April 23, 2010
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Neil Jam #5
A “talking” guitar who falls in love! A cute rabbit who gets kicked around! Robot! Bird! Giant black eyes! You know, I was going to review every issue, breaking down the finer points, but then I realized that pictures from this incredible series will convince you more than I ever could. You’d think that kicking cute creatures around would get old, but you’d be wrong. I was thinking that this wasn’t one of the better ones and then I remembered the guitar. Pretty much all the stuff I got at SPACE (this and everything after it up to #9) is worth getting. $2
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Neil Jam #4
Well, the good news is that at least two more of these have been put out. The bad news is that this guy is still doing these himself when one of the big independent publishers should have noticed him and given him a lot of money by now. Or whatever passes for a lot of money in the small press world… Anyway, the world of Neil, for the uninitiated, consists of a series of characters who all share giant black eyes that take up most of their faces. Some of the stories are a page or two, but they keep the same underlying theme for the whole comic. Mostly tales of violence and confusion with a complete inability for most of the characters to relate to one another. A funny and creepy book, those giant black eyes pretty much hypnotize you by the end. It kind of has to be seen to be believed (keep checking, I’ll get this scanner working one of these days), but I can tell you that I’ll be ordering as many of the other issues as I can afford.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Space Pilot Girl
Well, you can’t fault the title for not being accurate. Just about the only solid information we get about the girl on the cover is that she is, in fact, a space pilot. And that creepily nefarious guy on the cover owes her money. Most of the issue is filled with sexual innuendo and guys with their (unseen) dicks out, and yes, I suppose those two things to go together. This was a fun little mini, and it looks from the website like Tim has more planned for Space Pilot Girl (or at least he knows significantly more about her history than we see here). I’m curious to see more, this one just flew by with some solid dialogue and art, and a pretty girl to look at while you’re reading. What more could you ask for? $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Glorianna: Sneak Preview (written by J. Kevin Carrier)
Guess the theme from the cover! It’s a game I like to play around here occasionally, and this time it’s a pretty easy one. Glorianna is an aspiring mercenary who decides to go join the war effort. As she is young and inexperienced she ends up lost, but hears screaming and follows it, what with her looking for adventure and all. She sees a man being attacked by a dragon, and this preview is mostly the results of that battle. This isn’t the neatest comic in the world, but I’m going to let that slide because of the “sneak preview” blurb on the cover. It’s obvious from Tim’s previous work that he’s a gifted artist, although it’s a little baffling that he let that series die out with only one issue. It sure seemed like he had more in mind for that series, but what do I know? As for this one, it’s tough to see what he and J. Kevin Carrier have in mind. A bigger series? A regular issue and then oblivion? Or possibly just this preview issue that never leads to an actual issue? Time will tell. It’s an OK story, but the Red Sonya concept has been sort of beaten to death, so it’s tough to say if they would be taking the idea in any new directions. Not with this issue, but it’s mostly one big fight scene. I’m curious to see more, but am pessimistic. Check his site, as there’s plenty of stuff up for free, to form an opinion that’s not based on my ramblings. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Vampspew #2
I read a whole bunch of these little stapled pamplets full or pretty words and pictures for this “job” with the website, so it’s always refreshing to find something that genuinely stands out as unique. That’s not always a good thing though, just consistently (if momentarily) refreshing. I’m still not sure if this series is something that I’m going to enjoy in the long term, but I do know that I haven’t run across anything quite like this before. This is basically a flashback from the main character after he had first turned into a vampire and he searched high and low for meaning, with more than a little social commentary thrown in. In here he researches the specifics of his affliction, makes sure he’s covered by his insurance company, consults a phrenologist, wonders about God… and that’s in the first half of the book. if I give away more than that it’ll totally ruin it for anybody who wants to read it, but for a nine page book this has plenty going on. Contact info is up there, this one is $2 (or $1.50 if you buy more than one copy)…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Vampspew #1
Um…. ew. That’s the initial reaction, anyway. This is a story about a pretty random vampire in some pretty random settings. There was a man on a walking tour through Europe, when suddenly it begins raining and he has to seek shelter. Mosquitoes attack, and after an explosion he turns into a vampire. Yes, in case you were wondering, that is the oddest way I’ve ever heard for somebody to turn into a vampire. Also in here is an old lady, a goiter, the quadratic formula, and dead monks. Not a bad first effort at all, if that’s what this is. The art was great, tremendously expressive. The story was meandering at best, but it’s only one issue, and it kept my interest all the way through. It’s $2, here’s a website.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Vampspew Volume 1
A suggestion to Steve and everybody else putting together graphic novels of their work: don’t make the cover to your graphic novel the same as the cover of one of your comics. Seriously, I don’t care how great of a cover it is, resist the urge and make something brand new, or people are likely to pass right over it in stores, in online images or (in my stupid case) when I received it in the mail to review. I saw the cover, thought that I had already reviewed the book, and by the time I uncovered it in my move and saw my error Steve had already sent me another copy. So… oops. This collects the first four issues of this series (the only four according to his website), in which a young man is turned into a vampire through an odd set of circumstances and begins a journey of self discovery. You can see what I thought of the first two issues below, and in case you were wondering, I’m a fan of “random” and “meandering” comics, as that’s where some people are able to make their best points. The third and fourth issues in this series continue in this vein, and really, Steve could have just chucked the whole vampire idea after the first issue, as it’s not something that comes up again. Aesthetically speaking I’m all for his total abandonment of word and thought bubbles, choosing instead to stick to small blocks of text over the images, especially with such an introspective story as this. It helps while reading this if you have at least a rudimentary knowledge of philosophy and some of that science stuff, as he veers in all sorts of interesting directions in trying to learn the secrets of the universe. These sorts of stories always seem to circle back and start eating their own tail, so to speak, as chances are Steve isn’t going to solve all the mysteries of the universe here. Still, it’s not a story of conclusions but one of a journey, and Steve manages to make it engaging and extremely thought-provoking throughout. Check it out if you’re into trying to figure out what makes people and the universe tick, if all you’re looking for is a big vampire fight you’ve come to the wrong place…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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A Date With Nerdy Girl
Another from the long list of people who should have been up here ages ago. Matt Feazell has been doing minis since the 80’s and his books are some of the best around. Don’t let the stick figures fool you. There’s a lot going on in here, and if you blink you’ll miss if because it all seems so simplistic. This one is a tiny collection of his weekly strip. which is news to me. There’s a certain mindset you have to have to really enjoy these comics. If you like the sample, you’ll love the rest of it. If you don’t, well, go to his website and look at some other stuff. Plenty of samples, you’re bound to find something you enjoy. If this world is a just place, there will come a time when he has a giant book with all kinds of Cynicalman stuff in it. Until then, his site has all kinds of back issues, and for $10 you could have a pretty extensive library. His books are small but cheap, and, more importantly, extremely good. I picked this out of his books kind of at random to review because there really wasn’t anything that much higher or lower than this on the quality scale from the 4 issues I got. It’s all good. You know I have no command of the English language, right?
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Junior Librarians #1 (with Jim Mackey)
Well, that was dumb.  Let me explain: I’ve long wanted more Matt Feazell stuff on my site, as I’ve been vastly entertained at his stick figure adventures for years. This year at SPACE, once again, I got to his table when I was almost broke and could only afford to get one thing, so I randomly grabbed this one. That makes it at least partially my fault, as few people in comics are more prolific than Matt, and I’m sure many other things on that table would have amused me greatly. This one, however, did not. It’s not a bad story: junior librarians are given a challenge to reshelve a huge pile of books in the correct order. Then a hulking bully comes by and kicks the ladder down… and then apparently the ladder disappears, as they are forced to come up with another solution to their problem. It’s a mildly cute ending, but that’s what it is, after only three pages: an ending. The next two pages name all the characters, an utterly worthless exercise, and the back cover contains original sketches for the characters, which is also at least slightly worthless. Unless this all turns into a much bigger series and all of this is important in the long run, which is quite possibly the case. And why were two people needed to write/draw this? OK, enough bashing of the guy. He’s one of the stalwarts of the small press world and I have nothing but good things to say about him as a human being and about the vast majority of his work. I just wasn’t impressed with this particular comic. $.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Nothing Left to Lose
Does that cover looked smudged and crinkled to you? That’s what it looks like, I didn’t throw it down the steps or anything. I should also point out how great that is, that this book (even the spine) looks like it’s been read a hundred times and is about forty years old. In terms of layout and appearance this thing is a masterpiece. To the cover (and it’s possible that I love that too much but you can’t bring me down about that) to the inside to even the acknowledgements in the back, it’s hard for a graphic novel to look much better than this. The story is a harder thing to nail down, with a big cast of peripheral characters, some of whom you never figure out what their motivations things were. I can’t really go into it more than that without ruining the ending, but trust me on that. Not that that does a thing to affect the larger story, mind you. That’s about a young man who checks himself into a mental health facility after experiencing visions and another recent “graduate” of the same facility. The first man sees the world ending, over and over, with everything destroyed and people melting in front of him. The second man seems unable to let go of his past. Oh, and than there’s the incredibly creepy thing they both keep seeing, which seems to have something to do with the end of the world. It’s a good little mystery, although, oddly, I think this is one of those cases where he could have done with another 50 pages or so for character development. Which is probably one of the nicest things you can say about a book: that you wanted to spend more time with it. Oh, and it’s also really cheap at $6.99, so click on that website up there if you’re curious…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Qwerty
That might just be the laziest title I’ve ever seen. If you don’t believe me take a look down at your keyboards. Or maybe it’s not lazy, maybe he’s just going for simple and I shouldn’t worry my pretty little head about it. Sure, I’ll go with that. This comic (which is called an APE Special Edition, but I’m guessing it’s available because he sent it to me) is all about a young woman with a small child who’s trying to manage her life while still raising her boy. It shows a lot of the harsh realities of trying to raise a small child on your own without ever getting overly preachy, which is pretty hard to pull off. Oh, and there is a robot, just in case you’re not the type who likes a quiet personal drama. Good ear for dialogue all the way through (and the art wasn’t bad either), it’s a little pricey at $4, but it’s also a pretty big book. Worth a look, and he also sent a graphic novel that I should have up here in a week or so if you’d rather reserve judgment until all the facts are in…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Domestic Partner of Frankenstein
Man, I hate this scanner… Take a look at that title. Right away you can tell that there has to be something worth looking at. The question is, of course, whether it’s worth looking at because it has a great title or it there more to it than that? Let me tell you the concept and you can figure it out for yourself. There’s a mad scientist who’s trying to make a monster. He uses body parts from a fire at an Antique’s Road Show, but the monster ends up having trouble meeting another gay monster. So he goes back to his creator and, luckily, one of the floats in the gay pride parade is struck by lightning. Another monster is made, but can they get along? A great concept for a story and I think he pulled it off really well. $3.50 is a bit much but it is a big book, so it depends on where your priorities are. E-mail the guy or send him money at: 1573 N. Milwaukee Ave. PMB #464 Chicago, IL 60622.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Love #4
Aspiring comic folk, THIS is how you do a recap for a series. Obviously this is #4, meaning that some probably important events have come before this issue. On the front inside cover, Matt said that a lot of important things happened in the first few issues and he hopes the reader hasn’t missed them, but just in case they did, he goes on to mention just about everything you could need to know, while still leaving enough room for curiosity that people would still want to check out the earlier stories. Kudos, Mr. Fagan. As for the rest of the comic, this is a behemoth of a mini. This issue deals mostly with the lives of Jack and Pokie, two lovers and the main characters, as Pokie gets arrested for having a naked Flash run down the street and Jack composes and puts on a play about a zombie unicorn and the virgin who’s the only person that can see it. Lots of other minor characters flit in and out, which would have been confusing if it wasn’t for that amazing recap of the past issues. These are done mostly in a page by page format, with something vaguely resembling a punchline at the end of the page, until they get to the actual play, then it’s damned near a mini on its own. All told, this comic works in all sorts of ways. It works as a relationship book, it works as a comedy and hell, it even works on an inspirational level, as the fact that these two characters are able to get their bizarre artistic visions made into reality is downright inspiring. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Wormdye #3
This comic is for people who have always wondered: just where did women come from anyway? Sure, you have the loons who think woman was created from a rib of Adam, and you have the more reality based folks thinking that woman evolved over a period of millions of years, like man, from a pile of goo in gradual steps. It turns out that Zeus created woman “in an attempt to increase population while simultaneously bringing about the ruin of man”. This comic tells that story, from Zeus pushing a woman onto a reluctant man (well, his brother was reluctant anyway, at least at first) on to the birth of a fantastical box that hatches a stunted dog, which does indeed seem to bring about the ruin of man. The second part of the book is a creepy retelling of the Red Riding Hood story and yes, it’s even creepier than the original fable. It also deals with voyeurism and the continued presence of the stunted dogs, in case you were curious. Once again this is a gorgeous book, and while it may not be kosher to sample the last page of a comic, it was too beautiful not to and it doesn’t give away the ending or anything, so stop being so damned uptight. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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There is Nothing!
Oh mini comics time machine, why can’t all comics come from you? Ok, maybe I’m not THAT in love with all old mini comics, but nostalgia is a powerful thing. I vaguely referenced the fact (in an older review for Marc) that I wasn’t all that fond of this comic, but reading it again now I have no idea why that was the case. There are a couple of pieces that aren’t great, granted, but this is a hefty 38 page book. It reprints strips from back in the day when Marc was doing weekly comics, a format that is sadly lacking in quality these days (or at least it is in most of the papers I see, online is a different story). It’s difficult to sum up Marc’s work if you aren’t already familiar with it, as the Shrimpy and Paul collection (while a masterpiece) came out ages ago, and there’s a generation of comics folks now that may not have seen it. To put it succinctly: he’s absurdist, funny, ridiculous, insightful, nihilistic and gooey, while being none of things a good chunk of the time. He’s a damned unique voice in comics, and it’s a shame that I haven’t seen more from him over the years. It’s an even bigger shame that I can’t find a single place online to buy his comics, although you could still find copies of that collection. This is mostly to bring his name up again, and to point out that if you do see his comics anywhere in your travels, buy the hell out of them. Stories in here include fighting against nothing, cutting the sausage casing, making a list of things to do, a house getting up and going, smashing something loved and the guilt involved, angry friends and a relentlessly happy worm, a piece of sheer beauty in tiny tiny panels, poor poor Big Boy, The Sensitive Sausage trying to go about his day amidst all the ugliness in the world, humping and mustard, a beautiful day ruined by cheating, one hell of a centerfold, a tale of Hercules, getting a head off your head, losing your mind and getting it back by washing dishes, rock & roll being dead, drunkenly trying to get noticed as a writer, an enviro suit, a zine writer’s crush destroyed, Sweet-Cakes, Ol’ Simp, a free box, and being freed by orange juice. That’s some of the goodies in here anyway, I’m leaving out some surprised in the hopes that you can track this down. If you can it’s only $4 for all this…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Wormdye #1
Is Renee French still doing comics? I ask this because Eamon’s work reminds me just slightly of hers, and I can’t remember the last comic I saw by her. Anyway, for the short version of this review, just skip the text and check out the sample. If you like that, you’ll love the rest of the book. If it doesn’t make any sense to you and you hate it, well, chances are the rest of the book isn’t going to do much for you either. I thought it was brilliant, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much attention to detail in every single panel. Really, if he took any shortcuts here at all, they were well hidden. So what are the stories about? Well, King Tut, pee, suicide, cockroaches, Most Valuable Employee, maggots, and a robot. Then there’s another, smaller book connected with a rubber band (called All Green Places Are Lost) that’s all about an incident from the reign of King Stephen involving a couple of green skinned children who were lost. The story of their life ensues, sort of, but I don’t want to ruin anything. I’m curious to know how much of it was based on true events though, not that’s very possible to check the veracity of a story that over 800 years old. This one is a steal at $2 and you can send the author an e-mail if you’re interested.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Wormdye
You know, this is the type of book that probably would have never been made without the new publishing group, Secret Acres. Not that I want to make this a commercial or anything, but they’re pretty new at this and have put out a few incredible books so far and I think that people should give them as much money as possible to encourage them. Take Wormdye. Maybe one of the “big” publishers would have given it a shot, maybe not (I have no idea of sales figures or whatever else those folks take into account when publishing a book), but it’s all rendered irrelevant by the fact that Secret Acres was able to do such a tremendous job on the production value. The book looks gorgeous and it’s affordable ($13 for I believe 7 collected issues). What more can you ask for? What about the contents? Well, the first few issues are reviewed below, although I seem to have been rushed for at least one of them. I didn’t remember the first part of things though, the parts involving a cat, a microwave, and a confused teen girl in a bathroom, nor do I remember the man who pretended he was dead so he could go have the time of his life. Also, in case I didn’t make it clear enough in the earlier reviews: the bit with the power mad Pope and the ten virgins to be sacrificed was delightful. Next up are a couple of silent pieces, all with full pages layouts, that I’m not even going to try and review. I’ll just say that it looks like most of the images from Cremation of Care and Giants in Heat are up on his website and mention that these are the sorts of drawings that deserve to be blown up and studied, the sorts of things that you could randomly open a book and turn to at any moment and discover something that you missed completely the first time around. This all brings you to the biggest story of the book, The Blood is the Cow. A two part story, this tale involves milking, two brothers, a secret conspiracy (although that’s probably the only kind of conspiracy), slavery, sacrifice and an old man trapped down a well. This would all be fantastic enough if some yokel was drawing it, as these stories are completely unique in their own right. Luckily for the reader Eamon is in a class by himself when it comes to the drawing business, with an uncanny knack of finding just the right expression for the humans and able to plumb some serious depths of imagination when it comes to everything else. A guided tour through his brain would probably do you some serious damage, but you’d also come away a lot wiser. Great stuff, in other words, and here’s hoping that new publishing company ends up taking over the world. $13
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Stupid and Unkind #2
Robin re-released the first issue of this too, with the same type of cover as this one. I’m leaving the old one up because I’m a big fan of his “busy” covers, even though the new one looks better and they make a much better set together. So how does his first fictional story hold up? Pretty well, I thought. This issue deals with Ronan predictably losing interest in his new “girlfriend” and conversations through his friends and his ex that end up painting a pretty clear picture of the guy. I did think that things wrapped up a bit too neatly, although part of the beauty of the ending is that you’re not at all sure how neatly things really were wrapped up. And no, I can’t really go into why that is, or it would ruin the ending. Duh. So good stuff from him again, and I look forward to reading his stuff evolve over the years.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Stupid and Unkind #1
First off, before anybody thinks that this is a regular series or anything, Robin just had a lot of the story done and wanted to have something available for MOCCA, so he decided to do the story in two parts. And he says that the second part will be available at SPX this year (which I’m going too barring death or dismemberment), which isn’t long at all to wait for a resolution, especially not in the small press comics world. This is about a guy named Ronan who’s trying to get over an ex. He wants to rejoin the dating scene but can’t find anyone as perfect as his ex, which is, of course, what happens to everybody, even if their ex was never all that great to begin with. It’s fascinating to watch this new “relationship” happen, as Robin has an unmatched ear for dialogue that people would actually say in these situations. Great stuff again, and if anybody out there has a tough time meeting the ladies, might I recommend the tactic used to Roman in the sample below…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Rebel Girl
Here’s another good comic from Robin, this time about 9/11 and his immediate reactions to it. He joins a protest with some friends from school, protesting a possible war with Afghanistan. Granted, the aftermath didn’t go well at all, but here’s a question, and I mean this sincerely: what did protesters want to do after 9/11? Anybody who could answer that question for me would be a wonderful human being. I’m against war in most instances, but how could you argue against removing the Taliban from power and hitting back against the people who were responsible for 9/11? The aftermath hasn’t gone well at all, and don’t even get me started on Iraq, but I’m curious as to what any protester, or person against the war in Afghanistan, would have done differently, given the opportunity. OK, rant over. This is shorter than his other books, and it focuses on his girlfriend at the time and his problematic relationship of the organizer of the protest.He says that his next comic is going to feature someone other than him. Hooray for range! Contact info is up there, let’s say it’s $1.
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Posted by Kevin
