Weak Magic
New artist alert! Maybe I shouldn’t have given that away, but since he mentioned it in his letter I felt like I should point it out. Also just as an excuse for me to post this periodic reminder to new artists who may be influenced by a negative review, sometimes to the point of quitting entirely: don’t. Don’t take my opinion or the opinion of anybody else as the final word on YOUR art. Take the constructive nuggets from the reviews that you can use, if there are any, and move on to your next comic. Speaking for myself, I’ve reviewed more than a few times when I’m not in the best of moods. I try not to let that influence anything, honest I do! But sometimes it seeps through anyway. It’s also a mistake to think any reviewer is all-knowing, or smart, or sometimes anything other than a stupid doo-doo head. Look, now I got all worked up. Anyway! Reviewing comics, for me, is a way for me to highlight new comics or artists to people who might not have otherwise seen them, along with steering them away from the really rough ones. Which I see rarely, and even then I try to point out the good bits. Enough about reviewing, how about this comic? Well, he posted a few of these stories on his website, so you could skip the rest of my babbling entirely if you’d like and check out his work for yourself. This is a collection of several short stories and, as is always the case with several short stories, I liked some more than others. For a new artist I didn’t see any obvious typos or misspellings, which already puts Will above several other artists in their early works. There were a couple of times when it felt like he was cramming too much into a page (the Bashful Babe strip was hilarious, but cramped, for example), but overall it’s a book full of ideas, which is always welcome. So, for anybody who’s managed to stick with the review this long, what’s in the actual comic? Subjects include how people can change, the diner, a longer piece about the frog guys on a spiritual journey, kids today, the dangers of staring too long, a story about a high speed chase (this one is probably the heart of the book and it’s “too be continued”), how Bruce came to be, an ancient Egyptian artifact, and several single page strips that I’ll leave for you to discover. Hey wait a minute, I just went to his website to check on the price of this thing and he has two other comics listed! Sold out, sure, but it looks like this isn’t his first book after all. Well, I feel like a real heel now, but maybe somebody can get something useful out of this ramble. Bottom line, the good ideas far outweigh the ones that made me say “meh,” and I’m curious to see what else is rattling around in that brain of his. Which means yes, this is worth a look and you should give it a shot. $5
