April 23, 2010
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Hectic Planet Volume 1: Dim Future
Man, I had high hopes for this book. As far as I know Evan has never done anything that I really hated. Dork and Milk and Cheese were two of the funniest books ever, but for some reason I had always avoided reading this series. Maybe it was the pirate idea, maybe it was science fiction aspect to the whole thing, or maybe it was because I had gotten the impression that he was taking the whole thing too seriously. Whatever the case, well, it looks like I was right to not jump right into this series with both feet. It’s the story of a ragtag (is there any other kind?) band of misfits trying to make some money in space, essentially. It’s not that it’s a bad book, because it’s not. I just didn’t think it lived up to the other, funnier stuff that he had done. Of course, this is his early work and maybe he just had to find his rhythm.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Fun With Milk and Cheese
Whenever I’m in a really crappy mood and it seems like nothing is ever going to get better, I turn to Milk and Cheese. Or Magic Whistle by Sam Henderson, if I’ve read Milk and Cheese already too recently. You’d have a hard time finding a funnier book than this… well, at least until the collected Dork comes out, which I’ve heard is going to be some time this year. Does it have a point, social commentary, anything like that? Not really. Maybe there are a couple of accidental statements about TV and Merv Griffin, but past that it’s pure, unadulterated mayhem. Brutal sometimes, too. If you ever feel low and those crappy feel-good Hollywood movies just aren’t doing it this time, you could do a lot worse than to get a copy of this.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website (?)
Trashola #3
What’s this? A good chunk of Trashola done by someone other than Josh Divine? Sure, it’s funny, and sure, it looks good, but I expect only Josh in my Trashola. Don’t challenge my rigid brain! Anyhow, the story in question is a story of a bunch of young kids finding a lot of beer and going on a rampage. If you like mayhem and destruction (and who doesn’t?), trust me, it’s funny. The main story in here from Josh is about Howdee Jones, a man who only cares about screwing random women and drinking as much as possible. One day he wanders into a fortune tellers shop, thinking that it’s a brothel, and trashes the place when he discovers that he’s not going to get laid. Things go downhill from there, but how much of this do you want me to tell you before I ruin it? After that there’s the page that’s sampled up there and a page of random gag strips, which were quite possibly the best thing in the book. More gag strips please! I don’t see a price anywhere, but let’s say that’s it’s the same as the last one, $.3.50, and leave it at that. Check out the website for many more samples if you’re still not convinced, but I’d recommend against doing it at wor, unless you work in a church or something…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website (?)
Trashola #2
Sometimes I think it’s not even worth scanning stuff when the pictures turn out this crappy. Then I think I’m being paranoid and people have to know that the comics don’t actually look this shitty, right? Anyway, if anybody out there read the first issue of this and thought that it was OK but that this guy would disappear or start doing crappy comics, well, you were wrong. This one is probably better than the first. Somebody sign him up already! There aren’t enough funny book out there. The bulk of this issue is the story of a camping trip where all kinds of stuff goes wrong. Sorry, but any more info than that might ruin any one of a number of great surprises. Past that there are a bunch of short strips about thing ranging from swollen balls to Chandra Levy. No, the two have nothing to do with each other. Send him $3.50 and wait for the funny!
And here’s a random strip that Josh sent me. What, don’t you like funny?
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website (?)
Trashola #1
See, this is why I do this website. I didn’t really have anything to review for today (except for a bunch of stuff from Caesar Meadows, but I need to get a camera to show you just how cool his stuff is), but this comic was waiting for me when I got home. If anybody out there is keeping a mental list of comics that are genuinely funny, well, add this to it. He’s obviously been influenced by Johnny Ryan and Ivan Brunetti, but who cares? They’re two of the funniest people going and he puts his own spin on the stories. The comic looks great, the art is damn near professional, and did I mention that he’s funny? Really, this was exactly what I needed after a crappy day of work. Kudos to him, keep up the good work and keep them coming. Check out the website, all kinds of samples there and comics that aren’t in this one. Oh yeah, what’s in this? A story about a girl who has the power of the wind, one with a meteor with eyes, a talking penis, and all kinds of fun stuff. Just send him $3 already. You can say you were the first on your block to read it…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Others: Two Short Stories About the Disenchanted and Solitary
Here’s another mini from Will Dinski that defies scanning. I’m hoping that scan looks better on the website than it does on my preview page, but here’s an online edition of the first story of this mini, just in case. That tweed binding pretty much kills any attempt to scan the innards, sorry. As it says in the extended title, there are two stories here. The first is about a Pressman who works nights but, due to a disinterest in sleeping, takes his place as a regular nine to five worker, all the way down to sitting in rush hour traffic for no good reason. The second is told from the perspective of a bird but deals with crowds and the inevitablity of being drawn back into them whether you like it or not. It’s a surprisingly cheerful book for something that seemed so melancholy from the description. As always, the man has an amazing ability to pack some serious insights into a tiny thing. And you can even read the first half of it for free! $5
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
An Endorsement of Smoking
Here’s a short mini from Will that unfortunately defies scanning. The cover looks like a pack of cigarettes (in case you can’t tell from the scan) and the comic folds open into essentially one big page. It really would give too much away if I were to scan a chunk of it, and you can see his artwork above anyway, so just look around. The story here is as it says, an endorsement of smoking. Will goes into the nature of addiction, the social stigma against it and gaining the ability to tell the difference between a need and a want. Yes, he really does do all that in one giant page. Another absolutely gorgeous book from Will, and I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about it. $5
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Habitual Entertainment #3 Now Available! $3
OK, this is the third try at writing a review for this book. One more deletion and I’m just going to assume that the great holy Jesus God doesn’t want this thing posted. So! This is the story of a father and son, the father working the earth (along with his giant robots that look like tits) while the son wants more from his life. This is all in the shadow of the mother dying while giving birth. Well, as is always the case with entertainment involving giant robots, things get a bit ugly from there. Speaking of ugly, the solid red choice for the pages didn’t appeal to me. One man’s opinion, but there you go. Just… ugly. Of course, that’s not too big of a deal when the story is still fascinating, the art is still great and you have an ending like that. Still worth checking out and maybe the red (which is a deeper red than the scanner was willing to show for whatever reason) won’t bug you like it did me… $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Habitual Entertainment #2: Fool’s Gold
OK, I’m convinced. Whatever doubts I had after that first issue are completely gone. First off, the cover and the packaging are again just about perfect. Then you have the inside, which is its own pile of wonderfulness. It’s about a man, lounging on his bed, wasting the days away, until he gets a call from his temp agency asking if he wants to be a secret shopper. That’s one of those people who shop at a place and then write about it later for the company to evaluate the experience, just in case you’ve never heard of it. Anyway, this guy, an “aspiring” actor, decides to take this assignment and make a play out of it, putting up fliers all over town, talking to neighbors, even telling his ex-fiancee AND his nemesis. So the stage is set, the “play” is planned, and you have to read it to find out what happens next. What I liked so much about this is that there’s very litte internal dialogue or narration, so we have no idea exactly why this guy wants to turn this very brief job into an absurdist play seen by as many people as possible. There’s still plenty of meat on what could be a sparse character though because of his interactions with his ex and his nemesis, who seems awfully friendly with the guy to hate him so much. So kudos on the whole thing, and for once I’m not going to bitch about not having longer stories. I think his idea to have each of these start and end in one issue is perfect so far, so why not keep it up? $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Habitual Entertainment #1
Holy crap does this book look great. I’ll get to the inside in a minute, but the cover and packaging are fantastic. There’s a black filmy wrapping covering a blue and red cover that’s slightly thicker than the other pages. It’s all the more impressive because it looks like he did the whole thing himself, so kudos for that. As for the comic, that’s pretty great too. It’s a completely self-contained story about an office, the people who work there and the asshole son of the boss who’s going to wind up running the company some day. Oh, and it’s about what it takes to push a man to kill. Sort of. Good stuff all around and, as usual, if I tell you much more than that it’s going to start ruining things. I have another issue to review in a week or so that’ll help tell me for sure, but from one issue it sure looks like Will is a pretty damned gifted cartoonist and somebody you should probably keep an eye on. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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One Year in Indiana
My first thought upon reading that cover is probably pretty obvious: how much does it really mean to call yourself America’s smartest death metal vocalist? Granted, maybe the lyrics of most death metal songs are lyrical poetry, but I’ve never understood what difference that makes if you can’t understand them. And this concludes the “you damned kids with your loud music” portion of the review. As a comic this is a great ball of fun, as Kurt tells the story of, well, one year in Indiana. Kurt, after living in a bus for ages, finally “settles down” on a couch in a tiny house in Indiana and this comic recounts the history of Liquid Breakfast (a local tradition involving drinking heavily in the wee hours of the morning); his lovely temp job of, as he puts it, of “taking things that were NOT in boxes and putting them INTO boxes”; the difficulty of making a beer run when being utterly snowed in and the odd people he met along his walk; and how playing Tomb Raider for too long can make the rest of the world seem like an adventure game. The man has some chops in the writing department and that’s the kind of art I can look at all day, so there’s not a damned thing to complain about here. He even has web links to various people and events in the book so the reader can follow along at home. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
One Year In Indiana SPACE 2009 Edition
It must be obvious enough where most of the reviews have been coming from over the last few weeks, but the title of this one takes all the mystery away. There are a couple of stories in this one, and I have no idea if they’re brand new for SPACE or if they’re stories that he put together into this book to sell, but either way it’s a decent mini. The bulk of the story is taken up with a story of a recent short tour, detailing some of the dives he slept in and how he ended up with a fairly bizarre throat infection. And while I hate to make fun of the death metal crowd I just can’t resist: how exactly can you tell when a death metal lead singer has a sore throat? Kurt also explains how the antibiotic medicine ended up being a perfect mixer for whiskey, and while it’s something I’d never thought of, it makes perfect sense now. The second story is a shortie, and it deals with a conversation with two people smoking pot in stereotypical (yet all too true) fashion. Funny stuff in here, although as a whole it seemed a lot more light and fluffy than the last issue. Which, being a SPACE book, was probably the point. Worth checking out, if you can find it outside of SPACE, but I’d say to start with his meatier minis first. No price, so let’s say $2 or a trip back in time to SPACE 2009.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Untamed Highway #2
Ah, so HERE’S where whole traveling aspect of the series kicks in. Syd is on the hunt in this issue for that nasty lizard freak, but the people who sent him on the hunt don’t entirely trust him, so he’s being secretly followed by two other people. Oh, and he has a clamp on his leg so he can’t do much besides drive around. So, naturally, he runs into a naked fat guy who offers to help him out. Giving more of this away is silly, as it’s all about the journey. I will say that there’s a particularly satisfying fight scene involving a talking gorilla, a giant head and a shotgun, but that’s it. All kinds of detail in the art (even the backgrounds), a pretty compelling story so far, and a frantic quality to the whole thing, even on the pages where not much is actually happening. A pretty damned good comic, in other words, and it’s hefty enough so that the $3.95 price seems more than fair…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Untamed Highway #1
You know what I think would be a great idea for a comic? A chronicaling of all the various roadside attractions in the US. Well, these two thought the same thing and decided to make a comic about it, although they both seem to be extremely nervous about the comic being “successful”. Hey, if it’s done well I don’t see the problem, and the first issue was done pretty well. Granted, there wasn’t much in the way of roadside attractions in this one, as it was mostly trying to set things up for the rest of the series. You know, establish characters, motivation, those types of things. This is about a man named Syd who essentially gets snookered into looking for… well, that’s a mystery for most of the comic, so I don’t want to give it up here. In this comic he has bad dreams, sees the man in an ape mask who’s trying to kill him, runs into a woman who stood him up a few times, and tries to talk to Irving. Madcap insanity is all over the place too, just in case you were thinking that this was ALL about setting up characters. The art to me looks like what would happen if Hunt Emerson and Peter Bagge somehow had a baby who eventually grew up and renounced all ties to his fathers and the writing was funny at times and smart at others. Sometimes even both! Seriously, this is a great first effort, so good in fact that I’m convinced there must be mini comics floating around from these guys and these are probably names that some people will recognize. It’s $3.95 and a hefty comic, check out the website and see what you think.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Al Qaeda Funnies
The world needs more good political cartoons, so it’s always great to see something like this. Osama in 50 years, the cost of the war, leaving for Canada, comparing the Iraqis problems to ours, all kinds of interesting stuff in here. By the way, I hate Bush Jr. very, very, very much, just in case anybody out there was curious. I’d love to have more right-wing cartoons on here, just for balance (and isn’t it funny how Fox News has made that word a joke?). but it’s really hard to find any funny ones. Seriously, if anybody can recommend a funny, smart right-wing comic, e-mail me and I’ll put it up here immediately. Did I get off on a rant there? Gasp! I can’t believe it. Basically, there’s not much to say about a short book of strips without giving a whole lot of it away, so that’s all you need to know. There’s some seriously funny stuff in here. Not always about W., but a lot of it is, and there are a couple that aren’t that great. They’re in the minority though, and this is very much worth picking up, especially for $1 Contact info is up there!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
My Friend Dahmer
Before I get started, I should point out the interview on this site with Derf. Just in case you hadn’t seen it the first time. As for this book, I have to admit that I’ve avoided getting it for years. I thought that the guy was just trying to make a buck (although in an unlikely medium), or that he was just trying to put out a sensationalistic story, or maybe he just wanted to get some notoriety on his own. After reading this, I’m pretty sure that I was wrong on all counts. He has a lengthy introduction explaining why he had to do this book, and it was basically because he had a story to tell. Simple as that. Even so, it took him about 10 years after the crimes were discovered that he was able to put this together. So what’s this book about? Well, except for the gory sample I picked, there’s not a bit of violence in here. Instead, its a tale of obvious (in hindsight) signs of mental problems, a lack of attention paid by anybody in a position in authority, and a boy who pretends that he has cerebral palsy to get anybody to notice him. The picture in here is of a young man who had literally no friendly contact with the world, and his slow and noticeable descent into madness. The problem is that everybody has their own problems, and most people don’t have time to stop to try and fix something like this. Derf thinks that Dahmer could have been saved. I’m not sure, after reading this, if that was a real possibility, but at least the damage could have been minimized. This is probably $3 or $4, but it’s really worth a look. Not just for some sick fetish with serial killers, but to see what these people are like when they’re just trying to fit in. Here’s a website…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Ninth Floor #3
Another solid issue from Jason. If I had one wish about comics… well, scratch that, there are all kinds of things that I would change about the way comics are perceived. Still, I would love to outlaw the four panel newspaper strip comic. Come on, how many of them are funny at all? Again, that’s my main problem with this comic and, again, they’re not bad at all, it’s just my own personal prejudice. The bulk of this comic is a story about the Marfa Lights, a phenomena out in Texas. Jason seems convinced that they’re just headlights from passing cars, as they’re not that impressive and mostly resemble headlights from a distance. I would hope that people would have thought of that and ruled it out before now, otherwise the conspiracy theorists are a lot dumber than I would have thought. For whatever reason I have this theory that people who believe in conspiracy theories spend a lot of time researching their theories and only going with at least the scientifically plausible stuff. Yes, at times I really am that naive. Anyway, little strips include defective answering machines, lazy afternoons, work, tattoo interpretations and a pet dino. A nice, simple, well-rounded book, well worth a look for a dollar or two. Contact info is up yonder…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Ninth Floor B-Sides
Every time I see stuff from this guy I think of Martin Wagner. probably because of the University of Texas thing. I just checked my page and realized that he isn’t up there yet, and you can bet that’s going to change really soon, but I’m rambling here… Jason DePasquale is who we’re talking about here. This is a collection of stuff from various sources, even though the only thing I had seen before was the back cover . I’m not a big fan of the vast majority of newspaper style strips (you know, the four panel gag format) because most of them are just stupid and, honestly, so are most of these. A few of them are funny though, and that’s mostly all you can ask for from those types of things. The best story in the book is the tale of the horse who was “taught” to stomp his foot in conjunction with numbers written on a piece of paper, even learning to add eventually. I haven’t been in school for a while so I had forgotten the story. It’s a great cautionary tale. Past that, the comic is pretty much a hodge-podge of stuff, some good and some not so good, but it’s definitely worth a look for a buck. That and he says that if you just e-mail him your address he’ll send you free stuff, so how can you beat that?
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Ninth Floor #2
You know what I forgot about almost completely? The mini comics that are also zines. You know, the ones with comics and text pieces all mixed together. I don’t know why more people don’t use this format, but almost everything I see these days is either all comics or all text. This one mixes them both pretty well, with a text tale about the death of cassette tapes and his commentary of a muted episode of M*A*S*H mixed in with comics about indie rockers, Jesus cleaning his gutters and trying to escape the inescapable end of wasting your life in an office job. Nothing to set the world on fire, if you want to be negative about it, but everything in here was solid and showed to me that he was willing to try different formats to tell different stories, which is always a plus. Visit his website to see all kinds of samples and everything that he’s been up to, this one was only a measly buck. What are you waiting for?
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
The Doctor of Dolltopia
In case you can’t make out the fine print on the cover, this is the second book of the Dolltopia story (out of a projected four), so three cheers for her for getting back to this. She’s been a little busy with the Tough Love graphic novel and, judging from the impressive list of people praising it, it’s probably worth seeking out. Still, how about this issue? This time around we get to learn the story of Scotty (the boyfriend of Kitty from last issue) and how Kitty’s departure has led him to question his existence. His new girlfriend is a dolt and he eventually finds his way to the outside world… and he’s sadly not prepared for it. Meanwhile, the lone rescued doll from the last issue adjusts to her new home, the leader of the raid comes to terms with being a failure (as, in her mind, only rescuing one doll was unacceptable) and we get a clearer picture of the doll society as a whole. There’s also an excellent cliffhanger at the end, as it looks like Dolltopia might be found out by regular people. Um, spoiler alert. Hey, it’s a cliffhanger, who knows where it really goes from here? I love this kind of stuff, where the creator makes their own complete world, and Abby is doing an excellent job with the concept. Here’s hoping she manages to make a complete story out of this, as it has all the makings for a great graphic novel. $2
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Posted by Kevin
