April 27, 2010
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Zecord Space Alien Explorer Volume 1
What this looks like is four crudely drawn wordless stories about an explorer and a series of mishaps. What it is… actually, that’s pretty close. The drawing may look crude, but it’s cute and incredibly expressive. The whole thing reminds me just slightly of Jim Woodring and his Frank stories, except these are a lot more coherent. In this volume Zecord battles three little aliens and tries to capture one, trips out on some otherworldly drugs, gets help from a really ugly alien and finds a temple of cat worship. These are, of course, my best guesses based on reading through it once. Whatever is really going on, this is a fun book that you could probably show to people at parties and have them demand more. E-mail Amyor just send her $3 at: Hidden Agenda Press 647 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Ste. E Los Gatos, CA 95030.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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The Road To God Knows…
There are times when I have to get briefly self-absorbed and marvel at the fact that I get so many free comics in the mail, and the fact that so many of them are so incredible. Hell, Von is from Canada, it’s entirely possible that if I was just living my life without this website I would have never even heard of this comic, or so, so many others that are listed on this site. Hey, it’s Thanksgiving, please forgive my brief sentimentality. This is the story of a young girl in junior high school and her life with her schizophrenic mother. She (Marie) is thrust into the role of an adult far too early, having to essentially take care of her mother when she’s not hospitalized with her illness. Marie is also missing a few days of school in trying to cope with this life, and is confronted with teachers who seem determined to make an example out of her without any interest in what she’s actually going through. She does have a few bright spots in her life, as her best friend lives right across the street, her dad is at least occasionally around to help out (it’s never explained, but her parents are at least separated), and a wrestling show is finally coming to her hometown. Much of the book is spent with Marie trying desperately to have a normal life with her mother unwilling to tell what past trauma has put her into this state, while being unable to get past it and move on with her life. Von has an explanation of sorts on his website about why he wrote this book, and it turns out that he has personal experience in the matter. It shows with the conversations, which are about as real as you can get about schizophrenia, and with Marie clinging to the few things she can count on, like new Star Trek episodes and wrestling on TV. This is set around 1991, and I’m able to narrow that down so closely because Marie mentioned that the wrestling champ at the time was Savage. Yes, I am enough of a dork to remember when Macho Man was the champ. All told, this is a remarkably insightful and honest book. The helplessness of Marie’s friend to do her any real good, her dad being unable with work to be any kind of full-time father to Marie, her alienation from kids at school (and even the teachers), all of these things would be bad enough. Throw in a mother who may or may not harm herself or Marie at any moment and who is incapable of being any kind of authority figure in Marie’s life and well, I’m impressed. There are all kinds of ways that this comic could have gone wrong, and Von managed to cut through it all and make an outstanding graphic novel. It looks like he has at least another project in the works, and judging from the quality of this book I’d say he’s someone to keep an eye on in the future. $12.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Yellow Baby #1
It’s always fun to see new people starting out with one of the big comic companies. My opinion is mostly my usual, wishy-washy “it has potential”. Most of the book is made up of a story called “Turtle, turtle”, about a kid growing up in a town that’s on the back of a giant turtle. Not sure what that has to do with anything yet, as it’s mostly about the trouble the kid has fitting in. He’s half Jewish and half Mexican you see, so he doesn’t fit in anywhere. It was the weakest part of the book, although I could easily see it picking up with more chapters. Then there’s “Free Ideas”, a story where Jed bemoans the lack of fresh ideas most people have and offers up a few of his own, to be used wherever anyone needs them. Some great stuff in here, including “Jesus Christland”, “Necrotard Superspaz”, and monster porn. The other two, about a “man” who breaks his la la and his kid and about some kids pouring new little boys into a mold, are mostly just disturbing. I liked the comic overall. Some parts were stronger than others, sure, but it’s his first effort (although I’m sure there were minis somewhere that I didn’t see for it to be this good) and there’s a lot here that could turn out to be great. It’s $3.95, and supposedly it’ll come out three times a year. E-mail the guy or check out his site!
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Bad Painting
Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying the full color books lately? I know it’s not financially possibly for 99% of the people who make mini comics to do this, but more often than not it looks terrific, really adds something to the story. This probably doesn’t mean that I’m on the verge of heading back to the brightly colored world of DC/Marvel, I’m just saying full color sure is purty. This is the story (all done in verse) of a painting, made by a man who was about as depressed as a person could get as a way to get himself back right with the world. It’s crude, it’s flawed, but it was made with genuine love. So this guy takes what little money he has left to open up a gallery space, only to find that all of the critics really hated his piece and weren’t afraid to say so… and were then eaten by his painting. This goes on around the world, with his painting becoming a phenomen (in a negative way) and eventually killing half the population. As the artist is the only one who seems to be able to approach the painting without getting killed, what’s he to do? Any more than that and I’m telling you the whole story, but you get the idea. The story in verse is usually the kind of thing that bugs me more as the comic goes on, but this was done as well as humanly possible. It was funny, witty and occasionally unexpected (as a writer can get a bit trapped in a predictable rhyming scheme). The art was gorgeous, with a wide array of people and objects that all looked distinct because of some serious skill in the drawing department, or it’s possible that I was just dazzled by all the colors. The whole thing just put a smile on my face from start to finish, which is odd for a book where half the world gets killed. Hey, it is the bad half getting killed, after all. One last thing: even though everybody who had a critical word to say about the painting in the book gets killed, that had no bearing at all on my review. My possible annihilation had no bearing on the content of this review… $5
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Adventures of the Right Hand
It’s true: sometimes you really can judge a book by its cover. This is the story of a right hand that gets tired of all its responsibilities and decides to go and see the world. If you’re thinking, “Sure, a disembodied hand wandering around by itself seems a little weird, but it’s not creepy enough”, well, you’re in luck. Woojung has also given the hand a little face on the back of the hand, even though I always pictured the fake face of my hand as being on the palm. The hand wanders off and loves life for a little bit, but life in the big city for a disembodied hand is tough. It soon sees the dangers of a life by itself, dealing with rats, pigeons, a cat and finally traffic. At the end of the day, did it really have it so bad when it was attached to a body? Although I’m not a fan of the word “quirky”, I don’t know how else to describe this. For the love of pete, it’s a hand with a face that goes off on its own in search of adventures. Woojung has the perfect style for this type of story, all shadows with unforeseen dangers clearly lurking around every corner. It’s unlike most comics I’ve seen, that’s for sure, and is worth a look on that basis alone. $3.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Truth Serum #1
How can a comic be this bizarre and this human at the same time? Sorry, I shouldn’t ask rhetorical questions in reviews. What you’ve got here is a little boy who looks like a monkey who isn’t wearing any pants, a superhero who uses his x-ray vision to look at women’s boobs, a wannabe superhero who knocks people out randomly at the bank, a drug dealer that the ladies love, and a little fat kid without eyes or a nose. How it all ties together is open to debate, but I’ll all for finding the other issues of this to find out. My favorite scene is when the mailman tries to bribe the main superhero into giving him money so he won’t give up his secret identity, but all he really wants is a social life. And why doesn’t that boy have pants on? All kinds of funny stuff in here and that art is wonderful. WARNING: REFERENCE THAT NO ONE BUT ME WILL GET: It kind of looks like the art from that one guy who did X-Factor when Peter David wrote it for a year or so. You know, #70-80 something? The sad thing about this is that I haven’t read an issue of X-Factor for 10 years and I STILL know that. If there was a way to purge my brain of useless information like that I could probably have taken over the world by now. Check it out!
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Cactus Stories
Just when I thought my capacity to be amazed by comics was gone, along comes Cactus Stories. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not sure I was surprised in a good way, but anybody who can do an entire mini purely from the perspective of her cacti at least gets a few points for originality. Those points are taken away a bit with the pervasive schmaltziness (if I may create a new word) of the stories, as if you replaced the cacti with, say, cats, this would be too sugary sweet to swallow. Still, in the tiny niche world that is mini comics, there have to be at least a few people out there who love cacti as much as Hilary. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Ron Weasley and the Ewok Invasion #2
Why #2 when there was clearly no #1? No idea. This is one of those cases where the cover tells you everything you need to know. If you like the idea of the Ewoks invading Hogwarts (and Dave and John make very clear that this is just for their own amusement and that nobody involved should sue them), and if you especially love the idea of the people responsible for Teen Boat and Astronaut Elementary doing said story, then there’s no reason in the world for you not to check this out. There are also a couple of bonus stories, one detailing the morning routine of the Weasley household (as told by Ginny Weasley, written and drawn by actual person Marion Vitus) and one a short Jax Epoch story. I also just noticed that I have two copies of this and no price, so how about this: the next person who orders a complete set of Teen Boat books gets my extra copy. If there’s a mad rush with people ordering sets left and right, don’t worry, I’ll throw something extra in for everybody who gets an order in before I update the website again. If nobody orders any copies, well, then this extra copy will just have to gather dust until somebody does.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Life Meter #1 (by Various Artists including Dave Roman) Now Available! $6
I’m guessing that most people reading this are between 20 and 45, and if that’s the case most of you have played video games on a fairly regular basis at some point in your life. If you’re male you almost certainly grew up with them. Yes, that may be a sweeping generalization, I’m just speaking of all the male friends I have. This book is a collection of short pieces about video games, so that long winded intro was to tell those of you who have never played video games that you will be utterly lost reading this comic. It even dealt with any concerns I’ve had about anthologies, as all the pages are numbered, there’s a table of contents and it even lists the video games on which these pieces are based. Hey, I’m practically an expert on old video games and even I needed the occasional hint. Stories in here include a day in the life of Frogger (by Dan Abdo), Debbie Huey’s take on the obsession of Toad from the Mario games, Faith Erin Hicks has a continuing series about a horny fangirl who is hiding out from zombies, Dave Roman shows us what’s inside the Moto Bug (in one of those pieces that flew right over my head), Jamie Dee Galey shows us the dangers of shaking trees, Phil McAndrew has a piece on Pac-Man commiseration, and Lea Hernandez tells us all about Mickey’s ghetto booty from Kingdom Hearts II. There are also full page (or half page) comics about various assorted video games that’ll be better left as a surprise, but I have to mention the highlight of the comic: Jacob Chabot’s piece on Burger Time. I don’t think you even need to have played the game to love this strip, as we are treated to an origin story of the chef from Burger Time and shown that a man with a spatula and a salt shaker can, in fact, be a bad ass. If you don’t have some love in your heart for video games this comic probably won’t do a thing for you, but if you do it’s hard not to love it.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Astronaut Elementary Book One (#1, 2, 3, & 4) Now Available! $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Astronaut Elementary #4 Now Available! $.75
Time travel! Violence! A panda for a teacher, and on the day that the heroine wears her panda hat, no less! And, of course, a villain! All these things add up to the plot of #4 of this series, such as it is. Sorry about all the exclamation points, but this series just makes me giddy. The dialogue is very true to anime, or at least the anime I’ve seen, and I love the constant random goings-on. Don’t try to puzzle out the whole space-time continuum problems with there being multiple versions of the same person in here though, your head might explode. Good stuff as always, there are also collections of these issues now up in the online store for those of you who like their Astronaut Elementary in neat little packages…
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Astronaut Elementary #3 (Dave Roman only) Now Available! $.75
Everybody out there like anime? If the answer is “no”, you probably shouldn’t bother with this series. If the answer is “yes”, or is you just like ridiculous dialogue and incredibly cute characters, maybe you should give this a chance. These issues all stand alone, and they’re all about different kids going through their days at their school, which just so happens to be in space. This issue has a kid who won’t take his space helmet off, a girl who has a crush on her teacher, a boy who builds a robot, and the kid with the helmet becoming the king of space. The art’s adorable, the stories are a lot of fun (especially if you’ve been raised on anime), it’s just an all around good time. Here’s some contact info, explore!
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Astronaut Elementary #2 (Dave Roman only) Now Available! $.75
If you’re going to do an anime series, it’s only a matter of time before you get to the part about the smaller robots forming into a giant robot body. Kids, ask your parents (unless they still make Voltron and similar things, I have no idea). This issue is theoretically dedicated to Maribelle Mellonbelly (the richest and most popular girl in school), as she tries to find out more about her newest crush, Hakata Soy. Regular readers of this series will remember Hakata from the last issue, and this time his role as the head of a giant robot is examined in more detail. Another girl tells Maribelle the story of how Hakata (along with his other buddies in robots) saved her village and all of the bunny people inside of it by fighting off an evil group of invading bird people. Once again the dialogue is absolutely perfect, and meant to be said out loud with an exclamation point! If you’ve never seen anime that won’t make a lick of sense, but trust me on this one. If feels like Teen Boat got most of the love on this page, but this series is fantastic, and going back and reading the early issues has helped drive that point home. Get these in their collected editions or get them in the regular issues, but the important thing is to get them. Unless you hate anime, but even then (as I’m not a big fan) there’s plenty to like about this series. $.75
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Astronaut Elementary #1 (Dave Roman only) Now Available! $.75
The reviews start with #3 for this series? Really? Somebody needs to talk to management about this lack of order around here. Well, this is the first (long overdue) step to correcting that problem. This issue introduces some characters that we all know and love from the rest of the series There’s Miyumi San (trying to avoid the attentions of a boy who thinks he’s hot stuff with any male who’s in the vicinity), Hakata Soy (getting used to school while dreaming of his true calling in the head of a giant robot), and Doug Hiro (enjoying the vastness of space). Miyumi is the star of this issue, as she also gets another story dealing with her dinosaur driving lessons and her race against the jerky rich girl. All of this is told in the style of an anime cartoon, of course, so the dialogue is hilarious, exclamations are common and nothing outrageous is ever seen an anything but completely normal. That dialogue really deserves all the praise I can give it, as you can say damned near anything in this out loud and chuckle. For example, when Miyumi is picking out a dinosaur for the race, one dinosaur licks her face. Miyumi says “He he – You must be smart because you knew I’d taste good! That makes us friends!” Is that what makes the panel great, or is her giant thumbs up sign, her anime eyes of that huge grin? Maybe it’s all the things put together, which is why comics are so great. I’m sticking with that theory. $.75
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Teen Boat #8 Now Available! $2
So, what happened? Did Teen Boat live through that horrific explosion or what? Well, what do you think, I’m here to tell you the answer to that question? This issue deals with the aftermath of the explosion, the fight to save his life, and how young Teen Boat becomes a man. Aw crap, I ruined the suspense of whether or not he made it. Nothing here but a fantastic story, the highlight quote to me being “This kid is literally in pieces… I can’t tell what part is teen and what part is boat.” This may be the end of the series, or at least it’s a logical place to end things, if that’s what they want. Me, I’d be happy with years of College Boat, Young Professional Boat and Midlife Crisis Boat. With #8 of this amazing series I feel like I shouldn’t even have to mention this any more, but anybody who isn’t reading this is only hurting themselves. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Teen Boat #7 Now Available! $2
All is well in the world again, as not one but two Teen Boat’s I’d never seen arrived in the mail today. They’re twice the size of the old Teen Boat’s and this one even has a cliffhanger ending that’s, well, spoiled a bit if you scroll down and check out the cover to #8, but oh well, that’s a spoiler I can live with. As for this issue, Teen Boat learns that the only way to a woman’s heart (at least in high school, insert snarky comment about adult women here if you wish) is through the ability to drive a car, so he takes steps to learn these skills. Naturally being out of the water is not something that comes naturally to young Teen Boat, but he’s able to learn what he needs to know and even has the driving test going smoothly. At least he does UNTIL… I can say no more. But what needs to be said? Who doesn’t know by now that Teen Boat is one of the goofiest, funniest and downright cheeringupingest books in the world? #7 ranks with the best in the series, and after seeing that cover I have the same high hopes for #8. It’s a bit pricier than the old books, mostly because it’s huge in relation to #1-6, and the old books were ridiculously cheap to begin with. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Teen Boat #6 Now Available! $.75
Is this the end of Teen Boat? Who knows, but I sure hope not. How’s that for an evasive answer? This one, as you can probably tell by the cover, is all about Teen Boat deciding to run for class president. My favorite sign had to be “Vote for the schooner and you’ll graduate sooner!”, but there were more than a few good ones. Oh, and I should also mention that he’s running against the most popular guy in school who also happens to be on the football team and throws great parties. How’s that for drama? Good stuff again, as if that’s a shock to anybody who’s been reading this series.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Teen Boat #5 Now Available! $.75
And here I was looking for a fight in this issue, what with that provocative cover and all. No such luck. Still another solid issue, don’t get me wrong or anything, but I was looking for more mayhem. What you have is Teen Boat trying to figure out how he could ever love a normal girl and how he could ever love a gondola. More on the “angst” and less on the “thrill” this issue, I guess you could say. Still, 8 pages of angst probably makes a lot of sense in terms of the general overall story, and might help the pacing a bit for a graphic novel. Oh, let’s be honest. I’m just annoyed that there are no more pirates.
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Teen Boat #4 Now Available! $.75
This is about as flawless an issue as anybody could hope for. Sure, it’s only eight pages, but those pages were just about perfect. Teen Boat travels to Venice with his Yacht Club, hoping to find out if he belongs at sea or on land. He soon meets a talking gondola and falls for her/it, but this only makes him more confused. You’ll have to read it to find out why. Honestly, there’s no reason not to. You could send these guys $4.00 (the shipping gets expensive, relatively speaking) and get the whole run of this comic up until this point. Hell, you could spend that on a single issue of most of the regular independent series. The art is gorgeous, the writing is funny and, as I said, just about perfect. I want to quote every line is this book to convince you to get it, but it’s best to leave them for you to discover as these books are tiny. Hey, here’s a complaint: make the books bigger! It’s hard to consider that a complaint, but it’s the best I can do. Contact info is up there, what are you waiting for?
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Posted by Kevin
April 27, 2010
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Teen Boat #3 Now Available! $.75
Before I begin, everybody can read the slogan at the bottom of the cover, right? It’s hard to get much better than that. If you think that anything about this series is even a little bit serious, that’s not the case. The kid turns into a boat, how serious do you expect it to be? Teen Boat desperately seeks the approval of his classmates (and the love of a foreign exchange student), so he uses his powers to… um, “boat” all the cool kids into international waters in the first couple of issues for gambling purposes, after which they’re attacked by pirates. One iceberg and Coast Guard rescue later and Teen Boat is back in school, being made fun of by all the cool kids. This issue deals with that, and also shows that he can’t control his powers when water penetrates his ear. For the most part this is funny, absurd stuff. The art’s flawless, the writing is crisp and delicious, and they can even make it look cool when the kid transforms into a boat.
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Posted by Kevin
