April 28, 2010
Website
The Bridge Project
Just so it’s clear, as of 10/07/09 that website is still “under construction”. Well, it does lead to a fair amount of samples from Matt and other places to learn about this book, so it’s better than most “under construction” websites, and this book is new enough that it might really be under construction. I’ve just become jaded from seeing that warning on countless websites only to have the construction never start. Anyway, how about the book? This is an anthology with a unique goal: team up on cartoonist living in Portland with one living in San Francisco, let them do their thing and see what comes out of it. Some of these stories just have one person drawing, some of them mix both artists in, but the mildly surprising thing is how well all of this works. Collaborations can be a tricky business, but Matt seems to have found the magic formula. This did take a couple of years to put together, so I guess technically he did have time to work some bugs out. Stories in here include The Forlorn Hope (by Shannon O’Leary & Ryan Alexander-Tanner, dealing with the infamous Donner party), The “The Bridge Project” Project (by Peter Conrad, the only solo piece in the book due to Peter’s partner crapping out on him), Nerd Prom (by Carolyn Main & Jesse Baggs about cartoonists in relationships getting along a little too well at a convention), Shanghooked (by Graham Annable & Scott Campbell), Lost Intersection (by Matt Leunig & Seamus Heffernan, the heart of the book), Jumpers (by Sina Grace & Susan Tardif, about a long distance relationship disintegrating), Future Jerks (by Jonathan Hill & Calvin Wong about, um, vegan jerks in the future), Dark Matter (by Tom Lechner & John Isaacson, dealing with an especially creepy invasion), The MVPs (by Josh Frankel & Greg Means, it’s about star basketball players yearning to make comics), and The Doppelganger (by Tessa Brunton & Vanessa Grunton, it’s all about the various evil twins we have all over the place. All that and there’s still room for a couple of short pieces by Rina Ayuyang & Erika Moen (an untitled piece about trying to fit in in Portland), Mari Naomi & Rachel Mendez (Inga and the Whales, a heartbreaking tale (almost certainly an urban legend) about a whale thanking its rescuers), and David Chelsea & Two Fine Chaps (that’s really what they’re called, it deals with David’s uncle having a stroke). It’s packed, is what I’m trying to say, and there’s really not a weak piece in the bunch. Graham Annable is always worth the price of admission to me and his piece on the sea serpent was brilliant, there were some damned useful tips in The Doppelganger (if you ever run into yours, that is), Peter Conrad was far too nice in not naming the slacker that promised him a script for months, and the center of the book by Matt & Seamus, dealing with a few people and their relationships over the years, was a perfect place to do some artist swapping. So now that I’ve mentioned how great the content was, I at least have to mention the layout. No table of contents, but that was made up for by the inclusion on the bottom of every page of the artists.  It seems to be the norm not to mention that on the page in anthologies, and it bugs me every time it’s not included, so kudos to Matt for that. It’s an impressive achievement, here’s hoping this didn’t scare him off editing anthologies altogether and he can keep this concept going with other cities. And did I mention this is a measly $9.95?
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Reviews | Tagged: Calvin Wong, Carolyn Main, David Chelsea, Erika Moen, Grahan Annable, Greg Means, Jesse Baggs, John Isaacson, Jonathan Hill, Josh Frankel, Mari Naomi, Matt Leunig, Peter Conrad, Rachel Mendez, Rina Ayuyang, Ryan Alexander-Tanner, Scott Campbell, Seamus Heffernan, Shannon O'Leary, Sina Grace, Susan Tardif, Tessa Brunton, The Bridge Project, Tom Lechner, Vanessa Grunton | 
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
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Big ‘Un Visits the City
Who likes mayhem? As you may have guessed by that cover (shame on you for judging a book by its cover, even if you did get it right this time) that giant sea monster (?) decides to wander into the city, because… well, why do these big monsters usually go into cities? Let’s go with that reason, whatever it is. The monster gets some resistance, mostly just a nuisance to him (unless it’s a her), and has a merry old time tearing up the place. Eventually the secret weapon is brought out, but I won’t give away the ending. It’s a fun book if you’re into this sort of thing. No graphic violence so your kids could read it if they love monster movies, and there are a number of little clever asides. I particularly enjoyed the crowd scene consisting of 4 people planning and a number of others running away. Clearly these people were in some sort of anti Big ‘Un squadron, but I loved how any details about it or about the secret weapon were glossed right over. Hey, it’s only a mini comic and the man needed to cram as much destruction in here as he could; there’s no faulting him for that. If you’re looking for a long whiny tract about What It All Means there are plenty of pages on this website that’ll fit the bill. If you just want to see a big monster tearing through a town for no good reason, you’ve come to the right place. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Website
Tales From The Farm
Hooray for relentless ugliness! The art here is blotchy and clumpy, with all sorts of angles on the faces of these sad, sad people. It’s the story of a young boy named Lester who goes to live with his Uncle on a farm after his Mother dies of cancer. His Uncle, Ken, never had any kids and seems to be at something of a loss as to how to deal with Lester. He’s obviously trying, but Lester is having his own problem adjusting to things and they just can’t seem to connect. Lester meets a shopkeeper in town, Jimmy, an old hockey player who took a nasty hit and was never the same. They spend their days building a fort for the upcoming alien invasion and generally playing around like kids do except, of course, Jimmy is a grown man. The sheer vulnerability of everyone here is astounding. With the exception of maybe a page or two (when Ken tries to convince Jimmy to stay away from Lester), the faces here tell a tale of confusion, of trying to cope with something genuinely awful, of knowing that the only option is for them to move forward together but being unable to make the leap. And if Jimmy comes across like a simpleton from that description, it’s not how it reads. He’s a lonely man, sure, but he’s mostly sticking around Lester because he’s trying to help the kid cope, and because…well, some things are best left to the reader to discover. Good stuff, and this is the first part of a projected trilogy based around Essex County. It looks like the characters will change from book to book, but that’s the sort of thing that’ll become a lot clearer when the rest of them are published, obviously… $9.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Website
Zero Hour: Blue Plate Special
I should warn you all right off that bat that I mostly don’t like newspaper “funnies”, mostly because they never make me laugh. That being said, this one starts off a little bit behind the eight ball, and the comic itself did nothing to change my mind. It’s a series of strips about the life of the author, Patty Leidy, and her adventures with her roommate Ant. I usually try to find something nice to say about any comic, but there really wasn’t anything here that I thought was more than OK. Here’s an e-mail address, apparently the website is down. Mostly nothing happens at all in the strips, so I’m not sure what to tell you about that either. Some of them just blatantly waste time until the strip is over. Mostly they’re obsessed with pez and Godzilla, which isn’t always a bad thing by any means. I just didn’t like it, OK? Check it out for yourself though, she seems like a nice enough person and my opinion shouldn’t convince you not to even look at it.
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Time’s Up #9: Bearing the Wait
I first discovered Patrick Lee while I was out in L.A. a couple of years ago visiting a friend (the same one who did the James Kochalka interview). It was because of an absolutely striking cover that he did for a comic called “She Said” which had the likeness of a hauntingly beautiful woman. For me it was like how most people apparently see the Mona Lisa; an enigmatic picture that you can’t get out of your head. I remember buying it and being impressed by the issue, and by the other ones of his that I bought too, but… There has always been something holding me back from unreservedly recommending him to friends of mine. “He’s OK”, I say, and then try to explain why it’s just OK and not great. I still can’t tell you exactly why that is, but I can say this: he’s not doing enough. It’s nothing I can put my finger on. His commitment to his comic is commendable, his art has gotten better from the last time I saw it (it wasn’t bad to begin with), I remember laughing more than a few times in this issue, it’s just… Well, it seems to me like he’s one intangible away from greatness. I don’t know what that is or I would be happy to pass it along, and it’s not like what he is now is bad at all, because it’s still a consistently entertaining read, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I thought he had more in him somewhere.
After reading #9 again for this review, I have to say that whatever it is that he’s missing, he’s getting a lot closer to having it. #9 is a series of one or two page stories and almost all of them “work”. “5 Types of Comic Convention Geeks” was a joy, although it would go right over the head of somebody who had never been at a convention. Wait a minute, do people that have never been to a convention even read minis? Well, never mind then. Daily events, the life of a mailbox, past events in his life, fictional stories like the one where the couple burns each other’s porn, even the Kubrick tribute, they all entertain. And what more can you ask for than that? On another note, will somebody please send me some crappy minis? I’m trying real hard to be negative here, but all the minis I have I either like or they aren’t in print anymore for me to bash. I’m trying to be mean here, dammit!
Ask Patrick what he has in print:
Patrick J. Lee 280 N. Florence Street Burbank, CA 91505-3618
Or e-mail him first and see what he has.
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
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Pipe Bomb #32
I can’t tell you how much that “#32” impresses me. I don’t see enough comics get to #2 these days, let alone #32. This is about half zine and half comics, so it’s another one of those things that’s hard to categorize. Which is fine, who likes categories anyway? The writing in here is mostly about Chelsea’s life and how she tries to balance school with finding a job and still throwing some social life in there somewhere, but she also explains how, due to all the comics, she sees everything in her daily life with panels, and thinks of how it could work as a comic. She also throws in her calendar for February and a copy of her very first check for a published strip, in the local paper Flagpole (which seemed like an altogether impressive publication, at least the issue I picked up o during my trip to Athens). Then you get to the comics, which are all one of two page strips about taking a piss, a banana peel, Polar Girl, police states, her rambling on a trapeze, and a couple other things but hey, why spoil all the surprises? A couple of the endings for her strips were a little lame and formulaic, but I can overlook that kind of thing as long as the comics themselves were good, and she certainly had that covered. It’s only a buck to check this out, and if you like it you have 31 back issues to find, so why not give it a shot? Here’s an e-mail address, she probably has more info…
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Website
A Grain of Salt
I think Lynn wins the prize for “most awkward opening scene in a mini comic ever”. Actually, there’s enough disturbing stuff out there that it’d be a pretty stiff competition, but this one has to be up there. A young girl and her brother are sitting at a diner, enjoying their lunch, when the brother proclaims that he wants to have his sister’s babies. The sister is rightly disgusted and outraged (as is the passing waitress), but by the end Lynn has somehow managed to right this into a more than slightly heartwarming comic. Yes, it’s possible, and yes, it all makes sense in the end. This is a tiny thing (5 pages of comic) so it’s impossible to say too much without giving the whole plot away, but I was able to come away with the impression that Lynn has a nice ear for dialogue. It’s hard to say much more about Lynn from such a small sample (and there’s artwork available on her website but I’m not seeing comics), but I am intrigued. Hard not to be after an opening scene like that! $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
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Aim Volume 2 #1
Yes, that is the only name that she gives inside her comic. Apparently she’s been doing the book since 1993 but changed the format, so she started with Volume 2. Whatever works for her, I guess. The style of this issue was really bugging me for the first quarter of it or so. She has this way of not using any punctuation (intentionally or not, I don’t know) and smashing her characters and dialogue in little panels that was obnoxious. But about halfway through I realized that I was really liking the pacing, and those things that were bugging me earlier had a lot to do with that. Anything that wins me over mid-comic after pissing me off first can’t be bad. There’s a little continuing story going on, but you really don’t have to read any of the older stuff to get it because she summarizes before the issue. This issue is all about a party for the main character’s (?) ex-boyfriend. Just drunken conversations mostly, but I really like this style. Maybe it’s the solid blacks that won me over, I don’t know. Anyway, this comic is regular sized and goes for $1.95 according to the cover. Send her some money, won’t you?
Aim Comics 199 East 4th Street Box #4 New York, NY 10009
Or send her an e-mail to see what she has around: misskesh@aol.com
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Website
Arcade of Cruelty
There are times when it’s better NOT to go to a website to learn more about a person before writing a review. This book came out of nowhere, I enjoyed sizable chunks of it, so I wanted to know more about Joseph. The front page of his website is an absolutely brutal e-mail from an ex, with links on some of the more brutal things she said leading to parts of his website. Pretty clever, actually, but man, if even half of the things she wrote were true… oof. Of course, the whole thing could just be a joke, leaving me the biggest sucker in the world, which wouldn’t be the first time. So how about that book? It’s a career retrospective to somebody I’ve never heard of which, granted, doesn’t mean all that much, but it’s possible that a career retrospective should wait until somebody is older than 30. Things start off with grade school doodles from Joseph, mostly with the level of humor you would expect from somebody in their early grade school years. Mildly ausing for a awhile, but it definitely goes on a bit too long. Following these are a series of monotypes, and the reason for their inclusion frankly baffles me, as they’re mostly just different kinds of white smudges and indistinct drawings on a black backgroud. Probably just betraying my lack of artistic appreciation, but I can live with that. Luckily things pick up quite a bit once he gets to the actual comic strips. Plenty of cruelty on display here (as the title might suggest), dealing with such subjects as his troubles with women, thoughts on various cartoonists (and seriously, lay off Jeff Brown. Fat jokes are the cheapest humor in the world), and his fatalistic thoughts on life in general. Following all this is a section titled “Excerpts from Joseph Patrick Larkin’s Beat-Off Binders”, which is exactly what it sounds like: samples of his collages of various women, some creepier than others, saved at the last minute by an ad that wasn’t in his binders at all, or at least I hope it wasn’t. More sketchbook stuff next (although most of it looks good enough to have been published to me), the comics from his aborted project about how funny rape is, all wrapped up with a whole bunch of comics about 9/11 and various reactions. Just about every page of this book has comments from Joseph, so we at least get a clear sense of his thought process. Granted, sometimes it’s informative and sometimes it isn’t at all, but the book would be extremely hard to follow without them. Reading back over this, this review is coming off more harshly than I’d intended. Most of his 9/11 stuff is really funny (thanks Republicans for milking that day dry for political purposes), good chunks of the comics and sketchbooks are hilarious, and it’s hard not to like a guy who’s this painfully honest, even if he is painfully honest about being a hopeless loser. It’s worth checking out, even if chunks of it could have been taken out without losing a thing. $18
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Website
Combustion
Wordless stories are a tricky business. If they aren’t done right, and this happens more than I’d like to admit, they’re a complete waste of time. Granted, it’s usually only a few minutes of time, but it stinks when that’s the best thing that you can say about a book. There are times, however. when it’s done to perfection, and you have to stop and wonder why people use words at all. Chris Lanier’s book falls into the latter category. This is a story about a soldier who sees too much and his reactions to the horrors of war. Incredibly moving and quick, this is something that everybody who has a political and social conscience should own. I’ve rarely seen eyes that haunted anywhere. The art is dark and dirty, but in a way that perfectly suits the story. Hey, Peter Kuper likes it too, as evidenced by the back of the book, so how can you go wrong?
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Website
Fred the Clown #1
If you like the old black and white cartoons, you’ll probably love this book. It certainly matches them in sheer mayhem. The book is all over the place, with the strongest stories being, by far, the longer, cartoon-like stories. Mars, a haunted house and karma are all covered here. Anybody who animated this would probably make a fortune, at least they would if they marketed it to the right people. There are also plenty of little musical numbers, some of which work and some of which don’t. Lot’s of little mostly funny one-page gag strips too. I think you can see that the art is phenomenal, so I shouldn’t have to do much convincing there. The writing is mostly good too. It has a playful, whimsical style to it, while still being a little bit harsh at times (the humor, that is. Don’t think that this would be a wonderful book for kids or anything, although it’s never too gross). It’s $2.95, send the man an e-mail for info.
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Website
Cloverleaf
Did you ever wonder what would happen if an American Indian (from a couple of hundred years ago) woke up one day to find that our society had fallen to earth from the sky during the night? Well, me neither, really, but this book does a good job of addressing that hypothetical situation. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book when I saw that Jacob had been working on Mad Magazine for the last 4 years, but this isn’t really a funny book. There are a few funny occurrences, but it’s hard to laugh at a mostly quiet, peaceful way of life being replaced by stores and cars all over the place. It’s an interesting first comic from the guy and I’m looking forward to seeing more. Here’s his website, and here’s another one in the back of the book from the publisher. $2.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 28, 2010
Website
The Metamorphosis
There’s a reason why I don’t often update the pages of people like Peter Kuper. What’s left to say? What do I have to say about a book by one of the legends of comics that hasn’t been said before, by somebody who’s actually able to put together intelligent, coherent sentences? Then again, if I took that attitude with all these books I wouldn’t do anything, so screw it. This is an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, probably one of the most imitated books ever. For those of you who never went to a school that taught this, assuming that’s possible, it’s the story of a traveling salesman who wakes up one day to find out that he’s been transformed into a giant bug. His family and his employers, understandably, are more than a little upset by this development, and the rest of the story is a slow, painful descent into the inevitable. Kuper has adapted ome other Kafka stories over the years in various places, but he’s really outdone himself here. His dark, thick lines are perfect for the atmosphere of despair that’s so prevalent. Every character in this is adapted perfectly. The angry, bitter father, the mother in denial, the sister who cares for him but can’t stand to look at him, even his boss is nailed. If you don’t already love Peter’s work there’s probably not much that I can say to convince you, but this is an incredible, lovely book. I miss the comics he did that were more personal, but there’s a whole lot to be said for this. Check out his website, and you could probably find some of his older comics for cheap here and there, like at the Fantagraphics website.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Stop Forgetting To Remember
Whenever anybody only slightly familiar with comics would ask me what were some of the great uncollected graphic novels (or something approaching the nebulous term “graphic novel”) out there, I would always lead with Peter Kuper. Bleeding Heart and The Wild Life were two of the great, though short-lived, titles of the 90’s. Or was it even as far back as the 80’s? Either way, they told, in small pieces, the story of Peter’s awakening as an artist and a human being, him experimenting with drugs and sex, and were told with such brutal honesty and artistry that is was impossible not to take them as the best of the craft. This book collects those stories, wraps them around new interstitial bits, and throws in some new material from the years since those two series were widely available. In this volume Peter, loosely disguised as Walt, grows up (trying to have sex, with little success, along the way), does a lot of drugs, bemoans at least one relationship that he was clearly better off without, and finally has a kid of his own. Peter’s work is pretty widely available for a cartoonist these days, there are plenty of things on this page you can get from Amazon, a little digging will get you through to most of his other published work. Still, I’d maintain that not only is this volume the best thing he’s ever done, it’s one of the best things ever done in the medium. Many people before and after (but mostly after) Peter tried to pull off autobiography like this, brutally honest but still not completely focused on self-indulgent navel gazing, and very few of them came close to pulling it off this well. This is simply one of the best books of this or any other year, and it’s about damned time that it’s available in a “respectable” format. It’s $20, cheaper through most of the online stores, and if you like comics even a little bit there’s no chance that you’ll regret getting this.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
The Letter
What is the best way to respond to a voice from your past? This comic is an excellent attempt to examine that concept. I’m old enough now that there are plenty of people I haven’t seen or heard from in 5, 10, even 15 years that I once considered really good friends, so it’s easy from one perspective to relate. A young woman named Allison receives a letter from her former friend Marybeth. Marybeth is getting married and, even though they haven’t spoken in 10 years, she would like Allison to be in the wedding. Allison, meanwhile, hasn’t been home in years due to the fact that she left her hometown ages ago after not wanting to confront her parents about the fact that she was gay. Allison goes through a number of possible responses and ends up with one that tells her story briefly but politely. This is a silent book (except for all the letters and attempted letters, that is), so we do get a brief glimpse of Allison enjoying her daily life. Still, this is too short to do much of anything but make a point, which it does beautifully. This is well worth seeking out, and I’m instantly curious to see her other comics, which is always a good sign… $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
RAK #1
There are good things and bad things that happened as a result of bringing my girlfriend to SPACE. The good things mostly involved her promoting my site more than I ever would and making friends with people that I wanted to hang out with after the show. The bad things mostly involve me getting comics that I never would have gotten myself in a million years, like this one. Let me explain before any fan of this gets mad: this isn’t a bad book. The problem is that anybody who reads this site on a regular basis probably knows a little bit about my taste in comics by now, and that cover should say it all. Robert is an accomplished artist who’s been doing his own thing for years. He even got one of his characters made into a video game for Sega Genesis years ago (called Chakan). This book is a collection of art from his entire career. The man’s gifted, there’s no doubt about it, it’s just not my thing. If you like superheroes and fantasy stuff (there are the obligatory Frazetta-style naked warrior ladies in here too), then this is something that you should seriously consider checking out. If you’re like me and this stuff leaves you kind of cold, well, then you can make up your own mind. Check out his website and see for yourself…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Hamster Man #12
Number 12? Why wasn’t I informed that there was a funny mini comic series out there that was already up to #12? Don’t you people know that I demand to know about every funny comic in existence? Anyway, Hamster Man was funny stuff. If you look at the sample page and don’t think it’s funny, well, then we don’t have the same sense of humor. If you like it, at least there’s all kinds of books out there that you can catch up on. It reminds me of Steven by Doug Allen, at least in attitude and the completely random character. That’s a compliment, if you’re one of the philistines who don’t know who Doug Allen is. Crisp, simple art and nonsensical stories win me over every time. There are a lot of samples on his website too and they looked like crap back in the day but were still funny. These days he can draw and he’s kept his sense of humor, so what is there to complain about? Here comes the funny:
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Vibrato
Another in the out of print Victor series from Actus Tragicus. Again, I think these people are good enough where all this stuff will be back in print sooner or later, so here it is. Go to their website to see what else they’ve done that is in print; that’ll be up here soon anyway. This one is about a woman who loses her husband after he has a heart attack while dancing in his milkshake shop. Done in the form of a poem, I didn’t like this one as much as the last one. The art is incredible, don’t get me wrong, and the story is quietly unsettling, it’s just not the kind of thing that sticks in my brain very long after I read it. Still worth a look if you happen across it, but not worth actively hunting down like some of the others.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
In the Sea
It’s not easy to write a review about a book that I read literally walking across my apartment while I was making lunch. Yes, it does go by that quickly. Not a bad book by any means, it examines a man living underwater who tries to join society with disappointing results. A good story of isolation and trying to fit in, it’s just probably the quickest things I’ve ever read. You can get one for $2 from the Top Shelf web page. Murky and vague, it feels like you’re underwater and, as always, the packaging of these Robot Publishing books is fantastic.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Conversation #1 (with Jeffrey Brown)
This review is going to be a bit of a cop-out, as these sometimes are, but there’s a fairly simple reason for that. People are either going to be interested in seeing James and Jeffrey talk about life, work, art, creating and punching each other or they’re not. I wish they would put this in a format that wasn’t so expensive (and sorry, nice cover or not, $5 to read these two rambling makes little sense to me) but, as I like pretty much everything that both of them have done, it’s not like I was going to pass it up. Did that sentence make any sense? Oh well, let’s move on… I don’t know if these two settled anything, but it is fascinating watching them go over having a job (which Jeffrey does) and not having a job (which James doesn’t), the point of making art, if there is a point at all, and whether or not they should have a gratuitous fight scene. So the bottom line here is the same as the point I made right away. If you like the work that these two do, this is an insight into their minds that you rarely see, or at least you rarely see them playing off each other. If you don’t care about one or both of them, there are many other comics out there you should probably be checking out first. $4.95
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Posted by Kevin
