Monthly Archives: August 2013
Update for 8/7/13
New review today for DemonDust #17 by Bernie McGovern, who is a comics producing machine these days.
McGovern, Bernie – DemonDust #17
DemonDust #17
That’s right, the cover show the Karate Kid in space. No, the comic does not build a complicated story explaining how he got into space, but is instead a dreamy comic about letting your mind expand, pondering your existence and trying not to overthink things. Can you relate to that? Sure you can. Bernie is still using this comic to experiment with whatever is most in his thoughts in any given month, but promises in his afterward to get back to more conventional narratives in future issues. For this one you get to spend a little time thinking about the big questions in the world, or at least the best way to go about not thinking about those questions. Three cheers for him keeping this up, and how he finds the time between this and his other projects I’ll never know. But he is making some of you slackers who only put out one book every few years look bad. Are you going to stand for that? Better get to work on your next three projects to show him that you can do it too…
Update for 8/6/13
New review today for Optik Noize #4 by Matthew McDaniel, and if anybody knows his current website, please let me know!
McDaniel, Matthew – Optik Noize #4
Website?
Optik Noize #4
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a comic with no clue as to who produced it or how to get in touch with them, but Matthew managed. That’s right, I already know who he is, but that’s only because I’ve been reading his comics for years. His website also appears to be down, so I’m not entirely sure how you’d get a copy of this if you’re interested, but I’ll do a review of it anyway because maybe you’ve also been reading his comics for years and have a good way to get ahold of him. I missed the third issue of this series, but he seems to be telling a continuing story, as the intelligent dog from the second issue is still around. Anyway, this time around Mark has decided to make a few clones of himself to help with an equation that’s been troubling him. No big deal, it just has the potential to solve basically every problem. That sounds a little too all-encompassing to me, not to mention vague, but I’ll let it slide. Mark decides to go to see a movie with Julie and to leave his clones to do the work, the clones run into some troubles and decide that they need another pair of hands, and they find out the hard way that it’s not a good idea to clone a clone. Some tricky moral questions get asked and dropped and a nemesis is still teased at the end of the book. Matthew has done a great job of keeping this a fun series over the years, although I could do with a bit more character development at this point. Still, it might be heading in that direction after the events of this issue, or it might already be there but I don’t know about because I’ve missed a couple of issues. Either way it’s still worth checking out. Provided that you can find a copy, that is, and I’ll update this with new contact information if I find anything out. That includes the price, obviously, so I’ll guess… $4!
Update for 8/5/13
New review today for Nurse Nurse by Katie Skelly. In other news, I feel good about getting more than three reviews together this week. Well, maybe not “good.” Cautiously optimistic, maybe.
Skelly, Katie – Nurse Nurse
Hooray for this being a completed series! Which is probably an odd thing to say, granted, but I saw the first issue for this ages ago and was afraid that it was one of many series that just sort of petered out. Not so! This story is set far into the future (3030, to be exact) at a time when nurses are being sent out to help out with various illnesses that colonists are coming down with while settling different planets. Earth has long since had a population explosion, so they’re forced to take some risks in keeping humanity growing. Why this constant expansion is always assumed to be a good thing is rarely explained in science fiction stories, but don’t mind an old crank like me, as that has nothing at all to do with this story. Anyway, the main nurse is Gemma, and her fellow nurses sabotage her right off the bat when they get to Venus. On Venus she discovers a mysterious gooey substance that comes from butterflies and seems to be causing people to hallucinate/fall in love with each other. She eventually gets reassigned to Mars, but a butterfly sneaks onboard her ship as she leaves, causing all kinds of problems. This was an eight issue series, but apparently the eighth issue was never released, so even if you were awesome enough to keep up with this series you still don’t know how it ends. Other things that I can mention without spoiling anything probably? Space pirates! Clones! Pandaface! Shooting the leg off a guy! Meeting the most popular band in the universe! A malfunctioning ship! There, that should be vague enough for you to not know what I’m talking about. This series is a pile of fun, especially because the small press comics world does damned little in the way of smart science fiction (or any science fiction at all, really). More like this please, and Katie has left herself a little room for more of these stories, so maybe if everybody reading this buys this book that’ll make it an easy call for her. $15
Update for 8/1/13
New review today for Passage by Tessa Brunton. Have I settled into a lazy summer schedule of three reviews a week? We’ll find out together tomorrow, when I either do or do not review another comic. Exciting!
Brunton, Tessa – Passage
Passage
Hey artists, I have a rare rhetorical question for you all that I actually wouldn’t mind an answer to: when somebody says that they thoroughly enjoyed your book/comic/whatever, is it an insult or a compliment for them to say that what they really wanted was to see more? I’d think of that as a compliment, but maybe it’s an insult to the idea of your comic as a complete thing by itself. Either way, and with no insult intended, the only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it felt like a part of a larger whole. Not that it wasn’t complete by itself, it just felt like this could have been 32 pages in the middle of a graphic novel and it would have fit in just fine. This is Tessa’s story of her life when she was roughly 12 and a rite of passage that had been planned for her older brother. Her brother (Finn) had been retreating from the family more and more as he got older, so his dad and a few of his friends wanted to get together to throw him a sort of rite of passage ceremony. Tessa shows brilliantly how her parents had given up many of the trappings of a conventional life years ago, wanting only to exist in their own space with their family, so they thought it was important to let Finn know that his gradually pulling away from them was OK, but they also thought it was important to give him a few pieces of advice before he got too far away. It’s tricky to describe the narrative of this comic, as it bounced around a bit between Tessa and Finn and their parents effortlessly, but it never felt scattered or unfocused. Tessa is becoming a woman but is still forced to deal with her mother’s habit of treating her like a child, their dad had quit his job and loved goofing around with his friends (but still seemed to be an attentive and focused father from what we see here), their mom had her quirks like painting in her studio without showing the art to anybody but was also incredibly devoted to her children, and Finn had moved his stuff into a gazebo in the backyard to highlight his separation from his family. This comic comes down to being able to recognize the times when you’re effortlessly happy and to enjoy them while they’re happening, and who can’t get behind that? The art is layered and complex, far behind the abilities of a non-drawing human like me to fully document but trust me, there is plenty going on in every panel. Her two page spread of her house growing up is a real thing of beauty. There are plenty of tidbits in here that make me want to see the rest of the story, although at least one of those tidbits suggests that she may not be comfortable telling any more. Either way this is a hell of a comic, and looking around online I see that it was rightly nominated for a few awards. I can also see that she’s working on a longer story and has a few older comics available, so there’s still plenty to look forward to from her/go back and read. $6.50
