April 24, 2010
Karl’s Facebook page
Hoax #2 Now Available! $1
My ridiculously late review of these anthologies continues, sort of in reverse order, except when it’s not. I’m here to bring chaos to the world, what can I say? This is another collection of work from mostly the same people listed below, and Karl comes right out and says in the intro that he would prefer that this book be placed in all lavatories and used for toilet paper. I thought it was a pretty solid issue, but I suppose if you’re big on recycling it could be used both ways. Stories include a do-it-yourself suicide booth by Lydia Gregg, Nate Neal’s struggle to quit smoking (as he knows full well that his death by smoking is exactly what “the man” wants), Karl’s piece on how G.W. Bush being unable to tie his shoes leads to a nationwide red alert, Karl’s other, quieter piece about riding a bus after having it be overrun by birds, a mystery author’s piece on the vicious circle of being an artist, Ben Carrico and Karl Kressbach’s strip on weeding out the bigots, Nate Neal’s anti-globalization piece, Truckhead trying to kill himself (by Nate Neal), K. Throope’s plea to walk more, and Lydia’s Umbilical -Baby for little girls. There are also the usual array of stories from Ben Carrico, dealing with how stupid everybody is for believing the lies, how Viacom owns everything, and Wal-Mart and its ruination of all small towns. Lydia also has a text piece in here dealing with the evolution of art, accompanied by a strip on her dealing honestly with criticism. Assuming that’s her, I have no idea what sort of stuff she did in art shows. Anyway it’s another solid issue, if a bit dated, and that should be fairly obvious from the cover. Still, at least these people were dealing with the political issues of the time, so many comics folk just never address (or gave a shit about) any of it. They deserve some praise for that. #1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Karl’s Facebook page
Hoax #1 Now Available! $1
(Sorry about the lack of scans, this thing is basically and unscannable by me)
Kudos to Karl and the rest of the crew for turning this into a series after this first issue, because it was lousy. Lousy in what way? Well, mostly Ben Carrico, the guy who did most of the essays in later issues. In those issues I occasionally found him thoughtful, if all kinds of paranoid, but if I had read this issue first I would have had an entirely different opinion of the guy. There are certain statements that, when I hear or read them, know that I can dismiss the opinion of the person they came from. “Glenn Beck is a thoughtful, sincere journalist”.  “Sarah Palin really did quit the governorship so she could be a better fighter for ‘the people'”. “The moon landing was a hoax”.  This came out in 2002 so I don’t know what Ben thinks about those first two, but he mentioned in two separate articles that there was “no proof” of there ever being a moon landing, and that makes anything else the guy says suspect in my mind. And this issue is the Ben Carrico showcase, as he has 5 different essays in this one. He isn’t helped by the poor layout of the issue, which chops up most of his articles and continues them on later pages for no discernible reason. I have to point out, once again, that this is from 2002 and there’s every chance in the world that he’s ashamed of all this nonsense now, eight years later, and it’s not fair of me to even bring it up at this late date. Fair enough. But as these are still available for sale (at least here), I do have to point out that you’d be better off with any of the other five issues and it would be best to skip this entirely. Oh, what about the comics? Not bad, mostly, but there also isn’t much room for them with all the essays. There’s a piece on conspiracies by Nate Neal (funny and informative, if still a bit paranoid), K. Throope has a couple of people complaining about stupid house wives and their SUV’s, Lydia Gregg has the highlight of the issue (in which she has a tv ad of a starving country offering to take fat kids off our hands), Nate Neal has a silent mess of a Truckhead strip, Karl Kressbach has an indecipherable silent mess of a two-pager, Lydia has a funny four panel strip called Culture Binge, Lydia wins again with a fake ad on the back cover for Leproclear (to help you stay attractive as you age by shedding layers of skin) and Nate Neal caps it off with famous body parts kept in pickle jars. So: a few funny comics, many many wild-eyed (although, to be fair, he was probably right about a few things) rants from Ben Carrico. It’s still only a buck, so it’s probably still worth a look if you’re a fan of Lydia’s work. Otherwise everybody else involved got a whole lot better by the later issues. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Karl’s Facebook page
Delusion Dispatch Now Available! $1
I’m honestly not sure if it’s fair to review this now. Today is 3/5/09, six years after GW Bush started one of the dumber wars in history, and this comic has a fair amount of strips that are from that early time period. Making fun of GW was still considered a mildly subversive thing to do (instead of something every sane person did) and it was easy to rail at the inaction of the completely indifferent population. So let’s just leave it, huh? The strips are between funny and mildly amusing, but they’re of more use as a time capsule at this point. That still leaves a fair amount of comic that isn’t quite as political to go over, so how about it? The first strip (for students of comic making only) deals with a character and his dog challenging the boundaries of the panel and failing miserably. Next up is a brief strip about a man who makes a comic to try to help starving people, but nobody reads comics. A couple of shorties follow (and I’ll leave them as a surprise so I don’t ruin absolutely everything), then a strip about a man, at the end of his rope, walking off into the distance. Very slowly. No, it didn’t do much for me. All told there’s more than enough funny stuff in here to warrant $1, and if you prefer your GW bashing a little quaint then you’re not going to want to miss this. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Karl’s Facebook page
Chromosome Crossroads #2 Now Available! $2
If you’re going to have a comic about incest, this is about as good a title as you could have. It’s the story of a family of a mother, brother, father, sister, and daughter, and an awful lot of those people are able to claim more than one of those titles in regards to the same family member. It’s creepy, sure, and it’s easy to lose track of who is who even with the handy introduction, but there’s a little bit of bizarre charm in the way that some of these people relate to each other. Little things like showing off local landmarks, when viewed in the larger context of what a weird world the live in, come off as surprisingly poignant. Or maybe I’m just an emotional sap today, you be the judge. Anyway, it looks good and it’s original enough to be worth a look. Send an e-mail, there’s at least one other issue of this out there for $2…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Karl’s Facebook page
Chromosome Crossroads #1 Now Available! $4
This whole “draft” business deserves a bit of an explanation. The second draft is a redrawn version of the first, with the impressive color cover that you see above. It’s a pretty noticeable improvement, although frankly I’ve always been a bigger fan of letting older work stand as is and putting effort into making future work better. The first draft is the same story, with a few pages different here and there, but it doesn’t look as good. So I guess if you’re a cheapskate you can go ahead and get the older version, if you’re looking for the best possible edition of this comic you can get the second draft, and if you’re a comic scholar you can get both versions to compare and contrast. Everything clear now? Update: Karl says that he redrew it because he has a much longer story in mind, in case you were wondering.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Media Report Comix
This is for all you comic readers out there who appreciate the history of the genre. Richard has released a collection of sorts of some strips from the late 70’s, done in color (as he always wanted) for the first time. As with any collection of this sort, some of the jokes didn’t do anything for me, while others were pretty damned funny. And as with any collection of this sort, any attempt of a reviewer to go page by page and describe what the jokes are about would essentially kill the funny. I think the page I sampled is pretty representative of the contents; if you like this stuff, chances are you’ll like the rest of the book. If you don’t… well, maybe I picked the wrong page to sample. There is a website up there for you to get a more thorough idea of his work anyway, so what are you complaining to me about? $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Midnight Fiction 2008 Desk Calendar Now Available! $6
The contributors: Sean Azzopardi, Scott Ball, Hunt Emerson, Brad W. Foster, Allen Freeman, Richard Krauss, DC McNamara, John Porcellino, Bill Shut, Jim Siergey, Dan W. Taylor, Bob Vojtko, and Steve Willis. In case you’re wondering how this thing work, it’s beautiful in its simplicity. These are individual pages inside of a CD case, so all you have to do is flip the CD lid over backwards and you have an easy stand for your desk calendar. So instead of Dilbert or some other crap in your office cubicle, you can show the world how cool you really are with a calendar full of small press art. It starts with November of this year (2007), so you get a couple of bonus months with your calendar.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Three Fingers
Sure is tough to find pictures of some stuff online, for whatever reason. I did learn that Rich was the guy who did 3 Geeks, which is something that I’ve never read but have seen around the comic store. Riveting, I know, but I’m mentioning that because it always looked forgettable, and this graphic novel is anything but. It’s a story told like a documentary in comics form of the first cartoon star, but obviously all the names have been changed to prevent lawsuits and such. Don’t worry, you can tell who everybody is supposed to be. The title is based on the concept from the book that only cartoons with three fingers would be able to get work and the lengths that they all went to to get it. I don’t use the word “gripping” often in reviews, but there you have it, it was gripping. I was totally locked into the story from start to finish and thought it was a great concept. Anybody who is looking for a change from what the alternative comics scene has to offer should take a look at this, because I don’t think there’s anything like it out there. As for the art, the guy is a professional animator. How do you think it looked?
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The King
For those of you have seen more than enough stories about Elvis Presley, you can go ahead and move onto another comic, as that is indeed what this one is all about. A washed up reporter gets called out to Las Vegas to do a story on an Elvis impersonator. This isn’t your average impersonator though, as this guy has taken the city by storm and is playing to sold out crowds everywhere. He chooses an old washed up reporter, one whose sole claim to fame is that he followed a lot of dead end Elvis stories for the Enquirer in the 80’s, for his first public interview. This reporter, Paul, comes at this from a cynical point of view, naturally, trying to figure out who this guy is and what he’s up to. There is, of course, always the possibility that this impersonator is the real deal. What follows is an attempt to talk to everybody close to “Elvis” and the man himself, hoping to get real answers on this phenomenon. It’s an interesting story with a great payoff, and Rich does a good job to keep the reader guessing when most of us have some idea where things are headed from the beginning. Oh, and did I mention
that this impersonator is claiming to be the new god of music? Like I said, an interesting story, and it looks great as Rich has done some professional animation work. My problem, and I want to make clear that it’s probably just me, is that I reached my saturation point with Elvis stories years ago. There’s only so many ways you can come at a story about an Elvis impersonator and still have anything remotely interesting to say on the subject. Granted, Elvis on his conscious decision to
become a music god is a new twist, but a lot the background elements here are familiar. The church of Elvis, the disgruntled losers who find themselves saved after seeing the man sing, a lot of it felt like it had been done before. It’s a good read, and you’d probably love it if you haven’t yet reached your saturation point with all things Elvis. If you’re anywhere near that point, however, it’s probably best to move along, or go back and check out his Three Fingers book. $19.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
My Plan To Save The Earth
In case you were wondering, yes, this is another one of those 15 minute comics, and this has to be the ugliest one yet. Don’t think I’m talking trash here though, as ALL of these comics look like varying degrees of crap. Hey, you try to do a comic in 15 minutes, see how neat it ends up. This one is all one panel per page, so it takes right around 10 seconds to read it. As for the story, you might think from that title that this has something to do with saving the earth from global warming, or natural disasters, or Republicans. Nope! This is a very brief guide on how to fool the aliens that are inevitably going to come here to enslave/kill us all. All in all just an OK comic, but I highly recommend her 24 hour comic up yonder…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Omnibus
This might just be the best 24 hour comic I’ve ever seen. For one thing, if it wasn’t mentioned on the cover that it was a 24 hour comic I never would have noticed, which is an incredible thing. Most of the time with these things the art is so rushed and sloppy (especially by the end, and there are exceptions to that rule, of course) that it hardly seems worth the effort. This one breaks a lot of the rules people set up to make this easier on themselves. Almost every page has multiple panels, there’s a huge cast of characters, and there’s an interesting, if not fascinating, story behind the whole thing. What is it? Well, a bunch of people are riding the bus when it crashes, killing a pedestrian. It turns out that that was a good thing, but the end result is that everybody is trapped on the bus, and everybody has their own story. There’s the crazy lady who thinks it’s a sign of the rapture, the disenfranchised clown, the messenger from the mafia… I don’t want to give too much away because there’s a lot to discover here for yourselves, but let me repeat: I think this is the best 24 hour comic I’ve seen, and it’s certainly the best work I’ve seen from Corey Marie. So is it just Corey Marie or is it Corey Marie Kitley, like the cover says? Anyway, it’s $2, you can find it here, and you should think about checking it out.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Life’s So Rad #7
Ah, thank you again, o rainbow scanner. No, the cover doesn’t really look like that. This is a zine, technically, not a comic. The first half is a comic about The Beatles, how great they were, how many references they could fit into a comic about them, etc. Sorry, I’m not that big of a fan (to avoid hate mail, I understand their influence on music and the fact that a lot of the bands I like wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for them, it’s just that their music mostly doesn’t do much for me, OK), so the comic didn’t do much for me. The art was cute though, it looked like it was heavily influenced by anime, and there was a great playful spirit about the whole thing, so don’t think I’m bashing the comic or anything. The other half of the book has interviews with bands, ramen noodle recipes, reviews of music, reports of comic conventions and a few rambles. A pretty solid package overall, considering that I couldn’t relate to half the book. Here’s a website, this one was $2. I should also mention that Corey doesn’t do everything in this book but, as with most zines, it’s hard to tell who does. Corey’s name was the one mentioned the most, so she gets the credit until I hear otherwise…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Life’s So Rad #6
The comic in this one reads just like a sitcom, which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on your tastes. Corey’s boyfriend Justin has invited his mother over for dinner, causing Corey no end of stress. Justin agrees to take a cooking class for dinner because Corey has too much other stuff going on, only to break down and take the “How to be a Jedi” class instead. Wacky! Seriously though, it’s not a bad book. I think she must live in a hermetically sealed room, because there are almost no backgrounds to speak of (and I know they take a long time to put in there, but it really helps to flesh out the feel of a book). The rest of the book is zine format, with movie reviews (I still don’t get why so many people didn’t like The Two Towers that much), CD reviews (where I get to feel like an old man because I used to keep up on that stuff), and tips for living cheaply. I’m 29 and have been living cheaply for years, so I already knew the things they were talking about, but there’s all kinds of good tips in here for the young’uns. Oh, and there’s also a “do it yourself” guide to Valentine’s Day. This issue is from last year, but I’m reviewing it at a good time for that to come in handy. $2, contact info is down there…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Taproot
Anybody out there who has read and loved Spudd 64 has probably imagined it in glorious color, and Matt shows what it would look like in a perfect world with this issue. Well, that and there’s plenty of color pencil sketches of various things from the series, so if you’re one of those people who like to linger over the art, this is the thing for you. And me, as there’s always been something about these characters and these places that has kept me riveted. The color bits of Spudd come from a proposed #0, a bit of an intro to the world of Spudd. If I remember correctly this was $5, which some may think a bit pricey, until you realize that this is all color and a nice companion piece for the series, assuming that the series gets moving again some time soon. Yes, that is my version of a subtle nudge in Matt’s direction, assuming he sees this…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Spudd 64 #3 Now Available! $2
Have I mentioned yet that every cover has a different image or is a different color, or both? And not juts for this issue, but all three? Thought that was worth pointing out, just to show the level of detail that goes into this. So how about this issue? Well, it’s a (mostly) wordless tale, which is a great idea for Matt. Why? Because I could stare at his art for days, so why clutter it all up with all those pesky words? As with a lot of wordless tales, the story is up for a bit of interpretation, but I’ll give it a shot. Spudd goes into space and eventually lands on a planet. He runs into some Sea Monkey looking creatures, who give him some sort of power. He’s a bit freaked by this, so he runs away, right into a giant monster (who doesn’t look all that intimidating because he looks like he’s smiling), and if I keep going I’m just going to tell you the whole story, and what fun is that? Three cheers for a comic with no angst, no autobiographical stuff going on and no silly drama. This one is 100% imagination and comics like this are a lot harder to come by than they should be. Contact info is up there, this is available in the store, and he has a website that he says is going to launch on May 15 of 2005, so don’t bother to click it until then…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Spudd 64 #2 Now Available! $2.50
This reference will only make sense to about two people, but this series reminds me a lot of the one I tried to do a number of years ago, but couldn’t pull off because of my lack of drawing ability. Oh, and the story didn’t resemble this one at all. Trust me, there’s a similarity there, somewhere… Anyway, this comic. It’s huge, about 40 pages, with the first half being the ongoing story and the second half being something of an origin story. I compared this to Beanworld in the last review, and that’s still the closest real thing to compare this to, but he’s quickly building his own unique niche in the comics world. Most of the drawings in here are completely unique, obviously coming from his own brain and not just a rehashing of another comic. A number of people do that, consciously or unconsciously, especially when they’re first starting out, but Matt seems to have skipped that step altogether. This series is fantastic in the most literal sense of the word, and I can see from the level of detail in each image just why there’s a long gap between issues. Great stuff and and I couldn’t recommend it more highly if you like truly bizarre stuff. Contact info is up there, it’s $2.50…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Spudd 64 #1
Before I say anything here, I want you to take a look at the sample:
It’s a bit large, sure, but I think it’s absolutely gorgeous. Look at that detail! This might be Matt’s first book out too, in which case I’m thoroughly impressed. The story here is in its very early stages, as we get to see the birth of Spudd, which is apparently an offspring of a dying… um, giant thing, maybe a ship. OK, some of the finer points were obviously lost on me, but I’m sure they’ll become a lot more clear as the series moves along, and it had better move along! I threaten because I care… Anyway, e-mail him to make sure he keeps at it and to see if he has anything else around. If I had to compare this to anything I’d say it a cross between Beanworld and Neil Jam, but the latter one only because of the giant black eyes…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Legion of Super-Heroes Sketchbook
You know, I forgot all about the fact that I had two copies of this, meaning… it’s for sale here! Not that it’s the most urgent thing in the world to discuss, as sales have been a bit… um, sluggish up until this point, but there you have it. This is about half of a sketchbook with half comic stories thrown in. You have a variety of super-hero characters in a variety of poses (some of the ladies almost seem a bit risque, but maybe that’s only because they’re drawn with some large boobies), then you have two of the super-heroes having a fishing contest to determine who gets to ask the super-hero lady out on a date. Honestly, I can usually take or leave sketchbooks, but the few pages of actual comic in this are more than worth the price of admission. Contact info is up there, or you could just buy it and be the first on your block to get a comic from me!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Cavalcade
Well, it turns out that “Horse and Rider” was a title that was used for “equine pornography”, so David isn’t going to be using that title any more. This book has two stories in it, although I don’t think they’re both “big” in the literal sense of the words. How many times can I use “quotes” in one review anyway? The first story is about a bunch of cute, fluffy animals committing suicide in some fairly brutal fashions. The second story is big, and it’s about a man who’s down on his luck meeting up with a bunch of other people who feel the same way. That’s an incredibly simplistic way to put it, granted, so you should probably read it to see what you think. A bit depressing, I guess, but it’s a great wordless story about fitting in with other people who don’t fit in and being alone with yourself. Contact info is up there, or you could just order it from me. Do it! You know you want to…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Horse! & Rider #1
Three cheers for random funny books! I think I’ve heard of David King from other Chicago people (or he has a name that sounds like another name, it’s hard to tell with a memory as bad as mine), but I had no idea what to expect going into this. Oh, I should also mention that the book is a light yellow color, not white, but I figured I didn’t need to use up so much space to make it yellow. Executive decision! Anyway, the story in here has nothing to do with a horse or its rider. Instead it’s about a man who decides that , in order to make something of his life, he needs to start stealing pies. I’ll say no more, as it’s too short to go into at any kind of length without ruining stuff, but I will say that I plan on using the word “Piebag” a lot more than I used to, which was never. Check out his website by clicking on the title, or go here to see what the second story in the book is about. It’s $1.50 and absolutely worth it, you can also e-mail him if you’re already sold…
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Posted by Kevin
