Hoax #1 Now Available! $1
(Sorry about the lack of scans, this thing is basically and unscannable by me)
Kudos to Karl and the rest of the crew for turning this into a series after this first issue, because it was lousy. Lousy in what way? Well, mostly Ben Carrico, the guy who did most of the essays in later issues. In those issues I occasionally found him thoughtful, if all kinds of paranoid, but if I had read this issue first I would have had an entirely different opinion of the guy. There are certain statements that, when I hear or read them, know that I can dismiss the opinion of the person they came from. “Glenn Beck is a thoughtful, sincere journalist”.  “Sarah Palin really did quit the governorship so she could be a better fighter for ‘the people'”. “The moon landing was a hoax”.  This came out in 2002 so I don’t know what Ben thinks about those first two, but he mentioned in two separate articles that there was “no proof” of there ever being a moon landing, and that makes anything else the guy says suspect in my mind. And this issue is the Ben Carrico showcase, as he has 5 different essays in this one. He isn’t helped by the poor layout of the issue, which chops up most of his articles and continues them on later pages for no discernible reason. I have to point out, once again, that this is from 2002 and there’s every chance in the world that he’s ashamed of all this nonsense now, eight years later, and it’s not fair of me to even bring it up at this late date. Fair enough. But as these are still available for sale (at least here), I do have to point out that you’d be better off with any of the other five issues and it would be best to skip this entirely. Oh, what about the comics? Not bad, mostly, but there also isn’t much room for them with all the essays. There’s a piece on conspiracies by Nate Neal (funny and informative, if still a bit paranoid), K. Throope has a couple of people complaining about stupid house wives and their SUV’s, Lydia Gregg has the highlight of the issue (in which she has a tv ad of a starving country offering to take fat kids off our hands), Nate Neal has a silent mess of a Truckhead strip, Karl Kressbach has an indecipherable silent mess of a two-pager, Lydia has a funny four panel strip called Culture Binge, Lydia wins again with a fake ad on the back cover for Leproclear (to help you stay attractive as you age by shedding layers of skin) and Nate Neal caps it off with famous body parts kept in pickle jars. So: a few funny comics, many many wild-eyed (although, to be fair, he was probably right about a few things) rants from Ben Carrico. It’s still only a buck, so it’s probably still worth a look if you’re a fan of Lydia’s work. Otherwise everybody else involved got a whole lot better by the later issues. $1
