April 23, 2010
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Hard Times #10
Well, one thing is for sure about this issue: if you ever see movies in the theater, you’ll relate to it. You can tell from the cover what this is going to be about, and you can probably tell from the cover whether or not it’s for you, but it handled the subject well, while managing to make the subject funny. Granted, if you can’t laugh at assholes talking on their cell phone in the movie theater you’re probably incapable of laughter. Still, there was every chance that this wouldn’t be funny, so credit where it’s due. In this issue our hero and his date decide to take in a movie. After choosing a movie from the list of crappy options that are out there today (really, this comic is timeless in this way, as the variety of movies available has been about the same since the TV remake craze started), the two main characters deal with long lines, commercials before the movie, people talking during the movie and the incessant use of a cell phone. This doesn’t even get into all the nonsense happening on the screen, as they sneak into two other movies to get their money’s worth out of the experience.  I can’t say any major ground was broken with this comic, and there are still hints of pencil lines (although, in all fairness, not nearly as much as in the last issue) and way too many spelling errors, but it’s still a fun issue. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Steve’s Sweet Life
Steve, as you may have guessed from the title, has a pretty sweet life. Until he gets his leg knocked off in a car accident, that is. Then suddenly there’s a dog running away with his leg and an incredibly awkward chase involving a lot of hopping and a pirate, who is nice enough to give Steve a hitchy back ride, so then you have running with a peg leg, which could also probably be considered hopping. This is too short for me to go on or the whole thing will be ruined, but I will say that this is a fun little comic. The art is little more than stick figures if you’re snooty about that sort of thing for some reason, and it has a completely unpredictable ending, or maybe it just surprised me. Hey, who am I to say what would surprise the average comic reader? And are there enough comic readers left to even make an average comic reader? And with that this ramble shall end, I’d say this one is $2 at a guess…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Dead End #13
There’s not much to say about a comic that’s mostly an 8 page long fight scene, but I’m sure I can find a thing or two to bitch about/praise. For one thing, there’s not much point in having a character with blue skin in a black and white comic, unless it’s absolutely essential, and I can’t say that it isn’t after only reading one issue. Too much explaining every issue, you’re bound to bore even your faithful fans with reading that every time. Also the art was great, but it looked either shrunk down or just smashed into the page. He should really consider a larger format, or maybe just more pages with larger panels. The story here isn’t much, as the main character is wondering about his mother, who he had previously believed to be dead, before he is attacked by some racists (I think). Then the superhero action started (no, the blue guy isn’t a superhero) and it started to get a bit silly but, as I said, this is all my impression from one tiny issue. It might get interesting or it might get cheesy, but kudos to Jim for making it to #13 regardless. Check out the website, I’m sure there’s more info to be had there.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Catch as Catch Can
I’m of two minds on this one. On the one hand, Greg’s art is gorgeous, an absolute treat to look at. If you ignored the words completely this would be one of the better books out there. That sounds unduly harsh, as the story isn’t terrible, it’s just completely random. The idea is that a gingerbread man buys cigarettes for some kids and then gets in trouble with the police. There are some beautiful panels of a long chase scene, something that I thought would have been difficult to pull off in a comic, and then it’s all over the place. The gingerbread man is on the run, but ends up having to cross a river with The Big Bad Wolf. One of the kids he buys cigarettes for ends up getting a crush on him and writing it in her diary, which causes a fight with her brother. There’s an interesting assemblage of characters and the story moves along at a good pace, but it just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Who knows, maybe that’s the point. This book is something that I read a couple of years ago, when I was first starting the site, and I couldn’t really come up with much to say about it. My rambling skills have improved since then, so I have a bit more to say, but all this boils down to a bottom line of me being indifferent to this book, and this artist is too unique to put out a mediocre book. Hear-Say was wonderful, so I know he’s capable of amazing work. I won’t settle for less! Still, if aesthetics is your thing, this is a book that’s hard to ignore. Check out the Highwater page for samples from Greg and all their peoples…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Hear-Say
The wordless minis (or graphic novels, for that matter) have always been more about reading them than talking about them. Sure, a bunch of stuff happens, or very few things happen, whatever. But they invariably have to be read to be appreciated. In the case of Hear-Say, it’s an old man going through his daily routine without being able to (or without wanting to, depending on your interpretation) hear what’s going on around him. It’s a simple story and it has a simple, powerful message. He also has a very sparse drawing style that perfectly illustrates the daily minutia that goes on in the story. The wordless minis always, for me at least, evoke a very visceral reaction of like or dislike, and I liked this one quite a bit.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross #17 (reviewed by Jason Dupuis)
this particular issue of double cross is quite a bit shorter than the other two (#13 & #16) that i picked up at space. i don’t know if that affects the price because i don’t remember how much i paid for them. anyway, this is kind of a weird issue. it contains two stories about abusing elderly women, one of which is written by alex robinson (box office poison). they are both a bit depressing and a bit funny. actually, a lot of his stories are like that. kind of paradoxical, i guess. there are also a couple of other stories, which are quite entertaining, and a blasphemous “pin-up” by kieron dwyer (lcd). i really like consiglio’s drawing style and his stories are well written and engaging. his panel layouts and composition are really well done. i should know, i have a phd in comicbookology. take it from an expert, you need to buy some stuff from this guy.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross #16
This one’s a bit different from most of the other issues of Double Cross that I’ve read, as it’s mostly not about Tony. This is basically stuff that was published in other, probably long-gone anthologies. The first story, Numb, is about a man who finds his wife after he had been told that she had been killed years before. It’s a nice little suspense story, different from his usual stuff. Also in here is a short Dracula story, a tiny one about Tony and his girlfriend and a great back page by Alex Robinson on how things would change if he was the king of the world. Is there anyone left out there who doesn’t have all of Tony’s minis? I feel like I’m wasting my time writing this because everybody already knows how great his stuff is. Well, if any random person ever stumbles across this page who has never heard of the guy, even if they don’t like comics, they should send the man $5 for some great stuff.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross! #13
One of the difficult things about reviewing an ongoing series, mini or regular, is that it’s tough to unreservedly recommend something. Sure, one issue can be great, but the next can be just mediocre or something far worse. Some of these guys put pressure on themselves to put out issues consistently over making everything as good as it can be. Or maybe they think it’s great and I’m just being too damned picky sometimes, I don’t know. Regardless, I don’t have that problem with Double Cross. No, every issue isn’t brilliant. But every issue that I’ve seen has been consistently engaging, funny, and just plain fun to read. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why this guy isn’t working for one of the “major” companies. If Pete Sickman-Garner can get his book out with Top Shelf, Tony should be in there too. Not that I don’t love Pete’s work, but they are both two of the few people doing character comics consistently and well.
That being said, #13 isn’t a good starting point. It’s entertaining, like all of them are, and it could be argued that it’s worth the price of admission just for the rant at the end against comic stores and copy machines, but you’d be better off buying some of the later issues and coming back to this when you just need more Double Cross in your life. The main problem is that he doesn’t keep very many issues in print and #13 is one of them. I don’t know, e-mail him and bug him about it. Maybe he’s sitting on a big contract and he’s going to put everything into one book. Ah, if only the world worked that way… I’ll have reviews of some of the other issues up at a later date. Go to his homepage and find out what he does have available.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Morgenmuffel #13
If anybody was wondering if Isy was capable of putting together a great book of (mostly) one story, well, the answer is yes. She took a 3 month trip with her boyfriend from London all the way to Seoul, with stops on the way at all kinds of places. She has interviews with some of the more interesting people that she met in long text form, otherwise it’s just a whole pile of things that happened to her and/or impressions of all the things that she saw. In other words, it’s very much a comic with a story to tell, and she tells it very well.Other than her main story she has a couple of smaller pieces dealing with babies, cooking and bicycling, but the main story here is the fact that she was on a train for a combined 356 hours before all is said and done. Well, it is to me, anyway. All kinds of fascinating stuff here, told with somebody who has some obvious enthusiasm for traveling and seeing new things.This one is probably a couple of bucks, contact info is up there and if you’re just looking to get one issue of this series to try it out, I’d try this one…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross #12
Wasn’t this story collected in one his graphic novels? It seems like I saw this after this comic came out back in 1997. Well, if it wasn’t it should have been, as this is the essential “Tony working at the deli” comic. Granted, such a thing would probably not be considered essential by a lot of people, but those are stupid people who have no appreciation for Double Cross and his assorted other comics. Yes, it’s quite possible that I just called you stupid, and if you took the time to read a few of his comics you might just grudgingly agree with me, before becoming a convert. The story here is fairly simple: Tony has his day start off with some jerk on the train spilling coffee on him (so he’s going to smell like coffee all day), and is already in a lousy mood when he gets to work. When he arrives Chris (who he has a serious and obvious crush on) berates him for being late, he is told that he has to wear a hat with a salami on top of it and then the real fun begins: the store opens. If you’ve ever ordered meat from a deli counter you probably already have had a glimpse of the rampant stupidity of some people, but Tony lays it out in gory detail. There is also the small matter of somebody stealing money from a register running throughout the story, and the small matter of Tony trying to talk Chris into going out with him. While it’s not my place to say it, if you were out there hoping for the Double Cross experience, this is the perfect issue to get it. It’s the size of two minis, so Tony really gets a chance to tell a great story and it’s a damned near perfect “day in the life” comic. I don’t know if these are available anywhere, but they damned well should be.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross Assortment
Finally! I’ve been complaining for years that Tony seems unwilling or unable to keep his Double Cross minis in print. Well, here’s about 80 pages of that stuff, all in one handy volume. I’d only seen about 1/4 of this before, meaning that a lot of it is from his older books and stuff that probably hasn’t seen the light of day in years. Don’t take that as a knock on the quality of the work, as this is probably his strongest collection yet. Lots of stories about his job in the deli, a text story about his trip to a peepshow, dealing with his family, a few fiction stories… This is what all collections of older material should be. Does that make any sense at all? I just mean that if older stuff isn’t going to be kept in print, well, it’s not my call, but it’s good to at least keep the really great stuff readily available. It’s $5 and unless you’ve been reading this since he started doing the comic you’re going to find at least a few new things worth reading in here. Go to his website and buy away!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Double Cross: More or Less
Could it be? Has the independent comics scene finally woken up to the fact that Tony Consiglio is a lot better than most of the people that they publish? OK, maybe not “most”, but a lot of them. Top Shelf finally fixed that problem with the publication of this book. I think that this is a reprint of stuff from his mini, but it’s all stuff that I haven’t seen and it’s a great story. Tony admitted in an anthology or somewhere that he exaggerates his family a little, but that doesn’t make them any less entertaining. This is mostly about his crappy job and dealing with his girlfriend, her brother and his family, while all he really wants to be doing is drawing comics. These are the simple tales of a dreamer who’s stuck in the same crappy work-a-day world as the rest of us. For those of you who have been wondering about this guy, now’s your chance. This is $4.95 and worth every penny.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Titanius Now Available! $2.50
What the hell? So is this part of a series, or did I just miss the joke with the ending? Whatever the case, this is another comic about a super hero, sort of. There’s this guy, see, and he tried to rescue his kid from a burning building a while back. He handed his kid through an open window into a pair of outstretched arms, not knowing that he would never see his kid again. This whole comic is about the man, Titanius, in a diner, mostly trying to order his dinner. There’s nothing really resembling an ending, so I don’t know where it’s going from here, but it’s obvious that Tony has a lot of fun with super heroes. And that’s quite possibly the best costume I’ve ever seen. Another funny book, and if I ran the world I’d let him take over, say, Silver Surfer for a couple of years. Think of the possibilities! Oh, and that “T” is supposed to be silver, but my new scanner has failed me for the first time…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Artificial Flowers
What, doesn’t anybody order books online? This is a story that was published originally in the SPX anthology for 2002, one that I thought was just about the weakest of the bunch because of the guidelines. Still, there were some great stories in there, and this was one of them. This is the tale of Bobby Darin. You know, that singer. I’m not sure how accurate all the information in here is but hey. I’ll take him at his word. It’s basically a short version of his entire life, as Tony doesn’t choose to focus on any one time period, and that helps give the story a complete, well-rounded feel. Everybody who’s read the rest of this page already knows that I love Tony’s work and, if you haven’t seen this already, it’s definitely worth a look. Not as good as his more personal stuff, in my opinion, but still good…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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110 Perc
I’ve mentioned on this page before that Tony is a hero of mine in the
comics world, right? Just thought that might be relevant in case
anybody thought they were getting an unbiased review. This is the story
of three older female fans of the boy band 110 Perc (I can’t make the
“cent” symbol, sorry). There’s Gerty, the 30ish housewife who’s
neglecting her husband and kids in her mad obsession to collect
everything associated with the band. There’s Cathy, a lonely largish
woman who seems to fill up her life with trivia and keepsakes about the
band. And finally there’s Sasha, probably the only relatively normal
one of the bunch, a 50ish woman who has an annoyed but supportive
husband. These three form the center of a story of celebrity obsession
at the cost of everything else, and the costs for them as human beings.
Gerty ignores her kids and husband until it’s convenient for her, Cathy
lets people at work make fun of her just because it gives her at least a
little bit of attention, and Sasha seems to have been married for ages,
making her husband an unlikely but constant source of hostile support.
The trouble really begins when Gerty manages to get two tickets to the
concert, meaning one of them won’t be able to go, and Cathy snags a copy
of the unreleased new album from the band, 2 Good 2 B 4 You, but
discovers that it’s, well, crap. It’s a great story all around, full of
his usual funnies while still ending up with a deeper message, all while
not coming anywhere near preachy. Which is nice, as it’s hard to take
any story about 3 older women who like a boy band all that seriously.
Kudos to Top Shelf for putting this out, as his work is not nearly
widely accessible enough for my tastes. It’s great stuff as always by
Tony, perfect for any current fans of his stuff and just as accessible
to people who have never heard of the guy. $12.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Swell Now Available! $7.95
Another day, another random mish-mash of an anthology. I really had high hopes for this one too. It’s edited by Peter Conrad and here are just some of the names in it (don’t you hate it when people do that? You know that they’re always leaving off the lesser-known people for no good reason): Sam Henderson, Neil Fitzpatrick, Jesse Reklaw, Keith Knight, Carrie McNinch, James Kochalka, John Hankiewicz, David Lasky and Ted Rall. It’s an OK book, but very few things stand out when you get done reading it. The Sam Henderson and James Kochalka stories weren’t even funny, and those are usually a sure thing. Keith Knight, John Hankiewicz, Neil Fitzpatrick and Ted Rall were the highlights for me. Everything else was somewhere between pretty good and unremarkable. It’s cheap at $7.95 and you can’t beat that lineup, but… eh.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #9 Now Available! $6
I’ll get a real review up within a week or so, but for now you should know that this is shaped into a pack of cigarettes with 20 little 4 page comics included.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Blink: Let It Be As It Is
Here’s another one of those “tweener” issues, put out for SPACE 2006, but it’s hard to complain much about a free comic. Yep, this one’s totally free and it has a self-contained story, no preview of a larger work here. Full disclosure: I don’t care at all about the Beatles. Sorry, I know about their talent, effect on music in general, and the fact that a bunch of my favorite musicians probably wouldn’t exist without them, but I just can’t seem to care. I bring all this up because this comic is set entirely in a record store and deals with a couple of conversations debating the group in general. In the expert hands of Max I find myself actually interested in a conversation about the Beatles, no mean feat… and then Sam sums up my feelings beautifully. Great stuff, well worth the… uh, $0 that you’ll have to pay for it.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #8
Peter is another guy who is focusing a lot more on his daily web strip than mini comics these days (I’m also reviewing Neil Fitzpatrick), so it’s rare to see something from him. He says in this that this is a bunch of comics that he had laying around the house (which may or may not be true; you kind of have to read it to know what I mean), so let’s take a look. The first story is a minimalist piece about a man obsessing over a former girlfriend. I thought it was the strongest piece in the book. “Oh, The Joys” was an OK, if slightly confusing, story about Peter bickering with his wife over their new house. I liked the story about sledding a lot too, and the other story, Circulation, was good, but I had one problem with it: the setup. It’s basically a story about a guy Peter used to work with, but he sets it up by walking up to a guy at a library circulation (which makes sense if you read the story), saying “excuse me”, and launching into a long speech about this guy. It just didn’t strike me as something that happens in real life, at least not without the circulation guy running for cover at some point. Just a minor thing, but it bugged me. A solid issue overall, and it looks like the strip is funny a lot of the time too. This is $2, the site is linked up there…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #7
Peter is taking a new direction with this one and I think it’s great. He’s been funny throughout the ones that I’ve read, and the easiest funny stories are the shorter ones, so this one is a bunch of shorter pieces. It’s not all funny, as he addresses 9/11 in a couple of comics, but this is mostly a funny book. You can find his contact info elsewhere on this page, but if I had to pick my favorite from all these I think it would have to be this one. Check it out if you haven’t read any of these books, it’s only $1, you cheap bastards.
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Posted by Kevin
