New review today for The Fifty Flip Experiment #29 by Dan Hill. Speaking of Dan, I noticed that his comics were getting backed up here, so I’m doing that thing where I review an issue a week for a few weeks. Maybe this will help me get more into his general mindset, which may or may not be a good idea. But it should at least be interesting!
Hill, Dan – The Fifty Flip Experiment #29
March 8, 2023
I encourage every one of you to visit his website, as it’s the geocities-ing-est website around. That joke will make sense to very few of you, but I still think it’s worth it. Dan starts this one with his trademark wall of text, which starts off vaguely enough before breaking down into a detailed history of the characters we’re about to meet. He’s also back to doing single issue stories, if you’re warping here from my last review of his series (#26, another gap I have to fill some day). As always, I’d rather let his comic speak for itself, but it does concern the origins of the Jamboree. And frogs. A whole lot of frogs. Say, if I don’t want to talk about the comic, what am I going to mention in the review? Well, I’m going to go back on that statement immediately. Things start off with a positively joyful jamboree, then we learn about how the frogs took power based on their dominance of the three legged races. What does a pie eating contest have to do with this? Plenty! If you’ve ever wanted to go down the line in a pie eating contest to see what each contestant was thinking at that moment, Dan is your man. Do wooden arms help with pies? Unclear, but seemingly no. What about Landwhale Jeff, does he get the better of Skeleton Bear? As if I’d give something so important away here! That does it, I’m going back to not talking about specifics. There’s plenty more, including the cutest little sailor suit you ever did see on the back cover, but the next step in your journey is to buy your own copy to see what you make of all this. Dan also sent a very nice letter along with this comic (or possibly a later issue, as I’m reviewing more of these soon), but I did want to offer one gentle correction to him: this website is actually almost 22 years old, not 15. There have been a few crashes, so it’s kind of lost to history, but this all started in August of 2001. OK, go buy his comic. $7
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/6/23
March 6, 2023New review for You’re the Center of Attention by Gina Wynbrandt, which is another one from the mini kus pile.
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Posted by Kevin
Wynbrandt, Gina – You’re the Center of Attention
March 6, 2023
You’re the Center of Attention
Thanks once again to mini kus, as they have introduced me to an artist I clearly should have already heard of by now. I desperately need to get back to Chicago one of these days to ransack Quimby and/or Chicago Comics. Assuming they both survived the pandemic, and I don’t even want to think of a world where that’s not the case. Anyway! This is the story of a fictionalized version of Gina (can’t really say how close it is to the real her, as this is the first comic of hers I’ve read) and she’s competing on a game show to win some money and become famous. The money is clearly an afterthought to becoming famous, which drives everything she does in the comic. Things start off with her fantasies of what famous life would be like before the actual show begins. She also meets a bug named George who encourages her, and yes, this is relevant information later, because we wouldn’t have one of the great comics finales of all time without him. Getting ahead of myself, I guess. The game show itself is a series of escalating embarrassments for Gina, seemingly designed to get people to give up. But she does the chicken dance, runs around on all fours and sings (poorly), all in good spirits. Still, things are just getting started. Will she have the willpower to read her most recent internet searches aloud in front of the studio audience and the world? What about… eh, that’s enough specifics. Let’s just say that she’s tested personally and professionally. It’s a hilarious peek into somebody who’s obsessed with fame without having the sense of shame that might tell them to slow things down before they do something that’ll haunt their lives forever. So it looks amazing, has more than a few funny bits and an all-time great final panel. What more do you need? $7.95 (or you could always get this in a set with the other three most recent mini kus issues)
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/2/23
March 2, 2023New review today for Slight Return by Brett Hamil. Oh, and if you have spare cash around from your tax return (or just in general), the Love and Rockets 40th anniversary behemoth that Fantagraphics put out a few months back is absolutely worth your attention. If you haven’t heard, it reprints the first 50 issues of the series (when it was magazine sized), letters pages, ads and all, with a final volume that’s nothing but essays, interviews and various projects of theirs. I’ve barely even scratched the surface of the beast, but it is gorgeous. Here’s hoping they have something similar in the works for Naughty Bits by Roberta Gregory, as I’m still missing large chunks of that series.
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Posted by Kevin
Hamil, Brett – Slight Return
March 2, 2023
I figured going into this that this is one of those comics that had the potential to end up going very wrong for me, or maybe I’d end up kind of liking it. Turns out that I loved it! Just another reminder in a lifetime full of them that it’s best not to assume anything based on an intentionally vague description. I was afraid that this was going to be one of those “aged punk and/or hippie returns to their hometown, wanders around aimlessly until the book eventually ends” kind of things, but I was wrong. There are elements of that, sure, but for good reason, and there’s a whole lot more going on with it. It’s a slow build, but things start off with our hero (Kevin) having sex with an old acquaintance after returning to his hometown. We gradually learn that he had had some success as a musician (enough that a large number of people recognize him when he’s walking around town) and that some great calamity has befallen society as a whole. Not bad enough to derail civilization entirely, but there’s no internet or phones, getting food is expensive and you have to “know somebody,” there was an incident where people were butchering a cow in the field right next to the other cows, etc. This is all an undercurrent to a fairly simple story, as Kevin really did come back to town to get away from everything and basically just wants to sleep, ride his skateboard, have sex and read comics. Armed fascists are also a constant underlying threat, so not too far off from our reality now, I guess. I loved the pacing of this book, as there’s no rush to do much of anything and nothing feels all that important, and the absence of constant cell phones and internet is always welcome in stories; it almost always feels like it opens up possibilities other than what you’re used to. The underlying story here, such as it is, is that Kevin gets talked into performing at an outdoor concert, but even that ends up being a very minor event. The ending shocked me, but it was one of those endings where you can’t really see things going any other way if you think about it. It’s a book that I wasn’t expecting to captivate me, but here I sit, captivated, and still thinking about various scenes hours after finishing it. If that’s not a solid endorsement, I don’t know what is. $15
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/28/23
February 28, 2023New review today for Womp Womp #3 by Brandon Lehmann. Sorry if the sample image was a little crooked, I was under a cat attack while trying to scan.
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Posted by Kevin
Lehmann, Brandon – Womp Womp #3
February 28, 2023
If you’re wondering why so few comics are laugh-out-loud funny these days, I’d suggest that maybe Brandon has stolen all of the laughs and placed them into his comics. My usual plan of putting the funniest/most representative page in the review as the sample image took a real beating this week, as I could have chosen several of the single page strips. Hell, the three panel gag on the back cover might have gotten the biggest laugh out of me of the whole book. You probably have to be of a certain age for the sampled strip to hit, but for those lucky few (or most, I have no idea of the demographics of people who read this website), enjoy. So now I’ll get to the part of the review where I try not to spoil the jokes while still giving you little hints about what to expect in here. If you’re already a fan of Brandon’s work, this is maybe my favorite comic of his yet, so just leave this review entirely and get yourself a copy. If you need a bit more convincing, read on! Subjects in this issue include a spectacularly suspicious time traveler from the future, the inevitable narcissism of the Caterpillar Man, parents being a little too prescient in their warnings to their child against having parties while they’re gone, coming a long way for a joke, nobody knows the weather they’ve seen, an innocent question leading to a justified fit of rage, coming a long way up a mountain to meet a wise man, and the turtle room. There’s more, but if you’re not convinced I don’t know what to tell you. Actually, flipping through this again I’m leaving out two of my favorite stories (about the vampire and the house of the future, if you’re reading this after reading the book), but doing so just makes it easier for them to become YOUR favorite stories. I’m helping! $10
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/24/23
February 24, 2023New review for Santos Sisters #2 by Greg and Fake Petre, and it just occurred to me that there’s been another Santos in the news quite a bit lately. Crossover?
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Posted by Kevin
Petre, Fake and Greg – Santos Sisters #2
February 24, 2023
Huzzah, the “#1” on the first issue not being a cruel trick! #3 is also here waiting for review, and #4 is coming out in June. They’re unstoppable! If you didn’t read my review for the first issue, get to it; that’ll clue you in on the basic concept here. Now that you’re all caught up, there’s just so damned much to like about this series that I hardly know where to start. It’s all printed on newsprint, and it’s the size of “regular” comic books, which really contributes to the feel of the book. This issue also has more than a few ads, and while it would fit right in with the aesthetic to have fake funny ads throughout, that wasn’t the deal here. All of the ads are legit (unless they snuck a few in on the page full of tiny ads), and they’re all for other small press comics, publishers, shops or other things that might actually be useful to the type of person reading this. Just excellent work on the overall look of this comic. Oh, and they were also nice enough to send me a small poster of the centerfold, featuring all of the characters and a few that haven’t been introduced yet. Yep, I am easily bribed! So the comic looks great, which is nice I guess, but what about the stories? Oh no, it’s more excellent work! The first story deals with Weird A.I. Ankhovic (congrats to the people who get it) sending a couple of his minions (Spit and Shine, and I am very curious to see their origin story) out to infect as many people as possible. This will enable him to take over the town, and the people are infected by being shot by the villains and turned into what are basically purple zombies. No munching on brains in this one, just steadily increasing infections. An excellent touch is that Spit and Shine used to date but have since broken up, so they’re both being very mature in their interactions with each other. Their dynamic gradually falling apart was one of the highlights of the book, as was the use of poor Todd by our heroes. The other story deals with a baby dragon suddenly appearing in front of an old lady, which eventually terrorizes an anthropomorphic duck (think Howard, basically) and his pal. Our heroes have to fly to the rescue while being very drunk, which is the type of thing that should happen in more comics. I’m completely sold on this series (this is one of those reviews where I’m barely scratching the surface on all the small details that make it great) and might even review the next issue next week, even though they’re designed to be stand-alone issues. We’ll see! $4.20, but it seems to be selling out fast, so don’t dawdle!
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/22/23
February 22, 2023New review today for Glimpses of Life #8 by Brian Canini. I’m still planning on doing some bulk reviews for a couple of his series, in my doomed effort to try to catch up to one of the more productive artists in comics. I have a pile of Plastic People comics giving me a guilt trip over here…
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Posted by Kevin
Canini, Brian – Glimpses of Life #8
February 22, 2023
In this issue, Brian reveals the secret of how he’s been able to stay so productive while working a day job and having two kids (three by the time this issue is done. Spoilers!). I’ve got some bad news for the procrastinators out there who think it simply can’t be done: his secret is to work on comics whenever he can, panel by panel when necessary. So if you were hoping for the one neat trick to make it all simple, my apologies. This is a collection of autobio strips for February 2021, so two years ago as of this writing. Brian and his wife Amy are awaiting the imminent arrival of their third child, so this issue is mostly all about the few complications that came up and the general effect on their lives. Stories specifically deal with Brian driving a practice run to the hospital (to make things less stressful when she’s in labor), trying to have quiet time at home to work on comics, reckoning with the knowledge that the new baby is going to take up most of his free time and trying to plan accordingly, fun with their cat and dog, a few scares with early contractions, having a baby shower basically online because of covid, sending the kids and the pets to their assigned destinations when the moment came (this all seemed spectacularly organized to me, so kudos to them), and drama with his parents not contacting them for months up until just about the single most inconvenient moment. Everything went fine with the baby, so don’t worry about him sneaking a tragedy into this comic. Unrelated, but since his baby was born a few months before I adopted my cat Miles, technically it’s a human name that I stole for use as a cat name. Unintentional, but linear time remains hard to beat. I keep wanting to say “pregnant pause” but it seems so cliche, but screw it: this comic is the pregnant pause in his life while waiting for the inevitable to happen. They’re both a little on edge throughout, for good reason, but it’s a tenser read than I’m used to with his autobio stuff. Still worth a look, obviously, so give it a shot why don’t you? Especially if you have small children or have a kid on the way. Lots of good tips/lived experiences in here for people in that position. $6
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/20/23
February 20, 2023It’s mini kus time once again! New review today for You Feed Fire Like It’s A Horse by Marco Quadri. I feel like I don’t mention enough that they have package deals as well as options to purchase single issues, so if you want to get this issue plus the three that come after it (which I’ll be reviewing shortly, obviously) then you can do that for $22 rather than the $7.95 per issue. What a steal!
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Posted by Kevin
Quadri, Marco – You Feed Fire Like It’s A Horse
February 20, 2023
You Feed Fire Like It’s A Horse
Fellow worker drones, I’m sure most of you have some experience with some sort of “productivity expert” being called in by your office to walk you through a tedious, simplistic and dehumanizing formula geared towards increasing your productivity and/or decreasing the amount of time management has to spend checking your work. Well, this comic delves into that terrible world, as things start out with the dude on the cover being called in to an airport to teach them all “the five S’s,” which I’d like you all to make up in your head rather than me typing them in here. If you’ve been to enough of these classes, your guesses will end up being pretty close. He teaches his (mandatory, obviously) class, the management is thrilled, and they all end up taking a field trip to the forest. While they’re out there the other workers “accidentally” leave him behind, but how do you survive all alone in the forest if you see all of life through the prism of your formula to increase work productivity? You try to make the entire forest fit into that box and get to work on the problem. This was an inspired idea by Marco, and the corporate trainer taking a walk through the workspace of several employees and berating them was more than enough motivation for them to leave him in the forest. His time in the forest was like watching an A.I. in the movies confront one of those logic puzzles that causes them to short circuit, but there’s still time for one final visitor to stop by his campsite. I’m not spoiling a thing about that, so I’ll just say that it was completely unexpected, and a nice way to work the title of the comic into things. The whole thing was wonderfully done, and the only reason I didn’t use the page of his conversation with the snail as the sample was because I thought it was too good to give away for free. It’s mini kus, so you know it’s quality, but I’d say this one is even a step above their usual. Give it a try! $7.95 (or $22 for four issues including this one)
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/9/23
February 9, 2023New review today for Desperate Pleasures by M.S. Harkness, and I have no idea how I’ve gone this long from CXC without reviewing this. All of my assistants are getting fired for this oversight, that’s for sure!
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Posted by Kevin
Harkness, M.S. – Desperate Measures
February 9, 2023
Well, the bad news is that I may have waited too long after CXC in Columbus for M.S. to still have copies of this book on her website. But it is still out there, and for a few bucks more it even comes with a signed print. That was probably supposed to go at the end of the review, but I am just never going to get my end of this thing right. She’s also not making my pledge to go out and check out her older comics easy, as everything on her website is sold out right now (February 2023). Oh, the troubles I’ve seen! Maybe I should talk about the graphic novel, huh? It’s a riveting autobiographical look at her past, how it shapes her present and makes it extremely difficult to have a future. When it comes to love and dating anyway, but it’s a long story, so I prefer the ambiguity on my end. Things start off with a vivid memory she’s having of waiting for her father to come back ashore from his boating job. My early impression was that she was looking forward to this, but there’s reason to doubt that reaction fairly quickly. From there we spend the bulk of the book seeing the intimate details of her life, and M.S. is not the type to hold anything back. We read plenty about her dating habits, a couple of methods she uses to get extra cash, her troubles at starting a relationship and her (at times) indifference to even trying. Her main serious romantic focus here is split between two guys: one a longer term friend/partner, and one a newer guy who makes an immediate impression by treating her differently than usual to start things off. She seems to have more potential with the long term dude (make no mistake, she’s well aware of that), but the baggage of the past is a tricky thing to escape. There’s a lengthy, mostly silent section towards the middle dealing with more specific memories of her childhood, what her mother must have dealt with and a desperate attempt at change. There are lighter bits in here too, like her training her brother on weightlifting, in case you were worried about it getting too dark. Still, things are grim for her quite a bit in this book and, like I said, she’s not one to shy away from showing all the gory details. One thing that struck me reading this (it’s my first since Tinderella, so it’s been several years) is how much she’s matured as a writer. It’s not like she was a dullard before, but there were so many clever, insightful or devastating turns of phrase here that it’s impossible to pick one to highlight. I tried to find a solid sample page for examples, but just looking at it makes me think of a dozen others I could have used. All of this rambling feels like me just scratching the surface. I haven’t even mentioned her brilliant fake standup routine and the entirely too real reactions of the audience, or the adderal extravaganza, or pointing out the danger of the textured wall while having sex. Or the quiet moments and how they add layers onto an already complex story. Ah well, since I can’t mention everything, I might as well call it a day. After all, I already mentioned that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and that you should find yourself a copy, right? It also looks like she has a new book coming out this year, so now’s your chance to get caught up before that happens. $17 (ish)
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/7/23
February 7, 2023New review today for Supplement by Ben Cherry, which is a comic. Sometimes I don’t have a whole lot to say outside of the review, you know?
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Posted by Kevin
Cherry, Ben – Supplement
February 7, 2023
It’s a grab bag of comics from Ben, with a title that lets you know exactly what’s going on here. So if you’ve been holding off on checking out his work because you’re not sure if one specific title is going to do it for you, you’re in luck! Ben mentions in his intro that some of this work has never been released, so everybody is sure to see something new. So what’s going on in here? There are two stories about Dog Head Hoodie Guy, who looks exactly like you’d think, and his attempts to go through life. All he really wants is for somebody to acknowledge the fact that he looks odd with his dog head, but can he find satisfaction? Other stories include a bird raising its chick and watching the inevitable happen, a “what if” story about what would happen if Batman couldn’t take a punch and instead put his money to more practical use, the sad and lonely final hours of a dude dying of radiation poisoning in space and his attempts to have it mean something, what happens if there really is a monster under the bed, and a series of full page images of various subjects. Yep, leaving it as a surprise. There’s also a fairly hefty story about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (although they’re never called that, so I don’t think anybody will sue) and their attempts to navigate middle age. Surprisingly poignant, considering the characters, but maybe that’s me reading into it as I’m going through the same thing minus the ninja skills. It’s a nice mix of stories, and I remain dazzled by his artistic skills. The man can draw a comic, is what I’m saying. Check it out! $4
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 2/3/23
February 3, 2023New review today for King Cat #82 by John Porcellino. New King Cat’s out!
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Posted by Kevin
Porcellino, John – King Cat #82
February 3, 2023
A new issue of King Cat is out, go buy it now! Best to get that out of the way early, because unless we ever hit the point that John is putting out “King Cat sponsored by Wal Mart” or some shit I doubt very much that I won’t like an issue of King Cat. And is it my imagination or is the paper on slightly thicker stock? Since I still have #81 in the “reviewed comics” pile on my desk (seriously, send help, I’m going to end up buried alive under this pile one day), it looks like the answer is “eh, maybe”! So what’s in this issue, just in case you’re new to John’s work and need a little convincing? I’d say the fact that he made it to #82 of a mini comic should be all the convincing you need, but I’m again showing my bias. Things start off gently enough, with strips about the chain of watchers (him watching his cat, his cat watching a squirrel, etc.), watching a friend play an arcade game (this comes up later in a longer story), some nature observations, and a dire late night thought that maybe wasn’t all that dire after all. After that things get rough for a bit. I was afraid of this when he dedicated the issue to Michi, one of his cats, and I was sadly correct: she passed away recently. No comic for this, he instead wrote a beautiful and heartfelt tribute to her, filled with the little things she did and some of their interactions. The bit about how she would see him coming home from one of the windows and would then rush over to the glass door and put her paws on it, eager to greet him, just about broke me. This is unrelated, sort of, but as somebody who lost two cats fairly recently, I’d recommend writing down your favorite things about them somewhere. Pictures and videos are great, granted, but about a month after Sassafrasquatch passed away I found myself starting to forget the little things, so I wrote a few pages worth of my favorite things about her. They don’t live nearly long enough, so just something to keep in mind after the grief briefly stops pounding away at you. OK, there’s no way for this to be anything other than an awkward transition, so back to King Cat! From there we go to three pages of letters, including a very welcome check-in from Jeff Zenick, a long time zinester. There’s a top 40 list, and then we hit a few comic stories, dealing with all the time he spent in 7-11 stores as a kid, his attempt to get up at 3am to watch Yellow Submarine, watching the rain come down and thinking about the time before the internet, and counting poops. And more, of course, but the random surprises are maybe the best part of an issue of King Cat, even for new people, who I assume are the only ones reading this, as everybody else closed this tab and bought a copy of it after reading the first sentence. Yes, it’s still an amazing, peaceful, thoughtful, questioning yet settled comic. In case you were wondering. $5
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Posted by Kevin
