April 24, 2010
Website
The Shortest Interval Now Available! $3
One of the most fascinating scientific unknowns in our history is, to me, what happened between the instant of the Big Bang and the point when everything started rapidly expanding. David tackles that idea in this fantastic comic, although I should point out his disclaimer at the back of the book: “The author is not a scientist and does not understand physics or anything. Use this comic book as an academic source at your own risk.” I also feel obligated to point out to any functioning adult who still believes the Earth (and the universe) is 6000 years old to please sit quietly while the grown-ups discuss a scientific theory. So what happened? David says that this interval was 10 to the 34th power seconds long (if I’m even reading that right, which should tell everybody all they need to know about my grasp of science), and proceeds to give a number of theories as to what might have happened during that time. I picked my favorite for the sample. As this is a tiny thing and I have no interest in ruining any of the other theories for readers, I’ll just say that he does bring more than a little bit of science to this as well as explaining who the period is named after. Making science funny can also be a tricky thing, but he pulled it off beautifully. This is well worth checking out if you’re at all curious about that undefined period of existence and how everything came into being. And who isn’t curious about that? $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Danny Dutch Now Available! $5
This is the sort of book that describes any sort of easy analysis, so if you’re not a fan of me hemming and hawing for a chunk of text, it might be best to move onto something else (after you’ve at least checked out the sample, of course). This is a 4 panel strip that David does weekly, and he admits in the afterward that he has no clear plan for the strip in the long term, it’s just something he does to see what kind of comic he can get done in a week. As such, the subjects are all over the place, with the strip I sampled below one of the few examples with what you’d call a punchline, because that’s the mood I’m in today. Other strips deal with utter abstractions that are impossible to summarize, or at least damned difficult, without draining all the joy out of them. OK fine, subjects in here include a man’s first suit, being too attached to things, a rock-thrower, freedom to draw, a dead body, an abandoned boat and, of course, vapors. I feel like you probably understand this book less now than when I started, so let me make this easy on you. You can find a pile of these strips right here and read a bunch for yourself. I applaud what he’s doing, just wandering around and seeing what he comes up with (while still keeping in the four panel format, at least so far). Maybe some of his other stuff is more “accessible”, whatever that means, but this one deserves support, and I’m curious to see where he wanders off to. $5
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
My Favorite (written by Michael Grace Jr.)
Here’s a mini from Dave that’s all lyrics from a band called My Favorite. You can buy the CD here, just in case maybe you want to buy the CD and then try to follow along in the comic. Vampires, hospitals and nostalgia can be found in here. I swear that his art’s getting crisper all the time, and it was pretty good to begin with. Nothing all that fantastic here, but that’s probably just because I’m spoiled with all of Dave’s more personal comics. Probably some great stuff here for anybody who’s a fan of the band and it’s still good to look at. Probably around $1, get it and add it to your pile of Dave’s mini comics.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
You’re Great
Eek! Sorry about the way my scanner interpreted that cover. This is kind of a rough print of this comic, as Dave is going to try and get a Xeric grant to get it done right, but I think you can still go to his website and request it. It’s a different perspective from his usual comics as this one is written by his girlfriend (or maybe just “female friend”, I don’t know). It’s the story of a girl and a boy who meet in high school. The boy loses touch with reality more and more all the time and the girl has to come to grips with her feelings for him while he slowly goes insane. That’s all you get from me about this as you should all check it out yourselves, as is the case with all his work. I’d guess it’s somewhere between $3-5, and if anybody from Xeric happens to read this page, give this man some love! He’s one of those people that I could see calling “comic genius” in a few years (and am close to calling him that now but don’t want to give him an ego or anything), so give him lots of money to make this comic look nice!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Dirtbag #8
Not to air all my dirty laundry here or anything, but Dave’s comics are a great therapy for post break-up blues. Not that there’s much in here that is fantastically cheery, but he has a wonderfully lyrical and poetic view of the world, and it’s nice to see women and relationships look on paper the way I think they should feel. Go ahead, read that sentence over again. I dare you to make any sense out of it, but it sums up my opinion of this comic. More girls, 70’s and 80’s movies and boobs in this issue. Maybe it’s better than his other books, maybe it’s just as good, but a lot of what he said in here either helped me or made me think about things, so I’d like to thank him. Probably a dollar or two, I’m sure you know where to get them by now…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Dirtbag #6
For whatever it’s worth, this review is being done on 1/9/10, far into the future from when the rest of these reviews were written. Why so late? I missed it the first time around, so why not? Reading this now, after Dave has done at least a few really polished books, it’s hard not to notice how raw this is. Oddly, I mean that in a good way, as there are tiny images of all sorts of things all over the place and panels are only occasionally used. The nuggets for his future books are here, as he opines about how he’s obsessed with girls, wishes to be taken on adventures, fears loneliness and wants to throw aside all his responsibilities to become a hobo. Those are the linear, easily understood moments, told in (more or less) a conventional way. The sampled page is a better illustration of what I’m talking about than anything I could say, but there’s something about the simplicity of drawing the random images in his head, putting dreams and bits of reality together and seeing what comes out of it that’s missing in his later work. Granted, his later work is probably “better”, if such a thing can be measured at all, but there’s some serious charm to be seen in his older stuff too. No idea if this is still available to buy, but if it is it’s $1.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Dirtbag #1
I’m not sure how many different ways I can tell you about how great this guy is, so I’ll just tell you about the comic instead. I love his Dirtbag series at least in part because it showcases his obsession with bad TV movies. There are a few little text pieces about them, as well as one about his infatuation with a girl when he was in school. Throw in some loneliness, horniness and general longing and you have another great Dave Kiersh book. Oh, and there’s his love of retards, his worry about pregnancy and his story of the drive-in closing down. This is all great stuff, of course, but the main reason to get this book is the simple interpretations of his favorite celebrities. I was going to sample a page but there are only two pages of them and I don’t want to ruin any surprises. Like all of his other books, this is one that everybody should own, although it looks like it’s not up at the USS Catastrophe page, so you might have to e-mail the man himself…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Last Cry For Help #4
At least I think it’s #4 (unless I missed one somewhere, there’s no number in here). More goodness from Dave, Souther, Craig Bostick, Beppu, Ron Rege, Dan Moynihan, Cole Johnson, and one person that I should know but can’t figure out and it’s bugging the hell out of me so let’s just leave it, OK? This is a tall issue with glossy pages, so I have to assume that Dave has made a lot of money recently, so more power to him! What’s there for a reviewer to say about this book anyway? If you like tales of love and loss, then there’s not much better than Dave Kiersh, and this is a collection of stories of that theme from a bunch of the greats, so where could you go wrong? My favorite issue of the series so far, I’m going to guess that it’s $4 because of the fancitude, contact info is all around you!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Last Cry For Help #3
I should almost put this on the Various page because so many people contributed to this one, but eh. It’s mostly Dave and Souther Salazar, as always, but there are also a bunch of other people with contributions of varying size: Saelee Oh, Dan Moynihan, David Heatley, Ron Rege Jr., Todd Webb, Rachel Sumpter and Daria Tessler. It’s 38 pages and Dave and/or Souther still have something to do with 75% of it or so, but the sheer number of artists makes this book much more diverse than the other issues. It’s almost jarring when you get to the 11 page strip by Dave towards the end of the book; looking at the same art for that long doesn’t seem right. The only consistent underlying theme I could find here was the visual poetry that went into every story. The words were universally beautiful, sometimes the art wasn’t, but it was never less then pretty good and it really didn’t matter once you got the messages of the individual stories. I can’t imagine that I have to “sell” the work of these two to anybody, but if I do, this is only $2 and is a great showcase for a lot of cartoonists, with long enough stories so that you can still feel like you got your “fix” of Souther and Dave. I’m sure it’s up on the Catastrophe page, buy it already…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
A Last Cry For Help #2
Souther Salazar helped out on this one, but I’m not sure how much so I’m only going to post it on Dave’s page. That OK with you? Anyway, I was pretty indifferent to the first issue of this. I’ve been meaning to read it again because I’ve liked everything else I’ve seen from these two, but the first one seemed like a mess to me. This one was a lot more together and, consequently, a lot better. I love how Dave ignores word balloons more often than not. I don’t know why the cast majority of comics people feel that they have to use the bubbles. They don’t have to do anything, it’s mini comics! Anyway, this is more goodness from Dave about loneliness, girls and trying to fit in. You won’t find a comic more packed with info than this one if you try. Busy, busy pages, you really have to read this slowly to get everything out of it, and even after doing that I still feel like I missed stuff. It’s $2.50 and you can get a copy at the ever-expanding usscatastrophe page. Support that page because you’re not going to find a better selection of minis anywhere.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Dave K Greatest Hits
How many people out there have a hard time keeping up with Dave’s work? Probably quite a few of you, unless you spend many hours keeping it all in order. What with all the minis, some of them available here, some of them available there, and all the various one page stories in anthologies all over the place. Well, lucky for you Dave put out a book of his “greatest hits” from the last 5 years. All kinds of stuff I’d never seen, and I try to keep close track of his stuff. Sketchbook-like pages with incredible, minute detail of various scenes and all kinds of one page stories dealing with stealing, staying home on a Saturday night, spying, kissing, hanging out at an all night supermarket, dancing, driving, rocket skates, being stuck on a bus, and going out. You know, all the things that make life important and some other things thrown in. This is available at the Highwater website for $5. I just went there for the sake of this review and boy do they have all kinds of great mini comics. They even have all the old Tom Hart books! Sorry, went off on a tangent. OK, everybody who’s read anything on this page knows that I think Dave can do very little wrong, but if you didn’t want to mess with getting all kinds of minis and just wanted one book, well, you’re silly to begin with, but this is a great place to start. I defy anyone to read this without wanting to see more. Contact info is all over the place, I’m sure you can find it…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Neverland
Man, it’s been way too long since I’ve seen any comics from Dave. Granted, it’s mostly my own fault, as he certainly hasn’t stopped making comics, it’s just that there’s a definite lack of quality comic stores in Columbus Ohio. Oh sure, The Laughing Ogre is OK, but all their minis are crammed on one shelf and in no sort of order at all. So how about the comic? It’s the story of Dave (or a fictional Dave substitute) wishing he could go back in time to when he was a kid and get his life in order before it all goes out of control. He wanders around his hometown, remarking on how nothing changes, at least except for the things that he wishes would stay the same. He eventually falls asleep while reading Peter Pan and has an oddly sexy dream involving Tinkerbell, some mermaids and Captain Hooker, all of which leads him to wake up and realize exactly what it is he wants, even if he isn’t entirely sure how to get there. He tells the tale in a slightly less hokey way than I do, but the man’s a visual artist and I’m here typing away on a website trying to describe this incredible book without giving too much away. As for the art, I’ve always like his drawings, but he seems to have improved from even the last time I’ve seen a mini from the guy. The level of detail here is amazing, most of the panels look like he only quit working on them because he ran out of room. The two pages right before the end in particular, depicting a fairytale forest, deserve some serious attention. Go ahead, if you have the book, open it up and just try to count the number of creatures and events that are going on in tiny corners of those pages. So yeah, obviously this is well worth a look, as is damn near everything I’ve ever seen from the guy. You can get this, and a few of his other books, through Bodega Distribution, this one is a measly $6.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Dirtbags, Mallchicks & Motorbikes
An entirely new collection from Dave, all in glorious (and that word certainly applies in this case) color. Sorry, you needed more than that? OK, that’s only fair. This is a collection of awkward coming of age stories, all told in a way that makes this collection accessible to teenagers. Or at least I think it would, I have no idea what goes on in the minds of teenagers right now. First up is Motorbikes, the story of a young man who isn’t well thought of by his mother or seemingly anybody else, as he tries to take care of his mother after she has an accident while also trying to get with the attractive nurse who is staying with them. Next is Mall Chicks, where a young woman gets very poor advice about how to attract boys and the practical trouble involved. Dirtbags is the story at the center of the book, telling the tale of a young woman playing tennis and a young man who watches her a little too intently every day. What, you thought that was it for the book just because that’s all the stories in the title? Hell no! The Party is up next, showing a high school party, what the party thrower had wanted to happen and what actually does happen. Finally there’s That’s My Baby, a heartbreaker of a story about a young man who gets a young woman pregnant and is confronted by her intention of giving the baby up for adoption to anyone but him. Dave was made for color comics and his stuff has never looked better than here. You’d think that “angst-ridden” only dealt with one or two facial expressions, but you’d be wrong. I swear that Dave must have stopped his growth in high school, as he has the unerring ability to portray exactly what these poor kids are going through just by the looks on their faces. This is self-published, goes for $20 with postage and is quite possibly the best thing he’s ever done. Of course, I may have said that with a few other things on this page too, but it’s certainly the best full color graphic novel he’s done. Unless there’s one I missed out there somewhere… $20
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Free Summer Franks II
It might just be my imagination, but I think this one is much bigger than the first one. If it’s not, maybe it just seems that way because not a page goes by without some serious destruction and hijinx, which is fine with me. I mostly think you’re better off going into this book blind and having all the random stuff just smack you in the face, but it’s my duty to tell you what this is about, so if you’d rather be surprised, stop now, check out the contact info and go on your merry way. You’ve been warned! In here you’ll find 19 year old Coke bottles, clubbing, cannibal tuna, that one shark from that one old cartoon (you’d know it if you saw it), talking horns, a great neck, and a pokemon battle. Riveting drama it ain’t, but it’s funny, so what more can you ask? $2.50 PPD!
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Free Summer Franks
Random collections like this usually suffer from being, well, random, but I think the format suits these comics perfectly. They’re all over the place. There’s a short one about summer coming, one about random violence, a long story about a clueless girl going to Lollapalooza (it’s from 1994), one about a creep in a comic store (gasp!) and one that feels horribly out of place about 9/11. I say that mostly because the rest of the book is full of some of the most madcap stuff you can think of… and then there’s where he was on that day. Oh well, maybe it just seems weird to me, and it does say that it’s “new and rare” comics, so I can’t imagine what else he could put it in. I like the art a bunch too. He draws really cute females and I think his style would look great in a weekly or daily strip, even though I think most daily strips suck. It’s a couple of bucks and worth a look, there’s some funny stuff in here. E-mail the man or check out the website.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Springtime for Autism
It’s says a lot that Tim can take a subject like autism and still make it funny. Granted, this is a serious comic; the cover isn’t lying about that. He just does an excellent job with the little moments that make up this book. Chances are that unless you have a family member with autism (or the family member of a close friend), you don’t know a whole lot more about this than I did. And this isn’t meant to be the authoritative book on autism by any means. Still, I learned plenty from this mini. In here Tim tells stories about his daughter’s eating habits at McDonalds (ice cream with sprinkles and fries), how she needs time to warm up to people before she gets at all comfortable around them, how the sound made by most lights bothers her, how he must give the exact correct answer to a question, his joy in seeing her enjoy little things or being the one to say things without prompting, maintaining the rituals, and trying to keep her from getting to frustrated at the world. It also documents a damned fine bit of parenting, although I don’t think that Tim had that in mind. If you have any interest in this subject and/or maybe want something you can show kids to help explain autism, this is an excellent place to start. I was also happy to see that Tim is still going strong (this is from 2005 but I haven’t reviewed any of his comics in ages) and has plenty of new comics up at his website. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Chutney Point
NOW I see what was going on. I was right, the issue I got ended up being right in the middle of the story. This is the tale of the murder of a man in a lighthouse. We know who killed him and why right away, but there’s still all kinds of mystery going on here. What is the evil genius with no hands looking for? Why is he so willing to kill whoever gets in his way? Are the police of the town ever going to figure out what’s going on? What’s up with all the poems as lead-ins to individual issues? It’s a fascinating and wholly unique book, frankly. I’ve rarely seen a cast of characters this diverse. You have an insane ballerina, an evil genius, mysterious prophetic twins, a psychic toe that gets stolen, and of course there’s the question of what this is all leading up to. My only minor quibble is that we never get to see why some of the minor characters have the motivations that they do… but maybe that’s why they’re minor characters. All in all, I liked this book a lot. I expected something that took ten years to make to be a lot more fragmented, but that wasn’t a bit of a problem here. Check out the website, as there’s more stuff there, or if you want a copy click on the link and it’s $14.99.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Chutney Point #3
Imagine picking up a mystery novel and starting on page 70 or so. Now you have some idea how I felt reading this! It’s hard to say much good or bad about it, as the first thing I read was that a woman had found her friend’s toe, and that it wasn’t the first time that it had been lost. Throw in some mysterious twins, a funeral and a crazy man and you have a very confused me. I like the art and I’m very intrigued as to what’s going on. Other than that, it looks like he’s putting the whole story into a graphic novel, so you can see if this whole thing makes any sense. Go to the website, why don’t you…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
The Regular Man #5
This isn’t a review for a comic so much as it is a chance for me to mention that for the next three people to order comics from this site, this little thing comes along free. Free! Who doesn’t like free comics? This is a series that Dina is putting out on a monthly basis, a full color thing that contains two pages of comics to go along with a front and back cover. In a perfect world comics like this would be inserted into your Sunday paper instead of the crap that’s in them now, but we have to make due with this world. Comics in this issue include tears, idiots, getting accepted to grad school, and “I Like A Book”. If you’re thinking it’s not worth getting because it’s so tiny, well, you clearly haven’t read her graphic novel, and you clearly don’t know how much she can do with a tiny amount of space. Besides, this comic also contains photographic evidence of the existence of Dina, or at least that she has the money to employ a stunt double to hold up the title. She also offers subscriptions of 12 issues for $15, in case you don’t want to bother with the free copy and want to get a pile of whatever comics she has out there. No sample for you, as, like I mentioned, this is only two pages long, and those two pages are done as a spread, so I’d have to sample the whole thing, and that would be cheating.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
Website
Important Comics: A Collection of Unquestionable Merit Now Available! $12
One of the things I love about comics is that you don’t have to have a great command of anatomy or conveying reality to make a great comic. Some of the best comics out there are minimalistic in one way or another, and this looks like a welcome addition to that pile. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clear from the layout, coloring and stories that Dina has some serious artistic skills, and for all I know she can paint a mean Sistine Chapel ceiling if she were so inclined. For what she’s doing here it’s irrelevant, even if she does draw an excellent hamburger. This is a collection of strips from her website, all done in color, mostly involving the utter banality of everyday life as related through a series of creatures that mostly resemble odd shapes, but occasionally reveling in absurdity. The sample should give you some idea of what I’m talking about (although a lot of her strips are bigger than that), as it’s going to be a bit hard to explain. The strip on the page opposite the sample page, for example, has two blue creatures (man and wife? boyfriend and girlfriend? who knows), and the male one has snuck off to eat a blue hot dog. His wife/girlfriend/landlady comes across him eating the hot dog and demands to know why he’s not using a hot dog bun. That is the kind of thing, for those of you who want a peek into my very odd brain, that I absolutely love. As for the rest of the mostly glorious comics included in this collection, I still recommend checking out her website, but I’ll give explaining a few of them a shot: there’s a politician with nothing to say, why leaving the house is a bad idea, a small cowardly sandwich, no fucking way, pointy water, being a jerk, your new pal the cloud, schizophrenics having a smell, books taking too long to read, going a whole day without the internet, and a roommate leaving all their crap. Confused? Then you clearly haven’t gone to her website yet. Why won’t you listen to me? The art is simplicity itself (and perfectly suited to the stories), a number of the strips passed the all-important “did it make me laugh out loud?” test, and I even noticed at least one strip I didn’t see the first time through due to tininess. I think this woman should be rich to pursue her dream (that I just made up) of never leaving the house again and putting out these comics. Won’t you please help? $12
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Posted by Kevin
