April 24, 2010
Website
Sad Animals
If you’re looking for truth in advertising, you’ve come to the right place. This is a collection of, well, sad animals. Sometimes it’s the domesticated kind of animal, although you’ll also find a monkey, some insects, a jellyfish, a koala bear, an owl, a porcupine and an owl. This comic goes by in a flash, but if you’re a fan of hilariously depressed animals, good luck finding a better example of that than this comic. I liked it, but that’s possibly just due to the fact that I never expected anyone to be able to capture the sad face of so many differents kinds of creature. It’s a little steep at $4, but that’s my only complaint. As for the sample, I really could have gone with any of a number of panels, but hey, what’s wrong with a sad rabbit?
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Social Insect
Sometimes this website serves as the corniest wish factory possible. I wish that I could see more from Adam than some (admittedly hilarious) single panels of sad animals and presto, anther book comes in the mail. I would also like to formally wish for a few million dollars so I can retire and spend the rest of my life hunting obscure mini comics around the globe. Ahem, just testing. This is a collection of mostly introspective and occasionally conceptual pieces. There are simple statements of fact (like the panel with a rhino, elephant and hippo called simply “The Gray Team”), philosophical puns, a list of the important things that happen in darkness, a series of cars who spout platitudes, the difference between soggy and crispy worms, and what separates us. The only big story of the book deals with an adorably cuddly bear whose eyes have become gigantic. His perspective is skewed, as he’s both able to see nothing and everything in the same plane. It’s an interesting books though, all sorts of thought-provoking stuff in here with a wide variety of pieces. Worth checking out, although if your thing is sad animals specifically I suggest you get both minis on this page. No price, so let’s call it $3.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Cicada
Everyone, please read my review of Broken Fender before you read this. Trust me, OK? Done? Now you know how much I was looking forward to this one. I’m still going to get the other Broken Fender stuff he’s done, and I’ll still pick up anything else I see from him because I think that he has truly great things in him. The problem is that he didn’t come anywhere near reaching those great things with this one. For one thing, a book that’s over 100 pages should take you longer than 10 minutes to read, unless maybe you’re James Kochalka. I still like his loose drawing style, don’t get me wrong, and I know that the main character was tortured. It was just one of many things that didn’t ring all that true for me and, as always, who the hell am I anyway? What other problems did I have? Most of the major plot points didn’t seem genuine, or they seemed like cliches. I won’t say any more because I don’t want to ruin it for anybody who might like it. All I can do is reiterate that I was really looking forward to this and I was really disappointed. Make up your own minds. And buy Broken Fender, for the love of Christ, and wonder with me why this wasn’t as good as that.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Broken Fender #1
Can I just go out on a limb here and say that I like everything that Top Shelf puts out? Seriously, I’m having trouble thinking of anything from them that I didn’t enjoy thoroughly. This one is no exception, It’s an old issue, I know, and another case of me finding out about somebody well after everybody else has already told all their friends about him. Still, for those of you who missed him (and he’s still putting stuff out, I just bought an older issue), you’re in for a treat. You can read this thing pretty quickly if you want to, but I felt like I should take a break a few times while I was going through it. The sheer emotion on the pages was incredible. It wasn’t easy going from short story to short story when I was getting kicked in the teeth after half of them. He experiments a lot with his art too, radically changing his style for some stories. The tales in here are mostly about loneliness and desperation, which can become cliche pretty quick if they aren’t done well. No worries there. He was apparently good friends with Matt Madden, so he had a great teacher (Matt’s page will be up soon, I swear. The problem is that I only have REALLY old minis from him and I’m waiting until I get some stuff that’s actually still in print). Maybe he doesn’t know how to write a happy ending, but he honestly crams more feeling and heartbreak in every page than anybody else I’ve seen, possibly ever. I’m getting the rest of these from Top Shelf when I order more stuff, and I can’t imagine any of the other ones are worse than his first issue, so you can pretty much pick up any of them and hit the ground running. He apparently wants correspondence to go to Top Shelf (remember, this is from ’97, way back when not everybody in the world had an e-mail address and a web page), and you can order stuff there too. A couple of pictures this time, to show you how much I liked it.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Monsters
Herpes! Did I scare any of you away? If so, it’s OK, you can’t get herpes from reading this review. Well, I guess it would technically be possible if you’re reading this at a public library, and a guy with herpes put his infected dick on the keyboard before you walked in and, after typing for a bit, you put your fingers on that cut you got on your lip the other night. Then you might get herpes. Herpes remains a shockingly awful disease in the eyes of a good number of people, as it’s incurable and can pop up at any time once you contract it. This graphic novel is Ken’s tale of going from a guy who made fun of people with herpes to a guy with herpes, and the transition is about as smooth as you’d expect. It starts off with cold sores and moves down to the vagina of his girlfriend, as you’d probably have to expect. Their life is turned upside down, as how do you react to something like that? Every sex act became a question and a hassle. The relationship quickly crumbled, or “quickly”, as it did take both of them a while to get over the fear that nobody else would ever love either of them again so they’d probably better stay together. They were quickly given proof that they were contagious (his ex gave it to her new partner), and Ken’s real life of shame began. He thought that he was utterly unworthy of love, a monster that existed solely to infect other people, and everything became a question. Should he even share a bottle with somebody without telling them? What about kissing? What if somebody snuck a kiss in before he had a chance to tell them? The guy tortured himself about it for years before finally digging into the scientific literature, and at that point it gets a whole lot less terrifying. A few numbers for you, oh readers, just in case you don’t buy this book for some ungodly reason. 75% of American adults have HSV (herpes), and 70% of new cases are acquired during asymptomatic shedding, meaning that the person has no visible signs of the virus. The main STD test available doesn’t even test for herpes because it’s so common. But hey, you may be thinking, I’ve never shown a symptom of any kind, and neither have the bulk of my friends, so that 75% is ludicrous. Actually, most of the people who get the virus don’t show any outward signs, often for their entire lives. You could get married and grow old without showing a single sign, then have an affair at 60 and pass it on to your new (though old, technically) lover. When it comes to herpes we’re all doomed. So fine, but isn’t there a comic in here to talk about? Yes, there is. Ken gets more than a little maudlin at times (hey, wouldn’t you if you thought your sex life was forever over?), but this book is packed with facts and sources for those facts. And did I mention that it’s funny? He’s self-effacing where needed, and it’s rare that you see such an honest journey of self-discovery without it being a TV movie. It’s never overbearing or preachy, and I just flat out learned a lot from this book while being thoroughly entertained. That’s a hard line to walk. As Jeffrey Brown says on the back cover, this book is required reading for anybody who has had sex, is going to have sex or wants to have sex. It’s just a fantastic book in every way I know how to judge ’em. $18
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website (down as of 4/2/10, no other info)
Paping #11 Now Available! $8
This comic is huge! Just wanted to make sure I got that out there, because I shrunk the cover down to better fit on the page. And, once again, my scanner doesn’t do this book justice. More than most comics out there this is a tactile experience from cover to cover. I think it’s already been pretty well established on this page that I’m enjoying the Paping experience, so why not skip all the glowing praise and get right to the stories? You have a one pager by Scott Pefflet that manages to be about all kinds of things,a story from Sara Edward-Corbert (probably my favorite of the bunch) about the smartest kid in class getting outsmarted, Matt Wiegle’s take on wife (and parts) swapping, Andy Bodor’s baptism of Van Halen, a completely unique and indescribable story from Sean McCarthy, John Mejias and his story of Rud, another wordless tale (this time from Shawn Cheng), Zak Smith and the soap box derby, another story from John (this time about being willing to work for it), a white-out extravaganza from Dave Miko, The Boxer from Drew Gold and some comix to read aloud from Jeffrey Lewis. Whew! Good thing I don’t have to follow any rules of grammer or good sentence structure, otherwise I would have gotten in some kind of trouble with that mess of a sentence. This is $8, contact info is up there or you could just pick up a copy in the store, if the feeling moved you…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website (down as of 4/2/10, no other info)
Paping #10 Now Available! $4
I wish this scanner did this series justice. The flowers, title and the drawing that all look kind of purplish are really a vibrant silver color. This one is another anthology and it’s all about these cartoonist’s relationships with their fathers. Lots of good stuff in here with a wide variety of styles. Zak Smith shows the difference between a romantic description of his father and a real description, John tells a story about teaching and learning why students are the way they are, Drew Gold recounts how his Dad took out credit cards in his name and rang up some serious debt, Shawn Cheng has a wordless story about family life, Peter Maddalena has a horrible story about some kittens, Meredith Gaydosh talks about depression and a wonderful summer, and Andy Bodor talks about him not being an arsonist. OK, so it’s not all about fathers, but that seems to be the general theme. It’s $4, it has a gorgeous cover and some good stuff in the middle, contact info is up there.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website (down as of 4/2/10, no other info)
Paping #9
Sometimes it’s an anthology, sometimes it’s a regular comic book. I swear, you’d think people would make their books with me in mind, hoping to easily categorize them. This is another good one, and it’s all by John. It’s the short story of his bike getting stolen, and the army of children he recruited in the hopes of getting it back… before realizing that he’d created a monster. Dramatic noise! Seriously, I love the smell of this book, and that’s not something I can say about too many of these. It’s printed on construction paper and it just has that early grade school type of smell to it. I say a lot of random things on this page, I’m aware of that, but I have the feeling that everybody will be able to get what I’m talking about with that reference. The art is gorgeous (my scanner doesn’t really do it justice) and I have no idea how he does it without hand-painting every issue. Silk screening, maybe? Whatever the case, it’s short, but it looks (and smells!) great. $3, contact info is up there.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website (down as of 4/2/10, no other info)
Paping #8
Here’s a thoughtful anthology from New York. Included in here are: John Mejias, Andy Bodor, Peter Maddalena, Meredith Gaydosh, Zak Smith, Drew Gold, Sean McCarthy, and Jeff Lewis. There’s a nice variety of stuff in here. Mostly quiet, introspective pieces with a few louder ones thrown in. By “loud” I mean the sci-fi piece by Jeff Lewis about the liberation of the rocks and Octopus Girl by Zak Smith. Other than that there’s making the perfect pop song, being pimped out by your Mom while she’s in withdrawal, the different kinds of art class, and a warning of the apocalypse. A nice, balanced collection, the only real problem I had with it was that my copy was awfully dark, meaning that some of the dialogue was lost in the murk. Probably a problem with the copy machine more than anything, but I thought I’d throw something negative in. E-mail the man, there are back issues around too, if you like this one.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Death, Cold as Steel #3 (with Jamie Chase)
You didn’t really think things would end up as neat and tidy as they appeared to in the last issue, did you? The real killer is shown in this issue, and it ends up making a lot more sense and sets up some reservations about the nature of the people with super powers that carry on all the way to the present. Again, it doesn’t make sense for me to say too much about it all here, as there’s no reason to ruin the surprise, and you’ll either pick these up or not. I will say that Bram had better not quit this series in six months or a year due to needing to pay the bills, or feed his kids, or anything silly like that. He’s building this story from the bottom up, stopping to fill in gaps in the middle along the way, and it’s obvious already that it’s the sort of thing that will only get better and deeper as more bits are added. Or I could be completely wrong and the whole thing could collapse into an ugly, disorganized heap, but he sure gives the impression of knowing what he’s doing, or at least knowing the potential of this whole story. Yes, if you hate anything related to superhero comics, you’ll probably hate this too, even though this particular series was just barely about the superheroes, and more about the regular people. If you’re able to keep an open mind though, dig in, and there’s plenty at his website to check out if you are curious. $2.99
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Death, Cold as Steel #2 (with Jamie Chase)
If you like your hero beat up, stitching himself up after a fight and getting into a car chase, this one is for you. This has been a pretty solid noir series so far. We get to find out who killed the indestructible man in this one (no, I’m not going to give it away) but, as you can probably tell from that “2 of 3” on the cover, there’s still more to learn after this. How did this happen? Mr. Morris spends the issue questioning people, breaking down leads until he eventually gets what he’s looking for. My only tiny problem here was with the art, and it’s teeny tiny. There’s a fine line, when doing a noir story, between dark shades and smudgy lines contributing to the feel of the whole thing and just looking like a rushed comic. It’s hard to even see the line in something as atmospheric as this, but there did seem to be a few panels when it looked a little cranked out. That’s my little complaint of the day, as the actual story is a lot of fun and 95% of the art suits this perfectly. The exciting conclusion should be up here in a few weeks, as this crew continues to add brick after brick to this mythology. $2.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Raised By Squirrels: Los Alamos
This story is about two issues away from requiring a glossary of some kind at the start of the book just to keep up with the huge cast of characters. And, in case you don’t read this site much, I think that’s great. Following the main story here (more on that shortly) there are 4 short stories, basically brief histories of 4 characters done by 4 different artists. Dean Bookman (art by Jeff Kilburn), Rose Moscato (art by Dale DeForest), Janet Riordan (art by Pete Ziomek) and Reginald Martin (art by Jeff Benham), who also features prominently in the central story of the issue. Rose and Tyler are searching around Los Alamos when they run across a strange energy reading, which leads them directly to an elderly Reginald Martin. Most of the issue deals with the history of this project and just how they got to where they are today, but there are still plenty of things to be left uncovered and, like I said, a sprawling cast of characters with various known and unknown motivations. All of the “back-up” stories (it just feels odd calling them “back-up when they seem so integral to the story in the long run) are labelled as Part 1, which is going to turn into a great tool to flesh these people out without interfering with the larger story, another great idea by Bram. I’m hooked, I admit it, can’t wait to see where this whole thing is going, and I love the idea that it’s probably going to take years for the picture to come into any kind of clarity. That’s provided that they keep this up at the current pace or something near it, but so far so good on that front. Again, this is perfect for anybody out there who likes mysteries, or thrillers, or super heroes… hell, if they throw a few zombies or moping slacker types, they can have every audience in comics covered. Great stuff, probably best in large chunks, which should be a lot more possible in six months or so when they have another one or two of these collections out… $5.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Raised By Squirrels
Call this an aesthetic problem if you want, but it’s really best to throw a “Book One” on the cover if you plan on keeping the story going, which it sure looks like they’re doing here. It just looks naked now. Minor quibbles aside, this was a fun espionage thrilller book, if a bit confusing at times and loaded with too many flashbacks in a row. They story begins with a woman (Rose) trying to get a man (Tyler) who has left a nebulous spy organization (S.Q.R.L.) to come back to the fold. She left him for dead previously, but he sees he has no choice in the matter so goes with her. No idea how he survived being left for dead, as that part was left out of the flashbacks. S.Q.R.L. (no idea what it stands for) develops and/or makes super beings for use in their black ops type missions, and we get to briefly see a few here. This looks like it has the potential to be a massive, sprawling, complicated spy story, so a suggestion at the start, which they already picked up on a little bit: throw in some history here and there. More of the bits of memos we saw, or maybe a timeline when they get another half dozen issues or so into the storyline. I like what I saw (the art was great for this type of story, all dark and smudgy), but rein in the story a bit, maybe focus on a character per issue or something for a bit. Just my two cents, such as it is. Worth picking up if you like this sort of thing, as I would say chances are good that there are better days ahead. Also, I just checked out the website and it looks like the story is moving right along there, with issues you can download for free, so at least you won’t be left with a cliffhanger for long. $4.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
FLUKE Nano-Comic
The scan’s screwed up for some reason, but you get the idea, right? The comic is in that case, and you’ll be able to see from the sample that the comic is the size of a staple. Hey, he doesn’t call them “nano-comics” for nothing. This one, appropriately enough for the title, was all about trying to convince someone about how comics are a valid artform…actually, I think it’s more about showing someone that they can be a fun and rewarding experience on their own and you don’t have to compare them to prose literature. It’s a bit of the strain on the eyeballs (probably less so if you’re less blind than I am), but it’s a funny little comic. Let’s say $2 just for the neat packaging, contact info is up there, and if you have no idea who this guy is you’re missing out in a big way…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Mumbeaux Gumbo #2
I’ve gotten a lot of comics since I started this site, and I’ve read a lot of comics since I started at age 11. Nothing I’ve seen reaches the sheer ingenuity that Caesar manages with these comics that he calls “Micro Comix”. It’s his dream that these comics will one day be all over the place. Thrown off of floats in parades, in gumball machines, everywhere. I’d love to see that happen at some point. It has also been tough on me, from time to time, to pick which issue I should review from a certain creator. That has never been tougher than this time. I picked this one because it’s one one of the few that’s close to “normal size”, even though that concept seemed increasingly insignificant as I read more of his books. I’ve said it a lot of times by now, but Caesar really deserves all your money. He handcrafts all of these tiny books (the comics are inside the robot and other things that you see up there, and everything looks incredible) so there’s a very finite number of copies out there. He has a weekly strip in a New Orleans paper, and I’m pretty sure it’s those strips that he shrinks down into microcomix format. The comics (haven’t even gotten to them yet, have I?) are consistently funny and inventive, the art is crisp and fantastic, and the packaging obviously won me over immediately. What are the comics about? This one has a bunch of his microcomix combined in one issue, so it’s probably the best starting point for those of you who are broke. Let’s see… you have drunk Santa, the real “Superbowl”, cloned foods, ravers watching snuff films, beads, the year 2002, and a hypnotized superhero. Go to his website right away and see what I’m talking about. I’d recommend the robot, or maybe the pyramid, or any of the boxes… pretty much, everything, which is of no use to you, the discerning consumer, but I mean it. Throw some money at him and see what you get back in return. Meanwhile, he’s jumped immediately onto my list of comics favorites. The pictures below are actual size. The one on the left is from this issue, the one on the right is a random sampling of some of the other stuff that he sent me. You can see clearly that the comics are barely twice the size of a staple…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
You Don’t Get There From Here #5
First off, sorry if I screwed up the images from the last review. I simply can’t see recent images when I’m editing these pages (anybody reading this familiar enough with WordPress to help me out on that one?) so… sorry. Carrie is back to the daily diary format with this issue, three panels per day, except for a longer nostalgic piece at the end about taking trips with her family when she was younger. At the very least, this issue helped clarify for me exactly what I don’t like about his format. After reading this and most of her other books in this format (and they are dense, dense things, plan on about an hour per comic if you pick one of these little things up), I still don’t know a lot of the fundamental details of her life. Is she seeing someone, and how on earth does she pay for anything, as she doesn’t appear to have a job? You could say that these things are none of my business, and you’d probably be right, but she spills so many intimate details on such a regular basis that these feel like vital parts of her story. For example, she often talks about overwhelming feelings of loneliness, of lacking any purpose at all. Is there somebody there with her, helping her through this, other than her friends? Occasionally a female friend is mentioned, and she talks about housemates, but most of the details there are left to the imagination. Anyway, it’s another solid issue, all my complaining notwithstanding. This covers almost a three month period, from June to September of last year (2007), in which Carrie deals with cancer in her friends, injuring her foot, jury duty, depression, and the loss of her favorite trail. You’re not going to find more bang for your buck anywhere, as $2 buys you a thickly packed little mini. I do worry about her though, which is odd considering that I don’t often feel that way after reading other intimate comics, so here’s hoping she settles into some sort of happy pattern with her life, even if it ends up making her comics less interesting…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
You Don’t Get There From Here #3
Huzzah, my favorite kind of diary strip: a travel diary! In this issue Carrie talks all about her trip to Rome and Venice, and she seems to take great care in showing actual buildings from the area. She does a really amazing job at conveying these places (check out the sample if you’re curious) but by the end of it I was wishing for bigger panels. Oh well, always something to complain about. This issue encompasses about a week, from packing and facing obviously angry cats (about the fact that she’s leaving, something a lot of cats seem to sense, and they can lay on the guilt) to walking around Rome to recovering from the whole thing after getting back home. She picked up a cold over there, which killed her sense of smell and taste for a few days, but she still saw plenty of sights and managed to eat many different pizzas and drink many different espressos. As is often the case with these travel diaries, I came away significantly better informed about an odd area of the world and more than a little bit jealous. If I ever get over to Rome I plan on taking this issue with me, as Carrie goes into detail about a lot of great places to eat and drink. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
You Don’t Get There From Here #2
The good news with this issue is that, on a personal level, Carrie seems to be doing better with life, although not so much in a “and she lived happily ever after” sense, as nothing in life is that simple. She’s essentially come to terms with the fact that she does drink on occasion and that she is getting older and, with that, is picking up a few new health concerns. The bad news, at least for me, is that she seems to have settled on doing comics in a daily diary format. It’s a format I loved for a while and something that has gradually worn on me through the years. Why? Good question. Part of it is the fact that almost everybody who does these things (or practically anybody on the planet) just doesn’t have enough going on in their lives to keep these things interesting. Remember that day a few weeks ago when you didn’t do much past check your e-mail and then veg out on the couch watching TV? Well, try writing a three panel comic strip about that day. There’s also the fact that every time something gets dug into with any kind of insight, the strip is over before things really get interesting. Carrie does her best to overcome that, as her strips are remarkably wordy for such a small setting. She also manages to put detailed backgrounds in all over the place, so kudos to her for that, as a fair amount of the daily folks have a tendency to let that slide on occasion. So essentially what I’m saying is that Carrie here has managed to make the best possible comic with a format that I like less and less all the time. Chances are it’s just me, so everybody else will love it. I just liked her longer stories. Even when they were only a page long she could pack more relevant content in there than anybody else. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Assassin and the Whiner #15
I have mixed feelings about this one, but probably not for the reasons you might think. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as I do pretty much all of her comics that I’ve seen. And I haven’t seen a new issue in a while (this is the first new one in three years), so it was more than a welcome sight. My problem is that this issue is all about her complete descent into drinking and depression, and I know this was probably therapeutic for her to write, but I feel like such a voyeur. I know, I know, that’s half the point of these auto-bio comics, but when it’s gotten to the point where she can’t even bring herself to say hello to an old acquaintance because she feels that she just has NOTHING at all to say about her life for the past couple of years… So, this is something of an “enter at your own risk” comic. It still looks great (but possibly with fewer backgrounds than past issues), and she still has a substantial gift of conveying emotions and telling a good story. It’s just more than a little heartbreaking. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Assassin and the Whiner #14
These just keep getting better every time. This one is from a few years ago too, so I still don’t know if she’s still putting these out, but it’s worth seeking out the older issues regardless. This one is about her complete loss of sexual desire, her constant struggle with alcoholism, her first crush and her newly saggy boobs. Hey, I wouldn’t mention it if she didn’t. Everything in here is told with her style of complete candor and, as always, is worth much more than the buck that she charges. This is auto-bio at its finest, contact info is above if you still haven’t read any of these (shame on you!) so you can send her some money.
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Posted by Kevin
