idea if the guy is much better when he takes his time, but at least the art and the story has a fun quality to it. This can’t be more than $.50 or so, check out the website and see what else they have around , as they have a ton of artists.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Comic Strip ’til Nude
See, I knew that the four panel comic strip format could be done well. Granted, this isn’t a perfect book, but it does help show people stuck with the idea that a punchline is required that there are actually other ways to go. This is a smallish collection of daily strips by Ed, which were apparently done on his website first. His website has a whole pile of comics, just so you know, some like these and some longer stories. For any readers (if they exist) who follow this site every day, Ed is also a contributor to the Good Minnesotan anthologies. So now that the trivia is out of the way, how about them comics? A lot of the strips are interpretive and either wordless or contain only a few words, leaving all sorts of room for interpretation. Themes that are easier to nail down include his constant thought, a mean turtle, begging to get back together, Stevie Wonder as a child, bravery, icebergs, dry-humping, and OCD. Chances are I got at least one of those wrong too, but that’s a risk of the bidness, I suppose. Whole strips didn’t do a thing for me, frankly, but I was so happy to see a richness of four panel strips for once that it was easily ignored. Sizes vary, there are no recognizable characters from strip to strip, and even though there is the occasional punchline, it’s clearly not required in Ed’s head (if I can put on my mind reading hat for a moment), so kudos to him for that. Recommended if you’re as big of a dork as I am about that sort of thing, or if you don’t mind spending a buck for a pretty solid collection of strips. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Dark Cloud Comin’
What a fantastic comic. I mean that in the most literal sense: this is one of those rare stories where, for every thing that is explained, you sense all sorts of other wonders right below the surface. This is the story of a young tomboy, her family, a giant and how it affects their society. This behemoth theoretically protects their society from some undefined harm, and all it takes to keep this arrangement going is the occasional pure baby to eat. That’s how things start, as the agent for The Holy Hand (local religious group who deals with the giant) comes for the brother of the young tomboy and she, seeing the effect this has on her mother, decides to go after the giant and try to reason with it. This is where the sense of a fully realized other world comes into play, as she passes talking stalactites when entering the cave and, when eaten by the giant, runs into a frog creature who has also been eaten.  The giant is also writing what appears to be a memoir on the cave walls, although we’re never given a clear glimpse outside of a few sentence fragments. Inside his belly the child takes the knife from the frog creature and continues searching for her brother, with disastrous results for the giant. Where does the town go now? How will they cope without a protector, if it was in fact protecting them at all? It’s rare that, after reading a comic, I’ll stop and wonder what a half dozen of the characters involved are doing after the comic ends. The obvious answer, of course, is nothing, as the comic is over, but there was so much depth to this comic that it felt like it could have gone on for ages. If all that wasn’t enough, the art was breathtaking, a clear step up from his previous work, not like that was bad to begin with. With the year being about half over (or with about half the year being left, if you want to be an optimist about it), this is probably the best comic I’ve read all year, or damned near, as I always forget about certain comics when I make claims like that. Still, even though people probably get desensitized to my enthusiasm for certain comics and have this part of the reviews fly right by them: buy this comic. If you’re at this website at all you love comics (or you’re related to me), and this is easily one of the best comics of the year. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Love Song of Kermit the Frog
Just so it’s clear: that cover folds out so that it’s a full page thing with the entire title on it. I scanned it that way because, well, that’s what it looks like when you open it up, and I didn’t want to give the impression that this was magazine-sized. That useless aside being said, this is definitely one of those comics where you know from the cover whether or not it’s something you’d enjoy. Either you’re one of those people for whom the Muppet’s have been an endless source of amusement and inspiration over the years (or at least until Disney got their soulless mitts on them) or you’re a sad, sad human being who can get no enjoyment out of anything. Yes, in this case it really is that simple. These are all Muppet’s comics, starting with a brief history of the life and death of Jim Henson, with all of the breakthroughs in between. There are the origins of various inspirations, some hard moments in Jim’s life, the start of Sesame Street and his various other film and tv projects (anybody else remember the old tv show The Storyteller? I sure don’t). I could have done with a few dozen more pages, but then this would hardly be a mini comic, and I can see the tough choices Ed had to make to cut the life of this remarkable man down. Short pieces make up the rest of the book: a young girl describing Kermit as her first crush, the early years of Dr. Bunson Honeydew, and an extended poem to Kermit before he wrote Being Green, which is something I could have done without, but I have no soul and don’t think much of most poetry. Like I said, this is either for you or it isn’t, but if this is something you’d be interested in I can almost guarantee you that you’ll learn something new about the life of Jim Henson. And, if you’re like me and want more, Ed was nice enough to recommend a few books on the subject. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Ghost Comics (edited by Ed Choy Moorman)
Sometimes I make these reviews overly complicated, and I probably will with this one too, so I wanted to sum it up simply: this is a collection of different takes on ghost stories from some of the best small press cartoonists around. Ta-da! What more do you need to know? There are all kinds of highlights to choose from, and somehow there’s not a stinker in the bunch. That’s a rare thing with anthologies, but Ed has put together quite a cast here. Things start off strong with Hob’s tale of a dinosaur ghost witnessing everything that follows its death and the eventual destruction of the earth. From there Jeffrey Brown talks about making a fool of himself to a member of a band he likes, Corinne Mucha implies that the “ghosts” in her dorm were really just an excuse to get people to sleep together for protection, Maris Wicks goes into detail about the creepy and non-creepy aspects of living with a ghost as a kid, Madleine Queripel relates the reality of trying to scatter ashes, Toby Jones (professional boyfriend) goes into how useless he is when confronted with death, Lucy Knisley visits an old school she attended briefly and is shocked by the sheer number of ghosts still around, Allison Cole finds a practical way to rid herself of ghosts, Evan Palmer tells the tale of a knight misguidedly trying to win love, and Jessica McLeod warns of the dangers of ghost tomatoes. Then there’s my favorite (among many “favorite”) story: Kevin Cannon’s tale of all the major landmarks of the world joining together into a Voltron-like creation to fight evil, how one member of that band is destroyed and, as a ghost, sees a plot to destroy the world. Any more detail than that would ruin it, but trust me, it’s a purely awesome thing. If that still hasn’t convinced you, here’s everybody else involved: Ed Choy Moorman (duh), Aidan Koch, Mike Lowery, Sean Lynch, Sarah Morean, Jillian Schroeder, Zak Sally, Abby Mullen, Eileen Shaughnessy, Tuesday Bassen, Sarah Louise Wahrhaftig, Jenny Tondera, John Hankiewicz, Will Dinski, Mark Scott, Monica Anderson, Warren Craghead III and John Porcellino. Topping off that pile of talent is the fact that this is a benefit anthology, with proceeds going to the RS Eden, which started off as a chemical dependency center and evolved into helping community members at need in all sorts of areas. So it’s for a good cause, it’s packed with talent and it’s only $10. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. $10
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Alan Moore fansite
Supreme: The Return
You wouldn’t believe how long I’ve been trying to get my hands on this story. I heard about it after it came out, as I paid no attention to Rob Liefeld’s comics at all, and by then it was out of print and uncollected. Sometimes I swear that these Checker people are reading my mind with the collections they’re putting out. This is the second collection of what I’m guessing to be at least three. I haven’t seen the first one, apparently it sold out quickly but they’re putting out another printing. Surprisingly, it really didn’t affect my understanding of the story. Sure, it might have helped here or there if I knew exactly what led up to certain things, but the main strength of this series was its vast history. As this character is at most ten years old, that probably needs a bit of explanation. This character is Alan’s take on Superman, pure and simple. I thought that was the point of Tom Strong and maybe it was; I still haven’t read it. There is a world for Supreme that houses the Revisions, which are all the failed versions of Supreme that were discontinued after a few months or a few years, going back decades. Read some of the OLD collections of Batman or Superman if you’re not aware of how many revisions they’ve had over the years. It’s a perfect story device for this because there’s an automatic history for the series, no matter what point you start reading it. Rick Veitch does some flawless work when flashbacks are needed for the sake of reminding readers of “old” characters, and he does a perfect tribute to Jack Kirby as well. Sure, at times it seems like a silly superhero comic, if you’re not reading between the lines, but that’s kind of the point. The actual story here (Supreme fighting villains who’ve escaped his prison, Radar (the Supreme dog) having thousands of puppies, Supreme revealing his secret identity) is good, but it’s secondary to the dissection of Superman that is on display and the incredible ability Moore has to make the silliest things believable and interesting. This is an amazing chunk of work for fans of Moore or just for fans of the medium in general. He’ll be known as the best comics writer ever when he’s gone (I know that he already is, but people don’t truly appreciate the greats while they’re still producing), and this, surprisingly for me at least, is some of his best work. It’s $24.95 but it’s huge, in case you were wondering…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Alan Moore fansite
Top 10 Book Two
This is the last of the books I was able to buy with my “I still have a steady job, why not get this book?” money, and I don’t think I could have picked a better one. I didn’t follow this book as it was coming out, but there’s no way that it could have come out on a monthly basis. Every panel is packed with in-jokes and references to other comics and characters, from “Vacation on Infinite Earths” to a Hawkwoman feeding little baby hawks in a nest to Kang the Caterer. It’s been said before in other reviews, but this is pretty much Hill Street Blues with superheroes. There might have been three fight scenes in this whole book. It’s all about the characters and the human side of all these fantastic figures. After all, super powers kind of stops being a conversation topic when everybody in town has some. And always, always check out the backgrounds of these panels. There’s always superheroes flying around and doing something, more often than not you’ll probably recognize them. That brings me to my only problem with the book. If you haven’t grown up on comics, you’re going to miss a lot of stuff in here. I think the average person would still get a lot out of it, but this is for the comic book fans, plain and simple. It’s $14.95 and you don’t really have to read these two books in order, although I guess it might help for certain parts. It’s some of his best work in years, definitely the best of the “America’s Best Comics” line that I’ve seen.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
XO #5 (art by Melissa Spence Gardner)
You know what I love most about this particular series ? It’s the fact that the murders have all been, on some level or another, justifiable. Granted, it’s been just barely justifiable in some cases (#3, for example, and this one) but there’s a case to be made for the fact that murderer was mostly trying to do the right thing. In this issue a young drug dealer is confronted by the brother of a man to whom he’s dealing drugs. He mentions this problem to his partner, who mentions it to the supplier, and is offered $5000 to take care of the problem along with assistance in getting rid of the body, but any action to be taken is purely up to the dealer. The dealer confronts the brother, meaning only to talk, but he confronts him while the guy is working on his car and he ends up getting accidentally killed in a manner that’s familiar to anybody who has ever worked under a car hood who has an active imagination. The comic ends a little abruptly, as we’re left to wonder exactly how this dealer is going to get rid of the body, but I still love all the ambiguity. Brian is doing an excellent job of giving all of his series a distinct voice, and the contribution of Melissa with the art has to be at least mentioned. That death shot was a particularly gruesome panel and she manages to make all of these deaths seem like they could be happening to somebody you know, no small feat. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
XO #4 (art by Melissa Spence Gardner)
Another issue of XO, another fun murder. Actually, I suppose you could call this an “almost murder”, followed quickly by the steps necessary to make it an actual murder. OK, I’m getting way ahead of the story. Once again, everything is presented like it’s a true story, which only makes the whole thing creepier. Brian comes home from grocery shopping to find his neighbor outside arguing with her boyfriend. He decides to step in, asking her if she’d like the guy to leave, and things escalate to the point where the girl just walks away and the guy takes a swing at Brian, which leads to him getting punched in the face. Trouble is that the punch was maybe a little too hard, as the guy doesn’t seem to be moving, and something has to be done about that body lying in the parking lot. I’m really starting to love these tiny things (in case you haven’t read the other reviews, that cover sample is just about actual size), as they’re imaginative and creepy and (while Melissa is drawing anyway) artistically swell. Not that the other ones are ugly, it’s just that Brian is more of a stick figure kind of guy. This is probably right around $1, and every one of these I’ve seen so far has been worth checking out.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Ultimate Lost Kisses #11 (with art by Dave Sim (!))
No, I don’t know if this is a continuation of the Lost Kisses series (what with the addition of “Ultimate” to the title), but as this is listed as #11 and the last issue with Lost Kisses in the title was #10, I’m going to assume that it is. I’ll get to the comic in a minute, but Dave Sim? I guess he has some free time these days, but kudos to Brian for getting him to illustrate a book of his. I’m actually finishing up the Cerebus series this week, as all the unrelated text pieces killed it for me the first time around and, while I have my problems with various theories by Dave (and his sucking all the joy out of his book for the last 50 issues or so), I doubt that I’d even still be reading comics if it wasn’t for his influence. I don’t know what his legacy is going to end up being, but I’d put the first 220 issues or so of Cerebus up there as one of the great achievements in the field. Isn’t there a comic somewhere I’m supposed to be reviewing? This issue changes the format of the previous Lost Kisses, as this is a fictional story (or at least I hope it is). A young woman gets a letter from her son, 18 years after she’d given him up for adoption and practically forgotten his existence. He’s on death row for killing a man and wants to meet her, but there’s nothing accusatory in his letter. She informs her husband (who she met ten years after her son was born) about his existence, tells him of her plans to visit her son, and she sets off. Brian is a master of taking the images given and expanding or shrinking them, using the images as a director would use a camera lens, and he does wonders with what he’s given here. It’s a powerful story, and I hope this gets Dave back into comics, assuming he even wants to after 300 issues of Cerebus… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Lost Kisses #10
Brian, with this issue, asks an important question: when it is OK to tell someone that you love them? On top of that, what exactly is love, and is anyone ever capable of really loving someone else? Those happy thoughts form the basis for this mini, so if you’re one of those people who is deliriously happy and in love, this one probably won’t do a whole lot for you.   It starts with Brian noticing that a lot more people are telling him that they love him recently, and he has a point: it’s used way too much. Then again, as he points out, he is a stoic guy from a stoic family, so maybe he’s just taking the whole thing too seriously.  He also concedes that maybe if he had a wife and kids (a lot of his friends are married with children) that saying “I love you” would probably be second nature. He concludes by saying that maybe he should give it a chance, or maybe he’ll end up lonely and bitter and won’t have to worry about people telling them that they love him because he’ll have lost all his friends. Once again it’s an interesting comic, and he really has no right being this productive AND thought-provoking. Just pick one or the other and save the rest for the other mini comics folk. I think everybody knows where I stand on these things by now, that they’re very much worth checking out. He does mention that he’s running out of ideas, but I’ll believe it when I see it… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Lost Kisses #9
It’s getting to the point where I should give Brian a separate page for each of his titles to prevent this page from getting completely ridiculous. He just sent 5 more comics along, one starting an entirely new series, and this page is bulky enough as it is. Damn his productivity! Lost Kisses is definitely the most personal of his mini minis, as this time around he talks about how he much he values creativity and artistic expression over economic stability and how this inevitably gets him in trouble with the significant others of his friends. After all, when he encourages them to do more art, the reason against it is usually because of a job. The conversation then turns to how much they hate that job, which turns to questioning why they still work at a place they loathe, which is not a direction that most significant others would like the conversation to go. He goes on to talk about how he can’t seem to talk to these boyfriends/girlfriends like real people, as he always sees them as transitory, which is also how he sees life in general. Cats, on the other hand, are creatures that he wants to like him. He also mentions how much more he likes sleeping than sex, and once again generally shows that he is willing to talk about pretty much any personal detail, as he comes to terms with being stuck as a jackass for the rest of his life because changing would be too hard. It’s brilliant stuff and seems to be getting better as he goes along which, with this level of productivity, means he’ll be Dan Clowes in no time. These are all a buck each and I just noticed that he sells chunks of ten for $8, for those of you who like a bargain.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Lost Kisses #8
I finally found something to complain about with Brian’s comics: they’re so tiny that they can get lost in the general chaos of my desk. This comic came in months ago, and just now it fell out of a larger stack of comics when I reached for something to review. As complaints go it’s pretty weak, granted, but I figured some negativity was due on this page, especially as I thoroughly enjoyed this issue. This is the story of Brian’s ex getting robbed and beaten and ending up in a coma. He pulls no punches at all in describing his feelings towards her, even going so far as to wish (almost) that he had done it. If you wanted to complain about the stick figure artwork I guess you could do that, but nobody could fault Brian for a lack of openness. Honestly, pretty much everybody who’s ever had a horrible breakup (which is probably everybody who has ever dated) has at least thought about killing their ex, but few people are willing to go into this much detail about it. Brian doesn’t let himself off the hook either, going into some things he did wrong in the relationship and bemoaning his inability to completely move on from this relationship. As always, this is another solid mini, and people with more organizational skills than me should have no trouble reading these tiny things all in a clump and not losing them around their room…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Lost Kisses #7
In case you can’t read the caption, it says “Keys, Phones and Barcodes: What do these things have to do with each other?” It takes a while to get there, but he pulls it all together in the end. This is the story of Brian finding some house keys from an old girlfriend, and it happens to be the old girlfriend who he actually bought a house with years ago. She still owes him $5000, he has no interest in ever seeing her again and spends the issue trying to figure out what to do with them. The trouble is that the first half of the book is all over the place and I didn’t start piecing this story together until the start of the second half. He goes from a ringing phone right to a panel about the odd names of grocery stores in other states to questions about how the store located him in the first place. Reading it over again, I got what he was going for: the grocery store called him because of the bar code on the keyring, but it was awkwardly put together. He saves things in a big way with the second half though, because what do you do in that situation? He goes through all the pros and cons and eventually comes to a decision. Without ruining anything, it turns out he’s a nicer guy than I am. Brian sent a small pile of minis again this time around, so more tiny fun will be had in the near future. As for this one, I recommend it to anyone who has ever fantasized about revenge of an ex. Which is probably everybody…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Lost Kisses #6
The king of very tiny comics is back! OK, maybe I’m not allowed to call him the king of tiny comics. Many people are making mini comics, and many of them are pretty damned tiny, but very few people I know are this prolific while keeping their books this tiny… and still managing to pack engaging stories in the little things. This issue is a flip book (both by Brian), with one half detailing the reasons he should stay with his girlfriend and the other detailing the reasons he should leave. He makes a point in the beginning of the mini to say that this isn’t about any specific girl in his life, and I suppose that’s true of the comic as a whole, but a number of panels here just have to be about one person. Still, it’s not like he’s going to get sued or anything, as these minimalistic images make lawsuits pretty unlikely.  On the negative side, yes, he goes into things that are true of a lot of women, and no, I don’t think it’s misogynistic to say so. His negatives are lying, a lack of willingness to deal with past emotional scarring, spider veins, her being over her ideal body weight, appearance being more important than reality, having no taste in art, and rogue nipple hairs. On the plus side, his positives for a girlfriend are intelligence, a sense of humor, better self-esteem, the peace he feels while holding her, good hair, musical skill, and the simple fact that he loves her. Granted, some of the negatives are pretty petty, and some of the positives are generalities that you see in every dating ad to ever exist, but this is still a fascinating book. Leave this on the coffee table (if anybody even sees it amidst the clutter) and sit back and wait for all the awkward conversations that are sure to follow. Like everything else I’ve seen from this guy, it’s well worth a look, that’s for sure.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Lost Kisses #5
Yep, that’s about actual size for this comic. It was actually shrunk from a smaller size a few years back and is now right around the size of a pack of matches, but somehow Brian manages to pack all sorts of goodness into this tiny package. This is a short version of the story of Brian’s life, his struggles to keep friends, to distinguish himself from humanity as a whole (although I would submit that a continuing interest in this medium is a good start), and his surprising lack of interest in many self-perceived failings. Turns out (spoiler alert!) that he has something called Asperger’s, so maybe this odd disconnectedness he’s feeling is simply a matter of faulty brain wiring. Honestly, when I see a comic this tiny, the best I’m hoping for is maybe a good joke or two, something mildly amusing because of the novelty format. The fact that he was able to put together an emotionally moving story while still being oddly disaffecting is impressive as hell to me. You can order all five issues at his website for $3.50, or maybe, what, $1 apiece? This is well worth seeking out for anybody who has ever felt listless and directionless, which I’m guessing is just about everybody reading this at one time or another…
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Posted by Kevin
