New review for Night Animals by Brecht Evens. This would have been a Top Shelf Tuesday update yesterday, but I didn’t win my most recent battle with my scanner until today. Slowly earning enough cash to get a new one and stop bitching about it, but I’m also still perfectly happy to have anybody who wants to help me get a new scanner buy some comics from me…
Update for 3/9/11
March 9, 2011
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Posted by Kevin
Evens, Brecht – Night Animals
March 9, 2011
I don’t think it’s ever taken me longer to read a silent comic. In case that’s not clear enough, that is high praise. It also made it difficult to pick a sample image, as a good chunk of the pages in this fantastic book are two page spreads, chock full of weird and alarming characters. There are two stories in here and each has more creatures than I could describe if I used a million words. The first is “Blind Date,” in which a man solemnly dresses in his finest bunny costume before a date. He follows a series of painted arrows to his date, traveling through a sewer, forest, underwater nightmare land, and a series of tunnels before finally making it to his goal. I particularly enjoyed that last arrow, but if I tell you what that’s all about then I’d be ruining a perfectly good punchline. The second story deals with a young girl getting her first traumatic period at school. She goes home and is lured from her bed by a creature that seems to promise only fun and good times to go with her new adulthood. Again, one of the final images is of the creatures juxtaposed with that of a perfectly ordinary search party, and once again Brecht hits exactly the right tone with their ethereal but obvious presence. Yes, it does too make sense, and if you read the book you’ll be able to see what I mean. Overall I’m left without a single complaint, which is always a welcome occurrence. The art was pitch perfect in every single panel, the sheer range of the creatures presented shows the work of a vibrantly imaginative mind, and any one of those two page spreads could be happily examined for minutes at a time and you’d still be running across little surprises that were thrown in. It’s still fairly early in the year, granted, but this is the best book I’ve seen in 2011. Granted, that’s partially because the huge Alec collection was technically released last year, but it’s still high praise that I don’t go casually tossing around. $7.95
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/4/11
March 4, 2011New review for Bird Brain #2 by Francois Vigneault and, as the universe clearly hates me, the frame for my glasses just exploded for no good reason. It’ll be a little longer until I can get a scanner that works every day, and my plans for going to SPACE this year are looking increasingly unlikely. So if you have books that you generally hand to me in person at SPACE, you may want to think about getting a package together to mail to me instead, barring a minor miracle or the discovery of a rich relative.
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Posted by Kevin
Vigneault, Francois – Bird Brain #2
March 4, 2011
Bird Brain #2
If anybody out there hates birds, it’s probably best to move along to the next review. Who hates birds? Well, somebody is bound to, right? People either hate or love all sorts of things that seem to mild to me to feel strongly about either way. Anyway, this is another collection of birds Francois has observed and drawn in his travels. Birds that he has observed include herons, ospreys, tree swallows, hummingbirds, swallows, bald eagles, Candian geese, screech owls, warblers and a few more to leave you some surprises, as I have no idea what constitutes a spoiler in this sort of book. He does a masterful job of conveying the birds, but that’s no surprise because he’s also extremely gifted in drawing people. There’s also a nice introspective author’s note in the back detailing why he loves larger birds and how their sudden acts of violence remind him that our world, though appearing tame, really isn’t far from that sort of thing. In case you think that this is simply a collection of bird drawings, well, no. He makes them funny on occasion and includes his observations throughout, so if you like his other stuff there’s no reason in the world to think that you wouldn’t like this one. And who doesn’t like his other stuff? $2.50
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Posted by Kevin
Udpate for 3/2/11
March 2, 2011New review for Cheetahs Never Win #1 by Steve Reeder because today is Austria Wednesday! Just today though, unless all kinds of Austrians start mailing me comics in the very near future. Oh, and the scanner worked fine today, thanks for asking, so if it can hold together for a few more weeks I should be able to replace it myself and stop bugging the lot of you about it.
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Posted by Kevin
Reeder, Steve – Cheetahs Never Win #1
March 2, 2011
Cheetahs Never Win #1
Ah, it’s a nice, uncomplicated series of short pieces. Mostly they’re one panel strips involving animals in some sort of humorous situation or saying something funny (or hoping to be funny; these things never land 100% of the time), with a few actual people thrown into the mix. Strips include existential dinosaurs, an excellent warning sign for elephants, looking for meaning while being attacked by a giant squid, animals discussing various states of inebriation, Does Your Cat Look Like Hitler, dodos talking about the good old days, directions on how to annoy yourself, rich assholes saying stupid thing and a self-justifying stick-up dog. There’s also a section no various lies that Steve has told throughout his life, with my personal favorite being that Steve’s Dad wrote for professional wrestling. Why the reality of his Dad actually BEING a professional wrestler wasn’t cooler I’ll never know, but it was still a good one and the illustration for it nailed it down as my favorite. So clearly if you need a linear story right this second you had best move on to something else. If you’re fine with a consistently funny series of shorter pieces, I’d say you have everything you need in this rather hefty (for a mini comic) package. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/1/11
March 1, 2011New review for Moulgar Baggg Digest #3 by Rusty Jordan/Brent Harada, and it nearly came without a sample image because my scanner died again after getting the cover scan. A few well-placed punches later and it was back in action. Stay tuned tomorrow to see whether or not the scanner works! Oh, and for a new comic of some kind if it does.
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Posted by Kevin
Harada, Brent/Jordan, Rusty – Moulgar Baggg Digest #3
March 1, 2011
Moulgar Baggg Digfest #3
Oh Rusty Jordan/Brent Harada, it has been far too long since I’ve made a fool of myself trying to write a coherent review for one of your comics. As for that title, well, that’s how he wrote it on the back (at least it was included somewhere on the comic) this time, so that’s how I’m going to type it. You can’t stop me! So anyway, the story in here starts off with a man throwing some bait into what appears to be an ice fishing hole although, come to think of it, there’s no fishing line. The bait sinks, and everything else is all guesswork from me. There’s an image of excessive choking violence, what appears to be Scott McCloud in a straw hat, the man peering into his fishing hole, a monstrous creature getting grabbed where its gonads should be, a death, a toilet paper turban, some drugs, and an ending that I think involved the answer to all the questions in the universe. Oh, and there was also the part in the middle that was shockingly banal to bring it all together. A more disturbing and eclectic bunch of images you’re not likely to see anywhere, and a smarter man that me could probably easily make some sense out of them. Me, I go for the pretty pictures and try not to take too much meaning out of anything. No price, but let’s say $3 and hope for the best.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/28/11
February 28, 2011New review for Panel #15: The Movies by those Columbus folks who keep putting these things out there for the world to enjoy. You probably noticed that the review came with pictures, as the scanner worked again today after multiple attempts. To be blunt, I can’t afford to buy one for at least another couple of weeks, possibly more if I want to go to SPACE this year, so I’m asking again for people to buy some comics to help out. I hate fundraisers as much as the next person, which is why I’m not calling it one, and it might not even matter, as the scanner might hold up in its rickety condition for another month or so. But if you enjoy the site and think that it would be a bit worse without sample images (and have some money lying around that you would like to transform into comics), then I should be able to stop mentioning this after I get between $75-100.
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Posted by Kevin
Panel Anthologies – Panel #15: The Movies
February 28, 2011
Panel #15: The Movies
It’s difficult to tell from that cover scan, but this comic comes in a DVD case. Yep, the Panel folks keep stepping up their game, threatening to finally quit fooling around and design an anthology that is utterly perfect, negating the need for anybody to try again. Of course, if they ever do get there I’ll be the last person to point it out to them, because if I did they might stop putting out anthologies, and nobody who likes comics wants that to happen. So, right off the bat, the DVD case. That cover is pretty great (I particularly enjoyed the “Special Appearance” blurb followed by a couple of new names) but the back cover is pretty sweet too, featuring panels from the comics and a nice synopsis. It houses a regular comic, not some strange hybrid of the two, so don’t be alarmed. The “Chapter Selections” are neatly laid out on this back cover and the bios of all the artists and writers is again a high point. Fine, isn’t there a comic in here? Yep, and it’s over 60 pages at $5, which makes it very cheap considering all the bells and whistles. Well, I guess the only expensive bell and/or whistle would be the DVD case, and they probably found them in a landmine somewhere, as all DVD cases will outlast us multiple times over. Still, kudos. Highlights? There’s Brent Bowman with movie posters for theoretical movies that never got made (oh, to live in the universe where Kubrick directed “Lord of the Rings”), Sean McGurr & Tim McClurg with a simple but accurate description of the many assholes you’ll run into at a theater these days, Craig Bogart remaking an old Panel story by Andy Bennett, Dara Naraghi & Dan Barlow going through the excruciating process of making their own movie (and the hilarious premiere night), Tony Goins coming to the logical conclusion that you’d be better off just making a comic, Sean McGurr & Brent Bowman telling the story of Sean’s (or maybe Brent’s) fear about terrorists at the Spiderman 2 premiere in 2004 and Ross Hardy with a tale of various Star Wars characters locked in a drunken card game and talking about the films. The Matt Kish pieces were a bit of a highlight, as usual, but odd as they were both written by other people (Dara Naraghi and Sean McGurr respectively), even though they were both explicitly about Matt. The first was his reaction to the awful (hypothetical; we should be so lucky) Spudd 64 adaptation and the second was Matt illustrating some of the classic lines from Star Trek 2, which wouldn’t seem to require much of a writer at all, but what do I know? I think the man is on the right track and that he should immediately start drawing more of his interpretations of famous movie lines, but I’m biased enough to wish that Matt would also draw a running commentary of my life. I left out some pieces for no good reason really, as there wasn’t a terrible piece in the bunch, just a few I enjoyed slightly more than the others. Buy this, why don’t you, these people need to know that what they’re doing is seen far and wide and that people want them to keep it up. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/25/11
February 25, 2011New review for Sunnyville Stories #2 by Max West, and the “help buy me a scanner” beg-a-thon rolls on. I figure they’re between $50 and $100, so once you buy enough comics to cover that I’ll stop talking about it. Or through sheer despair if nobody buys anything, because I am easily made sad.
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Posted by Kevin
West, Max – Sunnyville Stories #2
February 25, 2011
Sunnyville Stories #2
Max had a few simple good ideas that other comics folks should think about emulating that I should bring up before I even get to the actual comic. The first is that this is #2 and his first issue is up for free at his website. That gives people an instant excuse to check out his website and a whole new story for free to anybody who enjoyed it. The second good idea he had was to post synopses to the next two issues, both due to come out in 2011, on the back page of his comic. It gives the impression of a guy who is taking this comics thing very seriously, which may not be considered to be a sufficiently jaded approach to comics, but I found it refreshing. So fine, in terms or marketing, planning and preparation, the guy is a genius. What about the comic? Well, it’s anthropomorphized, so if you have a problem with that it’s OK to move on. Anyway, two kids are walking home from school when they decide to stop and get a soda. They run into a bully, give her what-for, then see her again as they’re leaving. She challenges one of them to a pinball contest and they get back to her place to discover a bunch of old pinball and arcade games. The showdown starts from there, the family members of this bully eventually get involved, and there’s even a message at the end which, again, may or may not be your thing. Some of the images of houses and perspective looked rough, but it appeared to improve as the comic went on. People who read this site regularly probably think that this book sounds too sweet for me, and in a way it is, but I’m willing to gloss over that to emphasize the things that Max got right. He clearly has a plan, and this is clearly the early days of that plan, so keep an eye out for that guy. There’s a solid story in here, it’s designed for people of all ages, and he even manages to keep it cheap, which is odd considering that it has a color cover and it’s magazine sized. $2.99
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/24/11
February 24, 2011New review for Mishap Collection #2: The Greasing of Billy Charter by Jerry Goebert & Tom Brinkmann. It’s sure looking like my scanner is on its last legs, as that trip away from town didn’t help it one bit, so any comics ordered over the next couple of weeks will go towards a new one. It doesn’t take much for me to keep running the site, but comics and a scanner are two things I can’t do without. Or maybe somebody has an old but working scanner that is taking up space in their house? I’m not picky. Contact me if that’s the case, if not then order some comics to help out the cause! The cause being, in this case, my stupid failing scanner…
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Posted by Kevin
Goebert, Jerry – Mishap Collection #2 (with art by Tom Brinkmann)
February 24, 2011Website (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
Update for 2/23/11
February 23, 2011New review for Losers Weepers #2 by J.T. Yost, which is also newly available for sale here. Sorry about the absence, but I’m back in Champaign now and it should all be back to normal, which also means that now is an excellent time to order comics. No waiting!
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Posted by Kevin
Yost, J.T. – Losers Weepers #2
February 23, 2011
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
Update for 2/18/11
February 18, 2011New review for Closed Caption Comics #9, happy weekend everybody, I may or may not be around over the next couple of days…
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Posted by Kevin
Closed Caption Anthologies: Closed Caption Comics #9
February 18, 2011
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
Update for 2/16/11
February 16, 2011Hide the kids! It’s a new review for Maximum Superexcitement #3 by Robin Bougie & Maxine Frank.
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Posted by Kevin
Bougie, Robin & Frank, Maxine – Maximum Superexcitement #3
February 16, 2011
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
