Froph, Kelly – The Former Roomates of Gary Jones

July 15, 2010

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The Former Roommates of Gary Jones

Unless you’re that mythical creature who was lucky enough to live with friends and family in perfect harmony before getting married and living happily ever after with another person, chances are you’ve had some problems with roommates over your life.  I’ve lost friends because of roommate drama, as have pretty much everybody else I know, and I still think that I able to avoid the worst of the possibilities of roommate drama before deciding years ago that I was going to just live by myself from then on (outside of getting married or moving in with somebody for something other than a financial reason, that is), and it’s suited me just fine.  This brief history lesson into my personal life was brought about because of this comic, as Kelly asked an old roommate of hers (who she describes as the perfect roommate for being able to put up with just about anything and still call the offender a friend) to make a list of all his old roommates since moving to Seattle in 1992.  What came out of it was a fascinating cast of characters, all briefly described on a single page with their likeness.  Maybe this will be worse than your experience with roommates and it might (sadly) be better, but people described in here include a mooch (there always has to be at least one), a man who didn’t care about world news but got constant updates on his phone for sports teams scoring (and his conservative wife), a pot smoking USA basher, a perfectly groomed hipster who never left the house, a nut cracker collector (also a deadbeat), a constant liar, a gay Mormon, a kid who smelled like greasy hamburgers, a horticulturist on steroids, and a confused hooker.  He even briefly describes his experience with Kelly, but they’ve stayed friends and the only remotely bad thing he had to say about her was that she “dated an obviously gay man”.  There are a couple of other winners in here, but you get the idea, and the fact that there are surprises left means you might recognize an old roommate in the unlisted pile.  It’s odd for nostalgia, good for a cautionary tale, and also good to gawk at the many wonders of how human behavior changes when forced to live with strangers.  $2

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/14/10

July 14, 2010

New review for Moral Geometry #1 by Sean Andress, and I think the online store has been fixed.  For real this time!  The prices show up and everything has been updated with Paypal.  First person to test it out with an order gets a free comic!

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Posted by Kevin

Andress, Sean – Moral Geometry #1

July 14, 2010

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Moral Geometry #1

Wow.  You know those reviews where I wander around a bit, rambling about various things before concluding that I don’t know what to say about a comic?  There, I’ve just saved you three minutes of your life.  I might have a point or two to make, but overall I rarely have any idea what to do with mostly silent comics involving widely interpretive art, or stories that are meant to be visually expressive more than they’re supposed to make any kind of literal sense.  There are four pieces in this comic, and I’ll continue making a fool of myself by breaking them down.  Note: the vast majority of my observations will be nonsense.  Moral Geometry deals with a masked man, his dinner companion, a spoken monster, and death itself.  The Birthing Process is the shortest piece in the book, dealing with the title subject and a profoundly creepy mother.  Medicine deals with a struggle with a snake-like creature, the loss of a hand, and growing a new hand that is a pill-dispensing, happy monster.  Finally there’s Rubber Face, which at least has words to give me a fighting chance, and it deals with a man putting on his rubber face, saying all sorts of things to a woman on the bus, getting shot in the head and having the result cause a bus crash.  It’s not even fair to make this complaint, but the comic also literally has a weird smell about it.  Like burning plastic maybe, or one of those scratch and sniff things gone bad.  Overall, your mileage will vary with this one.  I prefer my comics to make a little more sense, but if you prefer more of a challenge or enjoy trying to untangle interpretive pieces, this one may be right up your alley.  Some of the individual panels of the comic were stunning, the problem for me was that when you put them together to make a story it had a tendency to splinter apart a bit.  That website of his has more samples to give you a clearer idea of what I’m talking about, as I’m very aware that this is mostly going to sound like nonsense.  $3.50

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/13/10

July 13, 2010

New review for Inhabitants by Pat Aulisio.  Hey, wasn’t he one of the guys associated with that fundraiser for the second issue of Secret Prison?  Why yes, he was.  How’s that going anyway?  $310 dollars left to raise in 12 days, with donors still being able to get the William Cardini pack of comics or Box Brown’s Everything Dies #1 for a measly $5.  That certainly seems doable, if only good people who love comics decide that they want their comic purchases to go to a new anthology.

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Posted by Kevin

Aulisio, Pat – Inhabitants

July 13, 2010

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Inhabitants

I’ve decided: for certain artists, I’m going to be as hypocritical as possible and decide that spelling errors are OK.  I know, I bitch about it all the time for most every person on this site (at least the ones who always screw it up), but Pat gets a pass.  Why?  Hm.  Well, there’s just something hilarious about a story predicated on the notion of a lack of oscillation of a fan where the author can’t even spell “oscillation” correctly.  Not that it’s an easy word, but simply typing a variation of the word into the Google will get you the correct answer.  He actually started off the story wrong and shifted to the correct spelling towards the end, like somebody told him the correct spelling and he couldn’t be bothered to fix the earlier errors.  In a book that is artistically his best book yet, I choose to be be amused instead of shaking my head in despair.  Hey, progress!  Not that that lets the rest of you off the hook, and this hypocrisy might go away entirely for the next Aulisio book.  So anyway, how about this comic?  It’s huge, magazine-sized (and yet still considered a mini comic), and there’s even a burst in the middle when we get to see his artwork in glorious color.  Jogger (who you might remember from at least one older Aulisio book) is perfectly content to sit in his room with his fan.  Suddenly it stops oscillating, and he travels throughout the world to find a way to fix this problem.  Along the way he crosses over the outer barrier, wanders silently through some thoroughly bizarre landscape, gets a cube from the King of Cubes (useless to solve his problem, but hey, he did ask the King of Cubes for help), calls a friend and is informed that he was given a very special cube, uses said cube to stop a whirling vortex by transferring this vortex directly into his brain, goes into a negative space, and meets up with the King of Crystals.  Can you guess how he tries to help Jogger?  There are long stretches of silence in this book, but he’s found a happy medium between silent comics and, um, talkies with this one.  Those wide vistas of utter chaos are needed to help rein in the more casual conversation.  There’s no price, but a book with color involved that’s this huge has to be at least $5.

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/12/10

July 12, 2010

New review for Window #3 by Dave Lapp, and I’ve mentioned this a few times but I mean it: any troubles with ordering comics from my store, contact me and I’ll bypass the stupid thing entirely and send you the comics you want.  All you have to do is pay for them!  And the rental project that I keep talking about is still progressing, to the point where it may be ready by… you know, I won’t post any dates just yet, as I’ve assumed incorrectly on that subject a few times.  “Before the end of the summer” seems a reasonable assumption, barring a massive calamity…

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Posted by Kevin

Lapp, Dave – Window #3

July 12, 2010

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Window #3

Dreams seem to be falling out favor as a comic book subject, and that’s a shame.  The stories in this comics really show up the unrealistic realism involved in dreams, and while you could say that phrase makes no sense, I contend that it DOES make sense in the context of a dream, so there!  Dreams in here include a piece about a spider that slowly turns into a man/monster, breaking a dream tornado by letting his hand pass through it, and Lydia (his wife?) dreaming about a practically eternal hug with Dave’s dad that made perfect and innocent sense in the context of the dream world.  Stories that involve “real life” include Dave’s brother passing up “tornado in a tube” because his students were too young to make it work, a quiet day of searching the house and yard for spiders, and Dave’s glimpse into the other world that is the lives of his students and deals with the moment when it is clear to him that he can only help them out a certain amount, and that amount is often not going to be enough.  I’m excited to get this rental project off the ground so you guys can start reading Dave’s books for yourselves.  The popular culture has a notoriously short memory, and the comic culture sadly isn’t a whole lot better, but these books should be read by the comic readers and makers of today as well.  You aspiring artists could learn something…  $1

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/11/10

July 11, 2010

New review for Mimi’s Doughnuts #19 by Marek Bennett, and the site may be going over to a new place other than WordPress soon to combat the store troubles and the prospective troubles with the rental service.  This means the site may be getting a different look again, as it has quite often lately, but don’t fret if you hate change, as the content will be the same as ever.

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Posted by Kevin

Bennett, Marek – Mimi’s Doughnuts #19

July 11, 2010

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Mimi’s Doughtnuts #19

I don’t believe it.  Not that I want to call Marek a liar or anything, as I’ve enjoyed his comics immensely and he always seemed like a nice enough guy to me, but I don’t see how this was a 24 hour comic.  OK, he used stick figures for the stories, and OK, the backgrounds are reasonably sparse, as that’s a requirement with 24 hour comics.  Still, the backgrounds aren’t THAT sparse, the layout of the comic doesn’t look possible in a 24 hour time frame, and there are just too many distinct stories in here for me to understand the time frame.  He did say in his intro that he had a number of stories ready to go before he started, that he used tales from his childhood, his friends and friends of friends to make these pieces.  He also mentions that the restricting spaces of the stories sometimes changed the stories he was told/remembered a little bit, but the basics are the same as real life.  Aw, screw it.  I’m going to give up my skepticism and just give him credit for putting out an exceptionally thought out mini comic in a very short time span.  The theme of the comic, as should be expected from that cover, is health.  The characters from past issues of Mimi’s Doughnuts don’t make an appearance, as these are all stories about various health problems and the trouble that everybody has with their health insurance companies.  The health problems listed include early allergies (and the awful moment when a young Marek (?) found out that he was allergic to cats), a persistent cough (and hey, that story was missing a resolution), spousal abuse (OK, the kids heard it as a mutual fight, but it didn’t look good to me), acne (with the hilarious ending of finding out years later that the pills prescribed may cause later heart problems), a broken/damaged thumb, a stroke (with his later fight against the symptoms of a deceased relative), a finger (with the obligatory fight with the insurance company for coverage of the problems), a kidney (and the insurance company’s deliberately cheating him out of his needed payment), a heart (with the heartbreaking tale of the young girl who would need a transplant possibly by age 25 and how tough it would be for her to ever get insurance because this was the dreaded “pre-existing condition”), blood (from a heart attack), and face (with a silly facelift and the conversation that went with it).  It’s a great pile of stories that wasn’t hurt a bit by the 24 hour time limit.  Check it out, anybody who has ever been sick can relate to some of the nonsense in this volume.  $3



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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/9/10

July 9, 2010

New review for The Fifty Flip Experiment #13 by Dan Hill.  Hey, I reviewed #1 last time, figured I might as well go all the way to the end (?) of the series.  Oh, and that fundraiser I mentioned to support the second issue of Secret Prison?  They still need $465 with 16 days to go.  Lucky for you they still have copies of Box Brown’s Everything Dies #1 (which I absolutely loved) for a $5 pledge or three comics from William Cardini for the same $5, which is a steal.  If you’ve been holding off on getting either of those things I’d say now is the perfect time, as you get the comics and the sense of self-satisfaction that comes with helping a worthy cause.

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Posted by Kevin

Hill, Dan – The Fifty Flip Experiment #13

July 9, 2010

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The Fifty Flip Experiment #13

You can tell it’s going to be a great comic when you’re already laughing at the introduction.  Of course, I was laughing more at my own level of cynicism than anything else, as Dan apologized for being three weeks late with this issue.  Three weeks!  That’s a man who’s dedicated to putting his bi-monthly comic out on a bi-monthly basis.  Does anybody remember why Drawn & Quarterly was named Drawn & Quarterly?  Hint: it has to do with putting comics of a series out on a quarterly basis.  I think they kept to that for maybe the first year or so, or at least tried to, before abandoning all pretense of that being the case.  Of course, according to Dan’s website this is the last issue he’s put out (in September 2009), so maybe regularly putting out comics got to him.  So how about the comic?  It seems… fluffier than usual, like he was trying to burn up page space by dragging stories out for pages that could have ended far sooner.  Not that they’re actively bad stories, but I can see why the man maybe took a break after this one.  The first half of the comic is a story about an alien coming to earth, something that felt more like a movie of the week than anything else, but he did manage to spice things up a bit, and the fact that schmaltz can be funny helped him out a bit.  Other stories include a mildly pointless piece about lounging in space, a shortie about a psychiatrist with a good punchline, Spoons for Handsman eats too many Rolos (hey wait a minute, how did he open all those Rolos with spoons for hands?) and a meandering piece about the national conspiracy to hide any evidence of queefs.  Kids, ask your parents.  On second thought just use the internet, as asking your parents would be the most uncomfortable conversation of your life.  Overall there’s still good to be found here, but if he is taking a break from his grueling schedule (and in the context of small press comics I mean that sincerely), I hope he’s working on tightening his game up a bit.  That and deciding that it’s OK not to have at least one page per comic where you can still see the unerased pencil lines…  $2

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/8/10

July 8, 2010

New review for The Honduran Coup: A Graphic History by Dan Archer.  I should also mention that I screwed up a few days ago in my review for Noah Van Sciver’s Blammo #6 in saying that it was self-published.  It was not.  Kilgore Books in Denver published it, and I think this is either their first published comic or one of the first, so you can already tell they have great taste.  If you’re in the area go buy some of their books, comical or otherwise!

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Posted by Kevin

Archer, Dan – The Honduran Coup: A Graphic History

July 8, 2010

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The Honduran Coup: A Graphic History

If you’re not a fan of comics where you might learn something, you had better move on on to something lighter.  There are plenty of options to choose from on this site, as very few comic creators bother to write about important political and military happenings around the world.  Editorial cartoonists like Tom Tomorrow and Lloyd Dangle, sure, but they’re not telling a lengthy story and they’re restricted to telling things that they can either explain in their weekly strips or are already common knowledge.  Dan has managed to tell the story of this coup from start to finish, and if you just see the word “coup” and think it must be ancient history, nope: this covers the period from 6/28/o9 to as close to present day as publishing this comic allowed.  Dan also gets in the history of the place, as the U.S. and its various corporations have determined the course of history in that country for a very long time.  Manual Zelaya took a few steps to make things better for the common people and was deposed in a military coup for his troubles, and wait’ll you see what happened to the people responsible for the coup.  Here’s a hint: jack shit.  As always Dan’s work is meticulously sourced, so if you have a moment or two when you have a “wait, did that really happen/did they really say that?” moment, it’s easy as can be to check it out for yourself.  In between the mealy-mouthed Democrats who don’t seem to take much of a stand on anything and the lone current crazy Republican sourced, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that this was a bipartisan avoidance of responsibility, which is the way of the world here in the U.S.  Fun fact: torture never had a majority of Americans support it (according to polls), even through all the Bush years, until very recently.  After Obama gave it his tacit endorsement (and that’s what it was when he closed the door on ever prosecuting the war criminals who tortured, a tacit endorsement), suddenly the people who don’t follow the news thought that it must not be that bad if both sides let it go at best and fully approved it at worst.  I don’t mention politics on this site often because that’s not the point of the site, but comics like this bring it out of me.  Anyway, there’s not much point of me spoiling the story.  The end was still a mystery to me, as the media lost interest here after the successful “elections” and I never did hear what happened to all the people who supported the democratically elected guy, not to mention what happened to Zelaya himself.  OK, here’s one spoiler alert: the good guys didn’t win this one.  Then again, that never seems to happen, does it?  I can see why people ignore the news altogether, that’s for sure.  Oh, and this is also a flip book, but it’s the same book twice, just one half in English and one half in Spanish.  I would think two different versions would have made more sense, but I could see where this would be a handy tool in multicultural classrooms… assuming kids are ever allowed to be taught about this shameful episode.  $5

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/7/10

July 7, 2010

New review for Secret Prison #1 edited by Ian Harker and containing all sorts of folks.  They’re also holding a fundraiser to put the next issue out and, as of right now, are $530 away from their goal with 18 days to go.  Even if you’re not one to give money away on even a worthwhile project like this, you should know that donations = goods from them.  I recommend the $5 option where you get three issues of comics from William Cardini; that’s a freaking steal right there.  I’m not familiar with a lot of the other comics, but the point is that you get comics back for your money and you’re doing a good deed for the comic’s world by helping but another issue out.  If I had $50 free bucks to my name I’d love to get the Pat Aulisio original custom drawing, that’s for sure…

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Posted by Kevin

Harker, Ian (editor) – Secret Prison #1

July 7, 2010

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Secret Prison #1

Ah, the wonders of the newspaper style anthology comic.  It’s impossible for me to scan, but luckily I was able to um, “borrow for all time” (sounds so much nicer than stealing, and I’ll be happy to take them down and have this instead posted with no images if necessary) a couple of images, so you don’t have to go into this blind.  One problem with this springs instantly to mind: I’m not sure how people are supposed to get a copy of it outside of being at one of the cons where this and the upcoming issue #2 will be presented.  I say “presented” instead of “sold”, as this one is listed as free right there on the cover.  At the moment Pat is trying to pull together the funds for the second issue.  By donating to the cause you can get the first and second issues in the mail, so that’s at least one way to see them, and you have the added benefit of helping out a worthy endeavor.  As usual with anthologies, this one is a bit of a mixed bag.  More good than bad though, including strips by Art Baxter (dealing with a reluctance to go forward and “living” with the consequences of working up the courage), Box Brown (in which a Googling quest to find news on Audie Murphy turns into self-reflection and slumber), Cyn Why on the high price of becoming Queen on the Internet (at least I think it’s her, if that list of the contributors at the start of the book is the order in which they appear), Kelly Phillips showing the life of a grumpy mountain, Steve Teare with a brutal beating, and Jason Clarke with a problem solver.  Actually, looking through the pieces I didn’t mention it’s not like there’s a ton of badness there either.  There’s Pat Aulisio’s  strip, sampled below, and his art keeps getting tighter all the time.  Bob Pistilli’s Skortch seems to be the start of something bigger and at least has the decency to show us lots of naked ladies while we wait for the story to develop.  Ian Harker has the quiet, sad life of a super villain (?) on an almost inconceivable world.  Beth Heinly has the simplest piece of the comic that I can’t talk about even a little without giving away.  Tommy Rudmose has a man literally confined to the panel walls. Andrea Grigoropl & Dan Fitz have a piece of a man, after being hit by a bus, making his own decision about going on with life.  That’s everything, and there’s not much bad there at all.  Some things need to be fleshed out a bit more, which will have a chance to happen if they can afford to make the next issue, but most everything in there works as a single page story.  I’ll update this page if I get a clear idea of where exactly you could get a copy of this and future issues, but in the meantime keep an eye out at cons.

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/6/10

July 6, 2010

New review for Blammo #6 by Noah Van Sciver, and I have the store back up and running.  Prices show and everything!  Granted, it looks ugly as hell at the moment, but it does work if you want some comics for your oily beach experience this summer.

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Posted by Kevin

Van Sciver, Noah – Blammo #6

July 6, 2010

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Blammo #6

I have a theory about the longevity of small press comic artists, based upon many years of observation of the behavior of these fascinating creatures in their natural habitat.  I’m going to avoid naming names because otherwise I’d be sure to leave somebody out or offend them, but it seems like most of them need either the money or artistic validation to eventually get published somewhere.  Your fantasy/superhero types want to eventually make it to the “big leagues”, and that’s true of the smaller “big leagues” of the alternative comics world.  There are also plenty who don’t give a shit and they’ll keep making comics until they eventually get tired of it, and these people you can usually spot because they always come back to the business, even after being away from it for years.  They just can’t help themselves.  Then there are people like (not naming names, but there is certainly more than one), who seemed to have a really good thing going but just gave up the ghost after a few really great issues.  I can’t say that I blame them for quitting, as doing as thankless a job as making comics  without any significant compensation must be trying.  Where was I going with all this?  Oh yeah.  Noah Van Sciver is on the sixth issue of Blammo, as you may have guessed from that prominent “#6” up there.  He is still self-publishing.  He is also getting better and better with each passing issue, even though I continually think he must have hit a high water mark.  I don’t know if Noah is the type of person to eventually give up if Fantagraphics/Top Shelf/Drawn & Quarterly don’t publish him sooner or later, but do we really want to take that chance?  Take a risk, one of you guys, this guy is more than worth it.  So how about the comic?  I sampled the very first page, as I just couldn’t help it.  Other stories include Abby’s Road (told from the perspective of a 21 year old juggalo/stoner who’s “dating” a 17 year old high school girl, he’s exactly what you think he is and it’s a perspective not often seem in small press comics), As I Remember It (written by Noah’s brother, a quiet moment in the life of the early Van Sciver family), Chicken Strips (still going, Bill goes to heaven, with a fantastic final page spread), Convention (yes, these are fairly common in these types of comics, but it’s still insightful as hell and worth it for the haunted look on the face of John Porcellino), The Krampus Visit (dealing with an asshole singer and an even assholier man trying to get an autograph), and The Easy Life (telling you how easy it would be to quit your job, kill your boss and take over the world).  There’s also his sure-to-be breakout hit Punks Vs. Lizards, which is exactly what it sounds like: 5 pages of punks gruesomely killing giant lizards.   If all his smart and meaningful strips can’t make him millions, maybe this one can.  Oh, and don’t forget a few pages of shorter strips, reader mail and last words.  It’s a whole comic book experience, in other words, and one that most people don’t bother putting together these days.  I doubt if I have much in the way of “cred” in the small press hierarchy, but if I have a shred of it, I am asking somebody to take a risk and publish this man.  We can’t risk losing him to apathy or one of those paying jobs I keep hearing about.  Barring that, the least you can do individually is buy his comics, and you get the added benefit of owning a really fantastic comic.  Where’s the flaw in that?  $3.95

UPDATE 7/7/10: This was actually published by Kilgore Books & Comics from Denver.  That big “Kilgore” on the cover should have clued me in, but I missed it, and anybody who published a comic like this deserves the highest of praise, not being left out of the article entirely because I wasn’t being careful enough to include them.  Mea culpa.

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/5/10

July 5, 2010

New review for Radio Free Gahanna #1 by James Moore & Joel Jackson, and please bear with us while we try to fix a few broken things on the site.  Needless to say, if you try to order comics and don’t hear back from me in 24 hours, feel free to check in to make sure something didn’t get screwed up along the way…

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Posted by Kevin

Moore, James & Jackson, Joel – Radio Free Gahanna #1

July 5, 2010

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Radio Free Gahanna #1

Are you either in your mid 20’s and unsure of what to do with your life, or perhaps someone who is interested in reading stories about such things?  If so, this comic is for you.  If you’re perhaps one of the many people who have read more than their share of stories on that topic and are curious if this comic is more of the same or an exciting new entry to the field… I’m not sure yet.  There’s promise here for something fresh and interesting, that’s for sure.  Any questions you might have had about the process behind the book are happily answered by James in his intro and outro, as he details growing up being able to find other people who shared his odd tastes (thanks to the internet he didn’t have to work for it quite as much as us older fogies), his enduring love for radio as the format that introduced him to many of these oddities, and his desire to write a story about the propensity of people in their mid 20’s to either have a massive screw-up at that time in their lives or simply fail to live up to their potential.  Anybody who is even mildly dissatisfied with their job or life is bound to find something to relate to in these essays, and I’m guessing that’s a good chunk of the population.  Anyway, the comic is the story of Sam, a young woman who finds herself stuck at a giant megamart store after seemingly having everything her way.  Still, she finds herself single (after her long term boyfriend cheated on her), directionless and so lonely that she’s even willing to chat with a creep looking for sex late at night.  Her mother is worried, her friend (who is, of course, happy and traveling the world) is worried, and things are looking bleak.  Then, while reading a book (I wish it was clear if it was a real book or made up), something clicks in her head, she digs up an old zine that clearly means a lot to her, and the comic ends with her meeting the man who must have put that book out years ago.  Um, spoiler alert.  Where it goes from there is anyone’s guess.  It might turn into a cliche, or it might keep heading towards having something important to say on the subject.  I’m leaning towards the second option so far but, like I said, it’s very early to make that judgment.  Other things of interest in this book include album reviews for Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie and the fact that every character is introduced with their age, dating status and favorite song listed, which I thought was a nice simple touch to meet these characters.  Now as long as these two don’t fall prey to the “one or two issues and then vanish” curse of mini comics they may be onto something…  $2.99

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 7/3/10

July 3, 2010

New review for Piecemeal by Nate Beaty, and I may or may not be around for the rest of the holiday weekend, but don’t be shocked to see me vanish for a day or two.  Shouldn’t you be out blowing things up instead of sitting in front of a computer anyway?

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Posted by Kevin

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