New review today for Second Banana by Tessa Brunton. I should still have time for a new review tomorrow if all goes well, although it is odd how overtime at work makes me more productive here. Science, get on that.
Update for 9/19/13
September 19, 2013
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Posted by Kevin
Brunton, Tessa – Second Banana
September 19, 2013
Second Banana
How much trust should you place in an older sibling while growing up, especially if that sibling really seems to have their shit together? This is the story of Finn (Tessa’s older brother) taking her under his wing after their older brother left the house. He also left his comics, books and Dungeons and Dragons stuff, which enabled Finn to introduce her to all of it. I’m more than a little jealous of somebody who was able to grow up knowing about H.P. Lovecraft and all of the various monsters from D & D (crikey, the dreams she must have had as a kid), but let’s leave that aside. Tessa’s main problem was that she put total trust into Finn, who mostly didn’t abuse it, but it left her unable to tell when he was wrong (or possibly just messing with her). For example, he told her that putting a light bulb in your mouth would create a vacuum, causing it to explode, sending shards of glass careening down your throat. She believed this right up until college, but it sounds like the other things he taught her came together to make a decent trade-off. Her only regret was that Finn became more skeptical of supernatural things while he grew up and he passed that on to her, and it’s disheartening to see the world only as it is and not as it could be. Eh, she says it a lot better than I ever could, and I’m already getting a bit too far into spoiler territory. I’d just like to add that you’ll get a hell of a lot out of this book if you either had an older sibling who tried to teach you about the finer things in life or if you were that sibling. After all, they didn’t know everything, but they were extremely unlikely to let you in on that fact. There’s also a short piece on the end about the “Dyatlov Pass Incident,” which Emi Gennis actually covered in one of her recent comics. But hey, genuine mysteries like that are always rare and interesting, so it was good to see a different perspective on it. $3
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/17/13
September 17, 2013It’s Top Shelf Tuesday again, with the review this time being for A Matter of Life by Jeffrey Brown. Why yes, that is one of the graphic novels that is currently half off (so it’s $7.50) during their sale. Which, I’ll remind you again, is something that you should check out.
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Posted by Kevin
Brown, Jeffrey – A Matter of Life
September 17, 2013
I’ll confess, I was a little worried about this one. “An autobiographical meditation on fatherhood and faith”? Blech. Most of the comics I’ve seen about fatherhood seem to come from the perspective that these people have recently discovered parenting and small children, so the slightest details about each will be fascinating to the reader. Or you may recognize it from its real world equivalent: friends who have recently had children thinking that you want to hear every single “cute” thing that their child has said and done, no matter how mundane. Why yes, I am remarkably cynical about such things, why do you ask? But hey, this is still Jeffrey Brown, so there’s plenty of entertaining stuff in here. This is mostly about Jeffrey growing up, his early days dealing with faith (his father was a minister), and how he gradually just stopped buying into it. This always seems to happen after comparative religions classes, which makes me wonder why those obnoxious fundie groups haven’t tried to stamp them out yet. After all, it doesn’t help their case when kids can learn that whole sections of the bible were copied from various creation myths and stories from older religions. Anyway, this book wanders all over the place, as it also deals with Jeffrey’s relationship to his parents and brothers growing up, how he dealt with being stuck in church on a weekly basis, and his own confusion in how to raise his old kid. After all, he might not want to deal with religion any more, but there’s still the rest of the world to think about. I was a little hazy on his final conclusion on the religion angle, as he did call himself a Christian later in the story, but it seemed like that was only to be friendly to a lady he was chatting with on the street. Who hasn’t been stuck in one of those conversations, where your only options are to lie about your religious affiliation or be doomed to a lecture by a stranger about your choices in life? While this one did seem a bit more scattered than some of his past work, there are still plenty of laughs to be had and truths to be pondered. Not necessarily agreed with, depending on what you believe, but pondered. And if your heart isn’t as hardened to such things as mine is, all kinds of cute moments with his son. This is also in full color, which is such a lovely change of pace that I can pretty much recommend it on that alone. Check it out, think deep thoughts about your own religious choices and parenting decisions! $14.95
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/16/13
September 16, 2013New review today for California #4 by Rob Jackson. Hey, everybody still remembers that that Top Shelf sale is still going on, right? Because they only do one of those a year and it’s your best shot to get a lot of their comics for smaller amounts of cash than usual.
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Posted by Kevin
Jackson, Rob – California #4
September 16, 2013
California #4
Anybody who starts with the fourth issue of a series is kind of stupid anyway, but I can’t help but think of at least one poor soul out there who picked this one up without seeing the rest of this series. Maybe they just liked California? Anyway, this poor person would have opened up the comic and seen (on the very first page!) a giant tentacled monster with one eye hovering over a house, a disembodied head bouncing around trying to stay away from the monster, a surprisingly calm family sitting down at a table while the monster smashed the table around them, and the disembodied head bashing into one of people at the table. If this poor soul didn’t spontaneously combust and they made it to the next few panels they would see the head bashing into a few more people at the table and those people vanishing after being struck. At this point I would only hope that they’d stop and go back to read the rest of the series, but hypothetical people can be stubborn. Oh hi, those were spoilers, kind of, for the rest of this series. But they were mostly from the first page of this issue so it’s OK to talk about them. This issues concludes the California saga, and after this one I’d say it’s safe to call it a “saga.” Once again I wish we lived in a world where something like this could be collected and released to wide acclaim, making Rob a wealthy man. But we’re stuck with this world for now, so you should maybe go back and get past issues for this series if you haven’t already. The rest of this issue deals with the horrible monster getting loose in the real world, the missing 200 townspeople, the key to defeating this monster, and the strategies of fighting an invisible monster. It’s a pretty damned great conclusion, all things considered. I loved the creepy teeth in that creature and how they seemed to go on forever, and life continuing to go on as usual so quickly after things wrapped up was nicely done as well. It seems like I’d already declared an older series of Rob’s as my all-time favorite of his (which makes me feel especially stupid for not remembering the name of that series, but it dealt with amusement parts (or my brain has just completely shut down on this topic)), but this one would have to be a close second or third. If you just read the first issue you’d have no idea that things would end this strangely, and that’s exactly how such comics should be done. Check it out and enjoy, and if we all wish hard enough maybe this could magically become a big summer blockbuster movie.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/13/13
September 13, 2013New review today for Tablegeddon #1, edited by Rob Kirby and featuring all kinds of people that you know and love. So was this five reviews in a week thing a return to the norm or an aberration? Guess that will be made clear next week. Happy weekend everybody!
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Posted by Kevin
Kirby, Rob (editor) – Tablegeddon #1
September 13, 2013
Tablegeddon #1
Comic conventions! Maybe you’re one of the people who only go to conventions to buy comics and don’t create them yourself, but have you ever wondered about life on the other side of the table? Not really? Well, you really should try putting yourself in their shoes for a few minutes. This anthology has all kinds of stories from conventions, good and bad, from some of the champions of small press comics (if the industry had formal champions, which they should maybe think about doing). Stories in here include Max Clotfelter’s first time working a table when he was a kid, Cara Bean and Sara Carson’s long road to a triumphant show, Kelly Froh’s two worst shows (I hope), Carrie McNinch’s problem with shyness, Rob Kirby’s mostly bad day (but with plenty of good things in it, like the progressive redneck parents), Mark Campos’ ingenious trick to selling original art, Aron Nels Steinke dealing with a friend getting a tv deal while having a slow day himself (along with dealing with an annoying kid), Gabrielle Gamboa’s hilariously illustrated conversations among cartoonists, Justin Hall’s description of finally getting the sale after talking a guy into it for 20 minutes, Tony Breed dealing with putting a book together and the reality of the show, Matt Moses and Jeff Worby narrowly avoiding a beating/murder, Zine Crush trying to get a copy of their zine to the object of their crush without being obvious about it, Rick Worley learning the truth about Dash Shaw, Jason Martin showing the good and the bad and John Porcellino showing us the weather paradox at cons. Oh, and a bonus piece by Kelly Froh (I’m almost positive) showing us the moment at a con when her spirit leaves her body. I’ve seen plenty of comics about convention horror stories in my years of reviewing these things, so I was a little nervous about a whole anthology on the subject, but that was silly of me. This whole thing is full of goodness, and should probably be handed out to obvious first-timers as they walk into cons as a public service. $4
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/12/13
September 12, 2013New review today for Sueno Loco by Jaime Crespo. Does this mean that I’ll put five reviews up this week? Eh, probably. Maybe not tomorrow night, but if not then most likely over the weekend. Boy, those are a lot of qualifiers…
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Posted by Kevin
Crespo, Jaime – Sueno Loco
September 12, 2013
Sueno Loco
God damn, this is how you do a dream comic. Not that I’ve run across any particularly terrible examples of them recently, but if you keep a dream journal and have been thinking about turning some of them into comics, you should pick up this comic first. There’s plenty to love in that cover, and once you thoroughly absorb that image the comic opens up with Jaime in a mariachi suit working at a Taco Bell. One of those shrill blond older ladies with the awful orange tans comes in and tries to order an “enchrito.” Dream Jaime doesn’t hear her correctly the first time, which causes her to blow up at him. From there it’s a quick spiral down into madness, as an enchirito chant fills up his dream, the blond lady expands into an enormous angry head and Jaime is left scrambling for his dream life. It’s a quick read but it’s beautifully done, so on top of his other comics that I’m thoroughly enjoying now I’m hoping he keeps going on the dream comics too. Granted, there are only so many hours in the day, but here’s hoping Jaime uses as many of them as is humanly possible to keep making comics like this. Well, and Tortilla. And that he finishes up Turk Street Serenade. One of you publishers, give the man a pile of money to make this easier on him! You’d have a ton of great older material to work with just to start… $2
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/11/13
September 11, 2013New review today The Casebook of Elijah Snugs #1 by Sal Sciandra. See? Somehow all this overtime is magically turning into lots of reviews here too. Well, I suppose there are still days to go in the week, so if you don’t hear from me again until Monday then I’ll feel shame, but I think I’ve finally worked out a system.
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Posted by Kevin
Sciandra, Sal – The Casebook of Elijah Snugs #1
September 11, 2013
The Casebook of Elijah Snugs #1
Would you trust a detective who didn’t wear pants who also had a pig for a sidekick? I guess it’s not a fair question to ask, seeing as how this is set in a world where every creature is some form of talking animal, but then why is the guy bothering to wear a trenchcoat and hat? I’m reading too much into this already. This is a fairly basic mystery story involving our hero and a mysterious missing egg. The security system had recently been updated and the only person with access to it other than the owner was the butler, but the owner insists that he couldn’t possibly have taken it. This is very much an all ages comic, but the dialogue isn’t so dumb that you feel silly reading it as an adult. So far it’s also taking itself very seriously for such a fundamentally silly concept, but that’s just my personal preferences in such things shining through. We got a good introduction for the main character (although the pig could still use a little fleshing out), a clear idea of what’s to come and a blessed absence of typos (always a welcome sign in first issues). This could go either way for me, as it may end up too cutesy for me to enjoy, but there were also a few funny bits that seemed to suggest that that might not be the case. My gut says I might not care for this after a few issues, but my gut is pretty damned stupid on a lot of things. And don’t go feeling all high and mighty because your gut is always right, because that’s nonsense. Remember that one person you dated right out of college? Remember how you were so sure about that person? Yeah, that was your gut being a moron. Ahem, I seem to have gotten off track. Sal also throws in a brief two page strip with a decent punchline, so there’s at least a little bit of variety. To sum up I mostly liked the art (that creeped out pig on the last page was fantastic), the writing was maybe too earnest for my taste (but that may be because I’m a jerk), and there seem to be intriguing places this story could go. Luckily Sal sent along the next issue too, so I won’t be left in suspense about it for much longer. And hey, neither will you! Unless this is only review you’ll ever read here, which would be odd, but I’m not the boss of you. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/10/13
September 10, 2013It’s Top Shelf Tuesday again! OK fine, I forgot all about it last week. This week the review is for We Can Fix It! by Jess Fink, which is apparently part of the massive Top Shelf sale.
This means that you can get it for half price (a measly $7.50) if you buy it between now and 9/27. Do it! And buy lots of other comics, because they have all kinds of great stuff and there’s no better time to stock up.
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Posted by Kevin
Fink, Jess – We Can Fix It!
September 10, 2013
Are you one of those people who can’t let go of inconsistencies in time travel stories no matter how many times you’re told to relax about it and just enjoy the ride? Then you should probably skip this one and spend some quiet time thinking about how joyless your life has become. For the rest of us, this is a ridiculously funny/sexy/poignant story. About time travel. Jess has decided (I have no idea of the differences between fictional Jess and real life Jess so I’m going to assume that they’re exactly the same) that she should use her time travel machine to go back and give her younger self advice to avoid some of her more humiliating moments. It starts off with her warning her younger self not to make advances towards the manager at the movie theater, which leads to the two versions of Jess making out with each other. No, this is not even remotely portrayed as an odd thing. Anyway, Jess keeps going back to different versions of herself and offering advice, but her younger selves are getting increasingly fed up about being told what to do (or avoid doing) all the time and future Jess often ends up doing as much harm as good. So, seeking advice, she goes to… even more future Jess. Yes, this book is all over the place, but it’s a delight all the way through, and there’s a pretty great message of what you should actually be looking for if you do decide to use your time travel machine to go back and spy on your past selves. And when I say that it’s all over the place, I should make it perfectly clear that this is plotted as tightly as humanly possible, it’s just that there’s a finite amount of time travel that you can deal with in one story before your head starts to spin. This is one of those books that makes me want to go back and read everything else she’s ever done, as Jess clearly has this whole comics thing figured out and I’m the asshole for not hearing about her sooner. Good luck reading this without getting seriously nostalgic for both the good times in your past and the bad. Yes, the bad too, as there was plenty to learn from those moments, and some of them weren’t as bad as you remember. Read it, love it, and hope that she’s as prolific as she is talented because I can’t wait to see more from her. $14.95
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/9/13
September 9, 2013New review today for Me by Neil Fitzpatrick. So this week overtime starts up at work, and yet I think I’ll be able to get reviews up pretty much every day, just a bit later than usual. Does that make much sense? Nah. But we’ll see how it goes.
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Posted by Kevin
Fitzpatrick, Neil – Me
September 9, 2013
Me
Has the internet and social media ruined auto-bio comics, or have they just made it impossible for anybody to be completely honest in them? Please present your argument in the form of a 300 word essay… oh right, I was just asking a rhetorical question to start this review. This is Neil’s post-breakup therapy, done in the form of a comic. And no, I am not a dick for pointing that out, as he makes it pretty clear in the intro/outro. But what got me wondering about that opening question was the fact that everything he said in here was incredibly vague or general. Sure, he knows what he’s talking about, and his ex knows what he’s talking about, and some friends of both of them do too. The rest of us get to see that he got dumped by somebody who completely broke his heart, for reasons that he doesn’t think are fair, and that if he did tell everybody what she really did then her reputation would probably be ruined. Which is most likely the answer to my question right there, as he doesn’t want to ruin her life. Maybe I’m just spoiled because I read the original Peepshow strips by Joe Matt again recently, and his honesty is so relentless that it’s shocking when compared to more modern comics. Of course, that was back in the late 80’s, where the only people reading his strip were the ones who actively went out and bought Drawn & Quarterly (back when that was the name of a bimonthly (?) anthology series), and it’s not like that particular relationship of his ended well, in large part because he said too much about their relationship. I seem to have looped back around into understanding exactly why Neil did these strips without giving away any of the really sordid details. Oh, and those giant black eyeballs of his? MUCH creepier when placed on a recognizably human face. Anyway, if you’ve been involved in a breakup where you felt like you were the wronged party, you’re going to relate to plenty of these strips, and you’re going to fill in some of the details with bits of your own life where appropriate. If you’re the type of person who has only ever broken up with other people, maybe you should read this to see some of the damage you’ve done in your life, you monster you. $4
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/5/13
September 5, 2013New review today for Stranger Two Stranger #5 by Robert Hendricks. No, my new schedule is not three reviews a week. I’ve been fighting against it but more reviews just haven’t been possible lately. Of course, if that mythical billionaire who loves comics wants to pay me for doing this shit I’d have all the time to write reviews in the world. And I could also tell them the best comics to read! Make it happen, rich people!
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Posted by Kevin
Hendricks, Robert – Stranger Two Stranger #5
September 5, 2013
Stranger Two Stranger #5
You guys are already reading this series, right? This is where my hatred of/general annoyance at social media really slows me down, because all I can do is assume that you’re already reading this. If not, this is a series by Robert Hendricks where he illustrates those creepy/hopeful/soul-crushing “missed connections” messages on Craigslist, and it’s consistently a thing of beauty. Unless you stop to think about these people as actual human beings for too long, because if that happens it might make you despair for the human race a bit. Or not! Some of these tales are purely by people who had their faith in humanity restored because of an offhand comment by a stranger. Of course, other stories involve the graphic fantasies of a guy who just wants to massage the bunions on the feet of a lady before massaging her humped back in bed, but it takes all kinds. Other stories in here include the guy who bought panties for himself (but said they were for his wife), head-banging preventing a possible connection, the race that was not a race, the riddle of the egg and a half, an offer of an umbrella saving the day, the eternal question of dancing or heart attack, giving bad directions (and then hoping to get a date out of it, perfectly illustrating why these ads are such beautiful things), a phone leading to somebody thinking that their butt was grabbed, trying to get in touch with the lady who was taking pictures of dead birds, and the long cigarette. Robert also included a small book he apparently passes out at cons called Depictions, and in this case it was a list of images of children who had been convicted of crimes and their sentences in the late 1800’s. Completely unrelated, but ask him for one of these if you see him. As for Stranger Two Stranger, of course you should still be reading it. Duh! And if you aren’t already reading it, you should be. $2
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/3/13
September 3, 2013New review today for I Am My Own Stereotype: The My Small Diary Collection by Delaine. And I just found out that it’s a measly $5 for a pretty hefty collection of her older strips, which is one more reason why you should just buy it already.
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Posted by Kevin
Delaine – I Am My Own Stereotype: The My Small Diary Collection
September 3, 2013
I Am My Own Stereotype: The My Small Diary Collection
Believe it or not, there are still people out there who think that I must know everything about small press comics due to the sheer number of artists listed here and/or the 12 years I’ve put into this site. Granted, that was the idea at first (having one website where you could find samples of the work of any small press comics person), but as comics like this make completely clear, it was always a hopeless effort. This is a collection of strips by Delaine, who started her comic back in 1993 (when she was 23). This roughly coincides with when I started reading small press comics, she seems to have been in the same peer group as my favorites, and, somehow, I missed her entirely. The name does seem vaguely familiar, so I probably saw it on the back page of a King Cat or Naughty Bits, but I never made to next step of ordering her comics. After reading this, I clearly missed out on a lot of great stuff. This is all arranged more or less chronologically, up until 2002. Meaning that there’s a second volume coming, or that this was the extent of her regular work? There are also a dozen or so comics from various anthologies to round things out. Anyway, after all this rambling, what’s the book all about? This is a series of diary strips, mostly six panels, detailing events of Delaine’s life. Her friends, parties, concerts, boyfriends, jobs, all that stuff is thrown in here, but somehow with far less angst than most mini comics. Every time something bad happens it seems to be fixed by the next strip (although this could be mostly because she writes a comment for each strip and we already know that she ended up happy). Subjects include her very early days and the imagination she had even then (we’re talking grade school here), various sights seen at concerts and bars, boyfriends and ex-boyfriends (and what they were up to with their current girlfriends), her obsessions with Pez dispensers and Emo Phillips, drinking, employment, unemployment, and everything that goes into 10+ years of a life. If this all sounds like stuff you’ve read before in other auto-bio comics, well, there’s only so much new ground to be covered there, but that doesn’t stop this from seeming completely fresh and original. It could have something to do with her general attitude of wonder (that, happily, seems to have lasted into her 40’s), or the fact that she never lets anything really get her down. For me a big part of it was that nothing here really felt mean-spirited, even when it seemed like the subjects had it coming. This was constantly smart and funny, and good luck reading this and not coming away feeling like you missed out by not somehow being Delaine’s friend (even if that meant you would have lived in Alabama). Check this out and enjoy. $5
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Posted by Kevin
