April 24, 2010
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Baja
This one is a follow-up to Bughouse and, like the first book, I wasn't all that impressed on the first time through. It's a lot smaller, for one thing, and the basis for the conflict, the criminal who comes back to get his revenge, just seemed like an afterthought after it was initially set up. I'm getting ahead of myself. The story here is that Mr. Muggles gets sent to jail and swears revenge on Bughouse. He comes back and gets them in trouble for some drugs and money that he's planted on them, but the band gets to finish the show and there's not much said about their miraculous escape. Kind of an important thing to gloss over, or maybe I just missed it. It seemed to me that there was a lot less going on in this one than there was in Bughouse. It was mostly about Bones on the run (although forming a band while on the run doesn't seem like the smartest thing in the world to me), falling in love with a sorceress in Mexico. Who knows, I loved Bughouse after I read it again, maybe the same thing will happen here. All I can say right away is that I was disappointed. Check out his other book and if you love that I'm sure you'll come back for more. Otherwise, you won't be missing all that much here.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Bughouse
If I’ve learned anything from doing this page, it’s that I can’t assume anything about books that I didn’t think I liked. I read this one when it first came out, probably about a year ago, and didn’t like it at all. I put off putting it on the page mostly because I didn’t want to have to read the damned thing again, otherwise it would have been up here months ago. Well, I liked it this time around. Not sure what my problem was with it the first time around, but I didn’t have much of a problem this time. It’s the story of a jazz band and what they go through to become famous. It starts off with the main character (the sax player, Jimmy Watts) as a child, and goes up all the way to when he’s an old man. It’s too bad I didn’t read this again before I saw that there was another collection coming out, because now I’m going to have to wait and see if the local comic store gets it before I can buy it. Funny, insightful, and it has a lot of shady characters in it. Good readin’, folks. I guess you could even say that it examines addiction and the self, if you wanted to go that far. Worth a look, then worth another look if you decide that you don’t like it the first time around… Hey, a website!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Election 2020 #1
Wow, two political comics in one week! I thought nobody in the small press biz even bothered. This is an older mini, meaning that it came out before the 2004 election, with a twist that is odd for these “time capsule” type books: Kris doesn’t advocate voting for Kerry. Oh sure, he readily admits what a mess Bush has been (and little did his 2004 self know how much more crap there still was to come), but this is mostly a call to vote for third party candidates, people who share your actual political views instead of just being slightly less awful than the other guy. There is nothing new to an old election hand like me (3 years at the local Board of Elections in Ohio and counting). Still, it’s great to see this argument laid out for people who often seem apolitical, and it’s pretty enough to look at, even if the word bubbles do take over the panels at times. Hey, he has a lot to say in a small mini, nothing wrong with that. Oh, and he’s also announcing his candidacy for the 2020 election and so far, based on this mini alone, he has my vote. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Mean Goat #1
How far can you take a one note premise? It helps a bit if the premise is that of an angry goat kicking everybody it meets off of a cliff, but even that has to wear thin pretty quickly. Luckily Kris is smart enough to realize that and about halfway through this book it switches from mostly one page kickings to something more resembling actual stories. Granted, the premise never changes all that much, but it’s a funny premise. The goat kicks a bunch of people and some animals before eventually meeting his match. Things get ugly from there, but karma has a funny way of protecting creatures that don’t necessarily deserve it. Or something like that. It’s good clean fun, cheap for a buck and even has a few pages with full color. Granted, if it ends up being nothing but a goat kicking things off a cliff it’ll get old in a hurry, but if he can mix it up it could be a ton of fun. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Broken #1
Ah, my first crappy memory test from SPACE. I think this is a photocopied version of a fancier mini (color, that is, with a fancier cover) and this was a copy Kris gave me for review purposes. Or that’s a completely different comic and I shouldn’t even be bringing that up on this page. I don’t see this on his website, but this is new to 2009, so it might even be one of those books that gets made specifically for a convention. Um, anyway, what difference does it make? This is, as the title indicates, a mini about despair, depression, wondering why you should bother going on. The first chunk is the internal dialogue between a man as he runs into an ex (and in this case I should point out that the “ex” seems to be “ex-wife”). It’s damned near pitch perfect in its honesty, as his thoughts range from hatred to only wishing to live because HE is still alive (clearly the new boyfriend) to still being sadly in love with the woman. The verbal response, however, is how these things usually play out in real life. The second part of the book deals with a sad lonely man as he lives his days being constantly harassed by his inner demons. He imagines the disgust that the rest of the world must feel for him, how the highlight of his day is the hope that he might get the cute bank teller in line, and how he dreads going home alone to his apartment at the end of each day. If you’re looking for a pick-me-up this probably wouldn’t be a good idea, but it’s a smartly written book that’s downright brutal in its honesty. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Cheetah Story
All that nonsense about never judging a book by its cover aside, it does help to be impressed before opening a comic. In this case it’s not because of anything particularly impressive about the image (not that there’s anything wrong with it), but because of the fact that this is a 24 hour comic about a cheetah.  Maybe it’s only impressive to somebody like me who can’t draw their way out of that proverbial paper bag, but the thought of doing a rushed comic with all the different motions of a cheetah just sounds daunting. Kris does mention that he loved cheetahs as a kid, so maybe it was easy to him, but I was still impressed. This is, obviously, the story of a cheetah as he goes through a couple of days. He hunts, rests, and remembers a traumatic encounter with a lion. It’s nicely paced and looks much better than it has any right to, which is all that you can ask out of these 24 hour books. Kris also put an informative timeline in the back of the book (so some of these people DO take naps while making 24 hour books!) and writes a nice epilogue while clearly hanging on by a thread. What can I say, people pushing through pain always gets approval from me. Way back in the day when Martin Wagner had marathon session of answering the phone for people ordering his book Hepcats. I waited until the 72 hours was almost up just to see what he would be like. Charming and alert, as it happened. So yeah, this comic is worth checking out, don’t mind my unrelated rambles… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Euni the Unicorn #1
Quick, set the initial impression you have of this comic from the cover into your brain. You may have a different impression if you’ve already read some comics by Kris, but if you haven’t I’m guessing that you have a totally different picture in your head. Got it? It’s wrong. Well, OK, you may be the luckiest person in the world and you managed to guess it on the first try. What do I know anyway? This is the story of a magical unicorn that crashes into the bedroom of a sick woman (this is dedicated, as you can tell from the cover, to Mary, who I’m guessing is Mrs. Lachowski).  It takes some convincing (and some genuinely hilarious dialogue), but eventually Mary sees that Euni really did come to help her get over her cold. Euni, sadly, has already used up his magic by repairing the damage he did crashing into the house. He does have one more way to get her well, and although I generally hate spoilers in this case I just can’t help it: unicorn urine. If I have to bitch about something I will say that the art was a bit sparse at times, but with material like this all you really need is the two characters and the dialogue. It’s well worth checking out, and the man is building a damn fine back selection of minis that all seem to be right around the price of this one: $1.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Constant Dilemma
Everybody has been there at one time or another. You’re sitting around, having just eaten your cupcake, or cookie, or muffin, and you’re vaguely satisfied but you wouldn’t mind another one. You notice that the person next to you hasn’t eaten their cupcake/cookie/muffin but (especially if you don’t know the person) it’s a bit tacky to just ask for their dessert. That’s as far as it’s ever gone for me, and yes, I have, on occasion, just asked for their dessert. Kris, on the other hand, takes this in another direction. He notices that the person he’s sitting next to hasn’t eaten his cupcake, but his instinct is to smash it. Why? He has no idea, but he has a hard time fighting back the urge. What would the person do, what would the other people around him do? It’s an impossible thought, but then again, why not? This is a tiny mini, so there’s not much more to it than that, but I also appreciated the alternate ending on the back cover for anybody who wasn’t satisfied with the actual ending. Um, assuming that this was in any way a true story.  Good stuff once again from Kris, and I’m sure he’s not the only person out there who can relate to wanting to smash a cupcake… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Now this is more like what I usually expect from a 24 hour comic: a jumbled mess. There have been entirely too many thoroughly planned out 24 hour comics around here lately. Kris starts off with an asshole teacher being mean to his students for about 15 pages, with most of it being funny and some of it falling flat, before deciding to chuck the whole story in disgust. At this point he turns the teacher into a zombie (before quickly tiring of that as well), then shifts the comic into the adventures of Vampire Boy (one of the students), then tosses that aside to roll the credits. It’s an object lesson in planning these things more than anything else, although it did still have more than enough funny in it to justify checking it out. Really, that cover alone was enough to get me to grab this one from my review pile, even if the zombie action was rather limited. You’ll certainly find better comics from Kris if you wander around this page a bit, but I think he may have a new winner in terms of both cover image and title. $1.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
New Venus
Cheers to Kris for the scientific facts about Venus. Unless, of course, he’s just making them up, in which case jeers to Kris for making up facts about Venus! This mini tells the story of how the inhabitants of Venus, many years ago, discovered technology, overreached in a big way, doomed their planet and set off to find another one to ruin. Um, populate. They all see it coming, but for a variety of reasons none of them want to do anything about it, so the survivors set off in search of a new world. Alas, their calculations are incorrect, and they end up heading straight for a world that is already populated. This is, granted, a very thin cover-up for a comic about global warming, but I did appreciate the fact that he showed that the utterly lethal conditions on Venus could be repeated here, given enough time and effort by our industries, and given a lack of any organized push back from anyone else. If you don’t believe global warming is happening you probably won’t like this book, then again if you don’t believe global warming is happening you probably have a full day already just trying to remember to inhale and exhale in the proper order to sustain your life. It’s a good story, maybe a touch preachy, but I think the eventual destruction of the planet is a good excuse to get a little preachy, don’t you? $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Kris’ For The Hell Of It Mini Comic Collection #1
This time around we’re taking a trip down memory lane for Mr. Lachowski as, even though this appears to be a collection of snippets from older comics, it’s all old enough that I haven’t seen it at all. Hey, that makes it a new comic to me, which is good enough for review purposes. The art is a little rough at times and he’s clearly matured as a writer since these strips, but they’re not without their charm. This mini includes what has to be close to the first appearance of the Mean Goat, the obnoxiousness of listening to radio stations bragging about not playing commercials…in their commercials, a photo piece about going to see The Passion of the Christ, a dream of climbing a crumbling mountain, monsters dancing, and a lone ant pondering existence gets an unpleasant (but accurate) answer from the sun. Kris clearly put this together as something to give away at conventions (the $0 price tag is a bit of a hint), and I can see it working wonderfully for that purpose. He’s done better stuff since this, sure, but it’s worth asking him for a copy if you see him at a convention, or if you order comics from him he probably wouldn’t mind tossing a copy in with the order if you ask politely. If you’re not a big fan of early work and just prefer to see the artist at his/her best, scroll around this page, you’re sure to find something you like.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Gross Jam
This is exactly what you might expect from a comic with that title: a series of jam comics with some, well, gross subject matter. These aren’t meant to be actual stories so much as attempts on grossing out the reader and a good chance for the creator to go a little nuts, so it’s silly to review them as such. It is pretty gross, but most of the stories are at least mildly amusing which, I believe, is why comics were invented. OK fine, I’ll get into the content a bit. Stories in here include the birth of the antichrist as the result of an ill-advised trip to Wendy’s (that ends abruptly, but as I already mentioned that this isn’t about the stories I suppose that’s OK), a man in hell musing that he has it relatively easy (with Justin Lynch), pooing from an airship (with Justin and Mary Lachowski), a romantic walk spoiled by monkeys (with Justin), dildo fun, a jab at the censors, and tree sex. I mentioned when it was a jam, or at least when it was mentioned that it was a jam comic, for those of you who are curious. I’ll leave aside the question of why it took three people to come up with some of this stuff but hey, that’s the fun of jam comics! He has better stuff on this page if you’re just looking for a sampling of his work, but if you’re all about the gross-out this is the one for you. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
24 Hour Comic
Well, that has to be just about the laziest title for a 24 hour comic that I’ve ever seen. And, not to get all technical or anything, judging from that timeline this was only a 20 hour comic, so it’s not even an accurate title. As for the quality, Chris does say right on the cover (in case you can’t read it) “Wow, this was not the best 24 hour comic I’ve done”. Still, the man has too much talent for it to be completely awful, it just suffers from the occasional 24 hour comic disease of falling apart completely by the end. This is the story of a preacher who sticks with the craziest of the bible quotes for his sermons, losing more and more parishioners every week, until he’s eventually noticed and given a television show. Hey, look around at religious people on the teevee, this is certainly accurate. Along the way he gets asks for advice from a fellow priest who doesn’t speak up until almost the end of the book, but the advice he does give is sound. The last few pages are just Kris trying to fill up space, but there are several things I liked about this book. There was him writing “empty space” over and over again on a panel with too much empty space, the character flipping channels for a few pages and flipping past images from past comics that Kris has done, and the depiction of a sermon as the earth being smited (smoted? smitten?), two dudes kissing and Elijah saying “booga booga” to scare people. He’s done better, that’s for sure, but if you’re a fan of his work this is still worth a look. $129
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Dork Lifestyle
Here’s another short comic from Missy. This one is collection of one page stories, about things like walking on a fortune, stealing a pen, picking things up off the ground (a favorite of mine too), wearing odd things, growing up, things she has done or never done, and a dream about a giant deer. Good stuff all around, although I’d still like to see a bigger book by her. This one is only $.50, so why not buy it? Contact info is up there!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
This is Your Toy and I Want It
This is the story of a little hot dog in a bun toy, except that it looks more like a little pill in a bun. Whatever the case, Missy sees it at a friend’s house and decides that she has to have it, so makes a compromise where she watches the toy for a little while. Next she visits the land of the toys, but I’ve said too much already. This is a fun little book, although a bit short, but it’s only $.50 so that’s OK. I’ve been hearing about Missy for a couple of years now so it’s good to actually see a comic. I was impressed, but I get the definite impression that the hype is for the later work (this is from 1999) more than this cute book.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
I Heart New York Now Available! $1
If you’re looking for a perfectly adorable story about New York, you’ve found it. Missy tells a brief tale of a young girl wandering through the city, taking in the sights that adults often miss. There’s a sense of wonder throughout this mini, as Missy observes the sights of Central Park (horses, squirrels, an Alice in Wonderland sculpture, and Calder’s circus) and marvels at the Empire State Building. This was made in 2000, and possibly that sense of wonder is gone by now (full disclosure: I’ve never been to New York. I know, I know). This is one of those “gateway comics” for kids though, if you’re looking to get your young ones interested in comics, or even if you’re just looking for something to feel good about for a few minutes. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Half Boy/Half Stupid (with Rowboat) Now Available! $2
You don’t go into one of Missy’s minis expecting tales of drunken misadventures (or at least I don’t, but I’ve read relatively few minis from her so far so what do I know), but that’s what you get here. Missy illustrated a collection of stories told to her by her friend Rowboat, dealing with being misunderstood, breaking in the door on an unsuspecting crush, making a fool of yourself over the phone to an ex, ending a Halloween night in a state of drunken disarray, a nigthmarish cat, a pack of wild donkeys, smoking a telephone and a perfect romantic evening that doesn’t go as planned. A pretty great pack of stories, with Missy’s art bringing the whole thing wonderfully to life. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Karl’s Facebook page
Hoax #5 Now Available! $2
The late 2009 reviewing of these Hoax issues continues, wildly out of order and for no good reason other than the fact that I somehow missed reviewing them all these years, and these comics frankly deserve better. This one is especially interesting in that it essentially has origin stories for other comics available in the store, or at least early attempts at those stories. There’s the story of the family from Chromosome Crossroads (namely how they got their start and how they weren’t always an interbreeding mess) and an early version of the guy from Cannibulimic, which I still contend is the best title in my store. The title itself, that is. It’s a pretty great comic too, but there’s a whole lot of competition in there. Other pieces in this issue include Nate Neal with a Mexican adventure, Ben Carrico with a text piece telling us to use cash to avoid detection, Nate Neal with Truckhead reading his fortune, Karl with a short piece (all I’ll say about it is the title: Plop N’ Scrub), Ben Carrico with another text piece (this time about his personal view of the ghetto from his apartment and the cycle that keeps them all there), Nate Neal resurrecting Bill Hicks for his take on the current state of things (and, while it was tacky to do it, he sure seems to have come up with an accurate portrayal of the guy), Karl with a short silent piece on the wonders of life (and if you’ve read even a bit of Karl’s work you know that’s sarcasm), Nate with another Truckhead piece (where he’s haunted by commercials in his dreams) and a longer piece on various conspiracy theories. There’s less variety in this issue at least in terms of the number of creators, but the pieces are stronger and you can tell they’re all really getting a handle on their various characters. It’s a shame that none of their individual series seem to have been kept up, but it’s entirely possible that I just missed them and they’re still out there chugging away. Either way this is a fun issue, and that’s a lot of comic for $2.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Karl’s Facebook page
Hoax #4 Now Available! $1.50
Just to make this clear to readers in the future: I’m reviewing this in late 2009 It was made in 2003 and I believe it was edited solely by Karl, although that’s hard to tell. I’m spelling this all out because, as a monthly regional magazine/anthology, there are going to be pieces in here that are damned near irrelevant 6 years later. For example, the center of this book is made up of an interview with Nathan Neal about his film “The Naked Eye Will Be Shot”. Good luck finding anything about that now, although it does sound interesting. Luckily comics are timeless (mostly), and there are some great ones in here. Nate Neal gets things started with a simpleton just barely taking the easy way out instead of facing nuclear war, and is this the Nathan Neal from before? He wouldn’t list his comics under Nate in here and then do the interview under Nathan, would he? That seems needlessly pretentious, if true. K. Throoper (whose art sure looks like Karl’s) is up next with a brilliant piece about drive-by religious services, and the baptism is about what you’d expect. Lydia Gregg is up next with the highlight of the issue, a story of pussy versus pussy. A man takes a woman home for the night, and she remarks on how cute his cat is before it attacks her. The rest of the night involves an escalating series of attacks from the cat, culminating in something that made me laugh out loud. As the proud owner of a cat who is also an asshole, this piece really made my day. Karl is up next with a mildly baffling piece about love and abduction, which is followed by Lydia’s sampled piece about how we’re just a pit-stop between product and feces. Lydia then put together a funny fake horoscope (and yes, it is important to note that it’s funny, because many of the fake ones are not) along with a short piece on the dangers of talking on your cell phone while on the treadmill. Finally there’s an utterly baffling piece by Karl involving a stopped bus and a hitchhiker, and it’s all capped off with a funny Halloween piece by Nate. There are also a couple of mildly paranoid rants by Ben Carrico, in case the comics weren’t enough for you. For some reason I never reviewed any of these books, but I plan on correcting that in the weeks to come. This one is worth it for the cat story alone. $1.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Karl’s Facebook page
Hoax #3 Now Available! $1
Does it make any sense at all to review a comic made in 2002 as my first book of 2010? I’d have a hard time justifying it, if I had anybody to justify it to. Luckily it’s a dictatorship around here and I don’t like having these unreviewed comics sitting around. I reviewed #4 and 5 before #3, keeping with my usual higgledy-piggledy style, and the good news is that they worked a lot of bugs out for those two issues. The bad news is that those bugs are mostly still present here. This is a giant newspaper of a comic (in size, but there are only 12 big pages), so no samples from me. Stories in here include serenity during a plane crash, the struggle to find a clean toilet in the men’s room, the hilarity of a piano falling out of the sky and the new erotic doll series (by Karl Kressbach); the last straw in regards to men and another funny horoscope (by Lydia Gregg); and accepting the dullness of life, an alcoholic’s take on the rabbit and the hare, Truckhead’ s troubles with women and how to quit smoking (by Nate Neal). Ben Carrico has a series of text pieces as well, but those are so horribly dated that it seems unfair to even comment on them. After all, we must have all our terrorism and civil liberties problems worked out by now, right? Anyway, I prefer the later, more comic-heavy issues to this one, but your mileage may vary, or maybe you just want to see some of these artists in their early years. $1
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Posted by Kevin
