Dawson, Mike – Fun Time Fall 2022

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Fun Time Fall 2022

I had to check to see the last time I reviewed one of Mike’s comics (been reviewing his stuff since the very early days of the website) and was surprised to see that it’s been over a decade. If you’re curious about the gap between reviews, read the review for Troop 142. I go on and on about it. What I know about Mike these days is his podcast (that may or may not be done) going over the Star Wars movies minute by minute, mostly because several comedians I like made appearances on it, and that he’s still making comics. This one is almost too personal for me, because he really goes into what must have happened to the “Generation X” people that made them into maybe the Trumpiest generation today. Outside of the very olds, I guess. I think Mike is roughly my age, and as somebody who seemingly gets more liberal every year, the state of my generation is a constant source of annoyance and confusion to me. It’s like the world kept going even after my generation seemed to think “nothing matters” was a solid rallying cry and a significant chunk of them would prefer the world to burn rather than admit they were wrong. Anyway! This is about Mike’s comic. Several stories in this one, mostly about the cover theme. He goes into the exact moment that he first saw someone log in to the internet and how urgently they treated it (circa 1993), talks about rereading Generation Ecch! (I also bought it for the Evan Dorkin art), explains his theory about how Quantum Leap was the quintessential 90’s show because now the problems to be fixed would just be too great to deal with (which makes me wonder how the remake handles the idea), explains how his first cartoon was the Rambo one (look it up, it’s as absurd as it sounds), hearing about a trip of his friends where they all took mushrooms and then talked about politics (he’s right, that sounds nightmarish), watching Twister with his daughter, a guide to spotting fascists, and finally a deep dive into the juxtaposition between the gender bending hair metal bands of the 80’s and 90’s and the rampant homophobia of the time. It’s still baffling, but he has some solid theories on what the whole thing was all about. So overall, yes, the man can still make a hell of a comic. And it looks like he’s still putting out stuff regularly for his Patreon subscribers, if you’re looking to get a steady fix of his comics… $7