New review today for Monstrum Horrendum Volume 2 #1 by Leonie O’Moore, and “not from the U.S.” week continues. Too bad I never came up with a good name for it…
Update for 7/22/10
July 22, 2010
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Posted by Kevin
O’Moore, Leonie – Monstrum Horrendum Volume 2 #1
July 22, 2010
Monstrum Horrendum Volume 2 #1
Anybody out there remember the first volume of Monstrum Horrendum? Good for you if you do, but I checked back to my review of the old comic before writing this one and have to say that the artwork is hugely improved this time around. The sheer vibrancy of those color’s don’t hurt a bit, granted, but the it would look nicer even in black and white. It seems to retain the basic concept of the first volume, as this is a crew of five adventurers (ship captain, wealthy financier and big game hunter, scientist, “fish boy”, and an old sea dog) who hunt for different monsters in each issue. This time around they’re trying to track down a giant sea serpent, something that is several times bigger than their ship. This is the point where you have to decide if you’re going to worry about technicalities in this comic or just go along for the ride. I picked the second option, but if I didn’t there was a huge problem with how exactly they planned to kill or capture the creature, as a little dynamite or some harpoons seemed ridiculous, and that leap that is made later in the comic towards the sea serpent is not possible with any of these earthly laws of physics. So screw it, Saturday morning cartoon it is! On that level it works very well indeed. You have the captain constantly getting sick of the financier thinking he’s in charge of things, the financier needing to kill this particular serpent to show up his rival, the scientist who seems to have no skill at worldly affairs, the mysterious fish boy (just a boy who speaks an unknown language, not half fish or anything), and the old sea dog being the constant voice of caution of wisdom. It’s a fun adventure story, the painted look of the book is stunning (I particularly enjoyed Leonie’s willingness to go with the full page spreads when needed), and the pacing was excellent. The sea serpent doesn’t show up until close to the end of the book, of course, but that only gives us time to let us know the people involved and feel some concern for their safety in all this. Nicely done all around, and I’m very happy to note that she also sent along the second issue of this series, so I’ll have more thoughts on all this soon. Here’s a link to buy the book, currently at the odd price of $8.65, but it is in full color and 56 pages you know…
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/21/10
July 21, 2010New review for Team Girl Comic #1 by various ladies out of Glasgow. Let’s check on a couple of fundraisers! There’s the one for Secret Prison #2, which has made it past their goal but still has stuff for sale, so you could still make out like a bandit and get all those William Cardini books for $5 if you hurry. I also found out today about one for Good Minnesotan #4, a nice pile of minis I should be able to review next week. Apparently they’re trying to get it published as one big book instead of a bunch of little ones, and they’re close to their goal with only 4 days left. They’re also doing this so they can sell this at the reasonable price of $5, so if you have a few extra bucks and would like some goodies they are very close to their goal.
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Posted by Kevin
Various Anthologies – Team Girl Comic #1
July 21, 2010
Team Girl Comic #1
Whew! Full disclosure here: this comic came with a letter explaining the thinking behind the comic (to improve the presence of women and girls in small press comics, a worthy goal) and the people involved. The contributors included a couple of girls who are still in their early teen years, and I was afraid that I’d either be stuck criticizing children or making excuses for their stories being less than the other stories involved. I was completely wrong on that one, and if the letter didn’t tell me who was who I would have never guessed which of these women were just starting out and which ones were professional. I still may have a bone or two to pick here and there, but overall this was an excellent anthology that should, if there is any justice in the world, go a long way towards getting more women involved in the business. Well, women in Glasgow at least, as that’s where this is based and I have no idea how much of an effort they’re making to expand. Blah blah blah, how about the stories? Well, here’s one minor quibble right off the bat: no table of contents. There is an author page at the start, taking an image from one of their stories and putting the name of the author next to it, but most people in here have multiple pieces and things got a little tricky after a while. Stories in here include a brief and hilarious synopsis of Phantom of the Opera (by Katie Pope), an artist trying to work in solitude and being invaded by her past toys (Gillian Hatcher), women’s right to vote 100 years later and the ensuing voter apathy (Iona Mowat), daydreaming at school that descends into reliving one’s worst moments (Gillian Hatcher), some drama about Twilight (Jessica Hatcher), whether you should speak English or Punjabi to your cat (Heather Middleton), a thoroughly surreal piece about various animals, balloons and teapots that I can’t even begin to summarize without taking all the fun out of it (Emma McLuckie), the evolution of an indie boy (Katie Pope), reaching the end of her rope with the Twilight stuff (Jessica Hatcher), a cosmetic history (Gillian Hatcher), the scorn that comes from turning down sweets (Iona Mowat), bears trying to make a band (Gillian Hatcher), the truth about the “secret admirer” of a teacher (Katie Pope), and an introduction for Sausage Bear. There isn’t a really weak piece in here, which is always mildly shocking in any anthology. The piece on women getting the right to vote had an excellent quote explaining the apathy, Gillian reliving her worst moments suddenly while daydreaming is something everybody should be able to relate to, and the pieces by Jessica Hatcher really show the extent of which Twilight has taken over the schools. This is really a solid piece of work, and the great thing about it is that they’re all pretty much just getting started. I’m lousy at converting foreign currency, but I think this translates to something like $4, which is perfectly reasonable for this many stories.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/20/10
July 20, 2010New review for Slab Comix Deluxe Edition by John Miers, as “comics what ain’t from around here” week continues.
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Posted by Kevin
Miers, John – Slab Comix Deluxe Edition
July 20, 2010
Slab Comix Deluxe Edition
If you’ve been reading this site for a very, very long time, you probably remember the wonderful world of Slab. If not, well, that’s why I keep all the old reviews on this site, and you can go check out the old issues of Slab now if you like. Not a thing in the world is stopping you. This is supposed to be the collected edition, but I have to start off on a sour note: my favorite story from the first issue of Slab, the tale of some workplace drudgery, isn’t in this volume. Ah well, nobody is ever really happy with a “best of” collection, somebody always has to bitch and point out that it doesn’t have THEIR favorite story. Today, I am that guy. Luckily there are still plenty of great stories in this one, including Slab Rogers (in which our hero crash lands onto a planet and it attacked by all organic life on said planet), A Brief History of Slab (the history of the world told by Slabs, at least my second-favorite story of Slab made it to this collection), Slab Marlowe in “The Big Slab” (and you haven’t lived you’ve seen Slab Marlowe talk about how well a woman Slab is built), and Bruce Slab: Enter the Slab (exactly what you might think, it’s a martial arts battle between two Slabs and a genuinely wonderful thing). Every one of these stories is up at his website, so it’s the easiest thing in the world to form your own opinion about the guy. As for me, he sent me his books way back in the early days of the website, and I missed the world of Slab. It looks like he’s moved on to different things (I’ll get around to reviewing the other book he sent in a week or so), but the Slabs will always rule. Maybe if I bug him enough he’ll put my favorite Slab tale up on his website too. No price, but I’d say $6 because it seems like a good random number for this sort of thing…
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/19/10
July 19, 2010New review today for Goblin Hall by Rob Jackson, as I’m kicking “people that don’t live in the U.S. but still make comics” week off with an old favorite of mine. And that title is clunky as hell, but they’re not all from the U.K. this time, and “foreigners week” just sounds mean and stupid. I’ll happily take suggestion…
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Posted by Kevin
Jackson, Rob – Goblin Hall
July 19, 2010
Goblin Hall
I love that cover. You probably have an instant reaction to it, and you’re probably more than a little off in that reaction. This is the story of a Count who comes back to his estate after being gone for five years. He’s a fairly typical Count, just looking to marry off his son to the daughter of a wealthy family and finally getting some time at home after being gone for so long. Well, his son has met someone else while the Count was away and he plans on marrying this woman. This woman is a mystery, as are the whereabouts of his son during the daylight hours, so he follows his son, meets this girl and is impressed. Sadly for him, he had a cup of wine while meeting this woman, didn’t realize she was related to goblins (the fairy tale kind of goblins, not the Tolkien kind), and ends up drugged in a field for a month (although it seemed to him like only a short time had passed), and he misses the wedding. This causes the Count to get enraged and recruit a posse of mercenaries to take care of these goblins, and it’s here that things start to get awesome. So, naturally, this is the point where I stop telling you the story. I will say that from here things go in all sorts of directions you wouldn’t expect, and Rob’s ability to bring out the quiet human elements in a huge battle are impressive. I particularly enjoyed a moment when the Count meets a friend on the battlefield and begs the guy not to fight him, as he saved the Count’s life in the past, and after the Count gets the better of the guy he drags him off the battlefield and out of harm’s way. This is also self-contained, so no worries about wondering whether or not Rob is ever going to put out another issue (although he’s prolific enough that he’s more than earned the benefit of the doubt). Oh, and as for the sample, the rest of the book is s good bit chattier than this page, but I couldn’t resist using the image of the goblin parade. If you hate all this fantastical I guess you could stay away, but this is really more about how humanity deals with the unknown than anything else, and the results aren’t always pretty. $6ish
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/17/10
July 17, 2010New review for Sounds Of Your Name by Nate Powell. How’s your weekend going?
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Posted by Kevin
Powell, Nate – Sounds of Your Name
July 17, 2010
If you’re a fan of Nate Powell, this is the book you’ve been waiting for. It collects all sorts of bits from his old Walkie Talkie series, shorter pieces from a variety of sources, and unpublished pieces. If you’re not a fan of Nate’s work, it’s probably only because you haven’t seen it yet. It’s impossible to lump this book into one blanket statement, but I’m going to make it anyway: this book is the moment when you start the car and leave your hometown forever with only the clothes on your back and the moment you decide to turn off the car and stay where you are. It’s living the dream, waiting for death, fighting off boredom and giving in to it. It’s trying to make sense of it all while knowing deep down that there is no sense to be made. That was my reading of it anyway, but I will get into specifics for you people who hate dealing in the abstract. Hey, I usually do too, but Nate brings it out of me. Longer pieces in this book include Scrubs (involving a couple who are already sick of living life as defined by the alarm clock and how one of the character takes the lyrics from that song “Scrubs” personally), Conditions (dealing with a boy and girl pair of best friends, how they both seem to want more but are afraid to make the first or even the second move, and how they both desperately want to get out of their small town), Frankenbones (showing two house cats, their past history on the streets and how the plot to destroy some unwelcome house guests), Pulling Teeth (showing how a lodged bit of cracker in the gums can ruin a nice kiss and the constant terror that is small town thugs with nothing to do), and Satellite Worlds (spanning across different lives, how they see the world and the thin line between sanity and insanity). There’s also the title story from It Disappears, but I talked about that elsewhere on this site ages ago. Shorter pieces include Company (showing a car wreck and the mild chaos that followed the developmentally disabled man in the car walking away while the driver was knocked out), Invisibilities (in which two guys try to reinstill some magic into the town),and The Defeatist (dealing with cheating at an early age, before even knowing that it is cheating). There are many more, as this book is 300+ pages, but I’m leaving most of the layers of this onion for you to peel. Also, I usually link the graphic novel to Amazon for the pennies they throw my way when people occasionally click on the link, but I saw that Microcosm publishing has this on sale for a measly $12 at the moment, and that’s too good a deal not to link to it. If you’ve never questioned a goddamn thing in your life, this comic will fly right over your head. For the rest of us, you may find a few of your questions about life answered in these pages, but you’ll also find many more questions. In times as shitty as these, it helps to at least take a look around you. As a wise man once said, the unexamined life is not worth living, and this comic sums that up beautifully.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/16/10
July 16, 2010New review for The Living Cain by Lydia Conklin, and I’ve been getting so many packages with that little “Royal Mail” sticker on it lately that I’m having a “comics from outside the U.S.” week starting on Monday. So if you think you’ve seen all the worthwhile comics from around here, chances are even you will be able to find something worthwhile you’ve never heard of.
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Posted by Kevin
Conklin, Lydia – The Living Cain
July 16, 2010Publisher’s website (Killing the Buddha)
The Living Cain
Before I get to the comic, I wanted to relay to you the mission statement of the publisher, Killing the Buddha, because it’s fascinating: “…an online magazine of religion and culture for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the “spirituality” section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God.” As someone who has had a lifetime to work up a healthy distrust of organized religion of all stripes (definitely in the “hostile” camp), I approve, and the site looks like a nice assortment of interesting topics. As for the comic, it’s the simply told story of a woman (Lydia) who, after an awful break-up in college, decided that she wanted to get exactly one kind of dog to fill the hole in her life. The dog would look at her a certain way, go on trips with her, hold her at night, all the things a missing significant other wouldn’t be there to do. This quest of hers didn’t go exactly as planned, as the dog she got was a danger to everyone around her, but she eventually moved to New York and has seemed to make a habit of rescuing all sorts of dogs, considering it a win if she’s able to stave off execution of these animals even for a little while. Actually, the comic says that you can contact Lydia if you want a dog, so if you live in the New York area (or don’t mind a bit of a drive), I’d say she qualifies as being an expert on dogs. The comic itself is a series of one page panels, and when I said earlier that it was a simply told story I didn’t mean that it was simplistic. Granted, backgrounds are sparse, but she captures a lot in facial expressions or the sudden acts of dog violence. There’s also a thoughtful intro to the book called “What is Missing?”, about that vague feeling that so many people have of something being missing in their lives and how much better things would be if they could just find it. It’s worth a look, and this woman is a hero for trying to help such a wide array of dogs. $6
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/15/10
July 15, 2010New review for The Former Roommates of Gary Jones by Kelly Froh. I wanted to mention the death of Harvey Pekar a few days ago, even if I don’t have much to add past past the fact that it was a shitty thing. I never met Harvey, but outside of everything else he achieved, how he changed the face of autobiographical comics (some would say he invented them), the wonders of comic literature that he wrote, the thing I liked most about the guy was his willingness to talk to anybody who was trying to get started in comics. Seriously, I never heard of a single disgruntled comic artist who said that Harvey treated him/her badly, and it says a lot for the character of the man that he had the patience to do what he could to help people out who were just starting in comics, up to and including having them in his home. Matt Herzfeld & Nick Mercer did a few comics of their series Flame-Broiled years ago when they were just starting out (and they may have stopped in the meantime; I haven’t seen anything new from them in ages), met Harvey at an event and he really inspired them. It’s a shame that he’s gone, and the world is poorer for it.
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Posted by Kevin
Froph, Kelly – The Former Roomates of Gary Jones
July 15, 2010
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, 2010New 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
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, 2010New 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
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, 2010New 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
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
