February 24, 2011
Website (sort of)
Mishap Collection #2: The Greasing of Billy Charter
A better name for this comic might be “Kids, Ask Your Parents.” Or maybe even grandparents, sadly enough. I was alive when the events in this comic would have made sense (the title is about Billy Carter, the “famous” brother of the former president), but was too young to have any sort of sense of who Jimmy Carter was, much less his brother. Granted, I have learned a bit more about the situation in the meantime, so the events of this comic are not totally lost on me. Mostly lost, maybe, but not totally. The brothers are portrayed as siamese twins who are joined at the hand, possibly a reference to the fact that they often hung out together, but I don’t know for sure. This is a series of one panel strips, so there isn’t much of a story to keep up with, but the individual strips can be just as confusing. Topics include Billy and his trying to get business connections, Jimmy striking up an oil deal, Jimmy smuggling out some of Billy’s booze after the 1980 election (or possibly not), and Jimmy hoping that Reagen gets elected. Ah, if only he knew how that would turn out, or that Reagan would be on his way to sainthood from some of the more dimwitted folks out there. Tom Brinkmann’s art works great for this and it’s probably funny if you’re old enough to remember those years, but it’s just past my consciousness. If you’re interested in political humor from different eras I’d give it a look though. $1
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Posted by Kevin
February 23, 2011
Website
Now Available! $5
Losers Weepers #2
For those of you who didn’t read the review for #1, this series is based on J.T.’s interpretation of letters and scraps of paper that were found by himself and/or friends that lack all context. This time around there’s a heartbroken letter from somebody mourning a break-up, a note that looks like it came from a playground, another note from a child (one can hope, anyway) requesting more pizza in the cafeteria, and an angry note found on a car. This time around J.T. connected them all into one story which, as a work of fiction, worked out just fine. It’s a little difficult to see all these things going together in real life, but he more or less made it work. I do love how he prints that actual letters, just to show that he is working from real stuff and not just making it all up. Either that or he’s skilled at changing handwriting styles or using friends to write them, but even I’m not that cynical. Anyway, as this all comes together the stories include the woman (dumper) talking crap about the guy (dumpee) after his death, her kid getting into trouble at school (although the note for this section didn’t have a lot to do with the actual comic), another kid writing that letter about the pizza, and finally her seeing that note on her car. The ending certainly made plenty of sense after all the events of her day, and as a complete comic it was pretty damned good and oddly coherent, which this review probably isn’t due to lack of sleep, so apologies for that. Hey, if you wanted coherency in reviews you probably wouldn’t stick around this site very long anyway, am I right? $5
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Posted by Kevin
February 18, 2011
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Closed Caption Comics #9
Let’s keep this between you and me, but I’d swear that I’m getting dumber in my old age. I’m well aware of the facts that comics, or stories in general, don’t have to follow a linear progression to make a point or to be solid artistic work. Still, there were more than a few times in reading these stories that I would finish a piece and have only the dimmest idea of the point of the story. Does that make me a dipshit, or does that mean the the artist maybe didn’t quite hit their mark? Hey, it’s not for me to decide, which is why I gave you the option of deciding for yourself instead of proclaiming myself LORD OF ALL COMICS CRITICISM and saying that you have to agree with me. This is another one of those anthologies that doesn’t have a table of contents but does list the artists in the order of their appearance, which at least gives you a fighting chance to figure out who did what. First up is Buttstains by Pete Razon, which looks terrible until it’s made clear that the lights were off. Some creatures are hanging out, other creatures come over that also want to hang out, characters actually speak in things like “lol,” then it’s over, leaving me confused as hell. Next up is Venus and Furz by Lane Milburn, and it’s a more straightforward piece of fantasy (although it very nearly became a tentacle rape story) with a gigantic ending. Mind Your Business Nutty Butty by Conor Stechschulte is next, in which a series of slack-jawed yokels live their lives while Nutty Butty (a slow, if not retarded, child) wanders through their midst. He sees his mother (?) attacked by her boyfriend (??) and decides to take matters into his own hands, and it ends up being an expertly told story of revenge. Brother’s Keeper by Noel Freibert (probably) is next, and this is another one that was fascinating in concept but ended up leaving me a bit lost. See, there’s one brother who is being raised as an item that’s not to be damaged so that another brother can eat him and restore himself. When the first brother damages himself this screws everything up, leading to an even more baffling epilogue. Ryan Cecil Smith then comes in with The Sandbox of Hercules, and it’s at this point that I officially start to feel stupid. It’s a great story for the most part, as Hercules is seeing a therapist and a minion runs across a model of their compound and everyone in it, but the ending left me a bit confused again. Is it possible to just have a “stupid day?” Maybe that was my problem, as this is Ryan Cecil Smith we’re talking about, and he’s been nothing but tremendous from what I’ve previously been able to tell. Moribund by Chris Day is a series of seemingly unconnected images with an oddly satisfying conclusion. I also liked the next (probably) untitled piece by Erin Womack involving peasants and their fear of a couple. Mr. Fred by Andrew Neyer is a silent day in the life type thing that blends a little too seamlessly into the next story by Mollie Goldstrum dealing with fighting the temptation to get up once you get hypnotized by falling snow. Molly O’Connell and her Squeeze Brothers has probably the most visually inventive piece in the book, dealing with some brothers (duh) and their new teevee show, although it’s hard to explain much more about it than that without ruining it a bit. Conor and Lane follow that up with the strongest overall piece in the book called Mystery High. A teacher has been killed, you see, and a high school couple decides to investigate. They get in way over their heads very quickly and that last page killed any doubts I might have had about buying this anthology as a whole. Yes, my decision making process really does have some sort of undefined tipping point like that. The last piece by Zach Hazard Vaupen didn’t do a thing for me, but that may be because it was all about farts, bleeding eyeballs and mildly sloppy anime characters. It did strike me that that art could still be fantastic in another setting, or with another story, or in something that wasn’t quite this one, so I’ll try and keep an eye out for him in the future. So overall I’d say it’s worth it, $20 price tag and all. The stories in here are complete, which is always a nice selling point for an anthology, and you get more than enough time to form an opinion about everybody involved. That and any anthology with this level of quality that has made it to #9 (unless they’re just making that up) deserves some support, don’t you think? $20
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Posted by Kevin
February 16, 2011
Website
Maximum Superexcitement #3
I occasionally get to thinking that I’m too jaded to be shocked by much of anything these days, so kudos to Robin and Maxine for snapping me out of that delusion. If you saw “The Hills Have Eyes” (the remakes), either one or two, and thought “Hm, not rapey enough for me,” this comic takes care of that problem. If you thought that they were just rapey enough but that there wasn’t enough seriously twisted shit in them for you, then this comic is going to be even more perfect for you. Honestly, anybody who looks at that cover and is shocked at the insides is a little dense to begin with, but holy fuck. If you’re wondering why there is no sample page, granted, it would have been tough to find one that wouldn’t have scarred readers for life, but my scanner gave up the ghost right after scanning that cover. It is now resting comfortably in Champaign while I’m in week 3 in Momence (both in Illinois, o international readers and anybody who has never heard of “Momence”), so maybe it’ll be recovered by the time I get back. So, with all this hemming and hawing, what’s the story like? A family of travelers gets lost, stops to ask for directions, and follows a yelling deformed fellow back to his ramshackle hut. Horror movie 101 dictates that you never do this, but OK. The crew of mutants takes an immediate fancy to them and gets to the raping, but the mom manages to escape after a fairly brutal punishment that I’d never even imagined. The girls eventually take a liking to all this after they marry the cult leader and things take some strange turns from there. I’m guessing this queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach means that no, I do not actually have some buried reservoir of interest in violent pornographic images, so at least there’s that. I did enjoy how Robin and Max took a page in the middle of the book to stop and question themselves, said to hell with it and decided to get even more explicit and out there. Nothing wrong with the art or the writing either, as both were excellent for the story they told. It was clearly not for me, or maybe that Catholic upbringing has brainwashed me so thoroughly that I can’t enjoy something like this, but yeesh. Your call, as you’re all adults (or you should be if you’re reading about this, but it’s a little late for that now), but it turns out that I’m a delicate flower who just had his innocence shattered. Who knew? $4
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Posted by Kevin
February 15, 2011
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Now Available! $6.25
Mysteria’s Mansion 2010 Annual
I seem to be reading a fair amount of horror anthologies lately. I can’t say there has been any sort of master plan to make this happen, but horror anthologies are never a bad thing in my world. Occasionally disappointing, sure, but rarely worthless. This one is told from the perspective of the reader wandering into the creepy home of Mysteria (the Crypt Keeper of this volume, or maybe Elvira would be a better comparison) as she gives you the tour and shows items that serve as launching pads for stories. It’s never explained why “you” are in there in the first place, but I’m almost definitely overthinking things if that’s even on my mind. First up is a piece about an old shriveled up mummy (written by Nik, who wrote everything, and drawn by Alberto Aprea), and if you’ve ever read a story about the discovery of a mummy in a comic book you know where this one is headed. That’s not to say that it’s a bad story, and Nik throws in a few twists and turns here and there. Next up is Underfoot (art by Jaime Hood), which deals with an abusive father, a small girl, her mother and a cat. If you look at the sample (as I sampled it before reading the book) you can see where it is headed although, again, with a few twists thrown in. The highlight of the book is probably the third story, and yeah, it probably has something to do with it being drawn by Bill Messner-Loebs. This one finally answers the question of what Charon does with the money people need to cross Styx and get into the official afterlife, and I don’t want to give it away here. Finally there’s an action-packed and creepy tale (art by Chris Herndon) dealing with a guy and his “narrow escape” from the cops. Ah, even the quotes practically qualify as a spoiler. Just ignore them. The bits in between with Mysteria seemed amusing but mostly pointless which, if you think about it, is true for most horror anthologies and their hosts. Still, in some of the old EC books there was either a sense of menace of playfulness from the hosts, and this time around it felt more like a lonely spinster trying to keep an audience. All told it’s still a pretty fun book, and have I mentioned that it’s all in color and that there are pin-ups in the back? Seems like that deserved a mention. $6.25
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Posted by Kevin
February 14, 2011
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Billy: Demon Slayer S2 #6
Move along, nothing to see here. Granted, you could say that about a lot of my reviews, but this is the second to last issue of this series, and I’m going to reread the whole thing before posting a review for the finale. That should be significantly more coherent than this one, as it’ll all be fresh in my head and this is just a review for the sixth issue of a series I started reviewing about a year ago. Maybe my annoyance at having no clue what happened in the first series will make more sense when it’s all read at once, maybe my theories about various shortcomings will look silly when I can see the master plan all laid out. But hey, you pay me the big bucks (in that I’m not paid at all) to ramble, so ramble I must. This issue features Billy getting all set for his assault on hell, and if you’ve reached a critical threshold for “Army of Darkness” references in comics, I recommend shutting your eyes for a few pages in the middle. Anyway, Billy heads to hell, his friends start to succumb to this rolling darkness, and the mildly vague evil master plan keeps on going. One thing that didn’t make a bit of sense to me was Billy vs. the undead hordes. Or at least I think that’s what it was, as even though Billy spent a good chunk of the first half of the book gearing up for this fight, there wasn’t a single panel of him doing anybody any sort of violence. The end result made it look like all the bad guys just wandered off. Again, maybe the series as a whole will make that a bit clearer, but it sure isn’t as I’m sitting here right now. Once again I loved the bit in the back that explained what happened to a few characters that wandered in during the issue, and that’s been a consistently bright spot in the series. I’m really looking forward to reading this all in a chunk, as it seems like exactly the sort of thing that I would really love, but trying to figure out WHY that hasn’t been the case has been a real chore. It might all come together for the finale, or I might figure out that I was wrong when it’s all read in a chunk. The optimist in me prefers to stick to those options and leave the darker ones for later. $3.50
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Posted by Kevin
February 10, 2011
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Elfworld Volume 2 #1
I have no idea how I missed the first issue of this series. This seems like something that’s right up my alley, as I like my small press comics with a sprinkling of dorky sorcerers and such, even though finding quality examples of that genre is exceedingly difficult (and hey, send me an e-mail if I’m wrong). I do have to say that I don’t think you’re allowed to start the second volume of a series if you only put out one issue in the first series, but I don’t get to make the rules on such things. With this lineup of talent it was pretty much a sure thing that this book would be damned near indispensable, and I think that ends up being accurate. First up is Grant Reynolds (who has either been quiet lately or he’s just stopped sending me review comics) with a tense chase between two creatures. Very few people outside of Jim Woodring can pull off “what the fuck IS that thing?” better than Grant and those skills are heavily on display here. Next is a piece by Alec Longstreth in which a wizard tries to audition new animals to deliver messages after his owl dies. I chuckled a few times and his cartoony art was perfect for this. Also a clear sign that this book wasn’t going to be either straight fantasy or straight parody of fantasy. Ben Costa and J.R. Parks are up next with a piece about the dangers of pulling a prank on your boss when you work in some kind of evil lair of doom. The Mute by David Enos deals with a mute (duh) wandering around, getting into adventures and saving the girl. Um, spoiler alert, but not really, because that’s not the end of the story so there. This was maybe the highlight of the book, although I may still contradict myself before finishing this review. Jane Samborski is next with a detailed list of dragon rating rituals listed by the types of dragon, and might I just add that this woman has a variety of dragon poses down cold, which I can’t imagine is an easy thing. Dash Shaw has a shortie next that’s the highlight of the book (see what I did there?) about an orc in his final moments before his execution. Brilliant, that’s what it was, and after a story that brutal it was nice to get a laugh out of the ending. Finally there’s a short Icecreamlandiaish (look up their other comics on this site to see what that means) by Eve Englezos and Joshua Moutray that I won’t get into because describing a one panel story is the same thing as ruining it. I guess if you hate all things fantasy you might not like this book, but even then there are pieces that only tangentially relate to fantasy, and it still has a pile of your favorite artists (if you have good taste, that is), so I’d say it’s worth picking up. I also need to mention the production design, as that Sammy Harkham cover and the work that Francois put into designing this book were both top-notch. Look closely at that cover; it took me a minute to get exactly what was going on there. So yeah, I’d say you should buy this book, and if the back of it is to be believed there will even be a new one out soon. $6
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Posted by Kevin
February 9, 2011
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Panel #14: Panel of Horror
I was a little let down with this one. Oh, there are still great stories in here, but with a cover like that and with this crew finally tackling horror stories I probably just had unrealistic expectations. I did enjoy the intro and outro by Brent Bowman, although it could have done with a cringe-worthy pun or two. Dying Chords by (mostly) Craig Bogart dealt with a washed up singer, a never-was singer and how the former was trying to steal the one good song from the latter for a comeback. A an actual surprise ending in a horror anthology is always welcome, so kudos for that. Next up is Country Roads by Brent Bowman, which is one of the strongest pieces in the book, dealing with a man and his relentless quest to hunt down a werewolf. OK, fine, I saw the ending coming a mile away, but I also watch FAR too many horror movies. Molly Durst has the longest piece in the book with Monster Racers, and I could go either way on this one. On the one hand I like her simplistic art and enjoyed the madcap nature of a gaggle of monsters (I believe “gaggle” is the correct term) who are trying to get to a castle before Dracula. On the other hand it’s a story of several monsters traveling from point A to point B and we never even had much of a clue why it was so important to get to the castle first. Tom Williams, as always, saves the day with The Basket, a story of a evil basket and its place in history. Yes, it is just as awesome as it sounds. Finally there’s Healing, the creepiest piece in the book by far, by Dara Naraghi and Andy Bennett. It tells the story of a man who has long distrusted doctors but ends up having to go to a dentist. He got back in some considerable pain but decided to take matters into his own hands and ends up going a little bit too far. Like I said, I don’t hate this anthology, but in all honesty I probably wasn’t going to be happy with anything that wasn’t 100 pages long and featured serious gore and/or scares. They still put out a hell of a comic, as always, and you do have to buy this one to keep your collection of Panel anthologies intact, so lucky for you there are still some exceptional stories in here. $4
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Posted by Kevin
February 8, 2011
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Now Available! $5
Supertalk #1
I love that cover. Absolutely perfect for the title, and if you ask me to explain that belief I will run away from you at top speed. This is an anthology put together by Eric Watkins, or at least published by Eric Watkins, and it features all sorts of folks that I’ll get into more in a minute. You could maybe say that talking was the unifying theme, but you would most likely be wrong, as these stories are all over the place. J.T. Yost is up first with a funny short piece on the daily lives of pigeons. Next is Sung Yoon Choi with a piece about how she never knew her parents and was raised by her Aunt (or at least the character in her story was, I have no idea if this is autobiographical). That one seemed to end very suddenly, so maybe there’s more out there, or maybe it was just meant to end suddenly and I didn’t get it. This will take forever to review at this rate, and it’ll be a mess anyway because of a lack of a table of contents (although at least the artists were listed in order of their appearance), so how about I mention my highlights? There’s Paul Hoppe with a reverse ventriloquism strip, Adam Kidder with Fundar the Funbarian (it’s just as fantastic as it sounds), James Turek with a piece about crashing into a car that’s already on the way to the hospital, Andres Vera Martinex with his introduction to Chicago life and Chris Butzer with a story on the fog of doom. There are plenty of other interesting bits and pieces in here, and one thing that immediately stood out was the sheer diversity of the artists. If you buy anthologies looking for a pile of new and potentially interesting artists, this is an excellent showcase. Naturally, I didn’t love everything about it (those anthologies are few and far between), but there’s more than enough good stuff in here to make it worth checking out. $5
Comments Off on Various Artists – Supertalk #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Adam Kidder, Andres Vera Martinez, Anuj Shrestha, Chris Butzer, David Sandlin, Eric Watkins, J.T. Yost, James Turek, Jeremy Povolny, Joe Bennett, Josh Burggraga, Matt Rota, Paul Hoppe, Sung Yoon Choi, Supertalk, Tory Sica, Victor Kerlow | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
February 6, 2011
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Jury Rigged Comics #3: Adaptations
In case you were wondering, yes, this comic features adapted stories from other sources. Sean gets into it all in the intro, although he mostly doesn’t mention what they’re adapted from. Ah well, I guess this means I have to judge the comic all by itself and not on the source material, which is how it should be anyway. The first two pieces are drawn by David Beyer Jr., with the first dealing with the unbreakable promise of a samurai and the second dealing with Thor trying to trick a giant into giving him back his hammer. Mythical Thor in the modern day is always funny to me (yes, I know that he has his own comic, but Marvel Thor is just barely mythical Thor) and, much as it pains me not to spoil it, the setting Thor winds up in is even funnier. Trust me on this one. The samurai piece is also fun, if maybe a bit predictable. Or at least it was predictable to me, as I have read all comics and stories ever and it’s all predictable to me. Next up is Ark, done entirely by Sean, and this is what brought it all crashing down, at least briefly (it’s a very short story). There’s an asteroid, see, and it breaks entirely through a planet. It lands on another planet, and everything I say from here is sheer guesswork, as I have no idea what happens next. It looks like it either smashes through many people, killing them brutally, or the asteroid turns out to have been filled with eyes, ears, and other squiggles. If I wasn’t away from home at the moment I’d go back to the issue of Spudd that had this story drawn by another artist to make a bit more sense of it, but my instinct is saying that this story was better off left alone. Marginalia (drawn by Brent Bowman) is up next, and it’s fantastic. It’s the story of a Sean reading a used book in school and not thinking all that much of the notes in the margins until he gets to the very end and, again without spoiling, it is indeed a fantastic ending. It details the story of a brute of a dentist who would pull teeth out by hand, how he married a wealthy woman and couldn’t keep his temper in check. Finally there’s essentially the famous speech from Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, but as told to a toddler, so there’s no cursing involved. It is an engrossing and hilarious piece of work (text, not comic), which makes this book four for five on the really excellent content. I’d say that makes it worth taking a look, wouldn’t you?$2
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Posted by Kevin
