February 12, 2013
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Jerry’s Journal #2
How much of this comic is autobiographical anyway? There’s no way to know, and Neil makes fun of that fact in his brief epilogue. But the fact remains that Neil got his heart broken while he was making this comic, and the second half (and then some) deals purely with “Jerry” trying to come to terms with it. This comic is a series of one page strips, dealing mostly with life, trying to get some meaning out of it and the horror of dealing with a breakup. It’s pretty clear where this breakup happens, as things get grim in a hurry. Still, plenty of that stuff will look familiar to other people who have had their hearts broken, or everyone. Unless you’re one of those assholes who only breaks hearts, in which case shame on you, aren’t you aware of the trail of devastation you leave in your wake? Those looks aren’t going to last forever, you know. Anyway, there are still plenty of genuinely funny moments, as Neil is a master of that sort of thing. But this one also gets a bit more “real” than past issues of Neil’s comics. Or not, as Neil has always been about finding some meaning in the universe, and what’s more real than that? If you like his stuff I can’t see why you wouldn’t like this one, and if you’re not familiar with his stuff, where have you been these last 10 years or so? The man’s a comic producing machine and you should be reading his stuff. $5
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Posted by Kevin
February 7, 2013
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The Horror #2
Hey, wait a minute, this isn’t an anthology! That “edited by” credit on the cover threw me right off. I guess an argument could be made that this IS an anthology, as around six other people contributed to this, but it’s a trick. The bulk of the story is the first chapter of “Dog Boy” by Eric Schuster, and everything after that is a full page spread of various assorted creatures. Is that an anthology? I need a ruling from a judge over here. I don’t think it counts. But hey, I can always review the actual comic part. The comics in this Lutefisk Sushi E box have mostly been self-contained so far, and that’s a good thing, but I can see the wisdom behind putting part of a continuing story in this box, as it’s basically a small press sample platter. Anyway, what we see so far is a young man going outside for a smoke break and getting into an altercation with a, well, dog boy. Or werewolf, or whatever it is. Oh, and the werewolf is riding a bicycle. The young man gets bit, as there wouldn’t be much of a continuing story otherwise, and things end with him getting a mysterious visitor at his door. It’s an intriguing start and I’m curious to see where it goes from here, but the danger that it becomes another cliched werewolf story is high. That mysterious visitor at the door is what’s keeping hope alive, as I do wonder what was up with that man. The full page spreads are pretty good too, with my favorite being “Surprise Minotaur” by Nathan Anderson. Yep, another good one in the mini comics box, another reason to buy the whole damned thing.
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Posted by Kevin
February 7, 2013
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It’s Cris Carver’s Fun Time!
When you’re dealing with a box of 30+ mini comics, all sold in the package called “Lutefisk Sushi E,” there are bound to be a few comics in it that are… insubstantial. Plenty of them are tiny, as there would be no other way to fit them all into the box, but some of them make more use of their space than this comic does. Not that it’s terrible, it’s just kind of there. This comic is the story of a joke, told to another character that doesn’t want to hear it, and the joke isn’t funny. The person being told the joke reacts appropriately, the end. The art is erratic and more than a little sloppy (I wouldn’t be surprised to hear something about this being a 2 hour comic, if that was a real thing), as your characters have to remain the same from panel to panel no matter what story you’re telling. So yes, it turns out that there are comics in this box that aren’t all that great. I would have been shocked if everything in here WAS great, and the success rate is still pretty damned high, so my opinion on the entire comic set remains the same. If you find this individual comic sitting around at a comic store in the future, unless you have the corniest sense of humor in the world, it’s pretty safe to skip it.
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Posted by Kevin
February 5, 2013
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The Last Hour
Quick, who out there has worked in food service? Coffee shop, fast food restaurant, cafeteria worker, that sort of thing. The last hour of the day at those places (from my experience) is often a nebulous zone where you’d like to be working on things to get you home more quickly after closing, but most of those things can’t be done until all of the customers are gone, and customers come in so infrequently for that last hour that you’re mostly just bored silly. This comic is about one of those hours, as RL waits to close the coffee shop while tending the counter. There’s the conversation with a co-worker to try and figure out anything she could do to help, the interaction with a faceless customer who can’t even be bothered with basic human courtesy, a reasonably friendly guy who was probably mostly there to hit on her (he did ask what her favorite drink was so he could order it, after all), a cheery old man who just wants regular coffee, and one woman who places a large order but ends up giving RL some solid advice on trying mini comics first if she was having trouble putting together a longer story. It’s a solid comic and it does a nice job capturing that awful, useless, potentially magical hour.
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Posted by Kevin
February 5, 2013
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Rebecca and the Super Heroes
Warning: no super heroes appear in this comic. Well, I guess one does at the end, sort of. This is the story of Rebecca, Ryan’s girlfriend, and her introduction to Ryan’s world of comics. A very brief introduction, as this comic only has five single page stories, but maybe a larger edition is in the works? Anyway, stories in here include Rebecca’s similarities to Kal-El, the practical limitations of properly filling out a Wonder Woman costume, the joys of not having to get into dumb comic book arguments, and Rebecca’s first experience with watching an episode of the old Hulk tv show. Which, really, is not the best “gateway show” to get the ladies interested in geekery. My opinion is that you can’t go wrong with Buffy, and sure, I know that there aren’t any super heroes in that technically, but it lets the uninitiated know that such an idea can be compelling and rewarding for adults. This is a tiny comic, like I said, so there’s not a whole lot more to say about it. It’s an interesting subject, and Ryan could maybe have enough material to make a full size comic or maybe even a graphic novel out of this. It’s worth checking out, and is another welcome addition to this giant box of mini comics. Oh, and Ryan is going through something of a crisis in comic form on his website (new strips on Wednesdays and Sundays!), and going through the back strips has already taken up a good chunk of my morning. Just sayin’…
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Posted by Kevin
January 31, 2013
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Fear is the Mind Killer
Since I’m generally so nice in these reviews (but not always! Yes, you can find many bad reviews on this site if you look hard enough), I thought I’d start off with a negative: that cover looks terrible. Not the lines or the design, but that awful yellow color. Sometimes simple is best, and a plain old black and white cover would have worked fine here. That being said, I don’t have a whole lot of complaints about the actual story. Sure, I could have done without some of those spelling errors, but that “24 hour comic” on the cover is the great “get out of jail” free card for such things. The story here covers some familiar territory in small press comics (paralyzing self-doubt, wondering why you can’t work up the energy to make comics, letting every little setback throw your whole plan off), but JP has an interesting take on it. He had a job where he was making good money but kind of hated it, so he made a pact with his wife that they would leave their comfortable town, she would get a job in Chicago and he would work on his comics. Then… nothing. Well, she got a job, but he didn’t keep up his end of the deal for quite a while. We see the many reasons why that was the case, his observations from wandering around the town during regular business hours, and how he finally got going with his comics. And would you believe that Henry Rollins indirectly had a lot to do with it (even if JP does draw him as a black and white hulk)? It’s an engrossing story, even if we know how it ends (there are ads for his other comics on the back cover). Not that we really do know how JP’s story ends because hell, it’s still going, right? Here’s hoping he keeps it up, because he had some really innovative uses of words and word balloons in there, among other things.
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Posted by Kevin
January 31, 2013
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Alternative Medicine on Trial!!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned during my years on this planet, it’s that believers in alternative medicine are rarely swayed by facts or logic. So if you’re one of those people, you’ll most likely just feel that this comic is an attack on you personally and will be offended. If, however, you are at all willing to be convinced, or if you already know that most forms of alternative medicine are pure quackery, you’re going to love this book. This tells the story of a trial involving an acupuncturist, a lady who practices homeopathy, and the head of an actual government organization. This government group is actually real and funded by taxes, in theory to investigate the efficacy of various types of alternative medicine. Mike brings some facts into the discussion, and they’re pretty damned convincing, but nothing drives his point home more effectively than the actual quote of the head of the government group. I thoroughly enjoyed this comic, and you probably will too if you’re willing to give it a shot.
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Posted by Kevin
January 29, 2013
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The King of Fort Road
| Three cheers for local legends! This comic tells the story of a mysterious man who was the “king” of a section of town for roughly a 50 year period. The author of this comic tries to piece together the bits of the legend to come up with a real person and has more than a little bit of trouble. I’m guessing that this isn’t a true story (although life would be better if it was), but Nate does a nice job of showing the variables involved in trying to learn about somebody only from passed down oral history. Nobody seemed to know the king’s real name (eight people came up with eight different names), exactly how he made his living (but he was always paying for meals and showering people with drinks), whether or not he had a family or where he lived. But he was beloved, and the bit about his only rival of consequence was notably short (spoiler alert: the guy wasn’t very successful at replacing the king). It’s a thoroughly engrossing story, which makes it even more impressive that this is Nate’s first comic. He should keep it up to see what else is in that brain of his. As far as constructive criticism goes, a few of the facial expressions seemed a bit forced, but that’s reaching a bit. Another worthy contribution to this giant box of mini comics. |
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Posted by Kevin
January 29, 2013
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Office Ewok
It’s difficult these days to keep up with all of the rules you’re expected to follow while working in an office. For example: mandatory pants. Who knew that it could be such an issue of contention? As you may have already guessed if you’ve seen the movie referenced on the cover to this comic, Ewoks have always been a pantless society. Well, that may or may not be true; I am not aware of the entire species history of Ewoks (I doubt very much that George Lucas is either). Anyway, this comic deals with the effects of not wearing pants in an office and having to conform to fit in. Really, it’s just an excuse to draw a number of usually pantless Star Wars characters wearing pants (I particularly enjoyed Chewbacca in his suspenders), but what more do you need? It’s a short pile of fun with an office lecture thrown in and a hell of a punchline.$25 for the whole box of 35+ comics (plus shipping)
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Posted by Kevin
January 24, 2013
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Panel #19: Green
One thing struck me right off the bat in this 19th (!) installment of one of the better anthologies out there: they really could have raised a bigger stink about this being printed on recycled paper. Or, if that “recycling” symbol on the cover is just for show, they missed a golden opportunity to release this book on recycled paper. Either way, making fun of environmentally conscious folks for their preachiness is just too big of a target to ignore (obligatory disclaimer: I agree with the goals of environmentalists, obviously, but their lack of a sense of humor is quite a target). But hey, at least the paper itself is green. This is the usual pile of short pieces by various Columbus artists, and once again the vast majority of the stories ranged between pretty good and damned great. Things start off with a silent piece by Dara Naraghi and Matt Kish detailing the “life” of a can of soda, and it’s a fantastic example of exactly how many things one piece of trash can affect. Andrew Lee and Ben Smith are up next with a piece about the evils of drugs, as told to a pair of stoners by a cartoon anti-drug man. KT Swartz, Brent Bowman and Dara Naraghi are up next with a story about military training and the dangers of not paying attention to your surroundings. I guess this one was “green” because it referenced the military? Or was it because they were outside? I need to stop taking things so literally. Anyway, the next piece called “Luck of the Irish” by Ross Hardy deals with the death of a leprechaun and the search for his gold, because how could you make a book with that title and not have a story about a leprechaun in it? Finally there’s a space adventure by Tony Goins and Craig Bogart that didn’t do a lot for me (five pages isn’t very much room to jump into a space adventure, but they still managed a few good jokes and some effective shouts of “silence!” by the big baddie), but at least they were nice enough to mention that the space explosions were silent, which is something that most movies don’t even manage to get right. There are also a few full pages spreads, one with that delightful Yoda fellow that is also required by law to be in any anthology with this title. I’d probably rank this somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of quality in this Panel series, but considering the fact that a few issues of this series are among my favorite anthologies out there, “the middle” is still pretty damned good. And they managed to keep it at an affordable $3!
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Posted by Kevin
January 24, 2013
Website is currently down, but I’ll update this when there’s a working website again…
The Ineffables: All of Creation
Kudos to Craig on that title, as it’s hard to get more literal than that. There have been more than a few Ineffables books over the years, and that fact may scare you away from trying it out, but this one is perfect for new readers. It starts at the Big Band and ends at the Big Crunch; it’s hard to get more self-contained than that. Things start off with the revelation that the hero of the series (well, one of the heroes) is actually an immortal being, as his travelling back in time caused the Big Bang. Which is the kind of time travel thing that can make your head explode, but don’t think about it too much. From there we see the creation of Mason (OR DO WE? (that’ll make more sense after you read the whole book)) and the destruction of the dinosaurs by a group that has a convoluted but effective plan to make the planet more habitable to them. That’s your first chapter and, as spoilers get a bit dicey from here, I’ll just break down the remaining four chapters briefly. We see the death ray of Archimedes, Ineffables traveling back for a big old brawl (including a Mason vs. Mason brawl that is among the best comic book fights you’ll ever see, unless you like punching), android Ronald Reagan fighting giant sea monsters, giant alien bees taking over the planet, a thousand Mason heads raining nuclear destruction from the sky, and the plan to preserve all the knowledge in the universe at the Big Crunch. This series has really taken on a life of its own in recent years, and I love the fact that we’re seeing more and more team members and, well, all of creation. He even sneaks in some funny lines here and there (like Reagan’s “gift” to a liberated society). I do wish that he’d start putting the title on the spine of his graphic novels, but that’s purely as aesthetic thing for the sake of my bookshelf. This could make a hell of a cartoon series if there’s anybody out there willing to finance a smart, scientifically-minded series about time travelers trying to solve some of the bigger problems of existence. Nah, I don’t see anybody willing to finance something like that in this day and age either, sadly enough. But it would be awesome! $12
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Posted by Kevin
January 22, 2013
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I Will Bite You
There was only one question in my mind when I started reading this book: would it live up to its title? Because that title is one of the best things that I’ve ever seen. As this is a book of short stories, it’s not really fair to judge the whole book by that unbeatable title, but I will say that that particular story more than matched up to it. The gist of it is that there are two suns in the sky, but the cartoon kinds of suns with facial features. They’re coyly in love, sneaking kisses with each other and being very pleased with each other when this happens. Meanwhile, there’s an angry kid on the ground, and he’s going around biting creatures. I’d say “people,” but most of the things he bites are odd beings of some kind or another. Anyway, the kid finally gets punished and he notices one of the two suns laughing at him, so naturally he jumps up to it and takes a bite out of it. What follows is equally hilarious and horrifying, and I’ve already said far too much about this so I’ll leave it up to you to discover. But wait, there’s a whole lot more! Next is “After School Snacks,” in which a posse of creatures terrify a couple of kids after they discover the deliciousness of pudding snacks. It’s a testament to Joseph’s skills that these creatures oozed across the page, and there was also some wildly inventive uses of word balloons as weapons. Other stories in here include “Mom Said” (in which a young boy tries to join in on the activities of his brother and friend, eventually resorting to drastic measures to get their attention), “Turtle Keep It Steady” (a slow build of a story involving a turtle playing drums, trying to compete with a much hipper drummer in another section of the room), “PSR” (a man just tries to eat his damned ice cream without getting it stolen out from under him every year, with one hell of an ending), “Too Far” (we watch a boy swallow his own father in anger and things spiral from there), an untitled piece (about cavemen, the natural order of things, using pterodactyl wings to fly and kissing the sun) and “Every Day” (kind of extended version of the theory behind the ending of “I Will Bite You,” as a boy picks a fight with the sun every day with hilariously predictable results… mostly). Now that these are all arrayed in order, there really isn’t a weak story in the bunch. Some are better than others, as is always the case for books of short stories, but you’d be hard pressed to find a stinker in here. Unless you have a pathological hatred for all stories involving suns with faces, in which case there’s a lot that you could find wrong with this book. This is a hell of a debut book, and yet another piece of evidence that The Center for Cartoon Studies knows exactly what’s it’s doing. And anyway, who wouldn’t want a book with this title sitting on their shelf? $14
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Posted by Kevin
January 18, 2013
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Ritual #2: The Reverie
I’ll occasionally read a comic and it just reaches out and punches me right in the heart. Which isn’t a bad thing, as if you’re not affected at all then a comic isn’t doing its job, but be warned: if you’re looking for a lighthearted romp, go elsewhere. This one starts off with a day in the life of a young boy and his sister, waiting on the couch for their dad to get home after one of them has broken a clock. We see the dad pull up, then we’re transported to a scene three years later of his dad working on a project in his garage. The transition is jarring, but keep reading, as it all pays off in the end. Keep reading the comic, that is, as it’s not like I’m going to spoil the ending for you, or even much of what leads up to it. From here we see the dad working on a much more complicated project five years later, the death of a crucial family member four years later, and the effect on the family (still) six years later. From here we finally get to the meaning of the title, and here’s where it gets tricky in regards to spoilers. I will point out that the first story segment is listed as 2009, so if you do the math you can see that it stretches out well into the future, meaning that you can expect some fantastical hypotheticals. Which is great! I’m all for thoughtful science fiction, and there isn’t enough of it out there in comics, what with the necessity for lengthy comic series to tell the stories and the uncertainty of having a consistent publishing schedule. What’s most important (arguably) in this comic is what’s left unsaid, as we see these people for very brief snippets over the course of years and have to fill in the blanks ourselves as to what’s happened to them. That conclusion was absolutely haunting, and it left me feeling like the “hero” of the book made the wrong choice, even though you could go at it from a different angle and conclude that that was really the only choice available to him. This Malachi Ward fellow is clearly somebody to keep an eye on, and he’s on my list of people to finance (and/or bribe into giving up his day job and only making comics) if I should ever happen upon a giant pile of money. No price listed, but the first issue of this series (which isn’t really connected to this one in terms of story) was $6, so let’s go with that.
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Posted by Kevin
