April 26, 2010
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Curses The Jewel of Denial
The cover’s a bit less creepy with that rainbow effect, isn’t it? It’s books like this that makes me glad the 24 hour comic was invented. I don’t think it could have been done better any other way, although I’ll be the first to admit that the art could have improved. Still, the harried pace of the story fits the rushed look of the artwork just perfectly. There’s a jewel that causes whoever touches it to basically turn into an out-of-control, homicidal monster. The comic follows the progression of the jewel, from the man who finds it, to the man who recovers it from what’s left of #1’s body, to the rat who picks it up from #2’s body, to the cop who picks it up from the body of the giant rat he was forced to kill, etc. Look, as long as 24 hour comics are fun, I don’t have much to bitch about, and this one was a blast. Go to the website and buy this book if you like mayhem. If you like a quiet, thoughtful story, well, you could probably skip it. $2!
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
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Website for Broken Lines
Website for Famous Fighters
Broken Lines Book One Now Available! $12
Well, this isn’t a comic exactly, and it’s not a short story exactly either. It’s mostly a short story with comical interludes thrown in, but what a story it is. I can’t remember the last time I was this impressed by a story where I had no real idea what’s going on. It starts innocently enough in an all-night diner with a cowboy and a man in a spacesuit eating dinner. Their waitress can’t work up the enthusiasm to be too curious about them, and things proceed slowly for a bit until Maggie ends up having to get a ride home from these two. After they part ways, Maggie meets a group of demons from hell dressed as firemen (firemen make fires and kill people, firefighters are the ones who put them out, you see) before eventually ending up back with Cowboy and Spaceman and their silent friend, Vampire. She joins them on their journey across the country, trying to make enough money to survive along the way, while being chased by… well, we’re not sure what. Nor do we know where they’re going or why they’re going there. None of that matters even a little bit, as an engaging cast of characters (I haven’t even mentioned Myron or the Vampire Hunters because why not leave a few surprises for you?) and a constantly funny dialogue keep things moving even when they’re stuck doing inventory in a grocery store to make a few bucks. Spaceman is possibly a small retarded child judging by his actions, Cowboy is the stereotypical cowboy except with a clumsy streak, and I don’t have the slightest idea what Vampire is yet, except that he seems to have given up drinking blood. What can I say, I was mesmerized and damned sad to see the last page of this book. It’s projected to be the first of four issues, so at least there’s plenty more to go. I can’t recommend this enough for those of you who don’t mind a lot of really wonderful text thrown in with the pretty pictures. Oh, and Thomas did most of the drawing himself, except for a page each by Mister Reusch, Jason Goad and Matt Smith.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Website for Broken Lines
Website for Famous Fighters
Failure, Incompetence
Want to make your book critic-proof? Or at least for wishy-washy critics like me? Here’s a quote from the brief (but hilarious and insightful) intro: “I hope that you find the jokes-to-dollars-spent ratio to be within acceptable parameters.” That’s it, I’m shut down completely. $5 is a bit much for a comic, granted, or at least it is in my fantasy 1997 world where that sort of thing was still rare. But all you have to do is pick this thing up and you can tell by sheer weight that you’re getting a lot of pages. And he’s right, there are jokes packed all over the pages, so even if you don’t like two or three of them, well, there’s still 5 more right there either on that page or the page next to it to make you laugh. The only complaint that I have about this is that, as this is my first impression of the guy, I could have done with a slightly smaller book that didn’t have some of the dumber strips in here. But then, as humor is mostly subjective, who’s to say what that is? At least this way you get to see the bad with the good. So what’s actually in here, as I seem to be skirting around that? Well, it’s mostly because there’s no chance for me to tell you everything in here without this being the longest review ever, so I’ll just stick to a (relative) few of them. Australians, outer space adventures, voodoo, fat rats, superhero school, and when he was a headbanger. That’s probably about 1/100 of the book right there. He also has a few text pieces that I really loved, including the best blanket apology that I’ve ever seen. Oh, and out of all the things I could have sampled, of course I went right for the potty mouth…
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
My Life in Family Vacations
I’m regretting it more and more all the time that I didn’t get more of these when I had the chance. This looks like a perfect series to just sit back and read on some lazy afternoon, and at the end of that afternoon I get the feeling that you’d know an awful lot about Kimberly, which is what good autobio comics are all about, right? This one, obviously, is about various vacations she has taken with her family when she was a child. Washington DC, Niagra Falls, wax museums, camping, a ferris wheel, and trying without success to get to Hershey, PA. You can probably tell by the samples that this isn’t the most gorgeous artwork in the world or anything, but man are these fun to read. Contact info is up there, again only $.75!
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
My Life in Scars
That’s only a tiny bit smaller than the actual size of the comic, just so you can get a comparison. Kimberly has done a series of “My Life In” comics, telling all kinds of stories about various parts of her life. You can get a better idea of her comics at her website, and if you look around there you’ll see that she’s done a whole lot of comics in a short time, and after reading this one I’m really wishing that I had gotten more at FLUKE. This one, obviously, is about scars that she has gotten over the course of her life. There’s her brother stabbing her with a pencil, spilling a pan full of boiling water down her legs, getting a piece of slate stuck in her forehead… This girl has a lot of scars and she tells you all about them. Me, I’m a sucker for a good autobio comic, and this certainly is that. It’s tiny, but there’s a lot of content here and she has a vast body of work. This is only $.75, here’s that website I was talking about…
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Kick in the Butt #11
Dammit, I really wanted to like this one, especially after loving the “My Life in __” comics. Then there’s the fact that even getting to #11 in a series impressive in comics (it looks from the website like this made it to #13, put out on a mostly monthly basis, before vanishing). But when large chunks of a tiny book look rushed and sloppy and when only a few of the strips were genuinely funny, well, I’d have to say you’re better off getting one of the “My Life in ___” books to see what Kimberly’s really capable of. Unless, of course, this was just an off-issue, as she was moving and GW Bush had just been reelected (which removed all hope in the world from a lot of people). Comics in here deal with said election and her response, her dog, moving, trapeze artistry, turkey, Erkle, cold weather, and barfing. I did like the slowly accumulating mound of dishes, that was done very well over the course of a daily strip. Other little bits also made me chuckle, like her boyfriend (husband?) dreaming about puppets and her take on a Marilyn Monroe movie. All in all she’s done better work, and I’m hoping that the sudden stop of these has more to do with her not updating her website than giving up on comics altogether. $1.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Mini Vittles #1
What’s a safe level of expectation for a mini comic with a bunch of unconnected odds and ends when it’s from a guy who put together one of your favorite graphic novels of the last couple of years? If you answered “guarded optimism but also ready for the worst”, you’re right! I thought the first Stylish Vittles book (of which I ramble about for quite a while up there) was tremendous. I didn’t get to his table at SPACE until the end of the day, meaning that most of my money was gone, so I couldn’t afford the second installment. Still, I didn’t want to leave empty-handed, so I picked up the mini. And, well, it’s kind of a mess, but at least he’s honest about it.In here is the inspiration for the first graphic novel, an untitled page (that goes nowhere), Grocery Boy, a sloppy ramble on self-doubt, Dryer Girl, babysitting, and a cat. The best part of the book was too little kids sitting on a doorstep and talking about marriage, but overall this is only something to get once you’ve exhausted your other Tyler Page options and are still curious about his work. Check out the graphic novel, this is $2 if you’re interested and contact info is up there.
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Posted by Kevin
April 26, 2010
Website
Stylish Vittles: I Met a Girl
One thing I’ve learned while reviewing books is to NEVER read other reviews of the book before I’ve written anything down. Then I’m never sure if I’m just rehashing old positions that I just read about, not that anybody but me would ever notice anyway. I’m mentioning this because I just read some reviews, and I’d like to refute some of the problems these people had with this book, because it’s a damn fine piece of work that everyone should seek out and take a look at. It’s an autobiographical tale about Tyler and the start of his senior year when he meets a girl, like the title says. It’s a graphic novel, in case I haven’t made that clear, not just a regular sized comic. I was trying to figure out if it was a comic first and just collected here, but I’d have to guess that this story would be really hard to read in any other format. I’m not going to spend too much time talking about this, because if you like autobio stuff you should really check it out because it’s an incredibly genuine and moving tale about falling in love, and he didn’t leave out any of the little dorky things that you’re usually embarrassed by afterwards. If you don’t like autobio, you’re not going to buy it because you’re hopelessly biased against good things. The quibbles that people had in other reviews is something that I’d like to address. The book opens with probably 30 or 40 pages of zooming in on the planet slowly from far outside our galaxy and is then silent for the next 20 pages or so. That sounds dull and I think some people felt that it slowed the story down considerably. I thought it was brilliant. I mean, really, who takes the time to set stuff like that up? One of the main things Tyler talks about throughout the book is his place in the universe, and what better way to really show that then to take his time to show just how much else there is out there? As for the problem with the lettering, well, I kind of agreed there. Kind of sloppy, but it didn’t take away from anything that much for me. I also didn’t like how the narrative shifted to his girlfriend’s point of view a couple of times. Didn’t really do anything for the story and it disrupted the narrative flow. Again, a minor thing that only happened a few times anyway. Well, if the fact that I just wrote the longest review for this thing ever show you how much I liked it, I don’t know what will. Go to his website, check out some more stuff from the guy and buy the book!
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Posted by Kevin
April 25, 2010
Website
Misery A Go Go #1 (preview)
Here’s the preview edition of another book from Douglas, Mark Crnolatas and Randy Crider. Randy did the art, Douglas and Mark did the writing, in case you were wondering. There are a couple of short pieces in here about a pedophile merman, a hilarious POW escape attempt and free trade (hard to believe, but it’s funny too). And then there’s the bulk of the book, which is dedicated to a story called Human Interest, about a man with no arms and his inspirational story. The problem is that he’s a bitter, miserable human being, and there’s nothing remotely heartwarming about they guy. Look, there’s nothing cute or fluffy about the humor here, it’s actually fairly brutal, but that’s the point. The important thing is that it’s funny all the way through. Granted, it’s only a preview and there might be some dull spaces in the actual book, but the preview edition is packed with funnies. Contact info is up there, the preview edition was free but I’m guessing the actual comic was $2.50 or so, judging from his other books…
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Posted by Kevin
April 25, 2010
Akira 6
A classic series. Not the best series ever (I still think Lone Wolf & Cub is going to win that prize), but something that every student of comics should read. Don’t let that fool you into thinking that this isn’t a fun series. I think there was more carnage in that last book alone then I’ve ever seen in any series, and boy it that saying a lot. Everything comes to a head here and almost all of your questions are answered. A fairly happy conclusion, all things considered (hey, if you’re reading the review for #6 in a series you must have already read the other books), but the journey is the important part. I mentioned that I think all students of comics should read this series because there are plenty of things done here that just aren’t done in American comics, from the nonstop action to… well, the nonstop action, mostly. A whole bunch of people could learn a thing or two from this. it would cost a chunk of change to own the whole thing, granted, but trust me, it’s worth it. I just spent my whole Monday working at the comic store going through this series and my day just flew by. My ears are somehow ringing from all the written screaming that was going on, but that’s just about my only complaint. Yes, the thing with the pills was brought back again, and it turned out to be one of the most important things in the series. The only subplot I can remember that they didn’t go back to or that didn’t turn out to be vitally important was the school nurse that Kameda talked to in the first book, and that’s so tiny that you can just go ahead and pretend that I never mentioned it. I still can’t figure out why they called this series Akira instead of Tetsuo, unless maybe they thought that would kill the suspense. OK, you know my opinion, time to decide for yourselves!
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Posted by Kevin
April 25, 2010
Akira 5
I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I was so happy that I didn’t buy a whole series when it first came out, because there’s no way in hell that I would have been able to stay sane if I had seen the last few pages of this book and known that I couldn’t know how it ended for another few months. I’m trying to review just this book, really I am, but it’s hard. Basically, everything that has happened before is starting to make all kinds of sense, and everybody is getting ready for a huge final battle. Regardless of what I’ve said before, don’t you dare buy this one first. You’d be cheating yourself out of the buildup for this great book. In this one Tetsuo is evolving past himself, Kei is the only real chance to save the world, Kaneda is determined to kill Tetsuo before Kei tries and the governments of the world are finally trying to put a stop to everything. Now quit bothering me, I have to see how this ends…
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Posted by Kevin
April 25, 2010
Akira 4
It took exactly one book in this series to turn it into a masterpiece, and this is it. Granted, it was somewhere between very good and great before, but this took it to the next level. Book 3 ended with Neo-Tokyo being destroyed by Akira, and it looked to me like there weren’t very many places to go from there. Instead, Katsuhiro has opened everything up completely, making the first part of the story a mere introduction to what’s to come. This book opens with Akira in charge of everything and Tetsuo playing the role of servant. The few characters who survived the last blast have had their roles completely thrown away, as there is no longer a government to fight or control. The role of the Colonel is still unclear but he has the potential, and this is something that I didn’t see coming at all in the beginning, to be one of the big heroes of the series. #19 has taken over half of the city, Kei is still fighting, and Kaneda is missing, to name a few. If you’re leery about buying 6 of these books at almost $30 each, this might be a good place to start. You won’t be able to resist getting the other books once you read this, but maybe you can at least stagger your purchases if you start with this one. As always, the recap in the beginning is fantastic. I’m not going to call this the best series ever until I’m done, but it certainly has a chance.
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Posted by Kevin
April 25, 2010
Akira 3
That… that can’t be the end of the third book of the series. I just don’t get it. I was wondering how they were going to keep up this pace for the whole series, and I guess I just got my answer, because everything they were trying to prevent just happened. The plot got a lot more complicated in this book, with different factions of resistance showing up and the Colonel taking over the government. Akira finally remembers who he is and stuff starts getting out of control soon after that. If you’re wondering how I feel about this series, I’m going to cut this review short so I can see what happens next, if that tells you anything…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Akira 2
And here I thought the first book was a quick read. At least that one had to set up most of the major plot points, so it took a little while to read, but this one was pure mayhem. One of the major plot points of the first book was that Tetsuo needed a powerful drug that only the government could give him to control his headaches. That seems to have been forgotten almost immediately here, as he escapes pretty early on in this issue to find Akira. Maybe they’ll go back to it later, but if they don’t it’s a pretty major thing to forget all about in my book. Anyway, the series is still great. I can’t wait to see what happens next pretty much all the time, although I honestly can’t see how they could keep this pace up for the next four books. Luckily I’m doing this one book at a time so all I have to worry about for now is this one, and this one if pretty damned good. Mayhem all around, we get to see Akira even if we’re still not sure what he’s capable of, and the other superpowered beings finally show what they can do, even if their fight seems hopeless. It looks like you could even buy these in any order if you really wanted to, as there’s an extremely detailed “story thus far” page at the start of the book. All in all, another great book with a plot point forgotten about, at least for now.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Akira 1
AKIRA!!!!! One thing about most of the manga that I’ve read (Lone Wolf & Cub being a notable exception), there sure is a lot of screaming. It’s hard to review a series like this in modern terms, seeing as how it been ripped off and imitated so many times. I’ll try to break it down to the bare essentials: the story. The story is set 38 years after WWIII, back before that was a total cliche. Anyway, it starts with what looks like a shriveled child on the run from some mysterious government agency. A gang of teenagers on bikes runs into the guy, causing one of them, Tetsuo, to get hurt. The government takes him in and discovers that he has the potential for tremendous power, which leads to a book-long chase scene, basically. The pace for this is constantly frantic. This book is over 350 pages and it took me maybe an hour to read it. I love the panels that have all kinds of dialogue going on at once because a lot of what they say is so ridiculous. Whether that’s the translation or whether Katsuhiro is just incredibly gifted at dialogue is open to debate. There are times when some of the dialogue seems incredibly silly, but the plot is incredibly dense (we still only have the vaguest of ideas of what Akira is after the first book) and it has a great ability to keep me on the edge of my seat. A cliche comment, I know, but I figure it’s justified when describing one of the books where a lot of the modern cliches came from.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock ‘n’ Roll
Before anybody gets any preconceived notions about this book, it’s not a collection of stories about rock bands. There’s some of that, I suppose, but it’s not the main focus. These strips (they’re each only one page long) are mostly about music and the ways people try to express themselves through it. And then there are plenty of strips that are just about an important moment in someone’s life (a lot of these stories are submitted to Joel by various people, including John Porcellino), sometimes having little or nothing to do with music. There’s some really great stuff in here and it’s rare that I’ve been impressed by so much of a collection of strips. The worst of these are just people aimlessly wandering through life, while the best of them are about people doing exactly what they’d like to be doing at whatever moment they’re chosen to remember. My scanner is too small for this huge book, but here’s the man’s website. Go and enjoy what there is to see, then buy his incredibly cheap ($6.95!) book.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Thunderhead Underground Falls
What a thoroughly beautiful book. This is the story of a young man on his last weekend before going off to join the Army, and his time with his very new girlfriend. It’s told in a haunting, dreamlike way, with flashbacks and bits of dream interspersed with the quiet acceptance of his last weekend. Deserting is discussed briefly, but isn’t something that’s ever seriously considered. Instead we see a mostly deserted town and campus, where the pair wander around, taking every little thing in and trying to enjoy this last weekend together. Everything is lingered on, from the falling snow to every quiet moment that usually flies right by. The are is deceptively simple for large stretches of the book, as complexity is not necessarily the name of the game here (but in a good way), but some of the bits at the end show Joel’s chops as an artist in a big way. You could do a whole lot worse than this book if you think everything is flying by and you need to take the time to enjoy everything. $14.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Rouge Knuckle Gang
Every time I review one of these sketchbook-type books, I mention that there’s not much to be said about them. Well, it’s still true, but bear with me for a minute, as this isn’t exactly a sketchbook. It’s a gang of absolutely ridiculous characters in poses. I sampled my personal favorite, but there’s plenty of great characters in here. It’s either $1 or $2, which isn’t much for a comic with no story, but maybe you’re more of a visual person, in which case this comic is just about perfect. Contact info is up there!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Arrows Bring Comfort (with John Hankiewicz) Now Available in blue or green cover! $2
I can’t seem to get John Hankiewicz to link up there, so here you go. Jeremi and John both did half of this book, which is an alphabet book, meaning that it goes through the letters and has a picture for each one. Simple enough, right? I had fun trying to figure out who drew what, until I figured out the very, very simple way that they split up their duties. Did I mention that I’m a doofus? Good. Anyway, good stuff. This gives them both a chance to show off a bit with things that they don’t usually get to draw, which is always good. It’s $2, you can order a copy from the website above, and it also has a fancy blue cover, if you’re in that kind of a mood.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Gag-Hag Now Available! $4
This reviewing thing is, at times, the easiest thing in the world. Dan Zettwoch, Ivan Brunetti, John Hankiewicz, Jeremi Onsmith, Chris Cilla, Ted May, David King, Bryce Somerville and Johnny Ryan contributed to this collection of one-panel gag strips. So what you have here is some of the funniest people around and probably the best title for a collection of this type imaginable. What, you’re still reading this? OK, I’ll also mention that I had a really hard time just picking one sample, but I’m trying not to give too much away for free here. It’s $4, as you can see, and it’s available here, as you can see. What’s stopping you? Don’t you like to laugh?
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Posted by Kevin
