April 22, 2010
Website
Scat… the Scaredy Cat #5 Now Available! $1
More Scat, and it’s almost like there’s an underlying story going on here. There’s the aliens who wanted Scat to be their ruler, and there’s the exploding rat who just wants to play, which does nothing to soothe Scat’s nerves. It’s still a smallish comic, sure, but #5 is considerably better than #1, and that’s all you can really ask out of a comic artist. Good stuff, it’s $1, and contact info is all over the place, or you could just buy a copy from me, if you were so inclined…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Scat… the Scaredy Cat #4 Now Available! $.50
The tiniest comic in the world continues. I think this series is probably my least favorite of Brian’s, mostly because it’s too small to be anything but a one-gag comic, and you can see that gag coming a mile away. In this one an alien tries to convince Scat that there’s a hole in the wall leading to all the quiet and calm in the galaxy. On the plus side, the art is getting more and more polished every time I see it. The messiness that would come up with the shading just isn’t an issue any more, which leads to the whole package looking a whole lot better. Like I’ve said before, if you’re going to buy his stuff, it’s better to send him a few bucks so you can at least have a few comics to flip through. No sense in the world to buy one book and then have it read in 15 seconds. Contact info is all over the place here, you know what to do… ($.50)
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek the Martian Geek #8 Now Available! $3
I’ve probably mentioned it before, but this page is officially getting out of hand. Maybe I should break his comics down into separate pages for each title or something, except for the fact that he seems to be devoting all his energies to Zeek these days. As for the comic, I mostly liked this one, as I do enjoy it when he puts out the longer stories. About half of this book is one big story, and it’s all about Zeek and Nurdy falling into a place in space called The Zone and yes, it is an homage to Twilight Zone, as there are things floating through space and Nurdy breaks her (brand new) glasses upon landing. There is also a cat in a spacesuit who shows up to get revenge on Zeek for all the cats he’s eaten over the years, and then the story degenerates into a series of pop culture references that eventually ends in an explosion. Sorry, did I give away the ending? Well, in this case I didn’t mention it it wouldn’t have made any sense when I praised how the eyeballs of the creature who exploded managed to stay in the exact same place when its head exploded. The rest of the comic is mostly a bunch of one page strips, dealing with computer humor, matrix-frisbee, getting away from civilization, extreme bowling, learning from a child, and trying to find their way through the wilderness. Good stuff, although I’m sure everybody on this website knows by now whether or not this is for them. If it is there’s also a brand new collection of the first 7 issues available, so you should probably keep that in mind… $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek The Martian Geek #7 Now Available! $3
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Cattapan comic, so I was starting to wonder. It looks like he was just putting a lot of energy into making a really fun comic, so all is forgiven here. This issue is basically about Zeek and Nurdy trying to learn more about humans, with Nurdy being transformed into a girl so she can read books (not sure why either) and Zeek just going to Earth as his usual self. Occasional hilarity does ensue. There are also plenty of one page strips to break up the action, keeping everything moving right along. Frankly, I think Brian has come a long way. Even with some of the earlier works when everything wasn’t quite coming together you could see his heart was in the right place, and now it’s all clicking. The comedic timing, the art (in hindsight I’m glad he stuck with the charcoal style), he does good work. Granted, if you’re looking for the most intellectually complex book in the world you’re going to go away disappointed, but if you’re just for a fun comic you could do a whole lot worse.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek the Martian Geek #6 Now Available! $2.50
Look, a big comic! Well, it’s still mini size, but that’s still bigger than the usual Cattapan offering. He says he’s going to be making all his books bigger, just so the word is out there and everything. This one is all about Zeek and his new girlfriend, who just happens to be a flower who loves to dance. Wackiness ensues, and the flower’s um, family maybe, decide that she’s not allowed to dance. Zeek has to come to the rescue, but can he find her and let her dance again? Well, probably, but you’ll never know for sure until you read it. The art looks MUCH better with the bigger pages. Not that it was bad before, but the extra size really lets everything breathe. It’s $2.50, contact info is all over the place, and there are quite a few of his books available here now, if you’re curious…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek the Martian Geek #5 Now Available! $1
Good to see that he’s not using a parody of something in every issue. OK, so The Cat in the Hat from Dr. Seuss was in here, but just barely. This one is mostly about Zeek and his potential lady (?) friend dancing around and having fun. Zeek likes having a bit more fun than his lady friend, and that’s about as close as you get to a conflict in this. 8 pages or so of whimsical tomfoolery! Contact info is all over the place and he’s quickly amassing a pile of books to choose from, if you’re inclined to sample a couple…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek the Martian Geek #4
There’s a lot to be said for being prolific, and there’s also plenty to be said for keeping all the comics he puts out fun. There’s what, three series that he’s doing on a regular basis now? Kudos to him. This issue is a parody of the X-Files (called the Ex-Iles, I don’t know why he doesn’t just use the real name, it’s not like anybody is going to sue and I think that’s fine when used in a parody anyway), and it’s basically making fun of the fact that Mulder and Scully never kissed. Or maybe they did and I missed it, I missed whole chunks of that series and still only have the vaguest idea of what was going on. Anyway, another issue in, and his Plympton-like drawing style is really growing on me. Contact info is around here, see if you can find it!
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek the Martian Geek #3
He sure can crank these out. Still looks kind of messy (I’m not sure if he’s using crayons for these or what), but it’s still fun. This one is about Elvis on Mars and Lisa Marie, along with his customary tremendous number of asides. One thing you can definitely say about the guy, he uses every little bit of the page. Eight pages of fun with a few parodies thrown in for a dollar, what’s wrong with that?
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Certain Confusion #1
Everybody who reads this site on a regular basis knows that I mostly don’t like the traditional 3 or 4 panel comic strip with the gag ending. It’s just been done to death and I’m frankly sick of seeing it, as I think this medium is capable of so much more. That being said, this stuff wasn’t bad. A couple of groaners, sure, but some of the strips were genuinely funny and that’s about all you can hope for out of this format, in my opinion. I didn’t like the “mouth all the way open to indicate talking” thing that a lot of characters did at first, but the more I read the more it grew on me. It’s just so ridiculous that it’s hard not to laugh at after awhile. Contact info is above if you’re in the mood for strips…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek the Martian Geek #2
Random, frantic fun. The book looks like it’s gotten a bit messier since the first issue. The panels are a lot busier (there are little asides everywhere) and I’m still not sure exactly what the heck was going on. I think the alien was trying to impress Winona Ryder (and he uses aliases for everybody famous, but I really don’t think that’s something you have to worry about when putting out a mini comic) by stealing all kinds of stuff. It’s a goofy, fun comic, without much substance. I also just found that he has a website, and it’s a pretty ridiculous place. Want to buy panties with Zeek on them? Check it out if you don’t believe me…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek The Martian Geek #1
Do I have a word limit that I have to reach with these reviews? No? Good. I ask that because there’s not much to say about this book. It had a few funny parts, in between the parts that weren’t so funny, and then it was over. It was cute enough to be worth a look, but I don’t know if I could say the same after reading a few more issues of this. It looks like it would get really old really fast. Still, I’m just judging this one issue, and it was pretty funny. Send the man an e-mail to see what else he has laying around, I think this one was a couple of bucks.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Cattapan Comics Now Available! $3
Sorry about that fuzzy cover image. I was going to remove the buttons (and did I mention that each issue comes with those buttons?) and scan the regular cover, but that man did some serious stapling, so I left it alone. Everybody reading this gets the basic idea that humor is subjective, right? What’s funny for me is not necessarily funny for thee? OK, good, because this book was almost completely unfunny. The vampire bits in particular were painfully bad, even worse because they’re puns seen coming a mile away (in the landscape of the four panel joke strip). The Zeek strips were a little better, but most of this stuff has already been published in his other books. I guess this was just an attempt to sell the buttons with a sampler of his work, which is an OK idea but would have been better if he’d gone with some of the funnier stuff. If you love his stuff and really want these buttons, I’d say this is worth getting. If you’re just looking to find out who this guy is and what he’s all about, scan around this page for a cheaper sampler platter. And just so there’s something positive here, as I do appreciate the work Brian has put in over the years (he was one of the first random submissions I got, way back in the day): I do like the buttons.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
The Collected Zeek the Martian Geek Now Available! $10
Yes, I added “the collected” to my title, mostly so I could convey the fact that this collects the best bits of Zeek #1-7 and that this is, in fact, a hefty graphic novel and not just a really overpriced mini.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Zeek the Martian Geek Full Color Special #2 Now Available! $5
First things first: that is one fantastic cover. Seriously, just sit back and enjoy that for a second. As for the rest of the comic, yes, there were plenty of funny bits this time around. The main story in here is a long piece about Zeek falling into the, er, “Zone” (because apparently he couldn’t legally say Twilight Zone) and confronting an evil cat. This piece has more geek references in it than you could shake that proverbial stick at. Go ahead, read it and see! Bonus points if you get them all, or should I say shame points, as that would confirm you as a total geek. Other stories in here include the two of them going camping, bowling, playing matrix frisbee and discussing the true origins of the earth. This is a bit “inside baseball” as it were, but Brian also wins the prize for “mailing most likely to survive a nuclear explosion”. One thing about his comics, they always get here wrapped in a ball of tape so thick that I have to cut into the package o’ comics (hoping that I don’t chop anything vital), and when I get inside they’re usually wrapped in three layers of bubble tape. It’s a good precaution, as my mail carrier usually takes “do not bend” warnings as a personal challenge, but maybe one less layer of everything the next time around? Sure, you could call that rambling that is utterly disconnected to the comic being reviewed, and you’d be right, but it’s good to know for people who are going to be sending in comics, and they might be reading this, right? Right. Anyway, there are more than enough funny bits in here to make this worthwhile and really, kudos again on that cover. Oh, and I know this should be down at the bottom of the page with his other full color special, but do you know how big this entire page is at this point? I’m going to have to change the format of how pages are done one of these days purely because Brian makes so many comics. $5
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Monster Express
Christ, where the heck has Ben Catmull been? I knew the art in this looked familiar, but I didn’t know who did this until I turned it over at the end and saw his name. Has he been doing a bunch of stuff that I missed and, if so, could somebody point me to it? This is the story of a man on a train, trying to have a peaceful train ride. He unexpectedly is forced to sit next to a chatterbox, but can’t seem to leave his car for any reason because there’s a monster on the loose, killing everbody on board. The only action we see is through their train car, with injured (or headless) people running by in a panic while the general calm of their seating area remains the same. His art has a simple charm to it that’s hard to match (what does he use for the shading, watercolors?) and the man can tell a story, so I don’t know what more you could ask for here. It’s short and I’d guess it’s between 2 and 3 bucks, as the packaging is pretty simple. Check it out and get the rest of his stuff too, he’s one of the great ones that I’ve seen in the past few years. Send him e-mail or check out more of his stuff online…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Paper Theater
I put a link up to this guy a few weeks ago because I really liked what I saw on his home page (which is down as of 11/18/03, but I have no idea if that is a permanent thing), but I also knew that his comic was coming soon so I wouldn’t do a page until I saw his book. Well, I’ve seen it now, and I’m impressed. It’s a series of short stories about a variety of different things. His ability to go from creepy to laugh-out-loud funny is amazing. It starts with the subtly disquieting “Emily” (about two childhood friends) and goes from that right to “All Zombies Attack!”, which is funny as hell. It’s basically all about every living creature getting turned into a zombie and Death running around frantically trying to make sure that everything that is supposed to be dead stays dead. Funny stuff. I’m not going to analyze the whole damned thing, it’s a pretty big book. Other stories include an astronaut going to hell accidentally, a man trying to find a bottle of whiskey while being tormented by a dead kitty that he didn’t kill, and a taxidermist who breaks his glasses in the middle of the night with disastrous results. Sometimes funny and sometimes at least slightly disturbing, this one’s a fun read all the way through. Go ahead and visit his page, he has all kinds of samples up.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Fear (based on a sonnet by Ciaran Carson)
That cover is just about actual size, so we’re dealing with another tiny mini here. It’s based on a sonnet, as I made clear above, all about fear. Fear of things existential and physical, real and imagined, and has the effect after the last panel of seeming to be on an eternal loop. A solid mini that’ll actually make you stop and think, or at least it’ll make you stop and think if you are me. If you are you I don’t know what it’ll do to you, but I like to think it’ll make you stop and think too. This can’t be more than a buck and contact info is up yonder…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Elm City Jams #2 (with various artists) Now Available! $1.50
First, let me clarify that list of “various artists”: Linnea Duvall, Tom Hart, Bill Kartalopoulos, Jon Lewis, Tom O’Donnell, and Jeff Seymour. As always with these jam books, it’s all about trying new things and still making funny, interesting stories. These could easily devolve into academic exercises and it would be hard to fault anybody involved, but I laughed out loud more than a few times while reading this, and that generally doesn’t happen for “academic” books. The rules for this one are simple and wonderful. An artist can take a title (that they didn’t make up) and get to work, passing onto somebody else after a panel or two. The rejected titles are hilarious (my favorite being Meat: The Parents), so obviously the ones they did use are even better. The other method is a bit more complex, involving joining individual panels and filling in the blanks to make a coherent story. So how did they do? I don’t want to spoil a damned thing here, which I suppose is part of my “job” as a “reviewer”. So, while keeping it as mysterious as possible, some of the concepts here include making a deal with the devil, Bert and Ernie running Halliburton, the devil’s avocado, space as a mindfuck, robots in trees, a rapping chicken and knight, drowing in a submarine, and a cursed comic. So, to wrap up, what you have here is some of the best names in comics doing various experimental works that all somehow end up funny. What’s not to love? $2.50
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Demonstration Now Available! $2.50
These guys seem to do a lot of creative exercises with their work, which is a great idea, but it makes it a bit tough to write about. For example, for this one they simply decided to draw a hundred demons each, one per day, and then put out a book filled with their best efforts. They go to great lengths to say where their influences for that particular demon came from, or whether or not it came from anything conscious at all. Sometimes they would have a very clear idea in mind and other times they would just put the pen to paper, start drawing and hope for the best. This ends up being a very diverse collection, with influences ranging from Dore to James Kochalka, with all kinds of unique and fascinating creatures. Of course, if you’re looking for a cohesive story this isn’t the place to go, but there’s a lot more info here than your average sketchbook and more artists should follow their lead and try some of these experiments they’ve come up with. I have no idea how much this would cost, let’s say $4 because of the color cover and the sheer size of the book, contact info is up there if you’re intrigued and would like to find out!
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Satisfactory Comics #7 Now Available! $2.50
Time for another issue of a comic from two of the most inquisitive minds in comics today. You know, these two could “mail it in” in any of a number of ways. They could make crappy comics, saying that they’re focused on the experimental side of things and that quality is bound to suffer. Or they could chuck the difficulties they set in their way when they make these comics, taking some of the structure out of them but possibly having more fun making them. Instead they manage to make great comics out of any circumstance, which somehow manages to amaze me every time. This time around they did this comic mostly in a 30 hour period, on May 17th and 18th of 2007. Strips in here are either one or two pages. Some strips are passed back and forth between Isaac and Mike from panel to panel, usually with no communication on where these strips are headed. One they started with the last panel of a strip, drawing their way to the beginning. One uses monosyllabic words and has the artist draw left-handed (which, oddly, helped with the dreamlike quality of that particular strip). The highlight, for me at least, was two page spread in the center of the book, The Graveyard of Forking Paths. This one can be read any of a number of ways, up and down, side to side, reverse side to side, with different possible endings. They’re nice enough to put a little coded system at the start of the book with the titles, so you can tell who wrote and drew which parts. Oh, and the actual topics of the stories? A lonely spaceman, a string of assorted sentences, a killer tattoo artist, a tricky gardener ghost, an unhappy seaman, problems with the interpretation of evolution, virtual reality, a Maakies tribute, and being able to hear the thoughts of plants. Not everything works perfectly here, but they get all kinds of credit for being willing to take so many risks. Well worth a look, for students of the possibilities of the art form and people who just like a good batch of assorted stories.
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Posted by Kevin
