April 18, 2013
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Reptile Museum #1
This right here is a whole pile of potential. I’m always excited/dubious to see another comic that’s supposed to be published on a regular schedule (this one offers subscriptions in the back where it promises 6 issues per year), mostly because I’ve been burned so many times, but hey, I’ll go with cautious optimism this time around. Ignoring all that past history from other artists, this is a completely engaging story that could still go in all kinds of different directions. Things start off with us seeing that the world has been devastated by something or other, apparently with roving gangs with bombs wandering around, as the first thing we see is a clean-up crew taking down an unexploded bomb. From there we see a brief flashback of this same person meeting a small kid 15 years ago, then that same kid coming back to this person after being mysteriously missing for the last 10 years. Explanations are not forthcoming, but we do see some hints as to what he went through. Finally there’s a confrontation between our hero (his name is Pants) and a group of roving muggers? Bandits? Whatever the case (I’m sure there will be more about them later too), you’ll have to read this to see how it’s handled. I have WAY more questions than answers, which is perfect for the first issue in a long series, and you should all buy the first couple of issues from this man to keep him motivated. $5
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Posted by Kevin
April 18, 2013
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The Pilot’s Voyage
Imagination will win out over coherence for me every time. And that’s not to say that this story was incoherent, just that I’m not sure that I understood all of it but, as always, your interpretations may differ. This story all takes place in a fantastic future world (or maybe just another section of space entirely) where a pilot is joining with his living ship for the first time. The training is referenced, as is the need for these two beings to be completely in sync to survive their voyage. This part was inventive as all hell, and I particularly enjoyed the way that the ship spread out tendrils to anchor itself during its voyage into a black hole. The trouble is that this is where things start to get confusing, as the scene shifts to two people who are watching a third person enter a walking dream state. I think I got what they were going for in the long run (although I can’t talk about it here without ruining the surprise), but the way the pages were laid out could have been done a little more clearly. Oh, and fix a spelling error or two (not that there were a bunch of them, but still). There’s more than enough in this book to make it worth a look, at the very least so that you can see his unique interpretation of the concept of a living ship (not to mention some of those dream creatures), so don’t mind my quibbles.
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Posted by Kevin
April 17, 2013
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Cartoon Clouds #1
Hello art school graduates! Here’s a story that was written especially for you. Well, actually I’d guess that the story was written for Joseph, or not for any particular person at all, but it is a story about graduating from art school, so I’m guessing a lot of people can relate to it. Anyway! This one starts off with the main character (Seth) getting his final critique from an art professor. The professor references his own show, suggests that Seth use his student I.D. card while he can still get a discount to see his show, and generally takes every opportunity to make the grading all about himself. Once that’s over Seth has a stoned conversation with a friend, has a nightmare about Indian food, goes to a party that he’d just as soon skip and has several conversations with people that he was trying desperately to avoid. In the background of the party is Allison, a purely platonic friend of Seth’s, and the clear undercurrent that Seth is running out of time to tell her how he really feels before their “real life” starts. Seth is presented various paths that he can take after graduation by these people, some more realistic than others, but is understandably pessimistic about any of his friends earning a living with their art. Art school tropes are punctured, hopes are dashed, a good time is resolutely not had by Seth at any point for very long, but hey, there’s more to come. The art is fantastic and I’m curious to see what happens next, which is the entire point of the first issue in a series. There were a few spelling errors that will continue to baffle me every time I see them (as a spell check takes significantly less time than drawing a single panel on one page), but don’t mind me being a curmudgeon on that. If you can relate to anything I described here then give this a shot, if not but if you still like a good story then I’d also say it’s worth your time. $5
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Posted by Kevin
April 17, 2013
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Pretending You’re Not Crazy
Let’s hear it for depression! Just think of how boring comics would be if the writers were happy all the time. Granted, as a human being you’d rather be happy than sad, but… nope, you’d just rather be happy than sad. This is a series of mostly one or two page strips detailing his descent into depression, hoping that he has hit bottom and his pharmaceutically assisted climb back up. Ryan seems to think that taking anti-depressants is essentially “losing,” as he can’t find his happiness on his own, but I disagree. Take your happiness where you can find it in this life, provided that you aren’t hurting anybody else. Ta-da! All depression is hereby solved! Subjects in here include realizing that he wasn’t really wishing for death, an epically scatterbrained week, some wisdom on playing “the game,” trying to come to terms with depression without drugs, feeling buried under various forms of media, getting buried in “shoulds,” finding the enemy and realizing that he was out of options, trying to work out a system to get a handle on his life, his “quarter-life crisis” (which he says can happen in your 30’s which, mathematically, makes very little sense), trying to blend in with the regular adults at work, and trying to make anti-depressants funny. You can probably still read some of these up at his website if you’d like more samples, but basically this is a thoughtful, engaging series of strips from somebody who is trying to figure out the same thing as the rest of us: how to live a good and happy life. Or at least a happy life.
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Posted by Kevin
April 16, 2013
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Teeth
Have you ever had a moment of terror while you were chomping down on a nut, or taffy, or a piece of popcorn, where you heard what sounds like an unusually loud cracking/crunching noise? Depending on where you were when this happened, you might have had to spend several minutes or even hours unable to completely check your teeth, wondering if you had done yourself any permanent damage, with plenty of time to imagine all sorts of horrible changes that would come to your life because of your shattered tooth/teeth. That particular feeling sums up this comic pretty well. It’s a brisk seven pages of comic, in which we see our hero anxiously checking his teeth in a mirror (using the trick of sneaking up on yourself, walking away and then turning back before quickly checking again), explaining to a friend why he’s acting so strangely, and listening to advice from another friend about his obvious need to live a little. It’s a claustrophobic and creepy little book, and it’s hard to imagine this subject matter being covered any better. No price, and from his website it looks like Jeff is reworking some of his comics, but I’d guess that $2-3 would get you a copy of this one.
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Posted by Kevin
April 16, 2013
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Seasonal #1
It is always tricky to try and deconstruct a breakup. Luckily for us Sarah and Bobbi have decided to lay one out for us, a little bit at a time. Not that we see that right away, as things start off with a random woman exiting her house and we only later learn that it is the woman who was broken up with by our main character before this series started. Or maybe it’s not, as it’s never clearly mentioned, but it would be odd to focus on this random person if that was not the case. Anyway, next we see our hero (Kermit) having an awkward dinner with his dad, trying to decide where he’s going to live. We get a significantly more awkward conversation with his mom, as she’s making out with some hippie in front of him, and her advice isn’t all that useful anyway. Kermit wanders back to his old place of employment, and we get a flashback showing some of the problems that their relationship was having. Only bits and pieces so far, but enough to come to the conclusion that Kermit did a really shitty thing by abandoning this person. Unless he didn’t. Ah, I love reviewing single issues of an ongoing series. The chances that I’m going to be totally wrong/end up looking like a complete doofus are staggering. Well, whatever happens with it, they’re off to a damned intriguing start, with what I’m sure is more emotional pain to come. Hop on for the ride!
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Posted by Kevin
April 12, 2013
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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
April 11, 2013
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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
April 10, 2013
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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
April 9, 2013
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SPACE Anthology 2012
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
Comments Off on Mitchell, Brian John (editor) – SPACE Anthology 2012 | Reviews | Tagged: Blair Kitchen, Bob Corby, Brian John Mitchell, Dave Kelly, Jason Young, Jeanie Bryan, Joe Davidson, John Steventon, Jon Michael Lennon, Kathleen Coyle, Kel Crum, Kris Lachowski, Lara Antal, Leslie Anderson, Mari Naomi, Matt Bryan, Mike Carroll, Mike Kitchen, Ray Tomczak, Rose Papke, Shawn Smith, Space, Steve Myers, Thor Fjalarsson | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
April 8, 2013
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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
April 5, 2013
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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
