Bieri, Sean – Jape #1

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Jape #1

Ah, Jape.  The little funny comic that always, always made me laugh, and still does whenever I see a new collection of comics.  Which is far too rarely, but apparently all these people that got me into this business back in the day have real lives these days, or have just figured out that nobody gets rich making mini comics, which leaves the rest of us without that essential funny.  One of these Japes reached a perfect level of humor rarely seen in the world, and I look forward to finding it in my trip back through these minis, but this one wasn’t it.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still funnier than most things in this world, but it wasn’t that one issue that got lodged in my brain and never went away.  Stories in here include a creepy true tale of mass transit, the fickle nature of women, having somebody else use the bathroom while you’re taking a bath (and lying about the, um, nature of their visit), making interviewees eat a bowl of shit to gauge their reactions, dating the naked model from art class, and reverse discrimination.  I’m started to sound like a broken record, but it sure seems like most of these old minis were never collected, and I doubt if they’re still available.  If they are there certainly doesn’t appear to be any easy way to find them.  Hello Turtle people?  There’s a vast pile of things that should be collected into graphic novel form just sitting around out there.  Start with Jape!  $.50