April 27, 2010
Website
Colliers #2
What a woefully empty page this is. In case you don’t know who David Collier is, he’s one of the best creators ever of autobio comics. Actually, they’re usually less about him than they are about somebody he either knew or researched, so I guess “autobio” isn’t the best term. Journal comics? Whatever the case, he’s been around for ages and is a genius, so it’s great to see that he finally has a regular series going again. This one is about his friend Brat X back in the 80’s. He also explains getting his first letter from R. Crumb and how he was developing artistically those days, but it’s mostly about his friend and all of his little idiosyncrasies. If you don’t know anything about this guy I’d recommend one of the bigger books first just so you have more to go on, if you already know about the guy, well, he has a new issue out. Get to the comic store! Or just go to the website…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Gulliver Brimstone
…the hell? Let me explain. Usually, at the very least, I have a clear idea of why I liked or didn’t like a comic. This time around I’m pretty sure I hated this, but then again I’m not entirely sure what happened. As this is an ashcan and is supposed to generate interest in the finished product, I’m going to break my usual “no spoilers” rule and tell you about all 6 pages. Gulliver Brimstone, we’re told in the synopsis, is Britain’s first line of defense against the supernatural. Kudos right away; a synopsis was essential here. The actual comic starts with something huge (and unseen) ripping out of a truck. Page 2 begins with what may or may not be the same creatures standing on a rooftop, looking vaguely menacing. These creatures are quickly overtaken by another, even more menacing creature, which I’m guessing is our hero. Page 3 sees the introduction of… some other guy, who seems to be as big as our hero and a ringleader of some kind. We also meet a girl who tells people to get to safety, so I’m guessing she’s connected to Gulliver somehow. Page 4 sees our hero attacking this other big guy and getting beaten back. This took me more than one glance to interpret, I’ll tell you that much. Page 5 quite possibly has the big bad guy vanish only to reappear a bit farther away to laugh at our hero, but again this is depicted in such a way that I’m only making an educated guess. Page 6 is funny, but in an almost certainly unintentional way. The big bad taunts our hero, saying that he’s learned a lot about him today, and the girl involved with our hero says “That a damned lot more than we learned!” Boy howdy, that’s for sure. Do you see the problem here? This comic was supposed to convince me to be on the lookout for the first full issue of this comic, but the art was damned near indecipherable and the little bits of writing that there were seemed like all cliches all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning these two before the first issue is even out. I’m just saying that this ashcan didn’t do a single thing to get me to want to read the full issue.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Ozone Jones Little Book of Knock-Knock Jokes!
If there was ever a name born to making comics, it has to be Michelangelo Cicerone. That’s a name that should be up in lights, if such a thing were possible for comics folks. As for the comic itself, this is more of a sampler that was given out on Free Comics Day in May ’06 than a “real” comic, which makes this a pretty easy review. If you enjoy the occasional knock-knock joke, then chances are you’ll love this shortie. If not, well, skip it. All of the jokes in here are based on a letter of the alphabet, and frankly there wasn’t even a funny one for me to put up for a sample. Still and all, that name alone has me curious to see more from this guy. If you can get ahold of him, chances are he’d throw this in free with another order of comics, assuming he has copies lying around…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website (Floyd is deceased, if the internet is to be believed, which makes me retroactively a real jerk for writing a harsh review)
Shade #1
OK, I’ll admit it: I don’t have the ability to take comics like this seriously. I’m sure it would be just fine for a lot of people, but it didn’t do a thing for me. You can see the cover, right? From that cover, what would you guess it was about? An angry man with a giant moustache, possibly fighting crime, maybe making out with beautiful women (depending on how angry he was, of course), with gun and/or fist fights, and silly, macho dialogue all over the place? Well, that’s pretty close to how I saw it, anyway. Floyd did the first 10 pages, then Johnny did the next 23. It’s not like this was the worst thing in the world or anything, as there were at least a couple of interesting characters (two cartoonists who looked completely different from everybody else, but it was neat how it was done). Who knows, maybe it was their first comic or something (although the design was pretty slick), and it looks like Johnny has a bunch of other comics on his website, so it’s not like I’m going to write them off or something. If I see anything else around I’ll pick it up and let you guys know, how about that?
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Silly Daddy: The Long Goodbye
For my money, one of the best books about parenting ever made. Not that it’s exactly about parenting, it’s just what happens to Joe when there’s a new child in his life. I also met him at a con years ago (I was wearing a King Cat shirt and he was good friends with the guy, so he called me over to his table). It’s a good thing he did too, because I had heard about his book but hadn’t actually read any of it before I bought that collection. This is a favorite of a lot of those Fantagraphics people too, so you know it can’t be bad.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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That Schmuck
In case you can’t read everything on that cover, it says “A special supplement to Alice in New York”. So if you know what that is, chances are this is going to have a bit more meaning for you. I don’t know what it is, but this is self-contained, or at least it seems to be, so I wouldn’t worry about it much. This is the story of a woman who thinks that everybody should get married at 21, and proceeds to tell the story of her life. It’s a shortie and pretty minimalistic, but there’s a great story here and it does make me wonder how the rest of the story fits in here, or if this has anything at all to do with the bigger picture. Either way, this is another part of Shiot Crock #11, which is still around here somewhere…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Complete Concrete Short Stories 1986-1989
It’s usually not a good sign when the author says in his introduction that he never had any intention of doing short stories with his character. It’s a good thing he did though, and he readily admits that later on. It helps a lot to have read the first book of Concrete before you read this, but it’s far from essential. A couple of things are mentioned, like his transatlantic swim and his experience on a movie set (from Fragile Creature, which wasn’t done until three years after the introduction was done) that it helps to know a little bit, but only in passing. And, as with all collections of short stories, the quality varies. Different stories were obviously done for different things. The environmentalism short Stay Tuned for Pearl Harbor was probably good at the time but seems dated now. Of course, I remember reading science fiction stories from the 60’s and 70’s that had the same message and they were ignored too.
My favorite piece in the book (and I wasn’t expecting this at all, I remembered it as being Little Pushes) was probably the last one in the book, Visible Breath. A simple tale of Maureen and Larry stopping at a hotel for the night with Concrete staying out in the bushes to avoid paying a hefty insurance fee to have him sleep in the room. All of his fears about Maureen falling for Larry come to the surface and there’s also an adventure with a drunken man trying to find his room. Quiet and funny, it’s this kind of story that makes Concrete great. There’s plenty of good stuff in here. The two stories with the sitcom about the talking heads was obviously barely connected to Concrete at all, but they were both OK stories. We get to see Concrete try to fit in at a party and on a beach and fail miserably. We get to see his biggest fan, a Ms. Strangehands, and her thoughts about what kind of a man he really is.
There’s nothing really holding this book together though, and that’s its biggest flaw. I know, books of short stories aren’t supposed to have anything holding them together. True. That’s why I don’t like them as much as graphic novels. That’s my personal preference and I’m sticking to it. It’s not a bad book by any means. If you already have read other Concrete books and love the characters but thought that maybe the short stories sucked, you were wrong. If you’ve never read any of this stuff, don’t buy this. You won’t know who these people are and it isn’t a good starting point. It you want to start reading this series and don’t want to start right in the middle (which is where he’s doing his best work, assuming that right now is “right in the middle” and he still has a lot of stories planned), then buy the first book. If you like that, buy this book as something like a companion to it. The art gets a lot better later and so do the stories, but they start off pretty damned good. And he is not a superhero of any kind, so anybody who thinks that can check that idea at the door. It’s the story of the life of a normal man trying to do good with a pretty amazing situation that he finds himself stuck in, and there’s not really anything else like it in comics.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Complete Concrete
And to think that I was talking shit about this book not being as polished as his later works. It’s not, I guess, but that doesn’t take away any of its charm. This is the original ten issue series from Dark Horse all in one volume, and it’s big. It tells the tale of Concrete scaling Mount Everest, attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean, helping a troubled farm out, freeing some trapped miners, being the bodyguard for a rock star, and telling his origin story to Larry. If these all seem like fantastic adventures, they really don’t feel that way in the book. That’s the beauty of this work. The main character is so down to earth that nothing fantastic that he ever does seems like something that the average person wouldn’t try, if given the same opportunity. I did mention at some point that he’s not a superhero of any kind, right?
The best parts of this book are the quiet parts. Concrete eyeing Larry when he meets his (unknowing) love interest, or his fear of scaring little children, or even the exact moment when he knows that he has jumped too far while avoiding the cops and he sighs before falling into a swimming pool. It’s the little things that make characters human, and these little things are done to perfection. I said before that this might not be the best starting point for this series because the writing and the art both get so much better in the later series. That’s true, but this is a good starting point. It may get a lot better, but this stuff is pretty damned good in its own right. And this way you get to see his evolution as a being who is trapped in a giant concrete shell, instead of picking it up at a later point and trying to figure out what’s going on. This isn’t the best book I’ve ever seen at dealing with interpersonal relationships, Love and Rockets takes the cake for that. But this series is one that I look forward to coming out more than most, and the lack of anything new for the last couple of years has been tough. This is quite possibly the best “ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances” story ever done in any genre, and that’s saying a lot when you look at all the movies I’ve watched and all the books I’ve read. If there are people out there who hate this book, please, let me know. I want to hear any possible argument against this series as being (all around) one of the best comics series ever.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Dang! (2004)
Not sure what the actual issue number is here, as his website shows all kinds of minis called “Dang!”, but who cares? This, if you want the simplest description possible to explain it to your friends, looks vaguely like a combination of the panels of the early work of Chester Brown mixed with some of the misplaced adorableness of Steven Weissman. That’s the simple version, anyway. This is the stort of Herbert Hound not being able to fit in even if he does wear pants, the li’l orphans sleeping in a box and wearing on pair of pants between them for warmth, the Fashionistas making a ton of money off of the orphans, and Mullet making rude comments to everyone he sees. That’s the main focus of the comic. Then you have a story about Balls, one about a blunt hat and how cool it is, and one about Ted, who is an asshole. Great stuff all around, there’s not a thing to complain about here. It’s $3.50, this one you could probably get at the Top Shelf website, his other stuff and more information about the guy you could find at his website.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Arguably Comics #3
Do you speak French? No? Then you’re not going to understand the vast majority of this comic. The main story here is about a man named Leon who stumbles into a device at a science fair (?) and ends up speaking English and living in a Paris that is literally upside down. Or at least some of the landmarks are, that part wasn’t too clear. Then Leon has a conversation with his friend before finally making it back to the expo, although I have no idea what the conversation was about. And that’s the trouble with the whole comic, obviously: I don’t know what the hell was going on. There’s a funny story in the middle (in English) called “If This Be Explodium’s Curse” that is almost funny enough to make up for most of the rest of the book being gibberish, but not quite. I’m still curious to see other issues, but this is one I just wasn’t able to get into. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Beakie Goes to Hollywood
Another day, another Stripburger mini that looks great. I can’t stress enough what a fantastic job they did putting this pack of 12 minis together, both with the overall packaging and with the individual comics. This one is the tale of a character named Beakie who goes to Hollywood. Aren’t you glad I’m here to clear up little things like that? The art reminds me a lot of early Crumb, with a little of Jessica Abel’s minis thrown in. Probably has something to do with him looking like a walking bird, but it’s just the general feel of paranoia and hatred of the world that permeates it more than anything. A good read, but I was hoping that this pack was going to be a series of self-contained stories. This one is “To be continued”, which kind of sucks. But I think this was done last year so the next part of it might actually be out. Anyway, a funny, interesting story. Contact him, ask him what else he has around or if you could buy this one.
lukecanavan@hotmail.com
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
April 27, 2010
Website
How to Break Into Comics
Can I make a suggestion? Not to unfairly pick on these two or anything, but: can we please but a moratorium on “how to break into comics” comics? Please? Everybody and their brother has done this by now. The subject has been covered, so anybody who wants to break into comics, and is willing to do a little research, has a wealth of information to delve into. OK? Good. Like I said, I don’t mean to pick on these two, as they seem like decent folks. They’re mostly talking about getting into comics that I’m not interested in, like the Marvel and DC stuff. A few pages are insightful and informative, a few pages are kind of stupid and most of them are somewhere in the middle. There were some interesting bits about the minute interactions between an artist and a writer, a few things that I’d never thought about before, so kudos to them. Overall it was OK. Here’s an e-mail for T. Campbell and a website (and I am curious to see their other work after seeing this) and an e-mail and a website for Jamie Noguchi.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Out Damn P. Volume 17 #4
Sure, the number’s probably fake, but who cares? It’s his comic. He can number it any damned way he pleases. Before I start, if you hate my reviews but like learning about the new folks, go here. This entire issue is available online at his website, so you can just go there, read it, and come back to see if you agree with me. Isn’t this fun? Anyway, I liked this one a lot. Maybe it’s just been a good week, except it hasn’t, so that must mean that I’ve seen a lot of great comics this week. There are three stories in here. One’s about an invisible boy, one’s about pork trying to get a squirrel to write his essay, and the other one is about a guy who’s wearing a dog hat quitting his job. A lot more to them all than that, obviously, but you can read it all for yourself for free if you’re that curious. After looking at his website a little more, I have to concede that his numbering system might be accurate after all. Quite a few comics are available for your perusal, even if some of them look a little too small to actually read if your eyes are as bad as mine. If you want to do things the old fashioned way and actually buy this comic, I think my copy was $5.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Adhouse Books
Quitter
J. Chris Campbell appears to love robots, and why not? They’re easy enough to love as it is (until they inevitably kill us all, of course), but with the way J. draws them, why not fall completely in love? This mini is essentially every argument you’ve ever had in your head about quitting your lousy, dead-end job. And if you’ve never had one of those, my hats off to you sir or madam, you’re one of the lucky few. The robot on the cover does a bit of soul searching, asking questions about how much he’s relied upon, how only losers quit, and how whatever job he does next would have to better than the current situation. So you have beautifully realized robots playing out fantasies about quitting work, what could be better than that? $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
Adhouse Books
Zig Zag #1
What a gorgeous book. Really, Adhouse does it again with this one, I have yet to see anything but fantastic packaging from this group. Take a minute to check out that website of theirs, it doesn’t hurt anything that they’re publishing the works of some of the best people working today either. The vast majority of this comic is about the epic struggle to get to a movie on time, with a date, while being a tiny bug. Funny stuff throughout, mostly because it really can be this much of a chore to get something as simple as a movie trip organized. And that’s witout the handicap of being, you know, a bug. The front end of the book is about hilarious celebrity deaths and the back end is the cover story, about a robot who finds a screw and just wants to get a simple answer out of the doctors as to what could be wrong with him. This, of course, takes months of red tape and is too much of a shortie for me to go into. The front and back ends of this are in full color while the bulk of it is on a mixture of browns and white, just so you know. It may seem a little pricey at $5.95, but you get what you pay for. I mean, look at that sample and tell me it’s not purty…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Untitled
I’m breaking a few rules with this one, as there was no name anywhere in the comic (I’m getting the “B. Calla” from the e-mail address) and it’s untitled, meaning there’s no way to find out anything about this online that I know of. I tried googling the e-mail address, which does occasionally work if you’ve never tried it, but no dice. So why review it at all? Mostly because I really loved the artwork.  As for the story, this is a tiny thing and I have no idea where it’s going, but that could be good or bad. A prince escapes from his kingdom into the sea, and is saved by a merman who would rather eat him. He runs into a bunch of unicorns, who respond derisively to the guy until he smacks them around a bit. Finally at the end we get to see where he might come in useful later. Like I said, it could go either way, but the level of detail on some of the artwork was downright impressive. Impressive enough to dull my white-hot hatred of comics produced without names attached. I’ll never get why that’s such a difficult thing for some people. If I hear back from him/her, I’ll put the actual name up there. For now, a lesson to any young cartoonists out there, or dim-witted older ones: any comic you make could be the one that somebody like me picks up. Maybe this person has a detailed bio in every other comic they’ve done, but THIS is the only one I bought on this trip to Chicago. Unless maybe they’re completely incognito and I just blew their cover, in which case… oops. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Left Hand Comics Volume 1
Should the price of something be a factor at all in the reviewing process? This isn’t necessarily the place that I want to debate this, but I think it is for me. See, if this comic was $3, I’d say that you probably shouldn’t bother. Don’t get me wrong, some of the strips are funny as hell. But some of them aren’t, and I wouldn’t recommend spending a whole pile of money on this. I guess you can see how poor I am these days when $3 is “a whole pile of money”. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because it’s free. Going by that criteria, I don’t see what would prevent you from getting a copy. The next one is coming out soon (so he says), and I’ll give you a few samples so you decide for yourself, as per usual. Me, I just wonder what his comics would look like if he drew them with his right hand… E-mail the guy or send him stamps, I guess, at 347 Hill Street Athens, GA 30601.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
3rd Shift #2
I’ll admit it, I have a soft spot for comics about people who work the night shift. I did it for about 3 years of my life altogether, and it really offers a completely different perspective of the world. This particular comic isn’t about Buster’s job, it’s about his life and how he sees it. My only problem with this was that it was too short. Introspective comics win me over almost every time, as long as the artist has a clear vision of what he wants to say. It’s probably too soon to say that after one short issue, but I can’t wait to see more. The art is great too. Reminds me a little of Marc Hempel mixed with Jeff Nicholson for some reason. Send him money (and ask for new stuff too) at: 4206 Twp. Rd. 161 Marengo, OH 43334.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website
My Boyfriend the Moustache
This continues my recent pattern of reviewing one of these 15 minute comics a week, as they’re just so damned easy to talk about it and I’m obviously a very lazy man. I had to pick this to review next based completely on the wonderfulness that is that title. This one actually looks pretty good for a 15 minute comic, probably helped by the fact that one of the main characters is a moustache, and moustaches are pretty easy to draw. Other than that it’s a cautionary tale about the dangers of internet dating, having too many kids too soon and not fighting your way through depression through the proper channels of medicine and 12 step programs. Or it’s a quick story about a moustache marrying a girl, take your pick. I liked this one, no complaints here, move along…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
Website for Gavin
Website to buy comics from Simon
All Flee!
A giant monster eating somebody right on the cover? If you were guessing that I love this comic, you would be absolutely right. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of ways to screw up a comic about giant monsters, it’s just that Gavin and Simon managed to avoid all of them. This is mostly the story of a cranky old teacher at a school for monsters, who tries to teach them classical methods of destroying towns, while all the whippersnappers at school just want to do things their own way. Their way includes using guns, flashing bling and having monkey/robots dancing through the city. What follows is almost your typical “Things were so much better in my day” story except, of course, with a bitter old monster. The next story deals a bit more with the kids and throws in a love interest, as a new teacher appreciates the old ways. And, lest I forget, there’s also a fantastic parody of the nerd getting sand kicked in his face at the beach, except in this case it’s a monster who doesn’t seem to realize he could crush everyone rather easily. Finally there’s a story about the rise of the dorks, which would have been a great story in any other comic, but felt like a bit of a letdown after the mayhem of the rest of the comic. That’s me being entirely too hard on it, as there are plenty of funny lines, it’s just hard not to suffer by comparison to a cranky monster ordering unsalted humans. Top Shelf put this book out, but you can also buy it from that link to Simon up there, if you were curious, and you know you are… $3.95
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Posted by Kevin
