Latta, Josh – Rashy Rabbit #6: A Rabbit in King Arthur’s Food Court

May 3, 2010

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Rashy Rabbit #6: A Rabbit in King Arthur’s Food Court

If I didn’t know better I’d swear that was almost a happy ending on the last page of this book.  Um, spoiler alert.  Don’t worry, while it still has elements related to happiness there’s still the inevitable reality of Rashy’s crappy job, and the fact that his whole quest for the better part of this issue is a textbook case of “be careful what you wish for”.  Rashy begins the issue as a menial worker in a renaissance-themed restaurant in the local mall, and one of the first things we see of him is his getting crapped on by a horse getting ready for some jousting.  Things look like they’re getting worse from there, but he catches a break: his friend has happened upon a large pile of pot and they devise a plan to sell it and rake in the cash.  Rashy wants to use his portion to buy a ring for his girlfriend (Honey Bunny, from previous issues; the one who had a kid with Rashy’s enemy), but things get tricky when the entire staff of the restaurant (except for the hero jouster) gets too stoned to participate, leaving Rashy to step in as a jouster, and the owners of that large pile of pot track Rashy down.  Chaos ensues, but chaos of the funny kind.  Great stuff this time around.  I thought everything came together nicely in the end, but that sort of thing is only possible with an excellent beginning and middle.  Yep, that’s my bit of wisdom for the day.  Check it out, why don’t you?  This sort of series would go nicely as a graphic novel and Josh must have almost enough material to make that possible, so now all he needs is money/interest from you readers.  Get to it! $4

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Posted by Kevin

Baillie, Liz – My Brain Hurts Volume 2

May 3, 2010

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My Brain Hurts Volume 2

Ah, the wonders of running this website.  I read two issues of this series years ago, never picked up another one (because I never SAW another one), then the collection of #6-10 comes in a pile of graphic novels in the mail.  And yep: it turns out that this ended up being a pretty great series.  There’s no recap in here of past issues, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, but I can see why they wouldn’t assume that somebody would pick up the second volume of this without reading the first.  So what’s this all about?  You can go back and read my reviews of #3 and #4 to get a basic idea of the series (or at least the series as I understood it after reading a couple of issues), and this one picks up where those left off.  Joey has woken up from his coma (but he doesn’t remember how he got in that condition) and Kate is “dating” a Catholic who’s so screwed up by her upbringing that she won’t even let Kate touch her.  She doesn’t believe in sex until marriage, you see, even though it’s still illegal in most states for gay people to get married.  See the difficulty?  Other things that happen in this book (as  I try to walk that delicate line of telling you enough to get you interested without telling you so much that it’s ruined): Kate takes an internship for the Lavender Alliance (and runs into a reformed bully from her past) and Joey learns more about how he got put into a coma and goes into a bit of a spiral when he gets all the details.  Tone is the most important thing about this series and it’s absolutely perfect.  Picture the best high school drama you’ve ever scene and then picture it being more than a little bit smarter than that, and you have My Brain Hurts.  Oh, and gayer.  There are also bonus bit at the back of this, in case you were cool enough to get the whole series when it first came out and you don’t think you need the collection, like sketch pages, a script and an abandoned direction.  And a “where are they now” section, but for all I know that was in the last issue of the comic too.  So yeah, check it out.  If you’re worried about the high school angle, only a few pages of this book even take place in a high school, so don’t be so worried about everything.  I just saw the price, and if I wasn’t recommending this highly enough before, this is a measly $6.  No excuse in the world not to check it out…

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Posted by Kevin

Cardini, William (aka Mark Hensel) – Shaman Thunder

May 3, 2010

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Shaman Thunder (with Josh Burggraf)

You know what I’ve always hated about any sort of wizard on wizard battle in the movies?  Or shamans, or any sort of people who were supposed to have all sorts of bizarre and unknowable mystical powers?  How stupid it always ends up being.  More often than not it turns into a typical physical slugfest, either due to a lack of imagination or a lack of budget, and it always drags me out of whatever willing suspension of disbelief I was going through.  Yes, in case you were wondering, there is a a point to all this: those two floating heads you see on the cover belong to two shaman, and their battle in this issue is exactly like this sort of thing should be.  Meaning that it only has the barest appearance of a conventional fight to us normal folk, but there’s clearly all sorts of things going on beneath the surface.  This issue starts off simply enough, as one shaman returns home and discovers that his thunder-root is missing.  He tracks down the thief (using magic, of course), but this leads him to believe another shaman (a disillusioned shaman who’s standing near the actual thief) is the thief, which leads to an absolutely awesome battle.  Go ahead, embiggen that sample below.  If you’re not impressed with that you’ve clearly never spent even a second of your life imagining what an actual shaman fight would look like.  The rest of the issue deals with the two shamans teaming up to fight the actual thief, but shamans never get along for long.  As for the art, William/Mark and Josh mostly draw alternating pages, and it’s seamless.  Sometimes it’s tough to say who would enjoy a particular mini and who wouldn’t, but this one is easy.  If you’re enough of a dork to want to see a thoroughly ridiculous though oddly realistic fight between two shamans, it’s never been done better to my knowledge.  If you consider yourself above such things, lucky for you there are many other mini comics in the world for you to choose from.  No price again, so I’m going with $2.50.

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Posted by Kevin

Isaacson, John – Do-It-Yourself Screenprinting

May 3, 2010

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Do-It-Yourself Screenprinting

Ever wanted to make your own t-shirts?  Ever thought that it would be way too complicated and/or expensive to even try, so you gave up right away?  This book will prove you wrong.  It’s a step by step instruction guide for how to make your own shirts whether you have access to state-of-the-art materials or not, or even (potentially) if you don’t even have electricity.  All of that is well and good, you may be saying, but what about the comic itself?  Is it a good read even if you have no interest in making your own shirts?  Well, sort of.  There is a LOT of technical jargon in here (it’s basically an instructional manual, after all), but John and the people around him always seem like real folks, and he does an excellent job of never talking down to the reader while still not taking for granted that you know everything every step of the way.  There’s a section in the middle of this book where he details a day spent being a street vendor trying to sell his shirts (I used probably the only pratfall from the whole book for the sample instead of one of the many pages with useful information on them) that is a great introduction to that sort of thing.  How DO people convince strangers to stop and check out their stuff?  Or prevent themselves from being robbed?  As for the technical information, I honestly believe that I could at least fake my way through making a shirt after reading this, and I have NO aptitude for this sort of thing.  I’m probably overstating and would most likely maim myself if I ever did try to make a shirt, but I could at least answer a few questions about the process and there’s no way that would have happened before.  At any point in this manual where John thinks he might not be explaining something thoroughly enough (or when he thinks that somebody else might have better information than he does) he liberally sprinkles websites around and other sources of information so you can check it out for yourself.  As just a comic this would be a bit dry if you had no interest in the source material, but his teaching of the material is so engaging that you might well end up having an interest by the time you’re done reading it.  That seems like a pretty good recommendation to me.  And it’s only a measly $9 for this hefty thing!

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Posted by Kevin

Golding, Mary – Life in the Slow Lane

May 3, 2010

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Life in the Slow Lane

“I seriously hope I’m not going to hell for drawing this.”  That’s how Mary ends her introduction to this comic, which is a series of stories told to Mary by her parents about how their parents were getting really old.  She also does mention that she’s not making fun of the elderly, that it looks like it could be interesting at times.  Now that the explanations are out of the way, I do have to point out that this is a pretty funny comic.  Stories include a singing lady, a dog on a shelf, a yelling senile woman, not being able to put on pants, a thieving woman using a walker, fear about going to the ambulance without makeup on, and the advantages of pretending to be senile.  There’s no mean-spiritedness to any of these stories, in case you were wondering.  Still, Mary is right: there are some interesting stories to be told, and frankly it’s a preview of where we’re all going to end up (unless we die first, and that’s a lousy alternative), so why not look into it now?  It’s possible you could be offended by this, but you’d have to be wound pretty tight.  If that’s you then avoid this book (unless you get things like these for the sole purpose of complaining about them, in which case I won’t deny you your hobby), otherwise it’s worth a look.  No price again, I’m going with $2 for no reason.

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Posted by Kevin

Golding, Mary – Milkshake Club

May 3, 2010

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Milkshake Club

Mary/Meg just sent me 8 mini comics, so expect to see her name up here a lot more often over the next few months.  As for the review today, I just picked one out at random, even though a couple of them were crying out to me to review as soon as humanly possible.  This one is all about the milkshake club, which started as an inside joke and is on its way to becoming a national phenomenon, or at least it is if Mary gets her way.  A couple of her friends discovered that their favorite thing to do after sex was immediately go out and get a chocolate shake.  This soon became confused with the idea of whether or not the shake was an intrinsically good thing or if it was just good because it always came after sex, but I think we can all agree that shakes are delicious.  I had something similar for a while there involving Black Cow shakes from Arby’s, but we’re not here to talk about my personal life.  So what’s the verdict on the comic?  Well, it’s a tiny thing, so I can’t go into too much detail about her grasp of complex storylines or knowledge of intricate human anatomy, but she can tell a funny story that already has me thinking differently about chocolate shakes, so she’s certainly off to a good start.  I’ll be able to flesh out that opinion a bit more over the coming weeks, but so far so good.  No price, but a small black and white comic usually equals $1-2.

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Posted by Kevin

Estes, Justin Colussey – Klaberjass Chapter 1

May 2, 2010

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Klaberjass Chapter 1

Believe me, the cover looks a lot better than that. It didn’t scan well at all though, so I apologize for that. The comic itself is pretty good, but it’s a continuing story so it’s hard to say too much positive or negative about it yet. It’s apparently the story of a man who has the ability to mold his face to look like whoever he wants, set sometime in the future. There are already a couple of neat touches, like the fact that the names of all the people are all based on their profession, with the movie critic being called Godfather II and the performer being called Victor Victoria. This looks like it must be at least $3, and it’s the kind of thing that is probably going to get better as it goes. I’d wait until a couple of more issues come out so you don’t have to wait so long for the story, but that’s just a personal preference. E-mail the guy or send him money if you don’t like waiting at: 1800 Junction Hwy, Apt. 12-E, Kerrville, TX 78028.

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – FIB #1

May 2, 2010

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FIB #1

Yep, the Various page just keeps getting bigger and bigger. One of these days I’ll break it down again, or, more likely, I’ll forget all about it. As for this one, have you ever wanted to know about Providence, Rhode Island? Either way, this is a mostly funny introduction to the town, including a whole pile of completely untrue facts about the place. You have the local pterodactyl, the giant blue bug (Nibbles), a scavenger hunt, the modern coupling rituals, the evil philanthropist who runs the town, the significance of the numbers 1234, God talking smack to Mary and Joseph, and zombies at a local rock show. Creators in here are James Russo, Pete Pendergast, Eric Hoffman, Jason Mayoh, Rob Yeremian (the guy who put it all together), Tom Rebello, and two people who seem content to go by Lou and Ray. See if you can match the artists with their stories! Nothing in here to set the world on fire, as they say, but a pretty solid batch of stories, and I guarantee you’ll learn at least a few things about Providence. $2.50

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Superior Showcase #1

May 2, 2010

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Superior Showcase #1

The phrase “entertaining superhero anthology” probably isn’t something you’ve read lately, but that’s exactly what this is: an entertaining superhero anthology. I wouldn’t have believed it either. There are three stories in this one. First up is Nick Bertozzi’s take on an average day in a superhero convenient store and how the staff deals with transients and villains. And he draws costumes that look like actual clothes! Amazing. Next up is Mike Dawson’s tale of the final adventure of Ace-Face, a guy with giant metal arms, who decides to come out of retirement one last time to deal with a local vigilante, in what is one of the better fight scenes outside of It Lives #1 by Ted May. Last up is Butterfly by John Campbell & Dean Trippi. It’s a look at the lives of the most under-appreciated of heroes: sidekicks. Throw in the evil Hipster Ghosts as the villains and I have a real hard time picking a favorite out of this bunch, always a good sign for an anthology. Adhouse books has (from the comics I’ve seen anyway) managed to keep their perfect reputation intact again. Also, if you’re afraid of the superhero comics, don’t worry. There’s only a couple of real fight scenes and only one guy flying. They do all, however, spend a lot of time focused on grown men in underwear, so take that however you’d like. $2.95

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Only the Lonely

May 2, 2010

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Only the Lonely

The world has been begging for it, so here it is: an anthology about being lonely, standing in the rain and dealing with the women folk. Oh, and its collective tongue in pretty firmly in cheek for most of it. Andy Terhune has a story about potential love in the bowling alley, Thien Pham has a story called “Gummi Bears Taste Like Loneliness (don’t know what explanation that needs), Joe Sayers has the best line in the book with “I have procured a lobster, please prepare for coitus”, Josh Frankel explodes and has some “journal” stuff, Alixopulos creepily goes through his day and makes fun of the anthology, Tom Neely jerks off and pees a lot, Jesse Reklaw does a wonderful Kochalka, and Fredo misses his nighttime lover. A great parody of all of the many, many, MANY whiny autobio stories out there about losing girlfriends and staring at the rain. Which I usually like quite a bit, but parody is always a good thing. Here’s an e-mail address, it’s $3 and completely worth it.

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Paper Cuts Machine

May 2, 2010

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Paper Cuts Machine

Wow, that cover is tremendously hard to see in a scan. This is an anthology of autobiographical comics, which automatically means that I like it, so I’ll try to be a bit more critical this time. There are a couple of great stories by Max Clotfelter, one about almost getting killed in grade school and one about the average events of a week. Every embarrassing detail is exposed here, which is always fun. Then there’s a story from Liz Prince about who’s stinkier, which is a short but fun strip. Aarow Mew just sort of wanders around aimlessly, and I can’t tell you why it bugged me here and not in the other strips, but there you go. Kelly Froh has a great story about a crush on an art school teacher, Rob Schultz has a one pager about wackiness in Iraq (maybe not the funniest subject matter in the world) and Kaz Strzepek has a story about trying to make out with his girlfriend back when he still lived with his parents. Max probably had the best looking art in here, with Kaz a close second, if you’re going to by that standard, even though it’s usually not a tremendously important criteria in autobio. The important thing is that everything in here is engaging and interesting (except maybe for Aaron’s story, but that’s a question of taste). I’m going out on a limb and saying it’s $2, check out the website!

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Monster Engine

May 2, 2010

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Monster Engine

Here’s an anthology that has a monster in every story, real of implied. Pedro Boyd has a story about a dragon versus a pumpkin (I’ll bet you know who wins, too), Brian Canny and Toby Craig have one about some policemen who are out to get people who claim to have lost artifacts from famous artists, Peter Conrad has one about an existential zombie, Jim Rugg adapts the story of Jonah and the whale, Dalton Webb finds his inner demon, Todd Webb may or may not have a monster under his bed, and Tom Williams is dating Godzilla at goth karaoke. A pretty varied collection, mostly from people I’ve heard of, and you (mostly) can’t go wrong with monsters. It’s only $6, check out Toby’s website to order it.

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Berserker #3

May 2, 2010

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Berserker #3

What is it with college kids putting out good comics anthologies? Shouldn’t they be too busy drinking to do anything constructive? Damned useful members of society! Anyway, where #1 of this series was pretty good, this one was fantastic. I don’t think there was a bad story in the bunch. You have the story of Alexander (a parasite who lived inside of a human body for thirty years before finally coming out), an evil salt monster, a long finger, one giant snaky monster (and one multi-headed bird monster), the son of Don Juan, nostalgia… in space!, the happiest afterlife I’ve seen, trying to get the high score on Pac Man, and The Night Amigo. I know I often say that I don’t want to give anything else away because you need to discover it for yourself, but I mean it this time. The Night Amigo should probably be in prison, Don Juan is drawn to perfection… everything in here is good. There are a couple of stories that are only a page, but the rest of them get plenty of room to develop, as there are only 10 stories in a 64 page comic. Who’s in here? Well, MK Reed and Robin Enrico are people I’ve heard of, but I hope all of these people are still doing comics. Contact info is up there, seriously, if they still have copies, you should check this out!

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Berserker #1

May 2, 2010

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Berserker #1

Well, at the very least they have a great name. This is a student collection with one person (MK Reed) who’s already on my page. Everything else is from people who do daily strips for a paper called The Daily Orange, but I have no idea where that’s from. There’s a pretty wide range of stuff in here. Hilarious drunk driving, the horrors of school, a tea party, Ride More Fatty, horrific date rape, wacky prison comedy and rabbits on the ark. A pretty solid collection, especially considering they’re all students (not that I have anything against students, it’s just that they seem to have their collective shit together pretty early on). MK Reed has gotten a lot better in the year or so since this issue came out, that’s for sure. There are probably still some copies floating around, as I managed to get my hands on this one, although the price of it is a mystery. $3? $5? Whatever the case, here’s an e-mail address so you can find out yourself.

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Failure

May 2, 2010

Failure

This is an anthology that’s all autobio stuff, and it’s all about some real or perceived flaw of the author. Naturally, that means I love it. Hey, you should all know by now that I’m biased towards good autobio comics. The first story is by Rose Crowe, whose main failure is her inability to accept praise and good things. Then there’s Antar Ellis, with an average (I only say average because I’ve seen the concept so many times) story about how he screwed up meeting a woman back in school. Jerry Stanford is up next with a depressing tale about addiction, not that there are many stories about addiction that aren’t depressing. Greg Vondruska follows that with a story about rapidly gaining weight, something that I can relate to after too much time in a “comfy” relationship. Last is Drew Weing with a story about being covered in moles (not the underground kind, the skin kind) as a child and dealing with other kids. Lots more to all these stories, of course, but it’s a solid enough book that people should pick it up anyway, so why give anything away? It’s $3, check out the website, I’m sure there’s more goodies there and contact info for everybody…

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Andrus #3

May 2, 2010

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Andros #3

Random anthologies are a sampling of parts of America. OK, maybe they’re not anything that profound, but I’m starting to think that certain parts of the country have clearly defined differences in taste and humor. I’ll be sure to let you know when I write my 50 page thesis on the subject, but for now you’re probably curious about what’s in the actual comic. Most of it is by the editor, Max Clotfelter, and I’m becoming torn on the guy. I reviewed a book of his yesterday that I liked quite a bit, but his stories in here seem mostly aimless and, well, pointless. Not that I’m sure what the point of most comic stories should be, exactly. His first piece is about a wise owl (just once I’d love to see a stupid owl) basically giving a lecture to a giant rat suffering from a hangover. Looks like he spent some time researching this and it’s a great short piece. Then there’s “Under Your Blanket”, a piece that seems to have a point and/or a coherent story at first, then it just doesn’t. Or it just loses me, it’s open to interpretation. There’s a few more, the best being “What’s Happening”, a two-pager about various unimportant moments across history. This was a great idea and could have easily been expanded. Other pieces didn’t stand out as much, although all of his stuff looks great. Like I said yesterday, the man has some artistic talent, there’s no doubt about that. Other contributors to this book are Aaron Mew, who has a neat little silent piece about love beyond the grave; Cathy Hannah, who I think has the strongest pieces in the book (short diatribes about real-life stuff, which are always my favorite; Rich Stevens & Josh Carl Evens, with a creepy Snow White story; F. Enciso with a lovely story about the eternal struggle against roaches, and Andy Rappe with a story about mange. Altogether a pretty strong anthology, although all anthologies have their highs and lows. Still, it’s worth checking out for a couple of bucks, send Max an e-mail to order…

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Garish Zow Comics #1

May 2, 2010

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Garish Zow Comics #1

You know, not to pick on this anthology unfairly or anything, but it seems kind of silly to me to number anthologies until you put a second issue out. If that happens, fine, the first one is automatically assumed to be #1, no big deal. How’s that for an utterly insignificant mini-rant? Anyway, this one isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. There are comics from Amy Allen and Samuel Kienbaum (I’m mentioning them because they’re already on the page and I like their work), and a really great one about friends drifting apart from Thien Pham. Other than that it was a mish-mash, ranging from good to not-so-good. Parts of it were worth a look, if nothing else to see Amy Allen do a comic that wasn’t about Zecord, and it looks good, with a full color section in the middle. Here’s a list of the rest of the contributors: Michael Allen, Tim Goodyear, Ian Ameling, Katherine Wien, Carlos Baltodano, Lou, T.J. Winslow & Nikolita, John Orloff, and Mark Thompson. It’s $3, send an e-mail to order.

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Broad Appeal

May 2, 2010

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Broad Appeal

In case you missed the pun, this is a collection of work from mostly female cartoonists and, like most anthologies, has good things and bad things. It’s a great concept though, as it has bios for everybody in here along with links to their sites and even interviews with a few people. At least two of them work for Marvel in some capacity, but who am I to judge? Granted, a few of the stories are more than a bit cute (as admitted by the creators, so it’s not like I’m being sexist or anything), but the strength of this collection is the sheer variety of stuff involved. You have a nine year old girl reading and dealing with a comic about the atomic bomb in Japan on one page and a mostly wordless story about lazy cats working in a glue factory on the next. All kinds of great female cartoonists in here too. Check out the website if you don’t believe me. $9.95 is pretty cheap for something this packed too, so check into it, see what you think.  Contributors: Sara Varon, Becky Cloonan, Raina Telgemeier, Ariel Bordeaux, Ellen Forney, Diana Sprinkle, Miss Lasko-Gross, Missy Kulik, Jen Benka, Kris Dresen, Hellen Jo, Kristen Petersen, Jen Sorenson, Michele Roman, Abby Denson, Jenny Gonzalez, Rachel Hartman, Mary Minch, Megan Kelso, Doreen A. Mulryan, Lark Pien, Sarah Anderson Lock, Elena Steier, Jennifer Moore, Lela Lee, Vanessa Satone, Shaenon K. Garrity, Catherine Tutrone, Ellen Lindner, Elayne Riggs, Robin Riggs, Janet Hetherington, Donna Barr.

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Potlatch

May 2, 2010

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Potlatch

Well, it’s a benefit book for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which is about as worthy a cause as you’re likely to find in the comics world, so I don’t want to say too much bad about it. The problem is that it pretty much sucked. All of the names that I bought this for just put in some old strips. I don’t know if that’s what everybody but I’d have to guess that that was the case. Greg Vondruska, Neil Fitzpatrick, Stan Yan, Dave Law, Barrett Lombardo, Kistof Spacey & Sal Cipriano, Chris Staggs & Marc Deering and Jose Mochove had stories of varying degrees of interest in the book (actually, I thought the Jose Mochove stuff was the highlight of the book, so check out his site). As for everything else, I either thought it was stupid or mediocre. One man’s opinion, granted, but there it is. If you want to give the CBLDF money, just go their website and make a donation. It might look like I put a lot of names up in the “OK” pile, but I was being generous and some of the other stuff was really bad. It’s cheap at $4.95, but that’s the best thing I can say about it. Stay away, Joe.

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Posted by Kevin

Various Anthologies – Grandpa’s Lap #5

May 2, 2010

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Grandpa’s Lap #5

What a mess. I shouldn’t be too hard on this, I guess. This is what I was expecting all along with anthologies and should probably consider myself lucky that this is the first one I’ve seen in a while that just doesn’t have much going for it. It’s an anthology out of Carbondale, IL and it does have a wide variety of stories, as long as “wide variety” means that they all have the same themes: Sex, drugs and demons. If you think I’m going to go on some religious rant here, you don’t know me very well. I have no problem with any of those things in stories as long as they’re done well. This is sloppy for about half of the issue, in desperate need of an editor, and therapy might be advisable for Mike Hackett, unless he really does just have random women come to his place to do drugs with him and have crazy sex. If that’s true, hey, more power to him. If it’s not, his stories verge on pathetic. You also have your anime girls with giant breasts (Succubus Party by Matt Speroni), the page I sampled from Scott Powers that I actually liked, one mess of a story called Cartoon Hell by Nathan Stiffler (the mess here is only the writing, art, and lettering), and some other stuff so random that it’s barely worth mentioning. I did like pretty much all of the Scott Powers stuff, including his Random Samurai Story, but everything else was forgettable unless you’re 15 and easily amused by gore and boobs. If so, send them $3 (it is a pretty big anthology at 44 pages, I’ll give them that much) at: Scott Powers 1736 Old West Main Carbondale, IL 62901. Or just e-mail them to see what they have available, as several issues of this have been printed.

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Posted by Kevin

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