New review for Cross-Eyed by Adam Meuse. Still looking for $100 in comics sales in roughly the next 18 days. You guys do know to contact me if there was some problem with your attempt to order comics, right? Just making sure…
Update for 10/9/11
October 9, 2011
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Posted by Kevin
Meuse, Adam – Cross-Eyed
October 9, 2011
Cross-Eyed
Eyeballs! Everybody has them, so why not make a comic about them? Adam goes a bit further than that, theorizing that everything has eyeballs, and from that idea several strips were born. The big story in here is more or less an extended illustrated poem, in which Adam talks about how even eyes have eyes, and their eyes have eyes, onwards to infinity. Excellent punchline, but I’ll say no more about it. Other strips are shorter and generally deal with various crises from these creatures, including the beach, ocean and sky all not knowing their own vastness, clouds complaining to a rainbow, another poem with that sort of fell apart but was saved by another nice punchline, raindrops wondering what they’ll be when they hit the ground (and the moment of realization of what they really are when they hit the ocean instead), and a confused desert island. Existential crises galore, that’s what I’m trying to say, with the occasional bit of complete silliness thrown in to keep any readers from falling into a funk. Right up my alley, in other words, but your opinions may vary. I didn’t see this listed on his website, but then again I couldn’t find a website of his that had comics on it, so I’m not sure of the price. I’m going with $4 in my role as arbiter of such things. Not that I ever asked for such a role, but as fewer and fewer people tell me what their comics cost, I’ve decided to just make things up and stick with them, evidence be damned.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 10/8/11
October 8, 2011What, you thought I was kidding about weekend reviews? New review today for Nothing is Private by Luis Echavarria. Roughly 19 days left in the fundraiser, I still need $100 to keep this site going for another year. I’m going to avoid pessimistic comments about the state of the fundraiser until there are 10 days left, then I’m going to get all emo on your asses.
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Posted by Kevin
Echavarria, Luis – Nothing is Private
October 8, 2011
Nothing is Private
It’s probably impossible to tell from that scan, but you open this comic by pulling the key out of the keyhole, which is ingenious. The whole comic is impressively put together, as there’s also a transparent sheet when you open the book with the title on it. This is a story from Luis growing up. Back in the day he would share a shower with his younger brother (he was 11 and his brother was 5) and the two brothers were perfectly content to keep showering together, but their older sister would consistently barge into the bathroom looking for some small item that most likely could have waited until after the shower. This went on for awhile, word got out to the rest of the family, and between that and the embarrassment of Luis’ younger brother pointing out his early pubic hairs, Luis put an end to it. That still left some revenge on their sister to take care of, but kids like that aren’t always the best at plotting such things, and the revenge backfired horribly. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that they barged in on the wrong family member. There’s also a pretty great ending bit involving his younger brother and his own first “pubic hair.” This is a damned solid book; the facial expressions were fantastic, and there was substantial attention to detail. Maybe that’s supposed to be the norm, but I see a lot of minis and a lot of people wouldn’t have bothered drawing the tiles on the bathroom wall, or the rich wealth of items surrounding their dinner table. I have no idea on the price, as nothing was listed on his website (which is in Spanish, by the way, but Google can translate it for you), but judging from sheer quality alone it has to be at least $5. Luis was also nice enough to send along several more minis and I’m looking forward to going through them. Well, I’m looking forward to them if all of the comics are of this same level of quality. If this was some bizarre fluke then it’ll be a different story…
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 10/7/11
October 7, 2011New review for Cereal With a Fork #1 by Kyle Courcy. I figured that since I’m doing a fundraiser to try and get the $100 needed for the yearly website fees in roughly 20 days, I might as well do daily updates until it’s through. So that means yes, weekend updates. Now somebody order some damned comics so I don’t have to worry about whether or not I can pay these bills…
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Posted by Kevin
Courcy, Kyle – Cereal With a Fork #1
October 7, 2011
Cereal With a Fork #1
A funny thing happened while I was reading this comic. Well, several funny things, as it’s a collection of over 100 strips varying from one to several panels (but mostly one panel). The thing is that it wasn’t all that funny at first. The humor was either stupid or just not that funny, and the art didn’t do it a ton of favors. Then it started getting gradually funnier, then suddenly I was laughing out loud on a fairly regular basis. The strip sampled below was the one that totally convinced me, although your opinions may vary. The art never did get all that complicated, but who cares? It’s the humor that matters in something like this, and Kyle figured that out pretty well after he worked the kinks out. He also mentioned in the afterward that this was the first time he had drawn anything since maybe grade school, so that’s a perfectly respectable learning curve. So what are the comics about? Well, keeping in mind that there are more than 100 of them, some of them are about bad advertising for a coffee shop, the difference between somebody wearing a bluetooth and the same person not wearing one, the Douche Palace, a beginner piano, and suddenly being transported 10,000 years into the past. There’s also a continuing gag for a few strips that starts off with a family of pizzas ordering a medium human, with the following strips documenting the imaginary reactions to this strip. If you want to know more, you’ll be happy to know that this behemoth is only $3, and if you need more convincing he has all kinds of samples up at this site. The ones I saw all looked funny, which indicates to me that he has the hang of this daily humor thing now. It’s a difficult thing to keep up, but he’s off to a pretty damned good start. $3
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 10/6/11
October 6, 2011New review today for Star #1 by Brian John Mitchell & Kurt Dinse. Fundraisers of any sort rarely work for me, but it’s the time of year when I have to sign up for the domain name and all that jazz, which usually runs around $100 when it’s all said and done. This time around I may or may not have the money to keep this thing running, as things are exceptionally tight. If you good folks were to buy roughly that amount of comics, well, then I could keep the lights on for another year, no problem. If not I’m still going to do all that I can to keep things going, but food and rent does have to come first. So buy comics! Or, if you have more money than you know what to do with, send money to my paypal address at whitey@opticalsloth.com. I have right around 20 days before I have to start paying people…
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Posted by Kevin
Mitchell, Brian John & Dinse, Kurt – Star #1
October 6, 2011
Star #1
These comics of Brian’s are often illustrated simply, at least partially due to the size constraints (if you’ve never held one of these comics, they’re about the size of your thumb). This one breaks that trend in a big way, as Kurt Dinse makes this book gorgeous. I’m assuming that he drew these larger and then shrunk them down, but it wasn’t done in a way to detract from the art. This is the story of a rock star who’s trying to outrun his past of summoning demons. His lifestyle helps in this endeavor, but his utter lack of concern for all of the other people who are damaged from his actions makes him a less than sympathetic character. Still, that’s half the fun for most of Brian’s characters, and he generally he has me caring about them in the end anyway. Like all of his #1 issues, this is primarily just setting up the character and what’s happening. Frankly, I don’t know if it would have been all that compelling with stick figure art, but Kurt’s drawing really do wonders for this story. I don’t know how the man crams that many foreboding shadows on such a tiny page, but kudos to him for doing it. This is $1, like pretty much all of his books and, as always, I advise you to spend at least $10 and get a sample package of these l’il treasures.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 10/5/11
October 5, 2011New review for Indestructible Universe #7 by Morgan Pielli, in which I still try to puzzle out how the scanner works on this computer. I more or less failed.
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Posted by Kevin
Pielli, Morgan – Indestructible Universe #7
October 5, 2011
Indestructible Universe #7
No, the pages aren’t that strongly yellow, but a new computer means trying to figure out how the scanner works all over again. Three stories in this one, and I wish that Morgan would make the titles a little more distinct so that I know that a new story is starting. I was a few pages into the second story before I understood that this was an entirely new thing. It’s also possible that I’m just dense and he’s doing it fine, which is the most likely answer. The first story is a creepy little tale of a man and his apprentice building a long set of stairs. The master tells how the steps are numbered (gold, silver, and death) and what it means to step on each one. I didn’t understand exactly why the ending went down the way that it did which, again, is more likely due to my denseness than anything else. It just didn’t make sense to me who the apprentice was in relation of the master, but it’s entirely possible that it wasn’t supposed to. The second story… holy crap, I think there are actually four stories. Yeah, he does need to work on his title placement. There was no clue that there was a third story starting. Anyway, the second story deals with a new venereal disease that appears to remove the lips and leave only a patchwork mouth. The afflicted are also drawn to other people who share their primary number, which I shouldn’t get into too much without blowing the story. The third story is a shorter piece about a man who breaks in to the home of a long-time adversary and ends up on a horrific, inescapable trap. Finally we get the continuation of the Driftwood story from the last issue (you know, the one that I was already confused about due to the lack of any kind of a recap of previous entries) and things start coming together a bit this time around. Frankly, it’s still too jumbled for me to be sure, so I’ll refrain from saying much, but it looks to be going in an innovative direction. Frankly, all of his stuff is innovative and deeply weird (which is always great in my book). The only troubles I have are with the technical aspects. Maybe a table of contents? That would have shut me right up about anything wrong with the book. I don’t see this listed on his website, but I think the last issue was $5, so this one must be close to that.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 10/4/11
October 4, 2011New update today for Life is Good #6 by Steve Seck. Last week got away from me, so sorry about the missed updates again. As for yesterday, it was my birthday and I was breaking in a new computer, so I was too dazzled to do any actual work. Should be smooth sailing from here, as this computer should be good for years (provided that I don’t break it somehow) and the scanner even works on it. What could possibly go wrong?
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Posted by Kevin
Seck, Steve – Life is Good #6
October 4, 2011
Life is Good #6
Huzzah to Steve for including a concise, informative recap of past issues right on the inside front cover! Hey, if I’m going to bitch about all the people who don’t take that simple step, it stands to reason that I should praise the people who manage to do it, right? Anyway, if you’re not caught up in the series and have plans to at some point (it’s generally funny with a thoroughly ridiculous cast of characters and it looks great, so why wouldn’t you?), I’ll probably spoil a few bits from the past. This time around Charles is trying to come to grips with his “littering addiction,” Sewer Gator gets his revenge on Charles (possibly the most good-natured beating I’ve ever seen), and Peace Rock and Unity Flower continue to see their relationship fall apart (and she finally starts to see through Unity Flower). Also starring Brownie! Seriously, it’s odd that what started out as the main character gets less focus this time around, but at this point all of the other characters are more interesting anyway. Not that Brownie doesn’t have a thing to do, as his crudely drawn daily comics are discovered by Sewer Gator, who then exploits them for all they’re worth. That opening scene with Charles talking about his litter addiction in front of an AA group was beautiful, as was Unity Flower’s hiring a worker to take care of his duties. Steve’s built up a nice little universe here and it’ll be interesting to see what he makes of it over the coming issues. $4
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/28/11
September 28, 2011New review today for The Bride of Hellatron by Bryan G. Brown.
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Posted by Kevin
Brown, Bryan G. – The Bride of Hellatron
September 28, 2011
The Bride of Hellatron
Since all these reviews are starting off with me complaining these days, I wonder if there’s any particular reason why this comic wasn’t stapled. Maybe it’s just a review comic thing, but I hope he isn’t selling them like this. By the time you put them in a bag and get them home they’d be all jumbled up. Now that I have my bitching out of the way, this was an enjoyable enough story, although if you’re not a fan of ball-busting wives in comics you’d probably be OK moving on to something else. The first half of the comic is introducing the reader to Hellatron, who is basically the scourge of the galaxy. The second half of the book deals with Hellatron being late for a dinner date with her wife and her friends, which turns even uglier when it is revealed that he accidentally ate the planet of her friends. It has a few laughs and the punchline was funny, even if you could see it coming. The art suited the story too (I particularly enjoyed the image of Hellatron slurping up a planet). Worth a look, although I’m mostly looking forward to the next issue of his First Fight series, which also came with this but I picked this one to review instead. Why? It made sense at the time…Â $2
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/27/11
September 27, 2011New review for Werefore Teach Comics? by Rio Aubry Taylor. Hey Boston Red Sox, any chance of you guys not completely choking for the last two games of the season like you have for the rest of September? I would be ever so grateful.
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Posted by Kevin
Taylor, Rio Aubry – Werefore Teach Comics?
September 27, 2011
Werefore Teach Comics?
I was all set to praise this thing before I noticed the glaring typo in the title. In the freaking title, by a person who teaches students about how to make comics! This isn’t the first time that I’ve wondered if there was a class on spelling at The Center for Cartoon Studies. They do fantastic work in every other area (as far as I’ve been able to tell), but that title alone may well have scared me off if I saw this sitting on a shelf in a store. So anyway, this is a tiny mini and the title basically says it all. Rio praises her teacher Alec Longstreth and gives some of his pearls of wisdom, then goes on to feature a few students who talked about what they learned in class. Like I said, it’s short (six pages of story), and the content was fantastic and thought-provoking. Still, I’ll be the guy yelling on street corners in 20 years about spelling errors when the rest of the world has given up, so don’t think my annoyance about that title will do a thing to dim your enjoyment of the book. Rio also sent along longer comics that I look forward to digging into (rushed for time today, so that pretty much always means I’m reviewing a mini comic), and I’ll go ahead and give her the benefit of the doubt on that typo. Hey, why not? There’s nothing about this comic on her website, but you could probably get a copy for a dollar.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/26/11
September 26, 2011New review for Jay’s Brain #1 by Jason Viola. Not to be missed for fans of funny things or orange comic covers!
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Posted by Kevin
Viola, Jason – Jay’s Brain #1
September 26, 2011
Jay’s Brain #1
Jason Viola seems to be on a quest to convince me to stop hating the weekly (or, Jeebus forbid, daily) comics. Granted, these comics weren’t produced for a weekly magazine or (as far as I can tell) on any kind of a timed basis. So no, I have no idea if he could physically pull off a weekly comic. There’s also the tiny fact that weekly comic artists seem to be a dying breed, so the guy almost certainly couldn’t make a living at it. Still, his comics have convinced me that he’d be perfect for it, and if I ever get this time machine working I’d be happy to send him back a couple of decades where he could have made a great living by being genuinely funny on a regular basis. Jason is the man responsible for Herman the Manatee (which he says he’s wrapping up) and Amy Amoeba, so yeah, he’s funny. Pretty much my only concern when getting a new book from somebody I already know is funny is “OK, so are they going serious (and, if so, can they pull it off)” or “can they still be funny with a new title?” That second thought is rarely a real concern, but it pops into this cynical brain of mine anyway. No worries at all for this comic. As you can tell from that cover, it’s all about Jay and his brain. I’m not sure if this is 100% autobiographical stuff, but Jason mentions on his website that it’s the most personal comic he’s made yet. Anyway, these are generally six panel strips, often with the last panel being some kind of a laugh line or an “oh you!” type finisher. And there isn’t a shitty one in the bunch, except for maybe the Twitter comic, which I didn’t understand enough to comment on either way. Topics in here (often in a roundabout way) are insomnia, guilt, going blank at the worst moments, being unable to stop thinking during sex, only having the good story ideas at inopportune times, drugs, hoarding, and thinking of himself as a fraud. That’s the first half of the book anyway, the rest is up to you. Your best bet is to just buy a bunch of his books, as he currently has the four issues of Herman the Manatee available for $10 total. $3
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/23/11
September 23, 2011New review today for The Lost Works of Georges Melies – Film 1: The Twins by Charles Ellis. If you hurry you may still be able to catch the last bits of the big Top Shelf Comix sale. It ends today!
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Posted by Kevin
Ellis, Charles – The Lost Works of Georges Melies – Film 1: The Twins
September 23, 2011
The Lost Works of Georges Melies – Film 1: The Twins
Hooray, another comic where I don’t understand the context. Georges Melies is, according to the always reliable Wikipedia, one of the earliest French filmmakers who innovated in all sorts of revolutionary directing techniques. You probably need more of an understanding of the guy than I have to fully enjoy this comic, or maybe it’s just me. This is the story of two women who are both trying to become queens. The women are related (hence “The Twins”) and the younger one seems to have her father (who seems to be the king) on her side. The other woman seems to be locked away, and she escapes through a trick between the panels. Either that or I just missed it completely, and frankly I’d bet on that second option if I was you. Oh, and the one who was trying to become queen also made a deal with the devil of some kind, although it sure seemed to be an especially lopsided deal, as she didn’t get a damned thing out of it. I enjoyed the way that Charles played around with the panels, leading to some interesting movie-like effects. As for the rest of it, I clearly haven’t watched enough old French films to really know what the hell I just read. So if you fit in that microscopic sub-group that enjoys mini comics AND the films of Georges Melies, you’re in luck! For the rest of us philistines, it’s possible to enjoy the technical aspects of this and some of the imagery, but as a whole I just didn’t get it. Are reviewers supposed to admit that? Oh crap. I mean that of course I did get it, but that I chose to keep an ironic distance so that I could berate the comic. Sure, that must be it. But hey, at least it’s only $1, right?
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Posted by Kevin
