May 2, 2010
Website
One Thing Leads To Another
Yep, the artist really does appear to simply go by the name “Thompson”, or at least that’s the best info I could find after looking around for ten minutes online, and frankly that’s more than enough time to find the creator of a comic. Put your damned name in your book people! Ahem. As for the comic, this is a self-contained story from the website listed above, dealing with vampires, aliens, the afterlife and hanging out with friends (and a bunch of vampires). There are a couple of pages in the middle that deal with one of the more cliche-ridden fight scenes I’ve seen in a comic (and that’s saying a whole lot), with pretty much all of the dialogue and the moves as obvious as could be. It was an odd thing because, while the book never really becomes great, it was certainly pretty damned good for bits and pieces. Something to do with putting out a continuing story as a daily webcomic maybe, or maybe it’s just an early effort. Lots of interesting twists and turns with?a little bit of stupid thrown in, I guess you could say. Luckily you don’t need to buy it first to find out for yourselves, as there are plenty of samples on the website to help make up your minds first. Oh, and this apparently leads into something called “Resurrection”, which from the preview looks like an extra duplicate of the Angel tv series, but it’s hard to say for sure from a one page preview…
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Veena the Expanding Spiral
Damn it all. I was under the impression that this book was the first issue and that I would be able to start off fresh. Turns out that this is #4 of the second volume, so he’s been at it for a while. Still, I must be doing OK if my worst problem is that I have to see what happened before this, and even that isn’t absolutely essential because the story doesn’t seem to have been continued anywhere. I mostly just want to because I liked the comic. Eric wrote to me almost write away many months ago when I first started Xerox Army and has been nothing but good people, so I’ve been preparing myself to be impressed with this for a while now. I should have broken down and gotten other issues before this, but this whole “being too poor to eat” thing really limits my options these days. Anyway, enough of the rambling. The first story in this sticks with me the most upon reflection. A man meets Veena in a bar and tells her about how he’s been reliving his life over and over again with the help of a genie, but he just can’t seem to get everything quite right. Great finish to this. I wish I knew the background to this character though. As far as I know all she does is sit in bars drinking. Cold Fluid, about a Captain America like guy hunting down Frankenstein to help him live longer, hearkened (can I use that in this century) back to the EC Comics days, except for the fact that the hero doesn’t do so well in this one. Oh come on, I didn’t give anything away. You can tell all that from the first page. Lots if little pieces in this too. A running serial with a man trapped in Hitler’s body (also goes back to the pulp days of comics), some dream stuff and a story about the “future”. A well-rounded book, all kinds of good stuff in here. I would have liked a little more Veena, so I guess it’s my own damned fault for not having more of them. I’ll fix that soon enough. This is a full size comic, so you should be able to find it if you have a halfway decent comic store anywhere near you. If not, visit his website for ordering info.
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Booty #18
Eek, that cover looks terrible. Sorry, it really looks better than that in real life. Don’t know where I’ve been, but Anne has apparently been doing this for 17 issues already (unless she decided to start on #18 just to confuse me), and it’s great stuff. It’s basically a diary strip, with most of the stories being 1-3 pages long. She talks about a variety of things, including her troubles with teaching school, her need to get as far away as possible sometimes, the reason why she had to dye her hair red, and her terrible relationship with her grandmother. As far as I’m concerned this is a great addition to the ranks of autobio, even if she has been doing it for awhile and I’m just now noticing. It’s obviously heartfelt, the art is simple (not much in the way of backgrounds, which lets you focus on what’s being said, which is all that’s really important here), and I just felt an immediate connection with a lot of things that she’s going through. You can’t ask for any more than that out of an autobio comic. Send her an e-mail or just send her money (I’m guessing a couple bucks an issue and it’s well worth it, at least from what I can tell from this issue) at: Anne Thalheimer c/o Simon’s Rock College of Bard (Box 498) 84 Balford Road, Gt. Barrington, MA 01230
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Blow
Do you like your comics full of solid black ink and incredibly sloppy lettering? If so, this one is for you! OK, that may be a little mean, as sometimes those solid blacks really add to the page, but that lettering is just awful. Generally speaking, you should at least be able to read the website listing at the front of the comic (I had to use Google). This is the story of BigFro, a man who inexplicably wanders back and forth between gunfights, playing a horn with Dizzy and Miles, and having sex with random women. There’s not much here remotely resembling a coherent story, as BigFro seems to offer his soul to the devil for a chance to play with the greats and tries to escape from some people who are (for reasons that are never explained) trying to kill him. There were some great lines here and there, but overall it’s just a mess. This is older material, it’s possible that Robert has improved things since this book came out. Either way, if you want to check out his stuff, it’s safe to say that you can avoid this one. No price, but the website lists most of his books for $5, which is a bit insane for a black and white book…
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website at Fantagraphics
Invasion of the Mind Sappers
Mediocre. That’s the word for this one, all the praise on the back of the book and on the Amazon page notwithstanding. A UFO crashes on the outskirts of a small town on the same night that a new teacher moves into town. Coincidence, or is the new teacher an alien? This book has a few good moments, but that’s about all I can say about it. I read it about 5 minutes ago and I can already feel it fading from my brain, so I guess you can say that it didn’t make much of an impression at all. Buy it if you believe that Fantagraphics can do no wrong and that I usually don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, otherwise don’t bother.
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Toenails #0
Another entry for Shiot Crock #11, this is a tiny collection of single panel “funnies”, different from most by the fact that, in this case, they’re actually funny. Well, OK, the one with the land mine wasn’t all that funny, and the strip about the band member who killed his whole band was mostly funny because of the pants, but the other strips were hilarious. What more do you want? There were only 5 strips in here, as it’s a collection with work from all kinds of folks, and this is just here to highlight this one guy. I’ll bet you could get more information than you’re getting from me if you went to his website though…
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Urban Hipster #2
If you think that the last thing the comics world needs is another comic about people in their 20’s complaining about things and socializing, no matter how good the comic actually is, then you’re going to want to avoid this. If you like your comics insightful, beautiful and entertaining, then you’re probably going to want to pick this up. Garfunk, the hip cat, was kind of stupid to me for one strip and then kind of funny for the strip that I sampled. Other than that there were a few short strips, then one about pinball. Here’s where I really related, as I went through my own pinball addiction a few years ago and he nailed a whole bunch of emotions from that admittedly silly addiction. Not sure how the rest of the world will react to it but I got what he was going for, or at least I got something out of it. The bulk of the comic is the interaction between Natasha and Chloe, and if you’re thinking “Ghost World” all over again just because it has two female leads, you’re way off. Chloe is quiet and introspective, Natasha uses any ammunition that she might have to get what she wants, even when that information isn’t really hers to give. A great comic, something that everybody should check out. And it looks like Dave is unemployed, so maybe we won’t have to wait five years for another issue…
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Hole
I’m not a fan of the comics that are one or two words per page, generally speaking. Give me a silent comic or give me plenty of words and I’m happy, or at least I have the chance to form a coherent opinion. I’m also usually not a fan of really scratchy, charcoal style artwork. Kudos to Andrej for doing both of those things and making me enjoy. It’s a really quick read (two minutes max), but there’s a lot going on there that we don’t see and some pure human pain is on those pages. The story of a drug user with police looking for him, but there’s so much more to it than that. I didn’t think you could convey that much fear and hopelessness through scratchy drawing. Shows what I know, and why I’m writing these instead of doing comics. That’s 3 for 3 on the Mini Burger stuff.
Check out his page to see a whole bunch of samples of his work.
E-mail him to see what he has available or just write to him:
Metelkova 6, Ljubljana 1000 Slovenia Ex Yu
Chris Staros over at Top Shelf told me that although the Mini Burger set isn’t available on the web page, you can still order it through their online catalog. Just go to the ordering page, click on #4 at the bottom (additional comments) and write in that you want the Mini Burger set for $19.95. They have it in stock, they just haven’t updated the site in a while. From what I’ve read, it’s worth it. There might be two bad ones in this bunch and a couple of mediocre ones, but the good ones are good in ways that you don’t usually see in this country.
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Entering Joanne Now Available! $3
Mind out of the gutter, people! There’s a perfectly logical, non-sexy explanation for that title. This is the story of a colony (assuming that’s the right word) of spiders, and an attempt by Angela to explain the disgusting statistic that an average person will eat 8 spiders in his or her lifetime while asleep. Come to think of it, based on my completely limited knowledge of spider activity, I’m pretty sure she used an ant colony here and went with spiders instead, but it’s such a great story that artistic license is easily explained away. She weaves between the story of these spiders and their tyrant queen to the rocky relationship between the sexually frustrated Joanne and her boyfriend Kenny to other people in the building and other spiders in the colony effortlessly. And come on, how often do you see a book that’s about 3/4 drawings of spiders, some with comical feminine eyelashes and/or a silly moustache? Great stuff all around, really really great if this is a first effort (first one I’ve seen from her, anyway). And I’m always a sucker for a lack of resolution in an ending, so kudos on that as well. $3, well worth checking out.
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Soapbox #1
This is a collection of 4 panels strips. If you’ve ever read this site before, you know I mostly hate those things. That being said, I’m not an objective observer of strips. I can’t stand the sheer amount of crap that’s in the newspapers, and I can’t stand the stuff that tries as hard as it can to imitate that stuff. A lot of this book copied that formula. As such, it didn’t do much for me, although I could see that it was pretty good for what it was. A man moved away from home for the first time with a couple of friends. Hijinx ensue, including a talking bear, a broken down car, a hip grandma, and his first real job. The bit with the job was when it started getting interesting, as the main character (Herb) started questioning his life, what he was doing, what people in general needed to do, those sorts of things. All of a sudden it was a much better strip, but then it was over. If it picks up where it left off, I’d recommend this book. Here’s hoping that’s the case, because then we can chalk this up to a “learning experience” and go from there. It’s $3 and samples are up here, if you’d rather judge for yourself (and that’s always a good policy).
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Diesel Sweeties: How I Blew My Thursday Night
The art in this book is tremendously awful. However, I really hate computer art for comics, so it’s best to disregard that sentence if you are into the newfangled art that the kid’s are using these days. The message on the cover was one of the best I got at the show though, so he does get some points for that. This is an online strip put into a comic to get the word out at SPX. I don’t think it’s on any kind of a regular schedule, although the back of the book says that there are hundreds of free cartoons available at the website. The comic is a short collection of strips about robots, computers and sexual tension. Funny at times, this is one of those things that could be a pretty good strip. If everything works out in the next few months I should be able to finally start reviewing the online stuff, then you’ll know what I think about the rest of it. Until then, all I can tell you about is the comic, and it was pretty funny. Hated the art, though. It’s probably a couple of bucks, but why bother when you can probably read all the strips for free at the website? Check it out, if you’re reading my site I know you have some time to kill…
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
The Moth or the Flame
If you prefer your comics simple, I’ll warn you right now to move along. If you, on the other hand, prefer to have to puzzle out your comics, knowing that you’ll still have questions at the end but that you will be richly visually rewarded for your troubles, this is worth a close look. Joshua has an excellent introduction along those lines, essentially saying that the pretty pictures would probably be enough for some readers, but those who demand more would be richly rewarded. This is the tale, more or less, of two lovers and how they eventually destroy each other. A rich and successful playboy meets an ambitious lawyer at a party, they end up back at his place, but she disappears while he’s on a hunting expedition the next day. And really, I can’t just leave it at “a hunting expedition”. The playboy, Tempest McGillicutty (who looks like vaguely like Too Much Coffee Man, in the sense that he has what appears to be an opening with liquid at the top of his head) goes out with his hunting dog, which is wearing the skin of a sheep. Tempest shoots an adorable creature who is frolicking by the water to lure an even bigger creature to eat the remains, which will let him suck the energy from this larger creature. This whole sequence is bizarre enough to be an unsettling comic all by itself. He returns to his house, finds his lover Tealeaf Wallowrose gone, and goes into a long funk. He eventually learns that she had been called away on a project but couldn’t stop talking about him, they are reunited and spend two blissful years together. Still, such a thing rarely lasts, odd happenings occur, a rite is required, and their love it turned into something much uglier. Reading over this, it almost seems like a fairly common story, which does the whole graphic novel a disservice. This is an utterly unique comics experience, with things hinted at going on below the surface that one read through will only begin to discover. Every page is drawn and planned out seemingly to perfection, the troubles at the end seem to be inevitable in hindsight, and there’s so much happening on every level that you could practically pick your own moral lesson, if you need one of those. This seems to be Joshua’s first comic (although there must be some minis out there, as this is a self-published hardcover graphic novel), and it’s things like this that keep the medium going strong. Somebody will read this, get their own ideas, make their own utterly bizarre and unique comic, and the art form moves right along. Why don’t you check it out and help that process? $18
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Huang Shan
Nick mentioned in the letter he sent along with this comic that he probably should have included an English title on the cover, but by the time he realized that he already had a bunch of copies printed up, and here we are. I’m sure there’s some way to use kanji for the comic title, but damned if I know what that is. This is a story about the Huang Shan mountains, how Nick and a couple of friends decided to climb one (more or less on a whim), and how they then decided to climb down the mountain in the dark. I should be clear that this isn’t mountain climbing like you’d see where people are hanging by their fingernails as they ascend and descend, instead this looks like a mountain where there’s a pretty safe stairway carved into the mountain. Still, in an unfamiliar land in the dark there’s all kinds of risk. He also tells tales about getting sick of posing for photographs (as they were apparently the only Americans on the mountain), how Li Bai (a famous poet who wrote about everyday life) inspired them to descend in the dark, and how the journey is pretty much always more important than the destination. OK, I cheated on that one as it’s included in the letter, but Nick did an excellent job of making that clear in the book. It’s a fairly sizable book (in pure size, not length), once again making the “mini comic” name ridiculous, but if there’s a better way to describe these things I still haven’t heard it. Nick does an excellent job showing all the crowds and various happenings on the mountain; it’s clearly not an out-of-the-way place for most people. This is well worth checking out for fans of the travel comics though. He doesn’t have time here to get really in depth with his journey but he certainly manages to get his points across. $4
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
E-mail
The Adventures of Ranger Strange Bunny
What an adorable book. Granted, the art looks like it was done by a small child (including the many pages with color), and it’s hard to get much more simple than this story, but it does have all kinds of charm. This is the story of a little bunny who tries working a regular job but ends up an adventurer. She has awesome super powers (that come from bacteria), goes into space, plays games with the other bunnies, parties with her imaginary friends, and drinks too much in Bora Bora. That last part is the only indication that this book is meant for anybody other than small children, and even the issue of drinking is only briefly mentioned. This is definitely friendly for the kids, and it would probably be inspirational to some of them that think they have issues with their artwork. It’s an excellent reminder that the story is more important than the artwork in comics (at least that’s what I think). This may a bit too simple and nice for us hopelessly cynical folks, but kids and people who still have some hope for the world will probably love this. No price, but there are are all kinds of colored pages and it’s fairly thick, so… $4?
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
E-mail
Eye of the Majestic Creature #2
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: god bless Poopsheet. Granted, I’m probably not supposed to talk up the “competition” (even though we have different inventory (mostly)) but man do they have a ton of odd, wonderful comics that I would never have found without them. Besides, what, one of us is going to steal a living away from the other one? More power to Rick Bradford if he manages to make a living doing this. Anyway, how about this comic? It’s the first thing I’ve seen from Leslie, who already has a bit of a reputation apparently (and a book funded by Xeric), and it’s fantastic. It’s mostly the story of the female lead on the cover (Leslie?) and her only friend out in the wilderness, a talking guitar. She left civilization to get away from it all but finds herself increasingly lonely and decides to start a door to door coffee business in an effort to meet people. This works about as well as one could expect in a land where everybody already has their own coffee makers, but the joy of this comic is in the people she does meet, including a harassed young mother and a creepy store owner. The other major chunks of this issue deal with a, um, man with a bird beak (or birdman of some kind) who’s obsessed with barbecue. On one of his trips out he leaves Leslie in charge of things, with mildly disastrous results. This book is funny, insightful, gorgeous and slightly sad all rolled up into one. She’s somebody you should keep an eye on, unless, of course, you’re more connected to the whole “scene” than I am and already know all about her. $3
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Fuzz and Pluck
Strangely enough, I remember reading this book a year or so ago and not liking it much, except for the one page that I scanned here. I don’t know what kind of mood I was in that day, but I was way off. This is a hell of a book. When there are characters that obviously don’t fit (like this chicken and teddy bear) in comics these days, they are usually the only thing odd about that world. Not this place. It looks like a wasteland more often than not and there are all kinds of odd things happening, like a slave auction (instead of prison) and a sentient pile of branches. Wonderfully bizarre stuff, and the sexual tension between the bear and his new owner is funny and creepy all at once. I seem to remember Fantagraphics having a new book of this stuff coming out soon, so keep an eye out for it. This is definitely somebody to watch out for, unless he keeps up this incredibly slow pace. Or maybe it just seems like a slow pace because most of the strips in this book were from 4 years before the book came out…
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Ishkabibble
It seems like minis like this are hard to come by these days. It’s basically one man, going through his day, telling the short and depressing story of his life. He regrets things, wonders about what happened to him and, the whole time, realizes what a cliche his wonderings really are. Expressive, oversized art (or maybe it just seems that way because the guy is fat), insightful and piercing dialogue, it’s hard to say you’ll go wrong throwing $2 at this guy. Send him money (and ask for a catalog, he has more minis available, this is just the first one I’ve gotten to in my stack) at: Vincent Stall Publications Department 89 South 10th St. Suite # 315 Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403.
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website (not even sure if he even has this comic available, but it’s one of the best comic resource sites out there)
Shelton #3
Yes, that is the Tom Spurgeon who works on The Comics Journal. You have to know from that that this is a well-written, interesting book. Lucky for him, it’s also funny. Uh, lucky for him mostly because it’s the mood I’m in, and it helps me say nice things about a book if it fits my mood. That’s right, all these reviews are just random extensions of my mood. Isn’t that depressing? Anyway, this is about Shelton and his chicken trying to retrieve a “treasure” out of the attic. Hijinx ensue, and I do mean hijinx. Lots of physical humor, slapstick kind of stuff, and it’s all done well. This is a steal at a buck. There are three of these out there, at least as of this writing, and you can get all three for $2. Haven’t read #1, but #2 was pretty good too and I’d say just go ahead and send him the $2, you cheap bastard. Send money to Tom at: 7563 Lake City Way NE Seattle, WA 98115.
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Falafel Fall-Out
Who hasn’t had hippie friends in their time? And who hasn’t had hippie friends who, in spite of all their talk of love and a peaceful world, turn out to be total assholes? I’m venting a bit, sure, and I have met plenty of hippies who really were wonderful people, and plenty who were shysters/hooligans/lollygaggers. Anyway, there’s a comic somewhere around here that I should be talking about… here it is! This is the (autobiographical?) tale of a young man who rehearses with his band in the basement of a house full of hippies. One day, one of the hippies asks to borrow Gavin’s car and, after much tense waiting, manages to get it in an accident while he was out. Insurance isn’t going to be used and they end up having to get $1200 in 48 hours, and the hippie bows out of helping after saying that he’d sell his bike if necessary. Great stuff all around, and a great synopsis at the end about how people you know seem to just scatter to the four winds as you get older. It’s $3.50 (according to his website) and worth a look.
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Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Slowpoke: Cafe Pompous
I remember thinking that Slowpoke was great a few years ago. With this book, she’s going in a slightly different direction. I’ve always been a bigger fan of comics stories than newspaper type strips (Steven being the only notable exception I can think of), but she makes this stuff work. Political at times, she deals with all kinds of ridiculous events and current happenings with pretty much the same attitude. Look, this is a cheap, good book, and it’s a Xeric Grant winner. Do you need any other reason to give it a try? Hey, here’s a website with all kinds of samples. Go!
Slowpoke #1
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Posted by Kevin
