May 29, 2013
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With Only Five Plums Book 1: The Time Before
What a haunting and riveting story this is, even though this is only the first of three books. There were all sorts of horrors going on during World War II, and this is the tale of Anna Nesporova and her life in the small Czech town of Lidice. Jonathon spends an admirable amount of time setting up Anna and her family as people, as it would have been easy to jump right into the more heartbreaking elements of the story. Actually, that’s not completely accurate, as getting to know that Anna still remembers the way her brother’s smile ticked up at one corner of his mouth more than 60 years later is pretty much the definition of heartbreaking. But we briefly see Anna grow up and get a good idea of her life in general before things start falling apart. An assassination attempt was made on an important German officer in charge of keeping the peace in Lidice and it was suspected that Anna’s brother (who had left them two years earlier in the hopes of sparing them this kind of attention) was involved. The Germans decided to make an example out of her family, but Anna managed to survive due to her pregnancy. I know that things are going to get grim but nothing is really known about what happened to her family or baby at this point, although I know enough about the history to know that it wasn’t anything good. Jonathon made the choice to let this breathe as a story told by Anna, so there are very few word balloons and a few times when he briefly pops into the story to try to get more details out of Anna or to ask her if she’d like to take a break. It’s impossible to avoid comparison to Maus when you’re talking about a comic set in World War II, and in the early stages I’d say that this has the potential to be as important as that. Who knows how people will actually receive it, but this is a story that needs to be told, especially as things get worse in Europe again. The recent anti-gay marriage marches have shown that homophobia and racism are right there under the surface, and it needs to be made clear to this generation that something like this could happen again, sadly enough. Humanity never seems to learn. On that cheery note, give this comic a shot. I think this is self-published and it deserves a wider audience. Oh, and I didn’t make it clear in the review, so I should mention that this is all based on conversations with Anna, but that some things are fictional, or events that happened at the time but not necessarily to Anna. $10
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Posted by Kevin
May 28, 2013
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Full Sanction: Threats
OK, technically I added that title to the comic, but there are a bunch of issues of this series out there and I want readers to at least have a chance to tell them apart. This comic defies review (in general but this issue in particular), as it either has a form of humor that you find funny or you don’t have a working sense of humor. Um, I meant to say that your brand of humor may be different. This issue starts off with one of our heroes steaming as our other hero says goodbye to a friend. The angry man, free to vent, spends the rest of the comic coming up with a wide variety of insults to describe just what he would do to this unseen person if given the chance while his other friend tries to talk him down and then instigates him a bit for the sheer fun of it. This thing is packed with funny threats, some of which I defy you not to steal and use in your own lives. Hell, even the list of rejected threats on the inside back cover is full of comedy gold. This is what makes it impossible to review, because if I start going through these threats then I’m taking that joy of discovery away from you. So to make this simple: do you enjoy threatening your friends with horrific, anatomically implausible statements? If so, consider this a textbook of sorts. Or if you just like funny things, this fits the bill for that too.
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Posted by Kevin
May 24, 2013
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Adult Babysitting #2
Bartenders of the world, you should probably have copies of this handy at your jobs as a way of quickly explaining to drunk customers what life is like behind the bar. Then again, most drunk people are not particularly interested in reading, so maybe that’s not a great idea. This issue continues the adventures of MarYanna in her bartending job, this time with crime! Subjects include the reaction of a woman who tasted the drink of the guy she was with after drinking her sugarbomb, two different job-related nightmares and the fact that bad dreams seem to come with the territory, one overly drunk woman who tried to get behind the bar with hilarious results, a Phil Collins jam session, various methods of delivering drinks and picking up the empty glasses, and the time that she went to a bar across the street after closing and got stuck in an armed robbery. The fact that she stopped in the middle of that chaos to pick up her drink is fantastic, as is the fact that the surveillance video clearly showed her doing it. Also included are a few color pages of various types of drunks and one tip on how to avoid citrus destroying your nails if you work with it all day. And drink recipes, including the dreaded (for bartenders) mojito! This is another pile of interesting stories about stuff that’s probably never crossed your mind, but if you go to a lot of bars it wouldn’t hurt to have some idea of what’s going through the bartender’s head. $5
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Posted by Kevin
May 23, 2013
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The Bridge
Want to know a trick that a really mean reviewer could use to bash this book? It could literally be described as a man walking across a bridge. What sounds more boring than that? The truth is that there’s a lot more going on here besides the obvious journey (which, spoiler alert, we do not see the end of, although the cover might illustrate why that is the case). This is the story of a man, or mannish creature, with the ability to manipulate his arms to various lengths, as he walks across a bridge with terrible safety standards. It’s clearly a nerve-wracking journey, and it’s never entirely clear if he has somewhere he needs to be or if he’s just out sightseeing. He goes through some extreme weather changes and eventually runs across a village of hauntingly non-specific creatures. An attempt is made to join them, but it does not go very well (which, come to think of it, also raises the possibility that this dude would very much like to get off this bridge). I don’t want to tell you the whole story, obviously, but I will say that those fish with the human faces are some of the creepiest things I’ve seen. This is a silent comic, which means that it’s open to interpretation, but it’s a fascinating journey no matter how you look at it. Aaron does a nice job of bending the laws of physics to suit his story needs, or perhaps he’s just set his story in a world where that is not a problem. It’s worth checking out for anybody who’s not much of a fan of reality, or somebody who thinks that it would be better with some minor tweaks. $4
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Posted by Kevin
May 21, 2013
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Fruits and Vegetables
Pretty much the only problem I’ve ever had with Desmond’s comics were that some of them seemed too short, which is pretty much the best “problem” you can have with a comic. Well, even that little thing has been solved with this issue, as Desmond put a dozen short stories in here and each one of them is damned funny. The creatures/food items/utensils involved in these stories usually come to bad ends, but at least it happens for the purpose of causing laughter. My only trouble is explaining these strips in a way that won’t ruin anything for the reader, so prepare to be dazzled by my lack of specificity! Stories in here include a conversation between two Tyrannosaurus Rexes (or is “Rex” still the plural?), three worms and the hygiene behind sharing their dirt, utensils with some alone time, a dog and a hamburger trapped on an island, two eggs talking about how things could have been much worse for them (this is the one that got the biggest laugh out of me), an imaginary imaginary friend, showing up too late for the comic, a cloud trying to get out of a conversation, two monsters knowing that they’re in a comic strip and that their life is as finite as the strip, mugs trying to figure out their purpose and geometric shapes and their inability to return a book in a timely fashion. At least a couple of these stories have previously been released as their own comics, but it’s hard to think of a more perfect collection of his work. Buy this immediately if you like laughing, or if you need a reminder that the original purpose of comics was to make people laugh. $5
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Posted by Kevin
May 20, 2013
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Unfortunate Mishaps in Aviation History
Well, you certainly know what to expect with a title like that. Don’t expect any happy endings here, as Emi once again tells a couple of stories about historical events that didn’t go exactly as the participants had planned. If you’ve ever stopped to think about how the parachute was developed, chances are that you can imagine that it wasn’t perfected on the first time out. The first story tells of one version of it and of the man who decided to test his own invention by jumping from the Eiffel Tower, even though he had only tested his parachute using dummies previously. The really tragic thing about this is that another inventor had successfully tested his own parachute two days before in New York. I do wonder if the doomed inventor had word of the successful test or if he thought he still had a chance to be first and that’s why he rushed it. The second story is all about an expedition to the North Pole in 1896. Emi does a fantastic job of showing the various terrible lapses in judgment that the crew committed before and during the trip, but the idea of using a hot air balloon that was able to control its progress by using a series of ropes dragging along the ground was always a little dicey, especially considering the fact that the inventor couldn’t even get it to work consistently in trials. Emi has managed to piece together a pretty detailed account of their trip, although she somehow manages to make it seem a touch less gruesome than it probably was. There’s room in the world for a big old collection of these stories, oh mighty comics publishers, once Emi gets enough of them together. In the meantime, the rest of you should probably buy these comics of hers to show her that it’s a good idea to keep making them. Not that she should give up on Spaz, but I’m always fascinated by historical tragedies that I’ve never heard of. $2
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Posted by Kevin
May 20, 2013
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Get Into Comix
Brad mentions in the letter that he sent along with his comic that this contains the whole “Get Into Comix” story, complete with earlier pieces that were first published in his regular series, but that he didn’t feel the need to mention that in the comic because those old minis are out of print anyway. So just in case you did listen to my earlier advice to read Brad’s comics back in the day, this has pieces from “Epic Tales of the Mundane” #6-9 along with a new chapter to finish things off. Just so nobody feels like they’re “cheated” by having the whole story in this damned nice package, because I know how weird some people can get about this stuff. Anyway! I’ve already talked about a good chunk of this in previous reviews, so you can read through those if the mood strikes you. This comic is really a origin story of sorts for Brad, as he talks about learning to draw from comics as a young kid and how he was constantly pushing himself to improve in the hopes of impressing his older brother. Then puberty struck, which diverted his attentions in a big way. It’s also rare that you get a chance to see the exact moment when a shy kid turns into a surly asshole, and Brad does a nice job of documenting that here. His life rolls along until he finds himself by himself at a Denny’s after yet another terrible hangover, where he sees a comics store across the street. He doesn’t have much cash and it’s been years since he’s seen any comics, so he wanders around trying to decide which issue to buy until the guy working there takes him on a little tour. He eventually shows Brad the minis, including a comic that he (the clerk) drew, which ends up being a revelation for Brad, showing him that anybody really could make comics. They don’t get enough recognition, but cheers to all the comic shop workers who have taken the time to point out the good stuff to people. It must get annoying to them, because I’m sure they get dozens of blank stares for every success story like Brad, but they’re essential to the process. This is a really solid story and it’s bound to remind people reading it of their own journeys so yes, you should really check it out. After all, if you’re reading these words there’s a damned good chance that you went through a similar journey yourself… $5
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Posted by Kevin
May 17, 2013
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From Beam to Buck
A disclaimer is absolutely necessary here: I don’t have kids, may or may not ever have them, and view the process of giving birth as something that happens thousands of times a day (or millions if you want to take all the animals of the world into account), which makes it anything but a miracle. That’s right, I’m an asshole! Surprise! Eh, I have nothing against kids, but I fully expected a book detailing the home birth of Chris’s latest child to have at least a few moments that completely confused/alarmed me. This one starts off with a positive pregnancy test, and strips from there include subjects like Chris wondering if he should tone down his subject matter while his wife was pregnant (her verdict: no), telling his kid that she was going to have a sibling, telling a friend about the pregnancy and his reaction, getting a new place to live, trying to figure out a name (and sadly not going with Volaticus, which I am officially stealing if I ever do have a kid), trying to guess the gender of the baby, working with the midwives, and Chris wondering how to make telling people that he self-publishes sound cool. Then the scene shifts a bit to a story that seemed to meander to me while I was reading it, but it all fits in by the end. Chris was at work and was thinking of tieing one on (“getting drunk” to you whippersnappers (young readers)), but a woman came into the restaurant that made people uncomfortable. He finally told her to leave, so she stood outside the window knitting and generally freaking people out. He finally (and reluctantly) called the cops, but there wasn’t much they could do because she wasn’t doing anything illegal. They finally left and ignored her, but the end result of it was that he barely drank at all. This ended up being a big deal because his wife gave birth the next day, a couple of weeks earlier than her due date, and it might have been a disaster if he was hung over. The birth itself was graphic, in case you’re freaked out by such things (if you are a little growing up might be in order), but overall it seemed to go smoothly, or maybe Chris shortened the labor for the sake of the comic. Anyway, the whole comic is basically a sweet love letter to his wife and kids, with tips for other people who want to try home births. So yeah, I’d recommend this for people who are thinking about giving that a shot. It was also thoroughly entertaining to a childless heathen like myself, but I do have one big question. Is it really normal for the mother to chop up and eat the placenta? Because that sounded gross as all hell to me (again I have to point out that I NO expertise in this matter). Just curious! $5
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Posted by Kevin
May 17, 2013
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Piece Goods
Who likes their mini comics violent and random? How about also in color (mostly)? Hey, you’re in luck! This one has a few pieces that are single page illustrations (that’s you’re better off trying to interpret on your own) and a few short stories that mostly just peter out. Those stories include a creepy skeleton dude in red scattering stars (or jacks, or whatever you think they might be), the adventures of a rat trying to calm a baby, how the author would trace rap album covers as a kid and the general reaction he got from his peers, a couple of strips showing the poetic memories of a murderous lunatic, angry driving (or a race) and the inevitable result, letting a crazy person into the house, and the joy of finding out that your house is covered with snow, giving you time to go through boxes of old personal letters and playing out all kinds of fantasies in your head. Most of these stories are open to interpretation and I almost certainly got a few of them wrong, but hey, that’s the fun of reviewing silent comics! It’s a bit of a mixed bag overall, but there’s enough here to make it worth a look.
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Posted by Kevin
May 16, 2013
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Champ 2010
It’s about damned time that somebody broke out of the daily diary strip formula. Jed starts off with the usual four panel strip, two panels above and two below, putting one out daily even when he doesn’t have a thing to say. Eventually he starts throwing in sketchbook pages when he’s too busy for a strip, then he moves to three panels, one on top of the other, and finally just whatever format he needs to tell the story he wants to tell from that day. In a genre that’s become tired as hell it was a nice change of pace. This also means that there are more than a few gaps, so any weirdos who demand 365 strips out of a year’s worth of a daily strip are going to be disappointed. As for the rest of us, enjoy the variety! As it says on the cover, this tells the story of Jed’s year without booze, and he regularly professes annoyance at that fact. It was kind of for health reasons but more than anything he seemed to want the challenge of a daily diary strip to fill the hole left by the lack of drinking. I did a review for the first month of this book, so I won’t mention that stuff (the short version is that I liked it), but the subjects of other strips include being miserable at a few different jobs for different reasons, liking the ladies from afar and then from closer up, trying to make time for his comics while still earning a living, wondering if those weird dimples on his thumb nail are cancer, resisting the urge to punch hipsters, and various shenanigans with his friend Chris Monday (whose books will be reviewed here one of these days too). Then things pick up a bit towards the middle of the book when Jed gets a serious girlfriend. That’s also about the time that he started getting complaints about a dip in quality in his work, to which I say: eh, maybe a bit. Misery is almost always a more interesting topic to read about than happiness, so there’s that, but fuck it, the guy was happy! Relationships being what they are, he might very well end up being miserable again some day, which will make his regular readers what, happy? That makes them assholes! I’m veering off track here, but I chatted with Chris and Jed at the hotel bar during the “open draw” thing for SPACE this year, and they both seem like nice enough guys, and as human beings I’d rather they were happy than not. And it’s not like his strips sucked after his relationship started, it’s just that he talked about more things in a relationship frame of mind, which can also seem like a personal attack to some self-centered single people. This is solid pile of strips and, like I said, he plays around with the format a bit, which is always nice to see. Check it out, why don’t you? $9
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Posted by Kevin
May 16, 2013
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Tales From the Interstate #1: 20th Anniversary Edition
It’s a shame that so many artists hate their old material, as this is an idea I’d like to see explored more by other artists. I still have never seen King Cat #1, for example, and would love to see it in this format. Pam put her first comic, a redrawn and expanded version of that comic and a “commentary” booklet all together in this package. Her style in the redrawn comic is much improved, obviously, but her commentary makes it clear that the seeds for the characters she’s used all along were here right at the beginning. I’ve been trying to put my mind back in that time period, as I started reading small press comics only a few years after Pam started drawing them, and I’m honestly not sure if this one would have stood out for me at the time. The redrawn edition would have definitely gotten my attention, but the original? Hey, why don’t I tell you about it so you have the slightest idea what I’m talking about. A young couple picks up what appears to be a Buddhist monk hitchhiking. The monk was quiet, either because he was full of wisdom or didn’t speak much English, and he paid for gas a few times, then the comic ends. The Haitian proverb on the back cover might have gotten my attention, but there really isn’t a whole lot to the story. As for the redrawn version, it stays pretty true to the original, then adds eight new pages onto the original six. These new pages show the couple meeting up with the monk again, as he’s now running a used bookstore. These pages tie it into her current Kekionga series more closely, but I’ll leave the contents a mystery for long time fans who want to see what she’s changed. The booklet is also quite informative, as Pam tells the story of how she got started (Matt Feazell has done all kinds of good for comics creators throughout the years) and takes us step by step through the pages and the characters. This may or may not be all that interesting if this is the first thing of Pam’s you’ve seen, but this is indispensable if you’ve been reading her stuff for years. She doesn’t put a lot of personal details in her stories (or if she does she hides it under fiction) but you’ll learn a lot about both Pam and her work if you read this whole set. No price listed, but this has to at least be a few dollars…
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Posted by Kevin
May 15, 2013
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Blindspot #2
Let’s all take a moment to mourn the death of the individual comic. Oh, not in the small press world, as mini comics are still all over the place. I mean more any of the established publishers, like Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, those types of folks. Joseph includes a rejection letter from Fantagraphics in this one that is probably the worst kind of rejection letter: they loved his work (with a few suggestions for improvements), but since there is just no market for single issues there’s not a thing they can do to help him. It will be a different story when he gets enough material for a collection, possibly, but for now his only option is to either self publish or let his work pile up until he can put it in a graphic novel. Overall I don’t mind this trend, as I’m happy to wait a couple of years between large books, but it really sucks for books like this which fit perfectly as single issues and might be a bit of a mess as a collected book. Anyway, this comic has a few stories, all new for this issue (the lack of a new Ace Goddard story is explained on the back cover). He starts off with a letters page, and I must confess that I do miss a good letters page. The first story is a delightful romp (I don’t think I’ve ever used that in a review, and if I did it was misapplied like it is here) through the mind a genius in his own head, a young man who gets annoyed with his audiences while playing his guitar at open mic nights and ends up putting six months and a ton of money into his dream project. The ending is a thing of beauty and says a lot about the power of any positive reinforcement. Next up is a date gone horribly wrong, with a social sin that there is just no coming back from. The bulk of the comic is next, and it’s the story of an older man who feels like control of his life is slipping away, as he’s ignored at work and notices that the options of jobs for older men are getting worse all the time. He tries a few desperate ploys, they mostly don’t go well, and I’ll leave the rest of it to the reader. Finally there are two short pieces, about a cheery security guard and Joseph’s sadly brief time working with Harvey Pekar. Joseph ended up drawing the last (?) thing Harvey wrote, a book on Cleveland, and I’m really curious to see it. Anyway yes, this is another solid issue, and you should buy it if you really do support such things. If you don’t or are indifferent, there’s always the inevitable collected edition, or at least there will be if Joseph doesn’t give up hope due to lack of support of his individual issues. Do you really want to risk that? $5
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Posted by Kevin
