New review today for Window #13 by Dave Lapp. Happy weekend everybody, and if you happen to try ordering some comics and can’t get it to work, let me know, OK? As far as I know that’s all fixed, but the lack of any orders lately makes it difficult for me to know for sure.
Update for 3/23/12
March 23, 2012
Comments Off on Update for 3/23/12 | 
Site News | 
Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Lapp, Dave – Window #13
March 23, 2012
Window #13
These Window comics just seem to keep hiding themselves in the morass that is my desk. The last few issues in this series (which I last reviewed six months ago) were just found alongside my desk, having fallen there who knows how long ago. Just a little peek into the “professional” set-up I have around here for reviewing comics, and one more reminder for you to nudge me a bit if it’s been a few months and I still haven’t reviewed your comic. Chances are that they’re buried under something or have fallen off my desk entirely. So! It’s the second-to-last issue of Window, and it’s another damned good one. I used the story on the inside front cover as a sample, mostly because anybody who’s lived in a big city has either heard or participated in a conversation something like this one. Up to and including the moment at the end when the people on the street lose interest and the person on their balcony/window/roof continues shouting for a bit until it finally sinks in that their audience is gone. Next up is the meat of the comic, a story about a man remembering his time during the Vietnam war. He was just a local kid at the time, and didn’t know how to handle the casual nature with which dead people were just left lying around. He also detailed several encounters with grenades, claymores, traps and other things that, in hindsight, probably should have killed him. Instead he just played with them with his friends and lucked out in the fact that all of the explosives he found were either duds or he didn’t hit them in just the right way to make them go off. Next there’s a story (told by Dave’s brother or father (?)) of a therapy session between Carl Lapp and a patient who was losing weight rapidly and her various excuses as to why she wouldn’t eat certain meals. Finally there’s a long and fairly heartbreaking story on the back cover of an overheard conversation of a woman on a train talking about her aging cat and how she can’t get it to poop in a litterbox, and how the cat conquers all her efforts to nudge her back in the right direction. Who else is going to put a 20 panel story on the back cover for your amusement? Appreciate that level of dedication when you find it, folks. Anyway, one more issue to go, and I still think that somebody, anybody, should be putting out a collected edition of his work. This is that rare combination of fantastic art along with stories about sections of society that will be priceless to any future historians. No price, because they’re mostly not in print, but ask Dave about them, maybe he still has a few lying around…
Comments Off on Lapp, Dave – Window #13 | Reviews | Tagged: Dave Lapp, Window | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/22/12
March 22, 2012New review today for Exhibition #1 by Dim Jale, which is also newly available in the store. That and another comic of his called “Into Aether” that I’ll get around to reviewing in the coming weeks, I’d imagine.
Comments Off on Update for 3/22/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Jale, Dim – Exhibition #1
March 22, 2012
Exhibition #1 Â Now Available! $3
I’ll be honest. There are times when I read a comic and don’t have the slightest idea what to make of it in terms of writing any sort of review. That can be me having a bad day, a fault with the comic or something in between. Certain comics have also been known to fill me with an “eh, it’s OK” reaction, which also doesn’t leave much to talk about. What I’m trying to get at is that I didn’t understand this comic on a very fundamental level, but just in case that was purely my fault I’m going to read it again. Don’t worry, this won’t add any time to your reading of this review today, linear time being what it is and all. Yeah, that didn’t help. Bits of it made more sense, sort of, but this comic was screaming out for a set-up or prologue of some sort. Gather round, I’m going to try and explain it now despite not understanding it, which is always funny. Things start off with a warlock of some sort escaping from hell. This happens on a page with word balloons and images facing in all sorts of directions for no reason that I could see. Next we see that our hero escaped because he didn’t want to dance for a demon, and maybe all these images turned around are supposed to depict the path out of hell as the warlock keeps changing forms. Maybe. Next we learn that our hero is owed a favor from the moon, but that she can’t help him now. We also get all sorts of symbols and their translations scattered all over the place, usually meaning one word each. Then I thought that we were headed for a bit of a linear story when the demon orgy started, but there’s instantly a two page spread showing four pages of a comic, decapitations and a cry for it all to be animated, which lost me forever. And why would there be no fucking at a demon orgy? Maybe we just missed that part. I did enjoy the art and some of the random images and think that there’s some potential here, but on the whole you’d need a better brain than mine to figure it all out. Here’s hoping that he keeps the series going, as I’m really looking forward to reading a “previously” recap at the start of #2… $3
Comments Off on Jale, Dim – Exhibition #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Dim Jale, Exhibition | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/21/12
March 21, 2012New review today for Toasty Cats #6 by Magda Boreysza. Crap, I meant to put new comics in the store today. Well, there’s something for you guys to look forwards to tomorrow. What could it possibly be?
Comments Off on Update for 3/21/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Boreysza, Magda – Toasty Cats #6
March 21, 2012
Toasty Cats #6
Warning: there are no cats in this comic. Not that it needs them, and you probably wouldn’t expect to find any in here after seeing that gorgeous cover, but I thought I’d throw that out there all the same. The main story in this comic deals with a community of… moles? Creatures that burrow underground to sleep at night in small holes, anyway. These creatures are having a nice evening playing with fireflies and sitting around in a circle, and finally they all get tired and go to sleep. A snake comes down and pulls one of the moles out of its hole (but gently, not waking it up) and eats it. From there it veers off into a totally unexpected direction that I’m doing my best not to spoil. Next we get a few illustrations of fantastic creatures (at least I hope they weren’t related to the previous story, as they would have made no sense in that context), then a short story called “Fox & Comet.” I’d say it stole the show if the previous story wasn’t so engaging. The short version is that a fox sees a comet in the sky and thinks that it sees a fox at the head of the comet. This fox then spends all of its nights staring at the sky, hoping to see it again, even as it raises children and time passes. It’s a simple story, but Magda still makes it utterly engrossing. I haven’t seen any past issues of this series so I don’t know if the past issues were as good as this one, but #6 is well worth checking out. It’s a peek into the worlds of these creatures at times when their defenses are totally down and, even in a fantasy setting, it’s not something that we get to see too often. No price, but I’m guessing $6.
Comments Off on Boreysza, Magda – Toasty Cats #6 | Reviews | Tagged: Magda Boreysza, Toasty Cats | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/20/12
March 20, 2012New review for Jetty #1 by Rio Aubry Taylor. And just because I haven’t linked to it in a few days, here’s the stuff (mostly graphic novels) that I’m selling on eBay these days.
Comments Off on Update for 3/20/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Taylor, Rio Aubry – Jetty #1
March 20, 2012
Jetty #1
Do you still ask questions about the universe and your place in it? It’s OK to say “no,” as it can get exhausting after a while, but Rio is still asking, and we get to read about it. Read and observe, really, as there are a couple of pieces in here with very few words. This comic starts off with Rio asking “What is it that makes my heart narrate?” on the inside front cover. So right away it’s easy to see that this man is searching for meaning in everything he does. The first story deals with a young man who was made king of a realm of giant space insects. Well, cars that fly into space and transform into giant space insects. While still carrying their passengers. And one of those passengers happens to be a bratty kid, who the mom asks to be left with the space bugs (!), so he is. Next up is the heart of the book, called “Masks that grown-ups sell me and the lies they tell me.” This is where Rio really lets loose, and it’s utterly pointless for me to even try to review it. I did use a page from it as a sample to give you some idea of what to expect, but that’s as far as I go. The rest is up to your own interpretations. From there you have a silent piece about some of the giants of the sea, a series of quotes from Jesus from unfathomable space entities, and Rio taking his leave. If you’re looking for a linear story you’re better off going somewhere else, and that’s also true if you’re not big on introspection or asking too many tough questions. For the rest of us there’s a lot to like here, although I’m left with the ridiculous thought that I wish that he had gone deeper. But that’s just me, and that’s probably because I’ve long thought that the answer to everything is out there somewhere, it just needs to be found again. If it exists at all, that is. Yep, this is why I leave it up to the professionals to make comics about such thoughts. $5
Comments Off on Taylor, Rio Aubry – Jetty #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Jetty, Rio Aubry Taylor | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/19/12
March 19, 2012New review for Ugly People #2 by Zack! Empire. I’m doing five reviews this week, dammit, site problems be damned.
Comments Off on Update for 3/19/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Zack! Empire – Ugly People #2
March 19, 2012
Ugly People #2
Would it make me an asshole if I put YOU’RE = YOU ARE in the header of my website? I can’t tell you how sick I am of seeing that simple error made over and over again. For some reason it bugs me more than misspellings, more than trouble with “it’s,” more than just about anything else. And Zack! gets it wrong just about every time. Not that he’s alone in that, or even close to it, but it boggles my mind that people can spend countless hours drawing something and then rush through the words that accompany them. Which is a shame, as I thoroughly enjoyed the comic itself. Eh, it’s not like those errors ruined the book, it’s just that they’re so. damned. easy. to fix. Ahem. So how about the content? Three stories in this one. The big one deals with Big Daddy Bacon, who is a muscled-up dude who works at a strip club, as he finally realizes that all the “free food” he’d been eating from his job was actually coming out of his paycheck. I defy you not to laugh at that sex scene in the early pages. Hilarity ensues, and BDB (which is what everybody calls him) eventually settles on being a bounty hunter to earn some quick cash. Which we get to see actually happen in the next issue, I hope. Next is another piece on the lack of motivation suffered by the author (actually the lack of finding a good idea to get a project started), and this time his computer and his “to-do” list team up to try and finish up a comic for him. Which doesn’t go smoothly, naturally, leading to probably the only computer vs. list fight that you’ll ever see. Finally there are a few recipes towards the end about how to make a few simple foods using your coffee maker if your gas gets turned off. Sounds a little horrific to me, but hey, I’ve been unemployed for months now and I may be trying those out myself soon. I just checked the last review I wrote about Zack and I went on and on in that one about his spelling problems there too. Look, his stories are funny, he seems to be producing comics at a pretty good rate and I like his artwork a lot. For all the people that make spelling/grammatical errors, at least he also puts in heavily detailed backgrounds on just about every panel, something that a lot of people skip over or just don’t want to do. It’s worth a look, is what I’m saying. $4
Comments Off on Zack! Empire – Ugly People #2 | Reviews | Tagged: Ugly People, Zack! Empire | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/15/12
March 15, 2012New review today for The City Troll by Aaron Whitaker. I’m going to keep plugging my eBay stuff here, as poverty is a hell of a thing. New deals for comics minded folk: my whole run of Alan Moore’s Swamp Things, Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, and the entire Buffy Season 8 in comics form. Or you could buy regular comics from me here, or you could have stopped reading a few lines ago, hoping against hope that I’d shut up about all this stuff already.
Comments Off on Update for 3/15/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Whitaker, Aaron – The City Troll
March 15, 2012
The City Troll
Three cheers for Kickstarter, as this book most likely would not exist without it. I do have to add that you small press folks should try to get your book published through Top Shelf, or Drawn & Quarterly, or Fantagraphics or whoever is still standing first (as the world would be a crappier place without those three companies in existence), but if they’re not interested, it’s a good thing Kickstarter has become as successful as it has. The book looks gorgeous (outside and inside), which would not have been fully possible at this price without a little bit of help. OK, fine, people helping people is great and all that, but what about the book? This starts off as the story of god getting bored one day and deciding to create the perfect man. But god, being the little insecure bitch that he is, couldn’t take how perfect he made this dude and decides to force him to be friends with a man who is as horrific as the perfect man was perfect. All of this was Aaron’s rather mystical way of starting off a story that’s really about an insecure man, his perfect friend and the way that they both interacted with the ladies. As the main story begins we see that Ian (the perfect one) is “stuck” in a relationship with two beautiful women, neither of whom can bear to leave him. Paul (the troll), on the other hand, is horribly insecure and miserable, which only leads to him being MORE insecure and miserable, and we all know how much the ladies love those personality traits. Things seem to be picking up for Paul when he meets a woman at a grocery store who seems perfect for him, but he lacks the courage to start up a real conversation. She is then coincidentally in the same restaurant where he’s meeting a blind date (even reading a graphic novel, the holy grail of all blind dates), but it turns out that his date is with a different woman, so there goes that shot. Eventually Ian meets this girl and falls for her himself (his two girlfriends thing didn’t work out) and, since Paul had never actually made a move on her, he has no “guy code” to fall back on. This is all against the backdrop of Paul’s mostly missing and formerly abusive mother, his father (who’s dating a woman called “Understanding) slipping away from him, and Ian’s lifetime of watching girls that he liked fall in love with the more obviously handsome Ian instead, despite what seems to be Ian’s best efforts to prevent this from ever happening. Things spiral a bit from there, but most guys can relate to somebody in this story, and I would have to think that most of the ladies will find stuff to relate to in here too. It looks like Aaron has done another mini comic or two in his time, but this seems to be his first graphic novel, which makes it especially impressive. You can practically feel it when the self-loathing threatens to overwhelm Paul, and Aaron wisely resists every temptation along the way to take the easy way out of any situation. My only tiny quibble (as I’m contractually obligated to throw at least one of these into every review) is that he could stand to draw the word bubbles after he knows what his characters are going to say, as too many long word bubbles with only one or two words in them looks awkward to me, but that’s really not even worth a mention. This is a hell of a story and here’s hoping it gets some serious attention in the coming months. $15
Comments Off on Whitaker, Aaron – The City Troll | Reviews | Tagged: Aaron Whitaker, The City Troll | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/13/12
March 13, 2012New review today for The Mystery of the Light Shining Out of That Tower For Some Reason by Bobby Mono. Also, my increasing poverty means that I’m putting better stuff for sale on eBay, so why don’t you check it out and buy something? To anybody who grew up with the X-Men, I’m selling Grant Morrison’s whole run (in graphic novel form). Also a lot of random small piles of comics, old science fiction magazines, my VHS collection (which is full of great stuff, just in case anybody in the world still uses a VCR), and a Zorak figurine that’s way out of print. Yes, I have always been a dork.
Comments Off on Update for 3/13/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Mono, Bobby – The Mystery of the Light Shining Out of That Tower For Some Reason
March 13, 2012
The Mystery of the Light Shining Out of That Tower For Some Reason
You know, pseudonyms in small press comics probably aren’t a bad idea these days. It’s easy enough to find way too much information about just about anybody through a simple Google search, so there are bound to be a few things that you put into comics in your 20’s that you might not want people to see when you’re in your 40’s. That’s just my roundabout way of confirming that “Bobby Mono” is not the real name of this man. Or woman, as it isn’t his/her real name. Anyway, that title is one for the ages, and the back cover keeps the illusion going that this is part of a series of books aimed at children aged 10-14, complete with several other fake titles of other volumes. I’m not going to spoil a single one of them here, but there are some real doozies in that pile. Now that we’ve established what this comic is not (and I loved his note on the inside cover apologizing for the deception), what exactly is it? It’s a pile of short comics, most of which are in full color. Stories in here include George Washington and his cherry tree (if his dad had different punishment methods), an utterly unexpected version of Bobby looking for love in all the wrong places, the actual ending of “A Christmas Carol,” the Beard Fairy determining who gets to have a beard, a story about a ninja (which you’ll enjoy for the ending, or not, depending purely on what you find funny), “this is no tunnel,” babies in trouble and some mildly realistic Super Mario Bros. action. There’s also a handy chart on which beards have been deemed acceptable by Bobby, but you may be dismayed to learn that the only two options are a regular moustache or no facial hair at all. This lazy shaver would disagree, but I’m far too lazy about such things to make a fuss. What about the accidental beard? I guess that mostly happens to hobos. Overall this is a pile of funny stuff, and the guy obviously has enough love for the old video games that I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Yes, I am shallow, but the other funny stuff should help the rest of you folks along. $6, unless you see him at a convention or something. Full color books aren’t cheap.
Comments Off on Mono, Bobby – The Mystery of the Light Shining Out of That Tower For Some Reason | Reviews | Tagged: Bobby Mono, The Mystery of the Light Shining Out of That Tower For Some Reason | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/12/12
March 12, 2012New review today for Empanadas by Luis Echavarria. Sorry about the missed updates recently, but there was some trouble with getting images to upload, which is kind of a big deal when I’m trying to talk about comics. I think it’s fixed now…
Comments Off on Update for 3/12/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Echavarria, Luis – Empanadas
March 12, 2012
Empanadas
Whatever you were guessing from that cover, you can most likely forget about it. Which is fine, as it wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining if this was a mini comics purely about empanadas, although I wouldn’t put it past Luis to still make it a damned entertaining comic. The story in this one deals with a man who purchased a house that formerly belonged to a member of the mafioso, which I guess is roughly equivalent to the mafia here. Anyway, this man sees odd shadows, has strange problems with the house, and eventually sees where the shadow seems to be leading him. And that’s the wall I run into as a reviewer, as this book is damned tiny and it’s not possible to say much more without ruining the ending. I will say that my impression of Luis as something of a comics genius continues, at least in part because this is another one of those fold-open books that shows a giant empanada when you finish reading it. It could have been any of a number of things, but throwing an empanada there works beautifully. There’s a sizable and growing pile of his comics to choose from, and maybe you’d like to start with something heftier, but I loved every last bit of this tiny thing and am thinking about hanging that big picture of an empanada on my wall. Which wouldn’t make sense to anybody but me, but it’s still damned tempting. No price listed, but the fact that it’s all in color has me thinking at least $3.
Comments Off on Echavarria, Luis – Empanadas | Reviews | Tagged: Empanadas, Luis Echavarria | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/8/12
March 8, 2012New review for Jetpack Shark #1 by Max Young. Hey, here’s a link to my five ongoing eBay auctions, which you people might have some interest in. There’s a full run of “From Hell” individual comics, some comics from the original Sub-Mariner series from the 60’s, a chunk of “Maxx” comics by Sam Kieth, 15 old science fiction magazines (ranging in years from 1961 to 1989) and my old collection of VHS movies. Which are all really great movies, just in case somebody still uses a VHS player and wants an instant collection. This is how I’m trying to make enough money to do anything these days (until one of my many job applications actually works), so if you wanted to buy something there or some comics here you would be doing me a favor.
Comments Off on Update for 3/8/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Young, Max – Jetpack Shark #1
March 8, 2012
Jetpack Shark #1
It is very obviously silly to take a comic called “Jetpack Shark” too seriously, but because I’m such a colossal dork I just have to mention something that’s been bugging me. In the page I sampled below our hero is getting his teeth knocked out by the villain of the first piece. Which is all well and good, but on the next page he has a two full rows of teeth (as he’s a shark), no problems at all. I know that this isn’t meant to be taken all that seriously, but silly comic law dictates that the main character has to keep the damage inflicted on him for the duration of a story. Using the same silly comic logic he can have two full rows of teeth in the next story, but failing to remove the teeth for the first story makes it seem like he’s not taking any damage, which makes it seem like he was never in any danger. Which I know he wasn’t, as the comic is named after him and all, but this is the kind of thing that bugs me. Yes, I am aware that that most likely means that I have a problem and not necessarily Max. Oh, and a shark biting the head off somebody wouldn’t result in intestines spilling through the new hole, as there are no intestines up there. Whew! Now I can talk about how much I enjoyed the rest of this comic. Unless all of you readers have already been scared off by my relentless nitpicking, that is. So! Two stories in this one, and the first deals with an angry shark at a bar. Two other gentlemen want the shark to kill an enemy of theirs, and this enemy also happens to be the guy that took Jetpack Shark’s eye. Which would be a huge problem for a shark, as that giant snout of theirs cuts off most peripheral vision… clearly I’ve been thinking through the angles on this a little too much. What can I say, I’ve been watching the new BBC Sherlock Holmes series. Anyway, the first story deals with our shark getting revenge for his missing eye. There are also boobs a’plenty, which removed any idea that I might have had that this was meant for all ages. The next story is the origin story, which I thought was a nice touch, as we got to see him in action for a bit before learning how it all happened. Would you be surprised to learn that there were Nazis involved? More mayhem occurs, and this time it’s some good old-fashioned “let’s kill some Nazis!” fun. The art is amazing and damned near perfect for this type of story (the man can depict a panel zoomed in a shark’s eye just as well as he can a shark flying through a closed window) and the stories themselves were a pile of fun. There’s more to come, so I’m curious to see how this story develops, if at all, or if he’s just going to go with mayhem until he gets sick of it. There are benefits to both paths. No price, so let’s say $4 at a guess.
Comments Off on Young, Max – Jetpack Shark #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Jetpack Shark, Max Young | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/7/12
March 7, 2012New review for Seething With Hatred #1 by Jim Moscater & Dan Strauss. Ever hit a few keyboard keys at once and have something strange happen with no idea of how to reverse it? That’s why the review text is bolded, in case you were curious.
Comments Off on Update for 3/7/12 | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Moscater, Jim & Strauss, Dan – Seething With Hatred #1
March 7, 2012
Seething With Hatred #1
Now that is one fantastic title. This comic shows the dealings that Jim (just guessing because he’s the writer) has with the various people who rent apartments from him and/or complain about those apartments. He’s a leasing agent, meaning that he interviews people who are trying to get an apartment and takes complaints from people as they pay their rent bills. Everybody in the office hates each other to varying degrees, and Jim sees the dregs of humanity on a daily basis, which is bound to get somebody, well, exactly what the title up there implies. The first story shows the kind of complaints he gets and details his routine, including the part where his methods of escapism end up with the effect of essentially taking away all his free time and depositing him back at work on Monday. Next up is a story about a couple of kids just out of high school who clearly weren’t ready for a place of their own, but they had the paperwork in order and had stellar credit so they were granted an apartment. Parties and drunken orgies occur, and when they finally have to evict them nobody is even remotely prepared for what they find in the apartment, not to mention all the other illegal activities this scrutiny brings to light from other residents. Finally Jim gets dragged into a Homeland Security (!) sting, in which he has to ignore a man tied up in a trunk but ends up with some nice clout around the property. The story of the life of a leasing agent could theoretically be boring, I suppose, but this one has more than enough fascinating stories to make it worth a look. Dan Strauss also does an excellent job of making these people seem at least mildly human when he could have easily turned them all into caricatures. There’s some genuine humanity on these faces, and that back cover illustration showing a busy day at the pool is hysterical. Seethe on, gentlemen, I’m curious to see how many more of these terrible stories you have in you. $5
Comments Off on Moscater, Jim & Strauss, Dan – Seething With Hatred #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Dan Strauss, Jim Moscater, Seething With Hatred | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
