Monthly Archives: June 2011
Update for 6/9/11
Two new reviews today for Vigilant #1 by Brian John Mitchell & PB Kain and Crocus by Whit Taylor. Sorry about the lack of updates yesterday, I was trying to fix a virus that has the lovely side effect of making most of my Google links go to a misdirected site. It still isn’t fixed after running every malware/antiviral thing I could think of, so if anybody else has gone through this hassle and fixed it I’d love to hear from you.
Taylor, Whit – Crocus
Crocus
Just a suggestion for young small press comic artists: watch the handwriting. My handwriting it shit, for example, but in the few comics I did WAY back in the day (that will never again be seen in public, thank you very much) I slowed myself down and passed the pages around before putting the book together to make sure that people could read what I was writing. Not much point otherwise, is there? I’m mentioning to try and not single Whit out, as it’s not like she’s alone in this, but there were a few strips here where fairly critical words were crammed into the bubbles or entire bubbles felt like they were written under a time deadline. It was a pretty solid book other than that, but little problems that could have been solved before the book was released will always bug me. Anyway, she mentions in the intro that these were the first comics she did after being unproductive following a move across the country, just to throw that out there. Stories include discussing who would get to go through your embarrassing stuff if you died, trying to plan a party as a fake wedding extravaganza, watching shows about polygamy, a meticulous blowjob, and what your favorite artificial flavoring says about you. There are also short pieces of things she both will and will not do again, and a piece about how Jersey Shore doesn’t feel spontaneous any more because they all clearly see themselves as brands. Any comment I have on that one would be mean so I’ll just leave it alone. Like I said, it’s a pretty solid pile of stories, so you should probably check it out if you liked her previous work. Or hell, even if you didn’t, although if I’m being nitpicky I’d maybe start with Onesies or Attic before moving on to this one. $2
Mitchell, Brian John & Kain, P.B. – Vigilant #1
Vigilant #1
Brian continues to be a mini comic machine with yet another new series. And when I say mini comic, I mean that the sample image (before you click on it to make it bigger) is larger than the actual comic. If you’re going to keep up with all of his books I’d recommend setting aside a shoebox or something for these tiny things, as my current plan of “let’s just leave these things lying around in piles” is not working all that well. So anyway, this comic deals with a group of vigilantes who are, um, vigilant. They watch out for the little guy, punish the evil guys, and wear short pants with their hooded robes. Maybe that last thing isn’t a listed part of their agenda, but it was still hard not to notice. As with many of Brian’s comics this one was fairly thin on detail and hard to get a handle on in terms of a potential series. His other series mostly became really intriguing after a few issues, so I’m not too worried about it. We didn’t learn much about this group, but the implication was that they were at least mildly normal during daylight hours. At this point I have all the faith in the world that Brian can turn this into a worthwhile series over time, but so far there’s not much here that you haven’t seen before. Shadowy group of crime fighters takes on the criminal element but they work outside the law! Yeah, we’ve all been there. If he focuses his considerable skills on putting out another few issues of this series I have all the faith in the world that he can make it interesting. If he decides to let this one go to focus on a half dozen other series that I’m already invested in, well, so far I wouldn’t miss this one too much. $1
Update for 6/7/11
New review today for Nine Short Works by Jon Allen, and I’d have more but the computer is freaking out so much that I’m a little shocked that the review managed to get posted. Time to run every anti-viral thing I have and hope for the best…
Allen, Jon – Nine Short Works
Nine Short Works
Would you believe that this comic has nine short stories in it from Jon? Shocking, I know. A good chunk of them are available for free at his website, just in case you wanted to look them over before continuing here. It’s a solid bunch of stories that range all over the place, but one continuing theme throughout is quiet. There’s not a wasted word to be found, and everything that is said is relevant. Stories include a piece about a fight that got of hand between a couple of kids (and the loser of the fight in his later years), a chat between a woman and her mother about the things that get revealed if you watch the person you’re dating for their reactions to a movie, a day alone at a fancy home, the random kindness of a jump and the weird stuff in the guy’s back seat, a stupid death and the entrance requirements to heaven, and a boy with a dead bird. Other pieces that were a little more interpretive (not that those pieces above are exactly cut and dried) include images of a Chinese restaurant, the stars disappearing and a series of escalating images and messages. I’d go into more detail with that one but it lost me, so you’re on your own there. Anyway, it answered any doubts I may have had about the guy, so that’s a good thing, even if all of the stories perfect. A solid majority of them work for me. As for the price, your guess is as good as mine. It baffles me that a book that’s this well put together would make you guess such a thing, and his website isn’t any help. $7? Sure, let’s go with that.
Update for 6/6/11
New review for Stranger Two Stranger #1 by R. Hendricks. Sorry for the late and decidedly singular update, but I had a maintenance guy working on my apartment for a few hours to repair the damage from the leaking roof yesterday. In case you were wondering, yes, of course it started leaking directly over my bookcase. Why would it ever leak anywhere else?
Hendricks, R. – Stranger Two Stranger #1
Stranger Two Stranger #1
Somewhere around the mounds of comics in this room I have a copy of “I Saw You…,” the anthology edited by Julia Wertz. I’m mentioning this because R. mentions in his introduction that that book served as an inspiration for this book and to maybe help you understand his title a little bit better. See, that book had various tales of missed connections by some of the luminaries of the small press comics world. This one has ten different stories that range all over the place covering the same subject. Missed connections in here include a dopey ad listing the entire alphabet except for the “U” with the headline “What Am I Missing?,” a fairly hopeless girl who was giving it a shot anyway, a guy either looking for an overweight lady with a moustache to respond to his ad or maybe he was playing a joke, an ad to Prince Harry, one from a couple of prison inmates who wonder where their, um, “buddy” has gone, one about the sex appeal of a big old belly, another cryptic ad, and somebody whose only clue was that the person they were looking for said “bless you” to them when they sneezed in a pet shop. My favorite of the bunch has to be the story of the man who is trying to piece his previous evening together from the bits and pieces of physical evidence left over from the night before. R. also mentioned in his intro that he was very late getting into this small press comics thing, as he’s in his late 30’s at the moment. Kudos to him/her and the more the merrier. Hell, a good chunk of the behemoths of this small press world put out their best work after the passed 40 anyway, so there’s theoretically plenty of time for improvement. It’s a pretty damned solid first issue either way, but here’s hoping the guy keeps going with this.
Update for 6/4/11
New review for Blammo #7 by Noah Van Sciver, and I’m clearly going to need to ease back into this reviewing thing. I’m going to let Blammo sit at the top of the page over the weekend, then the goal is to do double reviews during at least half of the upcoming week. Happy weekend y’all!
Van Sciver, Noah – Blammo #7
Blammo #7
Noah had a throwaway line in this one that really got me thinking. He called his comic something like the last independent comic standing and I instantly thought that was hyperbole. After all, I get mini comics all the time, and many of them are high quality books. But then I realized that Noah’s book would fit perfectly into the 90’s mold of Eightball, Hate or Yummy Fur and I realized that those comics are all gone now. Well, Peter Bagge still does a yearly issue of Hate (which is a more regular schedule than most of his contemporaries with “regular” books), but Dan Clowes is mostly gone from the field and Chester Brown just put out an (I think) original graphic novel. Noah really is one of the last ones standing, which got me thinking that the industry really is dead, which sent me into a tailspin of sadness until my mind went back to all those mini comics. Sure, the industry is either dead or dying and most people certainly can’t make a living at it. But hey, at least great comics are still being made for the 100+ people who care to read them! Hm, back to the sadness again. Anyway, this isn’t about me or the state of the comics industry, it’s about Noah once again putting out a seriously fantastic comic. First off, just on the off chance that I haven’t mentioned it yet, good for him for including an actual letter’s page, guest strips and comics recommendations. It really is like a 90’s comic! The stories in here include a fake news story about Noah (complete with the stupid “Biff! Bang! Pow” nonsense that all news stories about comics are seemingly legally required to start with), a fake ad about collecting, a couple of single page strips about horror stories, and an update of how Bill the Chicken is doing in hell. The bigger pieces are what makes up the meat of it all, and the Mormon story baffled me a bit before I read his reasoning on the inside back cover. It’s told as a straight-up historical recollection which, if you think about Mormonism and how it was founded, is a bit of a stretch (says the guy who thinks all organized religions are silly, but seriously, Mormonism came from a guy supposedly reading plates from a hat). But hey, if you don’t know the story it’ll be news to you, right? Other than that there’s a longer classic horror story idea (maybe Noah should look into doing a whole book of these things, he clearly has the knack for it), the story of a guy trying to get a job and how he reacts to finding the wallet of an attractive woman with $250 in it on the bus, and the main story about a guy who accidentally wanders into watching over a young kid as she goes trick or treating and her brother abandons her. The impressive thing about this book is that pretty much each one of these stories has multiple layers past what I’m telling you about here, but I’m one of those reviewers who prefers that you find such things for yourselves. I’m going on the assumption that everybody hates spoilers as much as I do, which I think has worked OK for me so far. Overall he may have been nominated for an Ignatz for the last issue (and not won, sadly) but he really should earn one for this issue. Ah, if only I got a vote in such matters. Or maybe I should make up my own comics awards. So what if they’d be utterly pointless? $5
Update for 6/2/11
New reviews today for Oh My! Comix by Dexter Cockburn and Robots Are People, Too #2 edited by Greg Vondruska and featuring gaggles of comics folks. What a relief to be able to just talk about comics again…
Vondruska, Greg (editor) – Robots Are People, Too #2
Robots Are People, Too #2
When an anthology is done really well, you often wish that the stories had gone on longer, that you had more time to get into the characters and individual pieces. This issue fits that description perfectly. Damned near every story seemed like it could have gone in a few different directions or even been buffed up into a full length piece. Or maybe I just really like robots, who knows? Breakfast at Hal’s by Dan Boyd deals with a few robots having a nice, um, meal (?) at a diner, talking about robot gossip and how there’s no work for aging robot models with so little work around as it is (the Iron Giant is stuck working as a chrome buffer due to his lack of a sequel, for example). Rodney for President by Jason Franks continues his string of comics that’s exactly what the title suggests, and in this issue it’s Rodney with a media interview. Hardwired by Jason Franks & Greg is a twist on the old “secret boyfriend murders the husband with the complicity of the wife and tries to get away with it” story. Recycled Dreams by Greg and Fran Matera (if that name sounds familiar, it’s because Fran has been around since the Golden Age of comics) deals with a long term revenge plot. Space Patrol of the Space Force by Lou Copeland wins the best title of the comic and has some nice robot trickery. Eyeball Roboto by Jason Franks and Greg is all about blurring the bounds of perception and an immaculate turd that can bring people back to life. Spare Parts, Spare Time by Greg and Mace Markham is damned near a touching love story between a robot stewardess and a human. Finally there’s A Tin Heart by Gary Culler and Jason Maranto, as a robot tries to figure out how to cope with emotions when it’s not programmed to have them. OK, that last one might seem a little cliche, but it was handled extremely well. All told it’s another solid entry in the series, although in my biased opinion Greg could do worse than picking a few of these stories for continuing titles and getting something going. Sure, it’s probably not practical with the economy the way it is, but very few small press comics could be considered practical. $4
Cockburn, Dexter – Oh My! Comix
Oh My! Comix
I’ve never really come up with a good way on this site to differentiate actual adult comics (you know, with boobs and dicks and stuff) and adult themed comics (pretty much all of the small press world that’s not directly aimed at kids). I’ve also never come up with a good way to review them, as how do you review something that is made to turn people on? Dexter (and I’m just guessing that that isn’t his real name; if it is he really had no choice in terms of his calling) lets me ignore that debate for another day with this issue, as there’s more than enough funny in here to call it objectively good, even with good chunks of it being sexy as hell. There’s also a wide variety of stories. The first one deals with a man who is coming home on the bus after watching a horror movie. He falls asleep to an empty bus and wakes up to a bus full of pale creatures with dark eyes that he assumes are ghouls. To him, there’s only one way to find out if he’s dreaming: start having sex with the lady ghoul. No words are said by anybody (although we do get some hilarious thought bubbles as the action escalates), and the kicker at the end is pure genius. Other stories involve the accidental knocking out of an eyeball (and the unfortunate choice of a plug), a crooning cat and his temporary luck with the lady cats, Lovecraft Jr. (and if you don’t chuckle a little at the “Tentacoo Wape” line then you clearly haven’t seen/heard about enough anime porn), the adult supervision involved in a camping trip with one male adult and a young woman who has seriously blossomed (with all sorts of hijinx for the male kids who get to do their own thing unsupervised for what I hope are obvious reasons), a couple of full page gag strips and a “Can You Spot the Crime” strip on the back cover. There’s also one regular old story involving the murder of a child in the 1800’s, which was actually an informative and entertaining strip, it just felt a little out of place amidst all the fucking. This is definitely for adults only, as kids in this country are only allowed to see horrific acts of violence all day every day, but boobs and/or insertion is clearly too much for the poor dears. For us adults, I’m already a big fan after one issue. Having an adult comic artist who is both funny and capable of drawing some explicitly sexy scenes is a rarity, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the comics Dexter sent me (even if I am going to have increasing trouble finding samples or covers without nudity, assuming I continue to care about such things). $4
Update for 6/1/11
Yes, an actual update. The scanner is working again even though the computer isn’t (it’s a long story and I’m sick of updates about technical stuff here), so there’s a new review today for Double Dip #1 by Tom Cherry & Dale Martin. Double reviews should start tomorrow assuming that this very old and feeble computer holds up long enough for me to buy another one that’s slightly less old and feeble. As for last month, let’s just call May an unplanned vacation and leave it at that. I was also more or less ignoring e-mails last month, so if you sent me something I’ll be digging through those soon too. Hooray for comics!
Cherry, Tom & Martin, Dale – Double Dip #1
Double Dip #1
Hooray for the double comic! I don’t know why more small press people don’t do these, as you would think that it would expose both creators to the audience of the other guy, which would have to be a good thing. Then again, it’s generally a pain in the ass to collaborate with most creative types, your work might get lost in the ether if something goes wrong with the printing that’s not your call, with the incestuous nature of small press comics it’s probably going to be mostly the same audience anyway, etc. Eh, whatever, I still appreciate them. So anyway, the comic itself. The stories are in the reverse order that you would think from looking at that cover, just in case you wanted to find something to complain about right away. Tom Cherry and his “Those Funky Idiots” are up first with a tale about getting three wishes and the inevitability of screwing them up, but he throws in a bit of a time travel angle that makes it pretty funny. All of his characters also seem to exist in a void, as there’s nothing resembling a background anywhere, but it works for this story. Dale Martin is up next with Watusi The Talking Dog, as Watusi meets an alien creature that can turn into any type of dog. It was intriguing, but it probably would have made more sense if his story was self-contained like the Tom Cherry story. I’m curious to see what happens next, but there’s no indication where that might occur or what number of the series I could read to see it. That was probably a mistake, but the story itself has a few funny moments in its six pages. Overall I’d say it’s worth a look if you’re wondering about these two guys. They also offer a color cover for $.50 more, but there’s something decidedly odd about it. Look at them both and see if I’m crazy at Tom’s website. $1
