New review for Robot Bildungsroman #3 by Joe Davidson, who is going to be at SPACE tomorrow and Sunday. If you’re within driving distance of Columbus, come visit!
Update for 4/12/13
April 12, 2013
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Posted by Kevin
Davidson, Joe – Robot Bildungsroman #3
April 12, 2013
Robot Bildungsroman #3
Damn, now that’s how you wrap up a trilogy. Reading this without reading the first two issues of this series is silly, but if you choose to go that route this one does a nice job of summarizing the story so far. This time around we get to see robot Marci learn what her true purpose was, what was going on behind the scenes at the company behind it all, and even get a suitably epic final confrontation between the main players. There’s always the temptation to go huge in series finales instead of keeping it realistic (within the framework of the story, that is), so kudos to Joe for keeping things in line while still wrapping up all of the loose ends. OK, he leaves one damned intriguing loose end on the last page, but there’s nothing wrong with that. My only complaint, if you could even call it that, is that he packed so many ideas into this series that it seems silly to give them up and move onto other things. Still, what do I know? Maybe he has lots more planned in this universe. Whatever the case, if you happen to be at SPACE this weekend, you could do a lot worse than to pick up these three issues. Or if you’re reading this in the future, maybe buying them online, or downloading them directly into your brain, or whatever the prefered method of consuming media is in your time. Sorry about the mess we left you with the environment, future dwellers! Oopsie!
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/11/13
April 11, 2013New review today for The Dream of Iowa by Pam Bliss, who is also going to be at SPACE this weekend. Everybody have their travel plans all set?
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Posted by Kevin
Bliss, Pam – The Dream of Iowa
April 11, 2013
The Dream of Iowa
I wonder if Pam has any plans to put all of these minis together into a graphic novel? There’s a consistent cast of characters, even though the mini comics seems to be designed to be enjoyed just fine individually (even if you maybe don’t know some of the characters). For instance, this issue is almost entirely the dream of one of those characters. She wins a raffle for a ride on an airship, gets dressed up in some steampunk clothing, and starts taking in the bizarre sights, from the mammoths anchoring the airship to the familiar faces of some friends in the cockpit to her boyfriend (?) dressed up as a hero and flying up to meet them. Then she wakes up and has a conversation with her roommate, who appears to be a cavewoman giantess of some kind (see, here’s where a character guide would come in handy), and the whole thing manages to stay more of less self-contained. These are always fun little books, even if I can’t escape the idea that the reader could get more out of them if they had a bigger sense of the context. Still, how would she even accomplish that? These minis aren’t big enough for a detailed recap, and her universe is getting bigger all the time. Ah, don’t mind me, just pick a few of these up and enjoy them on their own. $1
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/10/13
April 10, 2013New review today for Spinadoodles: The Third Year by Sam Spina. Sure, he’s not from Columbus, but he will be at SPACE this weekend, so the theme week is secure. As for adding more of Dan Taylor’s comics to the store, boy howdy am I trying, but this whole website seems to be hitting some serious technical snags lately. Either that or I just don’t know what I’m doing. Either works!
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Posted by Kevin
Spina, Sam – Spinadoodles: The Third Year
April 10, 2013
Spinadoodles: The Third Year
Oh hi diary comics! As always, if you have some kind of personal vendetta against diary comics you should probably get a better class of enemy, but you also already know that this collection isn’t for you. But I loved this pile of strips, and you’re bound to too if you like Sam’s other work or just think it’s worth your while to laugh a few dozen times (at least) while reading comics. One thing I should get out of the way early on: Sam mentions in one of his strips that he got a bad review from The Comics Journal (and I naturally can’t find it now, which should tell you again how hefty this collection is) where they call it repetitive and something else that I didn’t agree with. I don’t understand how that’s a legitimate line of complaint, as ALL diary strips are repetitive. It’s not like any of the cartoonists doing these are documenting their time in chemo after getting cancer. These are mostly guys or ladies (actually mostly guys from what I’ve seen, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong) in their 20’s or early 30’s, usually not satisfied with their job and/or their place in life, and that situation can get either better or worse as the year goes along. There’s bound to be some repetition in that. At least Sam takes a few strips in this one to openly question the motivation for what he’s doing and if he can get anything out of it. He stopped doing the diary strip after this one, and there’s a thorough explanation as to why that happened in the end. Anyway, how about the actual strips? Right away I love the fact that he puts tiny strips about the life of a fly on the inside flaps of this book. Hey, why waste empty space? Subjects in these strips include hanging out with friends, puking and/or trying not to puke, adventures with his cat, conversations with his girlfriend, going out to see shows, getting to meet his comics hero (James Kochalka), chatting with Siri, feeling morally guilty about playing a certain video game, not having time to finish Skyrim, and the big old cliffhanger at the end. Oh, they’re about significantly more things than that, as there are 365ish strips in here, but why would you want me to describe them all to you? Sam has a knack of being effortlessly funny, and that kind of thing really shines through on a daily basis like this. Sure, there are strips where he’s obviously a bit rushed (and he often comments on that fact), and a few that feel phoned in, but who cares? A good 4/5 of this is thoroughly entertaining, and I’m probably being conservative with that number. Check out his website and read a few for yourselves if you don’t believe me, and it also looks like he’s drifting back into the daily diary territory again, or at least drawing them a few times a week. $7
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/9/13
April 9, 2013New review today for SPACE Anthology 2012 edited by Brian John Mitchell. Hey, just in time for SPACE 2013!
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Posted by Kevin
Mitchell, Brian John (editor) – SPACE Anthology 2012
April 9, 2013
I just now realized that this was different from the PANEL set of anthologies put out by Ferret Press, the ones that I love pretty much every time (which is saying a lot for an anthology). Is there a feud of some kind going on, or are there just too many stories for them all to be contained in one anthology? Or hey, maybe it’s because the PANEL anthologies tend to stick to one theme, while the only theme of this one seems to be “people who were at SPACE in 2012.” Whatever the case, this is a damned solid anthology, and if you find yourself wondering if you really want to pay $20 for an anthology, remember that a good chunk of the proceeds go towards keeping the same price for the yearly convention and generally funding all aspects of the thing. Think of it as a donation to a worthy cause where you come out of it with a fairly hefty anthology that also happens to be mostly in color. I always thought that seeing The Accidentals (by Mike Carroll) in color would be a revelation, and it looks like I was right. If only he could afford to put them all out like that! Ah well. Stories in this one include a John Steventon piece about the eventful birth of his daughter, a battle for the fate of the universe that came a little too late by Jon Michael Lennon and Thor Fjalarsson, an utterly unique vision of the afterlife by Leslie Anderson, a Christmas alone for a bear by Shawn Smith, an uneventful conquering of the world by Bob Corby, Kathleen Coyle and Jason Young’s piece on Kathleen’s first time seeing Return of the Jedi as a young child, Brian John Mitchell exploring the meaning of it all (he also edited this whole thing), Mari Naomi’s attempt to square the image in her head of her grandfather with the horrible stories that she was told about him after he died, Mike Kitchen’s hilarious take on the attention span of iPad users, Steve Myers and his tale of reality blending with fantasy, Matt and Jeanie Bryan’s unique take on a ruined date, Kel Crum’s computer virus, Kris and Mary Lachowski’s piece on a bizarre half dream half reality conversation, Blair Kitchen’s superhero who’s having a really tough time saving the damsel in distress, a sneak preview of Dave Kelly and Lara Antal’s tale of the Night Watchman (probably not what you’re thinking, but maybe you nailed it!), another great Homegrown Alien tale by Joe Davidson, a one page shortie by Ray Tomczak, and a brief bubbly piece by Maryanna Rose Papke. The color was done really well, and it was great to see some of these characters done how they were “meant” to be done (for all I know the creators were perfectly content for these stories to always be in black and white but couldn’t resist the chance to change it here). It’s a nice pile of stories and seemed to be really representative of the work of these people, which is why this thing exists in the first place, right? $20
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/8/13
April 8, 2013New review today for Time Warp Comix #6, edited by Dan W. Taylor and featuring a few other comics folk. Funny story about this one! Dan gave me a stack of comics to add to the store at the last SPACE, but I held off for a few months in the hopes of putting together a better online store. Then I moved back to Columbus, those comics ended up in a pile with some other comics in an utterly ridiculous place (if I had been trying to hide them from myself I could not have done a better job), and I stumbled across them by accident last week. So! I’ll be posting those comics in the store all week, and I’ll start reviewing a comic of his every week until I’ve gotten through the pile. Just in case anybody out there was under the mistaken impression that I really had my act together…
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Posted by Kevin
Taylor, Dan W. (editor) – Time Warp Comix #6
April 8, 2013
Time Warp Comix #6 Â Now Available! $.50
Dan has been cranking out the comics these days (“these days” being a little late on my end, as I lost track of this stack of his comics for an embarrassing amount of time after I moved last year). Sure, he’s the editor, so it’s not like he’s drawing every strip, but he still contributes regularly and I’ve heard enough horror stories about trying to get pages out of small press comics people for anthologies to still respect him plenty for his editor job. This is another solid pile of stories, from the same crew that usually contributes to these things. There’s Richard Krauss and his hilarious send-up of the daily diary strips that are all over the place, Andy Nukes with a bit of abstract art, John Howard telling us what he’s learned since his early days as an artist, D. Miller with a tale of thievery by the Campbells Soup people, and Jim Siergey with a few random thoughts that I can’t describe without ruining for you. And hey, it’s always a good sign when I laugh at the cover (by Dan, just in case that wasn’t clear). As always it’s worth a look, especially for that measly $.50 asking price.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/5/13
April 5, 2013New reviews today for Ninja Girl by Bonesteel and Strumpet #2 edited by Ellen Lindner & Jeremy Day. Happy weekend everybody!
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Posted by Kevin
Lindner, Ellen & Day, Jeremy (editors) – Strumpet #2
April 5, 2013
Strumpet #2
Who likes their anthologies to be international? Everybody? Then you’re in luck! Women from all over the globe contributed to this one. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, like all anthologies, but that mix still leans heavily in favor of entertaining/thought-provoking stories. Stories include the mundane aspects of a day in the life of an astronaut in the future by Myfanwy Tristam, Robin Ha’s trials and tribulations while traveling through Italy, Rachael Ball with probably the most visually striking piece about (literally) capturing shadows, Ellen Lindner’s work as an extra and her quest to meet Bill Murray, J. Homersham’s silent tale of a fish party, Patrice Agg’s story of communication problems and their unfortunate resolution, an excerpt from Nicola Streeten’s tale of her abortion (which I’m guessing also includes other subjects, but the excerpt just deals with the abortion and the immediate aftermath), Karrie Fransman’s tales of two different comic conventions, Shamisa Debroey’s plans for the future, Badaude’s story of artists at work and play, Lisa Eisenberg’s homesickness manifesting itself into a floating trip home, Emily Lerner’s tale of a road trip to retrieve some old items from storage, Julia Scheele’s love letter to a bus and Kat Robert’s delightful idea of a very brief interlude between this life and the next. I’m leaving a few out because hey, what’s life without surprises? Overall this is a damned solid pile of stories, more than worth shelling out $10 bucks to give this 90+ page book a shot.
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Posted by Kevin
Bonesteel – Ninja Girl
April 5, 2013
Ninja Girl
What an absolute blast of a comic, the perfect thing to read on a Friday afternoon before the weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a video game in comic form before, but this one captures that feeling perfectly. This is the side-scrolling adventure of a female ninja trying to get to her destination but being accosted along the way by all sorts of people and creatures. We see her step by step, pretty much always going to the right but also sometimes going up escalators and back to the left before hopping out of the panel and onto the next page. It’s silent until it gets to the last few pages, and that silence perfectly sets up that final conversation. Due to the minimalistic art I’m not entirely sure if she was killing ninjas (and the occasional bear or bird) the whole time or if she eventually just started killing everything in her way, but unless that school she went through was a school for ninjas then I’d say she was just meant to be a killing machine. So yeah, this is a pile of fun, absolutely gripping all the way through, and you wouldn’t think that there would be this many imaginative ways to kill people with characters that are little more than stick figures, but Bonesteel proves you wrong on that one. Buy it and enjoy the mayhem! $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/4/13
April 4, 2013New review today for Madtown High #1 by Whit Taylor. Two reviews tomorrow!
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Posted by Kevin
Taylor, Whit – Madtown High #1
April 4, 2013
Madtown High #1
If you’ve read a ton of small press comics you most likely already know if you’re interested in reading another series detailing the adventures of the author in high school, but don’t rush off without at least giving this one a shot (her website is good for a preview, as she still has a number of pages up for free as of this writing). This is the first issue of a projected five issue series, and it’s broken up so that it looks like you could read them in damned near any order, or at least you could after reading the first story where she meets her circle of friends. Stories in here include the aforementioned meeting of her friends at lunch (after awkwardly sitting at another table for a bit), her time in the orchestra and the slow disintegration of the hopes and dreams of her teacher, gym class and all the awkwardness that ensued (mostly from other people and the fact that everybody stank after class), joining the science league and the thrill of winning, a bully and a potential bully that never materialized, a crush and her delightfully awkward attempt at making the guy notice her, and a secret hut in the woods that they used to hang out on weekends. I’m intrigued to read this whole thing, as it has long been obvious from past issues of her comics that she has a lot to say on the subject of high school. My only complaint is that a panel here and there looks like it’s been seriously rushed, like the one in the science league story where it looks like the bus she’s riding in is a lumpy cardboard box riding down a street where the grass is on fire on either side and the houses have been flattened. It only happens a few times and doesn’t really diminish the quality of the stories, but shortcuts like that (if it is in fact a shortcut and not just me nitpicking) do tend to stand out. But that’s a minor quibble and shouldn’t detract from the solid storytelling that she did throughout the book. $3
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/3/13
April 3, 2013New review for California #2 by Rob Jackson. Next week is going to be all Columbus people (pretty sure I have enough material to make that happen) in the run-up to SPACE next weekend. Everybody have their plans all set for the show?
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Posted by Kevin
Jackson, Rob – California #2
April 3, 2013
California #2
Well, this has gone from being a bit like “Grapes of Wrath” to being a lot closer to something from H.P. Lovecraft. And they go together much better than you may think! In this issue we see a tiny bit more of what’s out there in that forest, the whole family is finally together in California (with a few mysterious stops by Jake along the way), the water that was so suspicious gets made into communion wine, Billy gets a job where he sees a few more suspicious things, and a cellar is uncovered in an old mansion. See, this is there it gets tricky, as I don’t want to tell you anything past “buy this already,” and that failing has dogged me through 11+ years of writing these reviews. So join me as I try, once again, to thread that needle! The story is building up nicely, and the next issue (which Rob was nice enough to include with this one) promises to finally start revealing some of the mysteries. The last few pages, where ____ gets to the ____, were creepy as hell and set up the next issue perfectly. And those creepy glimpses of the _____ in the forest were done very well. So, like I said earlier: buy it already!
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/2/13
April 2, 2013New review today for Plastic Farm Volume 3: Seasons of Growth in the Fields of Despair by Rafer Roberts and a few of his drawing chums (although Rafer does a good chunk of the art himself). Yes, I do still plan to get five reviews up this week, but I’ll leave it a mystery as to what day I’ll manage to get them up. Suspense!
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Posted by Kevin
Roberts, Rafer – Plastic Farm Volume 3: Seasons of Growth in the Fields of Despair
April 2, 2013
Plastic Farm Volume 3: Seasons of Growth in the Fields of Despair
A message to the people out there who still miss Cerebus (like me, up until the last couple of years of its run where I stopped caring): maybe you should give Plastic Farm a shot. Granted, it’s not a monthly comic, which is where the loss of Cerebus is most acutely felt, but good luck finding another ongoing small press series that’s this compelling. I was all set to bitch about the fact that there’s no recap at the start of this one, but it turns out that this is the perfect volume for there to be no recap. A new reader who picked up the third volume (but for some reason skipped the first two, which is a little crazy) would have no trouble at all picking up the basics of the story, as a lot of this is one long, continuing origin story. For people who are just starting this now, go back and read some of my reviews for past issues, as I’m sure as hell not going to recap everything here. The short version of the early days of this series is that it was a number of stories involving a wide cast of characters, often not initially seeming to have anything to do with each other, and their connections were revealed gradually along the way. Oh, and Chester, as he’s the main character here, and either the savior of the universe or its destroyer. Or a crazy person, or something in between. Most of this volume takes place in an airport bar as people wait until the bad weather clears up and the flights start up again. Chester takes this time to tell his story to this room full of people, with each of them chiming in at different moments to tell their own stories (most of them engrossing, a few not so much, but the other characters are also aware of that fact). This volume starts off with both of his origin stories: being baptized by a mysterious group and then starting college. We see his introduction to alcohol and drugs (and ladies, really), with little hints along the way of the underlying insanity of his life. Rafer seems to have come to terms with the fact that his story is going to be much longer than he initially planned and he’s really enjoying the freedom that comes with having all kinds of space. Chester’s race to get to his first day of class, for example, would have been a panel or two if Rafer was still trying to cram all of this into a dozen or so issues, but he was able to take 25 pages to really show every aspect of it. I was also impressed with how seamlessly this graphic novel came together, as I know it came from single issues but it was really hard to tell where one issue stopped and another started (that’s the highest compliment I can give, in case that wasn’t clear). We also get our first clear glimpses of what exactly that mouse-like creature is all about as well as a holding room of sorts for some of the more imaginative creatures I’ve seen outside of an issue of Idiotland (and those creatures were almost universally gross, while these are mostly just… odd). I’m hoping, unrealistically probably, that Rafer already has the fourth volume ready for SPACE in a couple of weeks, as I’ve gone from cautiously optimistic that he’d be able to pull all these disparate threads together to having full confidence in his ability to do so after reading this one. Provided that there’s still a Kickstarter around or something that he can use to finance them, that is. Of course, that would probably also be less of an issue if all kinds of people started buying his books. Try that out, see what happens! $16.99
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/29/13
March 29, 2013New review for History in Ruins #2 by Andrew Smith and Rusty Jordan, and I am going to get five reviews up next week if it kills me. Happy weekend!
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Posted by Kevin
