New review today for Blood Desert #1 by Adam Yeater, and yes, this is one of those comics where you can get the general gist of it from the title.
Yeater, Adam – Blood Desert #1
May 23, 2023
When somebody sends me a pile of comics, I like to go back to the beginning and review that first. Makes sense, right? Well, I also have to include the caveat that the vast majority of artists improve as they make more comics, so anything I say about #1 was most likely already fixed by #26. Yep, according to his website, he’s already up to #26, and this one was released three years ago, making him incredibly prolific. I mentioned in my last review of his work that I’d read an interview with him where he mentioned his grindhouse and gore influences, and this one seems right in line with those sensibilities. Our hero (?), or at least the guy on the cover, is wandering around a post-apocalyptic landscape and stumbles across a military base. He finds a CD player, which distracts him from the gigantic monster that’s creeping up behind him. The rest of the issue is a mostly silent tale of him trying to get away from the creature, with a nuke thrown in, as you may have guessed from the title. It’s… fine. I’m at a place where I need either a bit more substance in a comic or a whole lot more mayhem, and this one didn’t land on either axis. I’m also assuming the chaos ratchets up in future issues, so maybe I’ll skip ahead to issue #10 or so for the next review, especially as it doesn’t seem like I have to worry about keeping up with any long, complex narrative. This particular issue was so-so for me, but if you like his general aesthetic, there is a whole lot more of it out there in the world, so you’re in luck! $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 5/17/23
May 17, 2023New review today for Brooklyn Tattoo by Adam Suerte, who’s been absent from this website for far too long.
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Posted by Kevin
Suerte, Adam – Brooklyn Tattoo
May 17, 2023
He’s back! I always feel like sending out an alert of some kind when I see a new comic from somebody that I haven’t heard from in a decade or more. If you’re new around these parts, or even if you only starting reading around 2010 or so, Adam did a four issue series in the aughts detailing his year of apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor. It was fascinating stuff, with my only (minor) complaint being that if it took him most of decade to tell the story of his year as a apprentice, it didn’t seem likely that we’d be getting the rest of the story. Well, I’m thrilled to report that he proved me wrong, as this tells the tale of everything that happened after that. He also included a few pages/bits from that series, as this is meant to tell the whole story of his time as a tattoo artist. One more thing before I start talking about the actual comic. I just went back and read my reviews for Aprendiz (I actually still have a few issues of that for sale, so if you’re interested I’ll check with Adam to see if he’d like to sell them or would prefer to have them back) and I said maybe the dumbest thing I’ve ever said in a review, and boy howdy is that ever saying something. In the review for the second issue I mentioned that he must be having a tough time as a tattoo artist making comics, because I didn’t see a lot of overlap in the two areas. Holy shit was that stupid. It’s significantly more rare to run into people at comic cons without a tattoo than with one, and I’m thinking that was also true in 2004 or whenever that review came out. Whatta dummy I was/am. It’s always nice to throw in reminders like that, just in case people start to think of me as an authority or something. Nope, I’ve just been doing this a long time. Easy to confuse seniority with expertise. Anyway, what about this comic? It’s the comprehensive story of his time in art school, meandering a bit with a soulless job, and eventually taking a gig as an apprentice to tattoo artists. That story is told in the other series (I still don’t think it would be a bad idea to collect it, but that’s obviously his call), and this is mostly focused on getting his own business off the ground and then keeping it running. One fascinating subplot is that Sophie Crumb, through mutual friends, ended up working as an apprentice at his shop. She was young and new to New York, so she did what most young people do in that situation, and word eventually got back to her dad. There’s a hilarious scene where Robert Crumb did everything but accuse Adam of ruining his daughter, despite the fact that they never hung out outside of work (there was an age gap), and all the while Adam was starstruck while being lectured by one of his comics heroes. Interest picked up quickly wherever his shop ended up (not just his, he did have partners), but doing all this in Brooklyn meant he was bound to run into one completely unethical conglomerate that bought his building. This meant a series of annoyances, large and small, until he eventually got a new place, and boy am I ever shortening that nightmare down for the review. There’s so much more that goes into every aspect of being a tattoo artists than I ever expected, not the least of which is all the business nonsense. Also I loved his art style before (I confirmed this by reading the old reviews), but I’d say he’s gotten even better since then. And the amount of detail! Every page, every panel, looks like it took about a week to do. Even the backgrounds (that would be solid black in a lot of comics) are packed with little doodads and icons. It’s already a lot of story at 140ish pages, but this is absolutely a book that rewards you for taking your time with each page. There are also some short pieces after the story by Sophie Crumb, Jason Mitchell, Myke Maldonado and Mark Bode about their time at the shop, and I’ll leave them as a surprise to the reader. Except for Myke’s, as the finale to that story was terrifying. So basically if you’ve been wondering whatever happened to this guy, good news! Everything worked out for him, more or less, and he even got through the pandemic OK (but that’s apparently going to be the story for his next comic). If this is your first time hearing about him, you are in luck. This is a hell of a read, and has me once again contemplating getting a tattoo with his artwork, especially if my plans work out and I get to New York in September for a visit. Check it out, you will not be disappointed. $20
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 5/15/23
May 15, 2023New review for an oldish comic: Scrambled Circuits #2 by Cameron Callahan. Hey, I already mentioned that my review pile here is getting tiny, so if you’d like more current reviews, send in your newest comic! Or wait a couple of days and I’ll review something hot off the presses…
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Posted by Kevin
Callahan, Cameron – Scrambled Circuits #2
May 15, 2023
Scrambled Circuits #2 (link to the collected edition)
I dug deep into the random pile of comics, stickers and such today, and I came up with this one from 2010. Readers from the future, if you’re confused, it’s currently 2023. But hey, this must have been sent in the last few years (the random pile is of indeterminate age and origin), so it has to be around somewhere, right? …OK, further review shows a collected edition, but not this individual issue. Still, I’ve come this far, so onwards! The collected edition has the first three issues and some new material, so you’re basically getting this issue in a Scrambled Circuits sandwich. In case anybody is still reading this, what’s the actual comic about? It’s a series of short pieces featuring Primus, a robot going through some things that may or may not be a stand-in for Cameron. Or maybe just things he’s observed; I have no context here. Subjects include trying to get out and face the day, realizing how terrible everything is but also realizing that the need to create would disappear without it, his terrifying origin story (of the robot, not Cameron), the pieces that you get as a child that adds up to you as an adult, a remembered incident with a hyperactive kid who may or may not have been a bully, flirting by text (this was a newish thing in 2010), what we all think will eventually happen with q-tips, focusing on the right things over Thanksgiving dinner with the family, having an immature sex ed teacher, and finding Belgium. It’s a pretty solid comic overall, with maybe a few weaker pieces, but it’s impossible to judge this man. After all, he’s still doing comics and it’s 13 years later. I doubt he hit his high water mark creatively in 2010. Still, there’s enough good stuff here to make me wonder what the collected edition is like, so hey, maybe you will too. If you can find this I’m guessing it’s in the $3-5 range, if not the collected edition is $15.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 5/11/23
May 11, 2023New review today for Jonesy by Maggie Umber. Once again, consider that new email address as fully functional, so disregard the old one. And hey, if I sold your comics online back in the day and you’re wondering if I have any copies left, ask away! If you’re out, I very well may still have a few copies laying around that I should have gotten back to you about already. Have I mentioned that I’m spectacularly disorganized with that sort of thing? Probably why the store was such a disaster. Ah well.
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Posted by Kevin
Umber, Maggie – Jonesy
May 11, 2023
This is one gorgeous comic. I believe it’s entirely painted (looks like water colors), which helps you fall right into the dream-like nature of the story. Which is fitting, as this is based on a dream. The text you see on the front cover actually wraps around to the back, and if I had to guess I’d say it was taken from a dream journal. The story itself is wordless, so the text goes a long way to giving the reader some idea of what to expect. The panels keep the sense of surrealism going nicely. You have the artist as one of those big hot dog looking things with arms that are outside car dealerships, or a hand and pen being held up against what could either be the actual outdoors or a drawing of it. And then there’s the giant abandoned tank engine that’s missing an eye. Oh, and the cat face. I guess what I’m saying is that even with the text to give you clues, there’s still plenty in here for the reader to interpret for themselves. Which also means that it’s best for a reviewer to shut up about it, other than to say once again that his is beautifully done and worth checking out for anybody who’s in a remotely abstract frame of mind. $8
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 5/9/23
May 9, 2023New review today for Generic Action Hero by Robb Mirsky. I thought I’d already reviewed all of his comics, but there it was, at the bottom of a random pile of comics. Oh, and I’m listing a new email address as contact info, if anybody had questions or review submissions. The old one was 99% spam, so if you’ve sent me a direct question over the last few years, maybe try again? I went through the whole thing recently, but there’s a good chance I missed a few real emails while blinded by spam…
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Posted by Kevin
Mirsky, Robb – Generic Action Hero
May 9, 2023Website (Instagram)
Generic Action Hero
What a fantastic example of a title saying everything the reader needs to know. The sampled page, in case you were curious, is the second page of the mini comic. First our hero has to endure the standard villain monologue, then the rest of the comic shows how he gets out of this predicament, with at least one more heroic act completed while falling from the plane. Oh, and Robb wasn’t kidding about that bonus poster. It’s everything you could want out of a poster for a generic action hero, that’s for sure. This is the part of the review where I would usually say that I don’t want to spoil anything further, but in this case, a thought experiment for the reader seems like a better idea. If you saw a generic action movie where the hero was pushed out of a plane while handcuffed and blindfolded, how do you think he would get out of it? He can’t punch gravity, after all. A hint: in these types of scenarios, the villain usually provides the means for the hero to get out of it, either through overkill or an inability to help themselves. Work it out from there! As for whether or not this was a good read, I mean, yeah, of course it was. Robb’s stuff is consistently funny, and that’s absolutely the case when he’s using as big of a target as this as the subject of his comic. Sludgy will always have a special place in my heart, but I’m glad that Robb takes the time to make shorties like this one too. $3
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/27/23
April 27, 2023New review today for Nugget #3 by Tony DiPasquale. The nuggetiest issue yet!
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Posted by Kevin
DiPasquale, Tony – Nugget #3
April 27, 2023
Sweet Christmas, but is this ever one gorgeous comic. It’s a double-sized issue compared to the last two, and it’s in full, glorious color. I would have said before this that the little dude would do just fine in black and white, but this proves me wrong. Before I spoil a single thing, if you’re wondering when you should get on this Nugget train, the answer is now clear: start right here. I’ve liked his previous work quite a bit, don’t get me wrong, but he’s on another level with this one. This is one of those cases where a sample image really should say it all. For those of you who prefer a little more detail before parting with $12 (which is a steal for this much comic), fine, I’ll do that reviewing thing. Stories in here deal with things like dreaming and waking up in an existential crisis, the mental image of what will happen when several floating squids are collected versus reality, peeking behind the veil, the cycle of drunkenness, Nugget making himself into a tree (which leads to an absolutely stunning double page center spread) and the impression that other people would get after seeing said tree, a normal day out with a pal, increasingly terrifying dreams while sleeping outside, and a funny bit on the back inside cover about dealing with a rough critic. The back cover is also something else, but I’ll leave that as a total surprise. The two biggest stories in here, and maybe the best (but don’t make me rank them, because I’m not capable in this issue), were left out until now, so’s I can spend more time on them. There’s an extended adventure where Nugget gets sucked into the monster (or benevolent deity?) in the sample image, only to be spat out as four separate pieces, each of which gets into its own adventure. It’s spectacular, and I’m running out of superlatives here, but if this comic only contained that story I still would have left satisfied. And there’s a deeply disturbing piece about Nugget coming across a few dead people/creatures in the forest, and his sudden ability to pluck out their eye and see their last moments through it. Alarming and wonderful. Are there a few other stories I’m not mentioning at all? You’d better believe it. Get yourself a copy, you absolutely will not be disappointed. $12
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/25/23
April 25, 2023New review today for Airbag #1 by Brian Canini. What are the odds that that man has the most overall reviews of anybody on this website? Considering he started making comics maybe a few years after I started the website, I like his chances…
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Posted by Kevin
Canini, Brian – Airbag #1
April 25, 2023
Good news, people who read Brian’s comics! He’s settled on a title for his various short pieces that don’t fit anywhere else, and it’s Airbag. Probably it’s for the best. I’ve been rereading (and getting caught up on the ones I hadn’t read) Love and Rockets after reading the 40th anniversary collection, and there was a point after a few series with different names where they went back to calling their comics Love and Rockets. People just didn’t pick up the other series as much for whatever reason. Sure, to comics folks like you and me it would seem like seeing their name on a comic (or Brian’s name, to try and tie all this together) would be enough, but apparently there actually are casual independent comics fans. And these shorter, more personal and serious comics of his should not get lost in the shuffle. There are a few laughs to be found here, sure, but mostly these pack a harder punch than his lighter fare. Things start off with a quiet piece about a son meeting his estranged father for lunch, which reaches a boil of resentment slowly but surely. Next is a story about a breakup, how it causes the man (Mark) to reevaluate his life, but offers no easy answers as to how somebody can break out of a rut like that. Finally there’s a group of kids who sneak into a frat party in college to get some free booze and a conversation happens along the way that changes the whole dynamic. It also started with an unanswered phone call on 9/11 before flashing back to the party, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out the connection. As always, blame a sleepy reviewer before blaming the artist in a situation like this, and either way it’s not like it blew up the story or anything. Finally there’s a wraparound piece which is grimly comedic, but I’ll leave that one up to you. I’ll just say that it involves that Bluto-esque dude on the cover and leave it at that. There’s also some encouragement from some of the best comics names around on his letters page, just in case you were clinging to the idea Brian was still your little comics secret. Here’s hoping Brian has enough stories to make these Airbag comics a fairly regular thing. Based on his insanely productive ability to produce comics so far, I’d bet on him for sure. $6
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/21/23
April 21, 2023New review today for Travel Diary by Scott Finch. Happy weekend everybody!
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Posted by Kevin
Finch, Scott – Travel Diary
April 21, 2023
Best to be blunt about this one up front, I reckon: it never really clicked for me. Which was surprising! The Domesticated Afterlife, his graphic novel from 2021, was one of my favorites of the year. That one also took some time to cohere into something really compelling, so I kept waiting for this one to do the same, but it never got there. Disclaimer time, and I’m aware that this is a message I’ve repeated a lot (but hey, every review is the first for somebody!), but the fact that this didn’t come together for ME has absolutely no bearing on how YOU respond to it. The premise here (explained in his afterward, and I’ve rarely been as thankful for an afterward as I was here) is that Scott was cutting out drawings from his sketchbooks onto postcards that he was sending to a friend, and he went with the idea and decided to let “some creative chaos into the project.” Judging by that metric, I’d say he succeeded wonderfully. Certain images repeat themselves, they occasionally get additional details added, he even includes number breaks to indicate chapters. If you’re a fan of more abstract art, it rarely gets as widely open to interpretation as this one, so in that case I’d recommend giving it a shot. And to be very clear, I still think Scott is somebody to watch going forward. It’s not like this comic is going to knock the incredibly positive feelings I have for The Domesticated Afterlife out of my mind. These things just happen sometimes, y’know? $25
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/19/23
April 19, 2023Join me today as I crawl all the way up my own hindquarters to talk about my experience with Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection by Jaime and Gilbert (and sometimes Mario) Hernandez, Los Bros Hernandez! Hey, don’t I usually review teeny tiny small press comics? Yes, and I will mostly continue to do so, but I couldn’t let something like this come into the world without talking about it. Indulge me, won’t you?
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Posted by Kevin
Hernandez, Los Bros – Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection
April 19, 2023
Love and Rockets: The First Fifty: The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection
(With apologies to Fantagraphics, as I stole…er, borrowed this image from their website)
Hell no, I’m not going to review Love and Rockets! Are you kidding me? This is instead going to be half “hey, did you know that this collection existed?” and half “story about how I got into comics.” As for you, gentle reader, you now know the first half of my intentions, basically. This exists, it’s amazing, if you have the money of course you should get it. The rest is going to be fairly self-indulgent, so continue at your own risk. Oh, one more thing before I start rambling: if you’ve never heard of Love and Rockets, it’s not too hyperbolic to say that it’s a foundational piece of just about every alternative comic going today. Sure, there was the underground stuff before that, and various newspaper strips and EC comics before that, but anybody who’s been doing comics since the 90’s on owes a hell of a lot to Jaime and Gilbert. When did you start reading Love and Rockets? I started reading this with Volume 2 of the collected editions, way back when they were just starting to put out collected editions. The image of Luba, always and forever a striking character, on the cover holding a hammer, was irresistable. That volume had Heartbreak Soup in it and, like anybody else who read that story, that was it for me. Instant fan for life, right there. This would have been maybe 1990 or 1991 (I got the book in a bargain bin, so it wasn’t brand new). Got caught up on the collections available at the time, got the rest of the issues of the magazine sized series, then kept going with the various issues/books since. I stopped reading them several years back for no good reason I can think of, but after reading this sucker I’m going back and filling in any holes; yes, you’d better believe I’m reading the whole thing again. So if anybody is left reading this, what about this collection? After all, at $400 it’s far from a casual purchase. If you already have the graphic novels from that era, do you need this? Highly recommended, still, and if you can afford it, yes, but I guess you could make do with those editions. Reading this again reminded me of one thing: my preferred way to read Love and Rockets is like this, when they’re taking turns. Odd, I know, and not something I enjoy doing with any other creators. I’m perfectly content to read 10 pages of Poison River (Gilbert), followed by 8 pages of a Locas story (Jaime), followed by 6 pages of X (Gilbert), with a short story mixed in here and there. Probably because that’s how I started reading them, but it’s still true. Both brothers (although mostly Gilbert) were also big fans of adding panels or pages to the collected editions, and those pages aren’t in this set, so if you’re looking for the whole thing you probably do need both. One of the main attractions of this set is the 8th volume, or the “extras.” There are plenty of reviews from when they first started and following them as they evolved, along with a few short interviews. Some of their comics are in here from various sources, including things I’d never seen, and more comics from Mario Hernandez than I’d ever seen in one place. It went a long ways towards my more greatly appreciating the third brother (from the first issue of the series, I mean). My only quibble, which means it’s my only quibble with the whole collection, was that it sure seemed like they could have included one of their interviews from The Comics Journal. They’re the gold standard for interviews, after all, and they’ve done a few with them over the years. Maybe it was a space issue? They’re all in a TCJ archive online, but it would have fit nicely here. Yep, that proves it: I can never be completely happy with anything. One other reason to recommend this: since this reprints the issues exactly (ads, letters pages and all), you can see Fantagraphics grow as a company in real time. This was the first series they published, but by the 90’s they had just a ridiculous number of quality series going. Should I go back and edit this “review” into a more coherent whole? Eh, probably, but I’m not gonna. Bottom line time, I guess: if you’ve managed to never hear of these two and have some disposable income, you are in for quite a treat. Hell, you can maybe even get this from your local library, if it still has funding where you live. Aw, just use your tax return if you’re broke. That’s what I did! $400
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/17/23
April 17, 2023New review today for Marshmallows by Chris Resnick, as I’m dealing with another unintentional theme week. This time around it’s “comics that are too big for my scanner,” although the Friday review just barely fit. Exciting times!
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Posted by Kevin
Resnick, Chris – Marshmallows
April 17, 2023
(Note: the image above was swiped from Howling Pages, an amazing comic shop in Chicago. Buy the comic from them, won’t you? Or buy some other comics, their selection is unreal.)
This is one of those rare comics that’s too big for my scanner, which is why I provided the disclaimer above. Anybody looking to sue can have one of my cats, and that’s only after I’ve gotten him riled up with a laser pointer. Good luck! So once you get past the giant exterior, what’s going on in here? Chris calls this “half true,” so it’s open to interpretation as to which half he’s talking about. This is the story of a camping trip Chris took with his friend back when they were both 12. It was with Chris’ grandparents, but naturally the main goal of two 12 year old boys in that situation would be to escape having to deal with them. It’s a delightfully real tale of how obnoxious kids like that would be, with the very true disclaimer that 12 is a decidedly odd age; not a teenager, not really a small child either. They talk about girls (that they’re both aware they have no real chance with), make fart jokes and are eventually kicked out of the camper for farting excessively. The tent they’re given is too small for the both of them, and they’re still trying to figure out how to make that situation work when two girls who seem to be about their age come running out of the forest, asking the boys to hide them. No spoilers from there, and the next section seems to be surreal enough that that’s the fictionalized portion. But strange adventures seem more common when you’re that age, so who knows? This is a sweet comic, with real things to say about being a kid, and there are more than enough funny bits to keep things moving. I don’t know where you’d store something this large, but it’s worth a read. Hey, just do what I do: put the giant ones in an ungainly pile in the closet, where they’re forgotten about until the pile eventually collapses. It’s foolproof! $8
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Posted by Kevin
