April 24, 2010
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Chiaroscuro #3
If I wasn’t sure where he was going before, I have even less of an idea now. Granted, I missed the second issue somehow, but both of the ones I’ve read have been fairly self contained, so it hasn’t made that much of a difference. This one is a “morning after” issue with Steven having an awkward conversation with a random female that he apparently picked up the night before. A lot of people would probably give up on a book after three issues these days if they didn’t see some kind of immediate payoff, and I feel sorry for those people. I’ve liked a lot of what he’s had to say in the bits that I’ve seen, what’s to make me think that I won’t like where the whole giant (30-50 issues, he says) story is headed? The art is incredible, the dialogue is authentic, and the fact that I already missed an issue tells me that he’s keeping a solid schedule. The only word of caution I have for him (assuming that he ever reads this) is to stay focused. I saw an ad in the back of #3 for a new series from him, and that’s really the sort of thing that should wait until he makes a name for himself, or this story might just fall apart. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing, but if Chiaroscuro goes to being published twice a year or something because of his new book, he might never get a solid audience. Anyway, count me in for the long haul. I had a good feeling about this right away and didn’t see anything here to change my mind. $2.75, contact info above.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Chiaroscuro #2
I finally get to fill in the missing piece. Troy was kind enough to send this to me so I can have the whole story, but it turns out that I didn’t miss as much as I thought I would have here. #3 starts off with Steve and a random girl, but it turns out that you don’t learn much about her here either. Other than that you have some more of the great dialogue, but not much advancement of the story. I’ve already said that I’m willing to wait to see what happens, so that doesn’t mean that I’m complaining over here. If and when this comes out as a graphic novel, if you’re unwilling to keep up with the regular issues, pick it up to see what you were missing. This guy could be a major talent if he keeps this kind of stuff up…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Chiaroscuro #1
Not enough people are doing continuing stories these days. Oh sure, if you look at the numbers plenty of people are doing them, but most people are doing them at such a slow rate that you have to re-read the older issues each time a new one comes out just to keep up with the story. Troy Little looks like he was inspired by the greats of continuing stories with this one. It’s hard to say too much about the title this early on. I don’t know how much he has planned or where it’s going. If you look at this one, very little happens. The main character muses about his life, goes to visit a friend mostly to smoke his pot and get some free coffee, and thinks that he sees a strange woman on the walk home. All in all, not much to go on. It’s just the feeling that I get with this one more than anything. I can’t help but think that he has all kinds of stuff planned for this and I, for one, can’t wait to see it. If you’re the impatient type you might want to wait until a few issues are out, but if you like getting in on the ground floor of stuff, I have the distinct impression that this is going to be good. Did I mention that I like the art too? Ah, what do I know? Box Office Poison was one of my favorite books of the year, and that certainly doesn’t seem to be the case for most people. This just looks like it has the potential to do reality well and I love that stuff. It’s $2.75, send him your money at: P.O. Box 39040, 2269 Riverside Dr., Ottawa, Ont., K1H 1A1 Canada. Check out his website for samples too!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Shutterbug Follies
I’d like to apologize in advance for having the stupidest sample ever for the picture down there. What can I say, I couldn’t afford to buy it and there aren’t any samples online that are small enough for me to use. What about the book? It was good. I would be saying it was great if it wasn’t for a few dangling plot lines, but it was still a fascinating book. It’s the story of Bee, a woman who works at a photo shop. She starts to get a little too interested in the photos that are coming in and stumbles across what she thinks of as a murder. An investigation ensues, and that’s where I stop talking about it. This book was a lot better than average, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I was expecting this to be the best thing in the world after Jack’s Luck Runs Out. An unfair expectation, granted, but there you have it. I can say that I was blown away by the art though. I haven’t seen a graphic novel look this good since Jimmy Corrigan. The bottom line here is that this will cost you, but it’s an innovative book that I had a few minor quibbles with. Chances are everybody else is going to love it completely because it looks so damned good. Visit his website, and here’s that crappy sample I promised…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Jack’s Luck Runs Out
Without even seeing this book I was under the impression that it was all hype. How good could it be? All the main characters used the faces of playing cards. How much could you do with that? Remind me never to assume anything again. This book is a tremendous accomplishment. Since facial expressions aren’t allowed to show mood, he has to use other things, such as a hand partially covering a face or exclamation points by the head to indicate surprise, and he does a fine job of it. The second story, a 3D tale called “The Abduction Announcement”, is pretty good too. I never get the 3D things to work but the actual story was good. Anyway, the main part of this book won some serious awards and was the toast of comics for a few months there a year or so ago. I’ve really got to start paying more attention to the stuff that everybody loves. The story here is that Jack is having a run of rough luck and tries to get in good with Rex (King), who has fallen for Jack’s girlfriend (Queen). The problem is that Rex is the kind of guy who doesn’t take no for an answer and Jack is a bit naive on what kind of dealings Rex is really mixed up in. This could have been done with any characters at all, but using the playing card concept raised an already exceptional story up into groundbreaking stuff. Looks like I’ll be tracking down all the recent work from this guy too now… Are you all sure that nobody wants to give me a pile of money to find all this stuff? What about you, Xeric? Granted, I don’t actually make a comic, but I’m trying to make a small press home online. Doesn’t that entitle me somehow to a pile of money to buy comics?
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Love Dreams #3
I should mention right away that all of the stories in here involve either Rick or his brother Al Limacher in some way. This is a collection of dream comics involving love in some way or another, sometimes obviously so, sometimes not so much. Rick experiments with a couple of different artistic styles in here, showing more than a little bit or range. Stories in here include living with robots, having anal sex with Canadiens, Bill Miller talking with women from personal ads, Jack Bertram drawing a variation of the Beauty and the Beast theme, Tom Ebelt’s dream of a cowgirl, Dave Butterfield with a lovable werewolf and a fishy tale from Al. It’s an interesting mix of stories, which is exactly what you need for a book like this. It’s worth a look at (probably) $2, that’s for sure. Contact info is up there!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Energons #53 (written by Sherman Burnett)
Ick. Sorry, I like to be as diplomatic as possible about these reviews, but this was just awful. Granted, it’s #53 in a series (which is impressive all by itself) and I’m missing most of the backstory here, but the fact that I didn’t care about it at all should tell you something. This is the story of a very, very gay team of superheroes (I’m talking about costumes here, and I mean “gay” in the schoolyard insult sense, not in the ordinary human being sense) and a guy in jail. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if there was a decent piece of dialogue anywhere to be found. What I kept thinking while I was reading it (and it’s tiny, so it’s not like it took me too long) was that this book would probably be really cool if it had one of those old radio show soundtracks behind it. You know, where the music would swell at the appropriate moments? But it didn’t, so it wasn’t. Cool, that is. Here’s an address, it’s $.50: 210 Wayne St. Monticello, KY 42633. I had to make this sample huge so you could see the awful dialogue…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Fluffy #1
It took me about 10 pages to really love this book, but once I got over that hump, I was hooked. See, it’s about a bunny who thinks it’s a little boy, and it can be alarmingly cute at times. Once you get into it though you also get to see a complex man who’s not at all nice to his female partners, or maybe it’s just the one partner. In any case, I was enthralled by the end. It’s the first part of a four part series, so there’s a lot more yet to go, which is fine by me. The art, while being deceptively simple, conveys a whole lot of feeling. I’m guessing this is $5 (I’ll know for sure in a couple of days), and Simone was kind enough to send me a few copies for the site. This is something that’s really worth checking out, in case you were wondering. Here’s a website, wander around and see for yourself what you think.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Second
A terrible comic from London, OH on Monday is followed by a sweet and funny one from London England today. I’m not sure who does what here. I’m guessing that Tom writes and Simone draws just because that’s usually the order of the names, but it doesn’t really matter. They’re both essential to the success of this book. That might not make all that much sense when you consider that the art is very simple and uncomplicated, but it just works perfectly. Let’s see here, there’s a sweetcorn kernal, some wrestlers, a rabbit, a monkey nut, bread, bhagi, relationships… Lots of food stuff I guess, but this has it all. I defy anyone reading this not to be cheered up when it’s over with. $5, go to the website to order it. OK, if you don’t like this sample you don’t have to order it, but good luck not liking it.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Gypsy Lounge Now Available! $13.95
This book makes so much more sense as one coherent story. Look, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m fairly sick of most superhero comics. There are exceptions, of course, but not many. And I’m especially sick of most indie attempts at superheroes, as they’re usually so much like the real thing that it’s pathetic, or they’re just parodies. Parodies were fun for a while, but they’re so easy to do and there are so many of them that you really have to do something different to stand out in the crowd. Anyway, all that being said, I was pretty surprised with how much I liked this comic. Scratch that: I loved this comic. Every once in a while I would come out of my state of awe from the art and read the dialogue, and then that would impress the hell out of me too. Let’s focus on the art for a second. I hope my crappy scanner does it justice, but what you have are fluid, cartoony characters combined with pictures. I wouldn’t have thought that it would work, but it’s incredible. The dialogue is as real as can be under the circumstances, and there was never a moment that I lost the impression that this could all be happening, which is saying a lot considering some of the circumstances. Jason says in the back of the book that this is something that he worked on for years, tweaking certain things, discarding others, building up others, and it shows. This reads like a labor of love and just about everything in it is done confidently, which makes all the difference in a book like this. If you’re going to do superheroes in this day and age you have to know what you’re doing and it helps a whole lot if you have something new and fresh to add, and Jason has both things going for him. Have I mentioned the story yet? A young girl, the daughter of a failed superhero, decides that she’s tired of being poor and becomes a supervillain. She steals the assignment of an established supervillain because she figures the payoff will be bigger, but finds that she can’t go through with it. This leads to her being targeted by every supervillain around, and the rest of the book is basically one long chase scene, but much, much more complex. I’m not sure how many more good things I can say about this. I really thought that I would be mildly amused at best, but this really blew me away. Did I mention the dynamic cast of characters, most of which are either still around or “unaccounted for”? I hope he keeps this up, and if there’s any justice in the world doing so will make him rich and famous. Check out the website, or just e-mail the man and send him a pile of money. This one is only $13.95 for a pretty thick book, you know.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Gypsy Lounge #1
First off, as far as production goes, wow. This guy must be independently wealthy or something. It looks professional as hell (I think I noticed one spelling error), he did a great job with it. The comic itself is one of the busiest I’ve seen, with countless little panels inside of the bigger ones. This worked for the parts with the insane super hero, but mostly seemed confusing in the rest of it. And the characters all suffer from a certain sameness. Not necessarily the characters, I should clarify, but the look of the characters. The insane man in the beginning looked suspiciously like the daughter of another superhero later, for example. Still, the story was intriguing, about some different heroes and villains, although we don’t really know much about them yet. Maybe the drawing style would get obnoxious after a few issues (or maybe it would grow on me, who knows), but past that it’s definitely worth a look. No website or e-mail address that I could see, which is odd these days, but go ahead and send $3 to P.O. box 264 Pgh, PA, 15230-0264 if you’re curious. Here’s an example of those busy pages…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Broads and Monsters Now Available! $3
Yes, this is a sketchbook. It’s not like it’s a secret or anything, Pat mentions the fact right there on the cover. Generally speaking sketchbooks don’t do much for me one way or the other, and they’re damn near impossible to review, what with not having a real story and all. This is a collection of, oddly enough, broads and monsters, with the occasional broad/monster hybrid mixed in. Most of the sketches are fully formed images with a few naked women thrown in, and it’s not like you weren’t wondering about that, you pervert you. There is one story in here, Pat’s version of the Bloody Mary myth that adolescent girls always seemed to try out. You know, the one where you say Bloody Mary X number of times into a mirror and a monster her face ripped off jumped out of the mirror and ripped your face off too. So, it’s up to you. Is a cute story, a chunk of sketches and your general love for the rest of Pat’s work enough to pick up a sketchbook? He is quite good with the rest of his books, you know, and the man sure can draw. Oh, and he also uses this as a chance to plug his hardcover graphic novel called The Claws Come Out, so I suppose you could always go straight for that.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
One Horse Town Now Available! $2
Huzzah for Western comics! Or at least huzzah for Western comics with this many frying pans to the head. Works every time. This is the story about a remarkably incompetent sheriff and an unfortunate boast by the town mayor when he says to the sheriff “even your horse would be a better sheriff than you”. The town is momentarily thrilled about this idea, or at least they are before they have time to really think it over. It gets a bit more complicated from there as the bad guys make their move and a new sheriff hits town, but don’t worry, there is also a showdown at high noon. Funny stuff all around, and you sure can’t beat that cover…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Prowl Now Available! $1
Mankind has long wondered: what would happen if aliens kidnapped a young woman and turned her into a werewolf? Well, that question has finally been answered with this mini. It’s a wordless story of a young woman walking home from a date who is suddenly taken onto an alien spacecraft, where they have apparently perfected the process necessary to bring about a werewolf. Much havoc and chaos ensues, and you have a fun little way to spend a few minutes of your day. This one is only a buck, contact info is up there and this is also in the online store…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Hideous
Just in case you don’t get it from the cover, this is a parody of Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown. This details the beginning, middle and end of a relationship between a very promiscuous girl and, well, a monster. They meet over the internet, she sleeps with the monster’s roomate, they date for a while (and she learns fascinating things about monster anatomy), then things end in tears. The book is done in 1 page strips, just like Clumsy, and even has a lightly bearded character who looks a bit like Jeffrey, except for the hair and the body. OK, fine, just the beard makes it look like him. All of you can ask for out of a parody is that it’s funny and at least slightly true to the source material, and this one fits the bill for both of those.Great stuff, contact info is up there, this is $2 and you can also find it in the handy-dandy online store…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Giant-Size Office Funnies
What better time to draw comics then when you’re getting paid for being at work? That’s the theory that helped make this comic, a collection of funnies (although it’s one story) about talking a man down from a ledge, looking at porn at work, using the company copy machine to put together a comic, sticking it to the man, and exploding. Not necessarily in that order. It’s drawn stick figure style, and the rest of his stuff looks much better, but there’s a certain charm to minimalism like this. It’s a short, funny book, so it’s hard to complain too much about that. If you’re looking for a modern comic classic, you’ll probably want to go elsewhere. If you’re just looking for a decent comic for a buck, you’ve found it! Contact info is up there, and his other comics are available here, but not this one…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
AAAA Action Team #1 Now Available! $2
I’ll say one thing for Pat: I don’t think I’ve ever seen him at a SPACE without at least one new book available. The fact that they’re all pretty much excellent books doesn’t hurt a thing. This is the story of two aliens who make a bet, as one thinks that our planet will last longer than ten years before destroying itself, the other thinks it won’t be that long. The “defender” of the Earth, in an attempt to win his bet, assembles a team of heroes based on alphabetical order, and their abilities consist of being able to function on 4 hours’ sleep, an affinity for burning things, a former forensics expert and a dog given an alien chip to allow it to speak. As you can see, only one of those things is all that useful, which makes for one awkward superhero team. In their first test a giant robot is set loose on their town and they have to figure out how to stop it. It’s assumed that the robot is set loose by the alien who wants the planet to end before the ten years are up, but that’s never confirmed in this issue. I love the fact that there’s no grand plan here. The aliens either want the planet to live or die based on the equivalent of $3.96 but have no malicious or benevolent intent, and the humans (and dog) pick up the hero gig mostly because none of them have anything better to do. Funny stuff, and well worth a look. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
P.S. Comics #2
Here we have more tales of fruit, yorkies, and various condiments in distress. The bulk of the comic is taken up by the love of two of the yorkies, Quincy and Cleopatra, and how this evolving relationship hurts Cleo’s current roommate, Lucy. It’s a tale of sniping and personal attacks that’s as old as time, unless of course you tell it from the perspective of dogs. Melanie also deals with the vagaries of high school life when everybody decides not to go to the prom, leading one of the fruits to make other plans for the night… until the rest of them decide to go after all. The highlight of the book though, even though it’s only a short two pages, is the story of the affair between salt and sugar, told in excruciating detail. She goes through the hesitant beginning to the true love in the middle, all the way to the inevitable ending and seeing other, um, “people” when one still hasn’t gotten over the whole thing. Top it all off with a wonderful summary of a tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory and that’s there’s a pretty damned good comic. Also, it’s a handy book to keep around on a coffee table for nosy relatives or friends, who will flip through it, thinking it’s adorable and maybe you’re not as deranged as they might think from your other choices in comics, even though they wouldn’t think that at all if they bothered to read the damned thing and not just look at the pretty pictures. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
P. S. Comics #1
That cover is supposed to be a bit more purple, but my scanner seems to be having a rare revolt. There are four stories in here, three of which are too adorable for words… until you get past the images and actually read the stories. There’s an embarrassing roommate situation with the Yorkie dogs, trying to balance not having any friends vs. only having friends who are assholes (as played by various pieces of fruit), an awkward visit to a house with a crazy abusive mother (back to the Yorkies) and finally the heartwarming tale of the “I Love You” mug. Hey, I thought it was heartwarming anyway. The underlying sadness and angst of these stories put up against the overwhelming cuteness of these dogs and that fruit was a great idea for a comic. Because, let’s be honest, angst in comics is pretty well represented these days, and a fresh approach to the subject is always welcome. Not that this is all angst or anything, as there’s some really funny stuff here, I’m just saying is all. $2.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
P.S. Comics
I’m changing the name on this creator because, well, she used a different name on her cover. That and “Minty” is an awesome name. Finally there’s a collection of this utterly unique comic available, and I swear it’s a giant coincidence that yesterday I was talking about the flawless record of Secret Acres… and today I’m reviewing another one of their books. Sizable chunks of this are available in the first two issues, which I already reviewed below, so I’m not even going to mention those stories. Pretty much everything mentioned below is in this, except for the tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory. New stories include making “friends” with the tour manager of a band while on vacation alone, a piece about two people making a connection at work over donuts and making a rat tail for a costume (one of the rare pieces in the book featuring actual humans), the hopeful tale of a family dog lost when their car was stolen and what Minty would like to think happened to it, and the disintegration of an office relationship and dealing with the new woman. There are also two longer pieces making up the end of the book, one all about preparing for a crafts show and still managing to fail miserably and one about maintaining one quiet place at work, getting to know the new temp and being horribly disappointed with her as a human being. Um, strawberry, that is, as almost everything in here is either a piece of fruit, a dog or a cat. I doubt all of these stories would work as well as they do if they were all told from the perspective of humans, even though Minty has an uncanny ear for dialogue, especially the stuff involving self-pity. How she manages to make a heartbroken pear both funny and immensely sad is a mystery to me, but it’s clearly the work of someone with some serious talent.  She manages to make you think about all of these situations in an entirely different light through a simple change in representation, and let me tell you as someone who remembered during an argument that I was using the same line as a crying apple that it can be both revealing an extremely disconcerting. In other words, Minty has done her job her admirably. It’s $11 but there’s a hefty pile of stories in this one.
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Posted by Kevin
