April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #6
I think all these free comics are spoiling me. Greg Vondruska sent this one to me with a few of his own, and I got a pile of stuff from Ben Steckler that day too. What that means, basically, is that I’m going to have to order a few more books from this man because I only got about 12 pages worth of stuff, and it wasn’t my favorite thing in the world. So then why would I buy more stuff? A few reasons. John Hankiewicz draws the story on the back and I’ve been following his stuff around like a little puppy dog these days. Peter has a story in the next issue of Tepid too, so that automatically makes me curious. And anybody in general who is liked by that many people is worth a few chances in my book. What didn’t I like about it? Wasn’t too fond of the single panel gag comics, or the “Your House” strip about things that go on when you’re not looking. I liked the first story (about a superhero who falls in love with a girl who loves indie comics), if it was a bit predictable. The dream stuff is a great idea and there’s been a real lack of quality dream comics lately. Overall, a mix of good and so-so stuff. Like I said, it’s hard to get a real feel for the guy in 12 pages… which is why the website was such a help. All kinds of samples there, so go figure out for yourself what you think of this guy, My opinion of him went up dramatically after I saw samples of other stuff that he had done, that’s for sure. It confirmed for me that the good stuff I saw in this issue is what he usually does. It looks like the other issues are a bit more coherent than this one too. Anyway, e-mail him or send him money (although I really think you should check out the samples on his page first): P.O. Box 64522 Sunnyvale, CA 94088-4522.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #5
Hey, how can you go wrong with a half naked anime looking girl right there on the cover? Turns out that she has nothing to do with anime and I was just fooled, or maybe it says something about me that I even thought she had anything to do with anime, I don’t know. Anyway, the main story in this one is called Breakfast Cereal Morning, a surreal story that reminds me of John Hankiewicz. Good stuff, although I have to say that I’d like to see what he could do if he stuck with a story for on entire issue. That might not make much sense when you stop to think that my favorite stories of his are the short dream strips, but I think he might have the ability to pull off a great longer story. We’ll see one of these days, I guess. Also included are a few of the dream strips, a fantastic Notes From the Field and a story that has the best title ever: It’s Not Easy Being Pants. If I had to complain about one thing in these last two issues it would definitely be the format. I know this is probably the cheapest way to print these, but they feel kind of like harsh toilet paper. You should all send him money so he doesn’t have to print on this stuff anymore. The fact that he’s somebody that you should all be watching anyway should help to make that decision a little bit easier, right?
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #4
Another good issue. He wraps up his messy (but still interesting) untitled story from the last issue and throws in a few pages of other strips. My main problem with these is that they’re so short. I know, that’s a lot to ask from a mini but it seems tough to come away from an issue with a comprehensive idea of what you just saw, if that makes any sense. Anyway, a couple of Weird Real Dreams are in this as well as the story of a couple of people lucking into a really cheap apartment and what they did with the piles of Nazi memorabilia they found laying around. It’s starting to become clear to me why another comics creator sent me the books of this guy because they thought he wasn’t getting enough exposure though, I can tell you that much.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Attempted Not Known #3
Peter was kind enough to send me some of his other issues so I could get a better view of what he was all about. Maybe the first review (for #6) came across as negative, I’m not sure. I meant it as more “eh” than negative, but getting these has really impressed me. This one has a rambling story about a man losing his job and smoking pot and a bunch of smaller pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the first story, it just didn’t go anywhere. He discontinued it after the next issue anyway, so he knew that it wasn’t going anywhere too. The shorter pieces are great. The Weird Real Dreams segments are almost always great (and at least always interesting), as are the American Encounters. I’d love to hear how he got his book into Tower Records. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but that’s a hell of a lot of exposure and I wonder who happened across his book. Overall a good read, and it’s starting to look like I was right about his earlier books being more together than #6.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Robots (written by Alice Connor)
You pretty much can’t go wrong with a comic about robots (monkeys and zombies also fit this description), and this comic is no exception.The first part of this is about the sibling rivalry between robots, with all sorts of robotic mayhem and torture thrown in. The second part is a look at the current robots in the world (except fictional) with nostalgic commentary about the good old days of robots. I should also mention that according to the inside cover of this thing only 25 of these were made, so you might want to hurry if you’re curious. A pretty solid effort overall, the robot mayhem and the “historical” piece make for a nice contrast. That being said, now that he’s had his fun with the robots, get back to work on Esoterica! Damned artists getting me hooked on a series only to go long periods of time between issues… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Esoterica #1 (Leighton Connor only)
Here’s an odd story about catching fairies. Um, maybe I should explain a bit more than that. There’s a class at the local college called “Esoterica”. It’s meant to teach all sorts of odds and ends, with the first assignment being that everyone has to catch a pixie. The cast of characters is six people, all of whom we see in some form or another, which serves to go a long way to set these characters up. I don’t know if this is going to end up being some sort of X-Files style mystery show, with different odd things going on each issue, or where this is headed, but it has potential. My problem is that’s where my feelings of this are: that it has potential. I don’t know if it was the complete lack of backgrounds, or maybe just the fact that he’s taking his time setting up the characters and the story so there’s not supposed to be a big “hook” this time around. Either way, I’m not sold that this is a great thing, but it sure could end up there. Great cover, anyway, that’s for sure. It’s $3, send an e-mail to see if this guy is planning on taking over the world or what.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Fuzzball and Scuzzball! #1
Ew, that’s not that color of the cover. Oh well, you can always count on my scanner to reinterpret things. The actual comic was a lot funnier than I thought it would be. Which just goes to show how stupid it is to have preconceptions in the completely random world of mini comics, I guess. I figured that a comic based on two blobs would mean that the artists couldn’t draw their way out of the proverbial paper bag and that their storytelling skills probably wouldn’t be far behind. Happy to say that I was way off. This was a collection of shorter stories and the funny parts were actually funny. What more can you ask for? Oh, and if you’re wondering, you can tell the two blobs apart because they have their corresponding letters on their bodies. And Scuzzball is a real prick, making the letters unnecessary, mostly. Stories in here include Scuzzball corrupting Fuzzball’s gay friend, their (the two main characters, that is) quest for an evil totem, and Scuzzball corrupting a nun. It’s $3 and mostly funny, so feel free to e-mail the folks responsible and check it out.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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One of Us #2
Alex said in the intro to this that nobody bought his first issue. Nobody? Of course, I got both issues at the same time, so maybe that’s changed, but it really was a decent zine. This one is definitely better than #1, as there’s no filler to speak of, just good stuff. The main story in this is about a Ramones reunion show and the dead members of the band coming back as zombies. Throw in the entire museum getting turned into zombies when the sprinkler system hits everything in there and it’s hard to go wrong with that level of mayhem. Next is a disturbed dream comic about melting trees which has a wonderful level of surreality (spellcheck tells me that I made that word up, but I’m sticking to it) about it. I sampled the only other comic in the book, so you can decide for yourself on that one. Finally, he has a text piece about the sheer devastation that a moustache can cause. I think the guy can tell a good story and somebody out there should send him a buck or two so he doesn’t feel so alone. That and anybody who thanks their girlfriend for her boobs in the intro gets total support from me. Contact info is up there, ye swabbies!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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One of Us #1
Here’s a pretty solid zine. The interview with James Kochalka is incredibly crappy. I’m amazed sometimes that the man is willing to let anybody who asks interview him, knowing that he’s probably going to get the same crappy questions over and over again. And yes, I’m aware that I’m saying that when I have two (2) interviews with him up at my site. Anyway, the book is good besides that. There’s a hilarious guide on how to be a bad artist, which rings true for plenty of people out there doing comics. I even recognized a few of this tricks from when I did a few comics and was a crappy artist. Other than that there’s a story about Mickey Mouse actually being Hitler and one about Alex’s first apartment in New York City. It was a bit too self-referential at times, but I don’t know how he could have avoided that with his choice of subject matter. Still, a pretty solid first effort, and you have to be impressed with a story called “3 Pages Going Nowhere”, about three pages that go nowhere. OK fine, maybe I’m just easily impressed. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a buck, send him an e-mail and find out! Oh, and kudos for the Freaks reference…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Never Ending Summer
I know I commented on Allison’s characters in the last review, but I should really show everybody something before I start rambling:
Those are all the characters in this story. They all wear the same outfit, they’re only differentiated by tiny things, and they all wear body suits that hide any trace of sexuality. Still, by the end of this, I had no trouble at all telling almost everybody in here apart. In my mind, and this might be saying too much for Allison’s first graphic novel, but that’s the mark of a master storyteller. This book is about a summer for Allison and her friends, and all the problems with boyfriends/girlfriends, jobs and the rest of the world. If it sounds like the kind of thing that you’ve already seen a hundred times, I’m just telling it wrong. It’s a complicated story that’s told in a simple way. How she has characters with no faces have incredibly expressive facial expressions is beyond me, but she pulls it off. Check it out, it’s good stuff. $11.95
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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O, Canada!
Here’s a quick, cute little book from Allison Cole. The people in it look vaguely like Teletubbies, although I’m sure that’s unintentional. There’s a story about trying to get her comic sold at a comic store, one about Allison and her friend trying to cross the street and getting yelled at, and one about all the little things in Canada that weren’t bad. This was a travel journal, in other words. She has a spare, expansive style in a lot of panels that I like. This name sounded familiar to me when I saw it, but apparently I don’t have any more of her work. Is there more stuff in anthologies or something? I tell you, doing this every day (or when I can, which has been the case lately) really makes artists run together in my brain. Anyway, this is probably $2 and it’s an incredibly quick read, but still worth a look. Send her an e-mail or send cash to: 2 College St. #502 Providence, RI 02903.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Dumpster
That’s what’s been missing from this page: an endearing love story between two hobos. Sadly, this isn’t it. The cover may fool you, granted, but this one starts out with Joy leaving her life with Cliff, as she’s sick of huffing gas, getting drunk and eating garbage, so she wants to move on to bigger and better things. Cliff is heartbroken and briefly attempts minimally cleaning up his act, but gets frustrated and ends up back in the city, making out with another random hobo. At least there’s a happy ending, as Cliff finds the things in life that he truly values. It’s 64 pages and a measly buck, so there’s good fun to be had by all hobo loving people of the world.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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The Cumplete Warlock Volume One
I’ve often seen the work of various artists and wondered what their earlier work was like, what kind of creative background they came from. There are, of course, times when that information is better left to the imagination. Max made these comics in junior high and high school, so this is lacking the lavish detail that’s in his other minis. And, as he was only a wee lad, most of the writing skills aren’t evident either. These are one page joke strips, where the joke always ends with somebody (usually a family member) getting beaten/stabbed/raped to a bloody pulp. If I was in junior high or high school, these would be hilarious. As I sit here now as one of them there adults, meh. It was funny and shocking for a little while, then the shocking wore off, followed by the funny. I would recommend just about everything else from Max on this page, if you have a strong stomach and an open mind. There are more volumes to come, so it still has a chance to pick up, but as this is all stuff that was done years ago, I kind of doubt it. Can’t beat the price anyway: $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Vittle Chin
Aren’t I the guy who’s always asking for people to focus on longer stories and avoid the short pieces? Well, that usually lasts just as long as it takes for me to find a good comic with short pieces, and that’s how I’d describe this one. Apparently at least a few of these stories have been in various anthologies, so it’s all new to me. In here you have stories about white trash, a crack whore, a magic banjo, sex with a sleeping husband in bed, a naked dumpster detective, a bashed snake, hobo slop, a demanding microwave, drunken fighting, bogarting that joint, feetloaf, and roadkill. There’s so much more to it than that, with a lot of his stories, as very few people use more sheer imagination in their strips. In the writing, sure, but mostly I’m talking about the amount of content in each of his panels. Even the strips that didn’t do much for me were strips that I could appreciate because he was trying something vastly different from the strip that came before it. He used the rat with the magic banjo more than once when that was probably a one-strip gag, but other than that I don’t have much to complain about here. Good stuff all around, plenty of stuff to discover even if you have seen a few of these in anthologies, contact info is up there, $2!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Shore Leave Showcase #1
You know what’s a great idea for a comic? An ongoing three panel strip showcasing the lives of a couple of violent, racist skinheads. OK, maybe I wouldn’t have thought it was the best idea either, but after reading this I’m convinced. This is all about a couple of skinheads as they deal with a hippy dad, try to satisfy Odin, and, of course, drinking and fighting. It’s a lot funnier than it might sound, and I had a real hard time coming up with only one sample, but it’s too small for me to give too much away. It’s “to be continued”, so there’s more, which is a good thing, and I can’t imagine this is much more than a buck or two. Oh, there’s also an unrelated second half to this, which is completely indescribable. Don’t you hate it when people say that and then go on and on trying to describe it? Me too. Website!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Snake Meat #2
Picture the most vile and disgusting thing you can in your brain right now. Seriously, go ahead and do it. Chances are really good that whatever you have in there, Max has something worse than that in these sketchbook pages. And I’m not talking about a horrible act, just a horrible thing. He manages to find the inherent ugliness behind almost everything in these sketches of his. It seems like there are a few more regular strips in here than the last issue of Snake Meat to go along with all of this sketchbook pages, so I sampled one page of each to give you a better idea of what you’re getting here. I do love to look at these sketchbook pages, even if it does hurt my soul at times to do it, but I’m yearning for the day when he puts out another regular, story-based comic, as all it takes is one look at the samples on this page to see that the man has a serious gift for the funny. Contact info is scattered around here, this one is $2…
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Snake Meat #1
So how exactly are you supposed to review a sketchbook again? Never have figured that out… Well, I like Max’s art a lot, if that tells you anything. And, as this is a book of him drawing, I’d have to call that a recommendation. There are a few bits of actual story here, but mostly it’s just a series of unconnected pictures. The pictures are mostly solid though, not much in the way of half-finished sketches, so the book looks great. If you only read comics with a coherent story in them, the last two pages are fantastic. The rest of it’s all over the place or, as Max puts it in the disclaimer, “Yet another half-assed zine consisting of nothing more than sketches I’ve scribbled on typing paper over the past four months”. That’s a whole lot harsher than I would have put it, but I guess it’s technically accurate. $1, contact info is up there, check it out!
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Abandon Ship
I very much want to point out the brilliant ending to this comic, but doing so would ruin it, so I’m not sure what to go on about here. The story? OK, sure. It’s the tale of a young man who finally has enough at his crappy fast food job and quits, which causes his girlfriend to throw him out of his house. This leads to his decision to become a bum and enjoy a carefree, living-out-of-dumpsters lifestyle, which of course ends up being more complicated than he might have thought. The art’s good too, there are wonderfully detailed panels all over the place. I don’t think crosshatching has ever made a book look bad, and that’s true here. Don’t know how long he’s been doing comics but this has a really professional feel to it, so kudos if he’s just started or something (or even if he’s been going awhile, obviously, but especially if he’s just starting and is already this talented). E-mail the man to make sure but I’m guessing that this is a couple of bucks. Anything else would reveal too much, but I will say this in a last-ditch attempt to get you to check it out: he draws a mean retard.
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Stewbrew #3 (half Max, half Kelly Froh)
Ah, television. Good luck finding an American from the ages of five to forty five who can’t relate to memories of television. Max and Kelly team up here to do one page stories (Kelly on the left side and Max on the right) detailing their previous, constant television watching, how patterns change over the years and what television taught them, often due to the fact that in a lot of crucial areas they didn’t learn a whole lot from their parents. There are embarrassing stories a’plenty here, with Max talking about his first time masturbating (without really knowing what he was doing but I’ll leave out the gory details until you see the comic), being forced to play sports instead of watching tv, wanting to learn the theme song from MASH, being too attached to children’s programming, finally getting his own personal space to watch tv, going into tv withdrawal at camp, a hilarious (in hindsight) couple of injuries resulting in a Vietnam flashback dream, finally relating to his Dad because of Beavis and Butthead, watching porn with his Mom taking a bath in the next room, and a detailed listing of his high school tv watching routine. Kelly has her fair share of embarrassing stories as well, involving her first “boyfriend”, running away from home when the tv is taken away, a living warning against doing drugs, being really creeped out by the “sent to hell” episode of Fantasy Island, four tv people who made her feel funny “down there”, Showtime porn, and her late night viewing habits. Another solid effort from these two, and unless you grew up Amish, I’m sure you can relate to damn near everything in here. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
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Stewbrew #2: Coot’s Day
Just to make sure this is perfectly clear: this mini, along with “Meet Erin” by Kelly Froh, come bundled together as Stewbrew #2 for a measly $3. So now that the technicalities have been established, how’s the comic? Well, it’s based on a day in the life of a man named Cooter, so how on earth could it be bad? And yes, there is a real man named Cooter, unless Max is lying shamelessly in his intro. We get to see Cooter wake up, watch high school girls, get high, get drunk, watch Star Wars, smoke, and everything in between that makes up his day. It’s a very quick read, as it’s mostly wordless except for the caption at the top of each panel, but it’s funny and gorgeous, which are two things that are pretty much necessary for a good comic. The second half of this should be up tomorrow (4/3/07), so you can decide if it’s worth your $3, but this is certainly a good start.
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Posted by Kevin
