New review for Stranger Two Stranger #1 by R. Hendricks. Sorry for the late and decidedly singular update, but I had a maintenance guy working on my apartment for a few hours to repair the damage from the leaking roof yesterday. In case you were wondering, yes, of course it started leaking directly over my bookcase. Why would it ever leak anywhere else?
Update for 6/6/11
June 6, 2011
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Posted by Kevin
Hendricks, R. – Stranger Two Stranger #1
June 6, 2011
Stranger Two Stranger #1
Somewhere around the mounds of comics in this room I have a copy of “I Saw You…,” the anthology edited by Julia Wertz. I’m mentioning this because R. mentions in his introduction that that book served as an inspiration for this book and to maybe help you understand his title a little bit better. See, that book had various tales of missed connections by some of the luminaries of the small press comics world. This one has ten different stories that range all over the place covering the same subject. Missed connections in here include a dopey ad listing the entire alphabet except for the “U” with the headline “What Am I Missing?,” a fairly hopeless girl who was giving it a shot anyway, a guy either looking for an overweight lady with a moustache to respond to his ad or maybe he was playing a joke, an ad to Prince Harry, one from a couple of prison inmates who wonder where their, um, “buddy” has gone, one about the sex appeal of a big old belly, another cryptic ad, and somebody whose only clue was that the person they were looking for said “bless you” to them when they sneezed in a pet shop. My favorite of the bunch has to be the story of the man who is trying to piece his previous evening together from the bits and pieces of physical evidence left over from the night before. R. also mentioned in his intro that he was very late getting into this small press comics thing, as he’s in his late 30’s at the moment. Kudos to him/her and the more the merrier. Hell, a good chunk of the behemoths of this small press world put out their best work after the passed 40 anyway, so there’s theoretically plenty of time for improvement. It’s a pretty damned solid first issue either way, but here’s hoping the guy keeps going with this.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 6/4/11
June 4, 2011New review for Blammo #7 by Noah Van Sciver, and I’m clearly going to need to ease back into this reviewing thing. I’m going to let Blammo sit at the top of the page over the weekend, then the goal is to do double reviews during at least half of the upcoming week. Happy weekend y’all!
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Van Sciver, Noah – Blammo #7
June 4, 2011
Blammo #7
Noah had a throwaway line in this one that really got me thinking. He called his comic something like the last independent comic standing and I instantly thought that was hyperbole. After all, I get mini comics all the time, and many of them are high quality books. But then I realized that Noah’s book would fit perfectly into the 90’s mold of Eightball, Hate or Yummy Fur and I realized that those comics are all gone now. Well, Peter Bagge still does a yearly issue of Hate (which is a more regular schedule than most of his contemporaries with “regular” books), but Dan Clowes is mostly gone from the field and Chester Brown just put out an (I think) original graphic novel. Noah really is one of the last ones standing, which got me thinking that the industry really is dead, which sent me into a tailspin of sadness until my mind went back to all those mini comics. Sure, the industry is either dead or dying and most people certainly can’t make a living at it. But hey, at least great comics are still being made for the 100+ people who care to read them! Hm, back to the sadness again. Anyway, this isn’t about me or the state of the comics industry, it’s about Noah once again putting out a seriously fantastic comic. First off, just on the off chance that I haven’t mentioned it yet, good for him for including an actual letter’s page, guest strips and comics recommendations. It really is like a 90’s comic! The stories in here include a fake news story about Noah (complete with the stupid “Biff! Bang! Pow” nonsense that all news stories about comics are seemingly legally required to start with), a fake ad about collecting, a couple of single page strips about horror stories, and an update of how Bill the Chicken is doing in hell. The bigger pieces are what makes up the meat of it all, and the Mormon story baffled me a bit before I read his reasoning on the inside back cover. It’s told as a straight-up historical recollection which, if you think about Mormonism and how it was founded, is a bit of a stretch (says the guy who thinks all organized religions are silly, but seriously, Mormonism came from a guy supposedly reading plates from a hat). But hey, if you don’t know the story it’ll be news to you, right? Other than that there’s a longer classic horror story idea (maybe Noah should look into doing a whole book of these things, he clearly has the knack for it), the story of a guy trying to get a job and how he reacts to finding the wallet of an attractive woman with $250 in it on the bus, and the main story about a guy who accidentally wanders into watching over a young kid as she goes trick or treating and her brother abandons her. The impressive thing about this book is that pretty much each one of these stories has multiple layers past what I’m telling you about here, but I’m one of those reviewers who prefers that you find such things for yourselves. I’m going on the assumption that everybody hates spoilers as much as I do, which I think has worked OK for me so far. Overall he may have been nominated for an Ignatz for the last issue (and not won, sadly) but he really should earn one for this issue. Ah, if only I got a vote in such matters. Or maybe I should make up my own comics awards. So what if they’d be utterly pointless? $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 6/2/11
June 2, 2011New reviews today for Oh My! Comix by Dexter Cockburn and Robots Are People, Too #2 edited by Greg Vondruska and featuring gaggles of comics folks. What a relief to be able to just talk about comics again…
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Posted by Kevin
Vondruska, Greg (editor) – Robots Are People, Too #2
June 2, 2011
Robots Are People, Too #2
When an anthology is done really well, you often wish that the stories had gone on longer, that you had more time to get into the characters and individual pieces. This issue fits that description perfectly. Damned near every story seemed like it could have gone in a few different directions or even been buffed up into a full length piece. Or maybe I just really like robots, who knows? Breakfast at Hal’s by Dan Boyd deals with a few robots having a nice, um, meal (?) at a diner, talking about robot gossip and how there’s no work for aging robot models with so little work around as it is (the Iron Giant is stuck working as a chrome buffer due to his lack of a sequel, for example). Rodney for President by Jason Franks continues his string of comics that’s exactly what the title suggests, and in this issue it’s Rodney with a media interview. Hardwired by Jason Franks & Greg is a twist on the old “secret boyfriend murders the husband with the complicity of the wife and tries to get away with it” story. Recycled Dreams by Greg and Fran Matera (if that name sounds familiar, it’s because Fran has been around since the Golden Age of comics) deals with a long term revenge plot. Space Patrol of the Space Force by Lou Copeland wins the best title of the comic and has some nice robot trickery. Eyeball Roboto by Jason Franks and Greg is all about blurring the bounds of perception and an immaculate turd that can bring people back to life. Spare Parts, Spare Time by Greg and Mace Markham is damned near a touching love story between a robot stewardess and a human. Finally there’s A Tin Heart by Gary Culler and Jason Maranto, as a robot tries to figure out how to cope with emotions when it’s not programmed to have them. OK, that last one might seem a little cliche, but it was handled extremely well. All told it’s another solid entry in the series, although in my biased opinion Greg could do worse than picking a few of these stories for continuing titles and getting something going. Sure, it’s probably not practical with the economy the way it is, but very few small press comics could be considered practical. $4
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Posted by Kevin
Cockburn, Dexter – Oh My! Comix
June 2, 2011
Oh My! Comix
I’ve never really come up with a good way on this site to differentiate actual adult comics (you know, with boobs and dicks and stuff) and adult themed comics (pretty much all of the small press world that’s not directly aimed at kids). I’ve also never come up with a good way to review them, as how do you review something that is made to turn people on? Dexter (and I’m just guessing that that isn’t his real name; if it is he really had no choice in terms of his calling) lets me ignore that debate for another day with this issue, as there’s more than enough funny in here to call it objectively good, even with good chunks of it being sexy as hell. There’s also a wide variety of stories. The first one deals with a man who is coming home on the bus after watching a horror movie. He falls asleep to an empty bus and wakes up to a bus full of pale creatures with dark eyes that he assumes are ghouls. To him, there’s only one way to find out if he’s dreaming: start having sex with the lady ghoul. No words are said by anybody (although we do get some hilarious thought bubbles as the action escalates), and the kicker at the end is pure genius. Other stories involve the accidental knocking out of an eyeball (and the unfortunate choice of a plug), a crooning cat and his temporary luck with the lady cats, Lovecraft Jr. (and if you don’t chuckle a little at the “Tentacoo Wape” line then you clearly haven’t seen/heard about enough anime porn), the adult supervision involved in a camping trip with one male adult and a young woman who has seriously blossomed (with all sorts of hijinx for the male kids who get to do their own thing unsupervised for what I hope are obvious reasons), a couple of full page gag strips and a “Can You Spot the Crime” strip on the back cover. There’s also one regular old story involving the murder of a child in the 1800’s, which was actually an informative and entertaining strip, it just felt a little out of place amidst all the fucking. This is definitely for adults only, as kids in this country are only allowed to see horrific acts of violence all day every day, but boobs and/or insertion is clearly too much for the poor dears. For us adults, I’m already a big fan after one issue. Having an adult comic artist who is both funny and capable of drawing some explicitly sexy scenes is a rarity, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the comics Dexter sent me (even if I am going to have increasing trouble finding samples or covers without nudity, assuming I continue to care about such things). $4
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 6/1/11
June 1, 2011Yes, an actual update. The scanner is working again even though the computer isn’t (it’s a long story and I’m sick of updates about technical stuff here), so there’s a new review today for Double Dip #1 by Tom Cherry & Dale Martin. Double reviews should start tomorrow assuming that this very old and feeble computer holds up long enough for me to buy another one that’s slightly less old and feeble. As for last month, let’s just call May an unplanned vacation and leave it at that. I was also more or less ignoring e-mails last month, so if you sent me something I’ll be digging through those soon too. Hooray for comics!
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Posted by Kevin
Cherry, Tom & Martin, Dale – Double Dip #1
June 1, 2011
Double Dip #1
Hooray for the double comic! I don’t know why more small press people don’t do these, as you would think that it would expose both creators to the audience of the other guy, which would have to be a good thing. Then again, it’s generally a pain in the ass to collaborate with most creative types, your work might get lost in the ether if something goes wrong with the printing that’s not your call, with the incestuous nature of small press comics it’s probably going to be mostly the same audience anyway, etc. Eh, whatever, I still appreciate them. So anyway, the comic itself. The stories are in the reverse order that you would think from looking at that cover, just in case you wanted to find something to complain about right away. Tom Cherry and his “Those Funky Idiots” are up first with a tale about getting three wishes and the inevitability of screwing them up, but he throws in a bit of a time travel angle that makes it pretty funny. All of his characters also seem to exist in a void, as there’s nothing resembling a background anywhere, but it works for this story. Dale Martin is up next with Watusi The Talking Dog, as Watusi meets an alien creature that can turn into any type of dog. It was intriguing, but it probably would have made more sense if his story was self-contained like the Tom Cherry story. I’m curious to see what happens next, but there’s no indication where that might occur or what number of the series I could read to see it. That was probably a mistake, but the story itself has a few funny moments in its six pages. Overall I’d say it’s worth a look if you’re wondering about these two guys. They also offer a color cover for $.50 more, but there’s something decidedly odd about it. Look at them both and see if I’m crazy at Tom’s website. $1
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Posted by Kevin
The Ongoing Saga That Is Threatening To Kill This Website
May 26, 2011So the third scanner came a few days ago and gave me the same error message as the first two. I finally wised up enough to try the scanner on a different computer and, sure enough, it’s all the fault of my current computer. Canon sent me a helpful list of suggestions to fix it, none of them worked, and now I’m waiting for another response. At this point I’m all for sending the scanner back, getting a refund and starting over with an entirely new brand/model, not because of Canon (they’ve been helpful overall, although I wish their first instinct wasn’t just to send a scanner back if it didn’t work on the first try), but because my computer, no matter what model, consistently fails me. How did I end up with a website again? Oh yeah, there was a lack of this sort of website around when I started almost ten years ago. Anyway, sorry it’s been almost a month between updates, and the way things are going I’m just going to buy another scanner and be done with it. When that happens the reviews are going to come in chunks, as I’ve been keeping the rambling bottled up for almost a month, so your patience will be rewarded eventually.
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Posted by Kevin
Buh.
May 19, 2011So it turns out that the replacement scanner had the exact same problem as the original scanner. Who would have thought? Certainly not the fine people at Canon. I was going to post an update about this yesterday, when the replacement scanner arrived, but I figured a string of expletives wouldn’t be very useful to anybody. Today I can tell you much more calmly that ANOTHER replacement scanner is on the way, so if this one works things will be back to normal at some point next week. This is assuming that anybody even still looks at this site, as I am well aware of the short attention span of the public at large. Still, if you are reading this, my offer to ship any comic orders out the same day that I get them still stands, as this unplanned vacation is going to continue for at least a few more days. For whatever it’s worth, I am clearing out my schedule so that I have plenty of time for comics when I do get a working scanner…
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Posted by Kevin
The light at the end of the tunnel was, in fact, a train
May 12, 2011So I finally figured out what’s wrong with my scanner, and it’s a hardware problem. Luckily I just bought it so Canon is happy to send a replacement scanner, but that means no updates until at least early next week, and that’s assuming that their delivery system is actually as quick as they say it is. My apologies again, here’s hoping that I’ve built up enough credibility over almost 10 years of rambling about comics that you know I’ll be back as soon as possible. In the meantime, hey, I am still selling comics, so you could just buy some of them to fill the void. This extra free time means that I’ll be able to ship them out probably the day that you order them at the moment…
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Posted by Kevin
Blargh.
May 10, 2011The good news is that I got the scanner today. The bad news, naturally, is that it doesn’t seem to work. If anybody out there has experience with the Canon LIDE 110, send me an e-mail and maybe we can fix it. It tells me to unlock it then plug it back in, but that doesn’t work (neither does restarting the computer), and according to Google I’m the only person in the world with this problem. Tomorrow I’ll call some tech help if I have to, but after bashing my head against a wall for the last hour or so I’m just going to call it a day. This is why I can’t have nice things…
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Posted by Kevin
Still not a real update
May 4, 2011I couldn’t find the scanner I was looking for in town, so to the internets I went! A scanner is on the way and should be here by the start of next week, at which point I’ll be doing double updates for a bit to cut through this mound of comics. In the meantime, pick a letter of the alphabet and go to the “reviews by author” section. Click on all of the reviews for an artist whose first name starts with that letter and you’re bound to find SOMETHING you haven’t seen yet, which makes it new to you….
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Posted by Kevin
Not Actually an Update
May 2, 2011Quick, a show of hands: who thought that this hand-me-down scanner would actually work for very long? Yep, it’s crapped out on me too and I can’t possibly get a scanner today. There’s a pile of new comics here just waiting for me to ramble about, but it’s just not the same if I can’t show pictures along with it. I’ll get an actual new scanner some time this week, until then there’s always the archives if you’re looking to kill time at work…
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/29/11
April 29, 2011New review for Herman the Manatee Volume 2 by Jason Viola. Ah, I’ll bet you thought I missed another day, didn’t you? Well, now that the hockey is all done (for me at least) that’s one less excuse to do the daily updates. Will that translate into a better schedule from now on? I remain cautiously optimistic…
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Posted by Kevin
Viola, Jason – Herman the Manatee #2
April 29, 2011
Herman the Manatee Volume 2
In the cliffhanger of a review for the last issue I was left wondering if the set-up for this strip (Herman hits his head on a boat when he tries to surface in a variety of hilarious ways) would wear thin by the second issue. The verdict: well, it’s not like Jason had to keep that as the story for the whole run, now did he? This starts off with us learning a bit more about Herman’s early days (along with what a disappointment he was from a very young age) before he moves on to write reviews for his head-bumping experiences, goes to a party (or not. You choose!), sings a bit, takes a personality test, votes, bores his dad on his deathbed, fails to save Christmas and then goes all Samuel Beckett on us. That’s about half of the book, and I was already impressed with Jason’s ability to keep this thing fresh and funny. But then things shift suddenly when Herman notices a distinct lack of head bumpings. It turns out that a deal has been struck to keep the boats out of the area in exchange for the manatees being willing to be kissed and ridden by tourists. Herman goes along with this for a bit but soon grows to miss his daily concussions and goes into activist mode, but I’ve probably said too much already. If you thought the first book was funny or just happened to go to Jason’s website and chuckled at a few of the strips, you’ll be happy to know that he does manage to keep up the pace for another issue. He’s pretty much fully won me over too, although I suppose things could still fall apart in the next couple of issues. Nah, he already got past the hard part. $3
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/28/11
April 28, 2011New review today for Buster Monster and the Roughage of July by Chris Davis. And yes, it’s the same Chris Davis who has a bunch of stuff in the store, just so you know…
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Posted by Kevin
Davis, Chris – Buster Monster and the Roughage of July
April 28, 2011
Buster Monster and the Roughage of July
Holy crap, it’s THAT Chris Davis! Long time readers may remember Chris and the many comics he sent my way in 2004-2005, plenty of which are still available in the online store here. I don’t think I’ve heard a thing from him since, but it looks like he’s spent that time honing his craft. This is a collection of daily strips from July 2010, as Chris saw a copy of “Ten Thousand Things To Do” by Jesse Reklaw and got inspired to try and do a strip a day. He made it a month and, honestly, he might have hit the perfect amount of time for one of these books. A year can drag in major ways (seriously, nobody’s life is that interesting), but confining it to a month lets the reader see the basic beats of the average month while also getting a pile of great comics. Well, that’s what happens if the comics are great, anyway, and these rise to right up around that level. The panels themselves can be pulled apart aesthetically, as he makes the reader follow the words on a journey through each page (it’ll make more sense when you see it). The stories themselves are a mix between dreams, happenings from his catering job/regular course of the day and oddities he sees while swimming. As it’s a journal comic there are also plenty of ruminations on various subjects, with me particularly enjoying him cutting himself off during a political conversation when he realized that there was no point to it. If you’re read his older comics and wondered what happened to the guy (assuming that you lost track of him too) I think you’ll be pleased with his current work. If you never heard of him, well, if this is the kind of work he’s putting out there days I think maybe you should get on the ball about that, don’t you? No price, but it’s hefty… $6?
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/26/11
April 26, 2011New review for Inside the Slow Spiral by Jon Allen. Let’s go Hawks and Sabres! Keep my interest in the NHL playoffs going for a bit longer please…
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Posted by Kevin
