April 22, 2010
Website
Western Galaxy
This is only half a mini, really. The other half is a story by Max Nordlie, about which more on another page. This mini has four parts to it. Not much there to get too excited about. It’s OK. Might have had a chance to go somewhere with some more pages, I don’t know. There’s the story of a turtle helping his recently deceased brother become used to being dead, a couple of one pagers that it would take longer to talk about than it would to read, and a tourist in Mexico City getting made fun of in Spanish. Why is it that so many mini people have so much trouble with some basic rules of grammar and spelling? Not that I’m one to talk all the time, but the difference between “too” and “to”, “their” and “there”… sorry, I’m just rambling now. If you want this comic, write:
Mike Bertino 3060 Suncrest Dr. #9 San Diego, CA 92116
Ask him if he put anything else out with some more pages in it…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Phang & Mak #3
Is it OK to pass judgment on a comic by the third issue? Before I start, as always, this is just my opinion and there’s an audience out there for just about everything, in theory. Here’s the thing: the art really isn’t getting appreciably better, the dialogue goes from bad to really bad, depending on the scene, and the story isn’t going anywhere at all that I can make out. When the dialogue goes “jive” it gets hilarious, but I don’t think that’s intentional. There was only even one fight scene in this one, so I couldn’t even recommend it for the mayhem. I’m not giving up on this series, mostly because Adam has been nice enough to send me each issue, but there’s really not much of anything in here for me to recommend it to, well, anybody. Contact info is up there, $2.95!
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Phang & Mak #2
So is it ever explained why that dog says “Bah!” all the time? For some reason it gets on my nerves, but maybe it wouldn’t if there was some reason behind it. More of the same in this issue, and I still have no idea where the story is going, if there is a larger story. Phang kills some cops and a banker, screws his ex-wife (after she gets all hot when she learns that he killed a banker), and talks to his therapist, who looks strangely like his ex-wife. The art still looks fairly sloppy to me, but there was a slight improvement in the writing in #2. It’s still not really my thing, but if you like a bit of mayhem in your comic, you could do worse. Contact info is up there, its’ $2.95.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
In A Lonely Place
There’s a fine line for me between a comic being cute and interesting, and cute but so cute that it’s almost unbearable. Unfortunately, and even with the sadness throughout, this one falls in the latter category. It’s the story of a snail and a slug going through life, each one of them alone and sad. They meet each other by chance, have a great time, and I won’t spoil what happens next. I like how the book looks, both in production and art, it’s just annoying to me sometimes to spend $3 on a book and be able to read it in about 1 minute. Well, I guess it’s obvious that this didn’t do anything for me. Neat idea, kind of depressing though. Check out the website. All kinds of stuff there to see, also some stuff from the fantastic Scott Mills.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Phang and Mak #1 (drawn by Jason Day)
About the only thing I can think of is that the Adam Beranek who did the other comic on this page can’t possibly be the same person who did this one. Still, the fact that I think that means that he can show some range, so good for him. Where the other book was cute and fluffy, this one has violence, drinking and the characters saying “fuck” a lot. This one is mostly about a vampire and his dog fighting crime, or at least fighting the elements of crime that they don’t agree with. I have a few comments for the creative team, and I hope they’re understood to be constructive criticism and not an expression of my hatred for them. To the writer, I have to mention that using punctuation here and there is a good thing. Not sure why so many people feel the need to leave it out but please, throw some commas in there now and then. Helps the word flow. To the artist, I’m afraid that this book should have been black and white, instead of colored. The colors highlight an obviously rushed page or two, or maybe I’m just being too picky. To the colorist, nice work. See? I’m not all negative. I’ll see where this story is headed when I read the next issue (it’s 12/15/03 as I write this and I’m running out of comics to review, so I’m breaking up individual creators) but for now it’s a jumbled mess.Let’s hope it gets better because there is potential here. I’m afraid that Phang is going to be a Cassidy clone from the Preacher series, so here’s hoping I’m wrong. Contact info is up there, check out their stuff!
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
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Toxic Comix #7 Now Available! $2
It’s been a while since the last issue, which means that the overall story here is incredibly hazy for me. That being said, this issue had significantly less of the problems that I bitched about last time, so aesthetically I have almost no complaints at all. The one thing I can still bitch about is the spelling as, while there are fewer errors, the ones there are really change the meaning of the sentence. Still, it’s greatly improved overall. As for the story, this one is mostly about Trinity (as you may have guessed from the cover), a goth girl who’s just trying to get by at her local school, along with her only friend, a devout Christian. That particular relationship isn’t explored all that much, as most of the book is devoted to some creepy boys from her school trying to convince Trinity to take a ride with them and the consequences of that ride, in this world and the next one. A pretty solid issue that makes me wonder where this is all going, and where on earth I put my back issues for this so I can check that out. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Silent Forest (with Christian Beranek, Nick Beranek & Chris Burke)
Finally, here’s a graphic novel of a comic that I didn’t like at all. Sorry, but it’s true. This one has the inhabitants of the Silent Forest reveling over their ousting of the evil golf course, which causes them all to remember something different as to how they got rid of it. Then they go wrestle (no, I don’t know why), which is followed by a bunch of strange dreams and a football game for the fate of the forest! OK, good news first. The art is MUCH better than the first time around, and I don’t think it was that bad then. Good stuff, all of the pages look great, and that’s saying something with this many pages. The characters are a bit more interesting this time around too, as they get time to help flesh them all out a bit. My main problem with this book is simple: puns. Now, I can usually let them just roll off my back, but the puns in here were so bad that I literally almost stopped reading it in the middle, and that never happens. When one the characters said “Holy cow!” only to have a literal holy cow drop down out of the heavens… oof. I think blood shot out of my eyeballs. Still, if you can get a dark marker and cut those things out, it’s far from being all bad. Pretty far from being all good too, but there you have it. It’s $11.95 and I think it’s out by now (I got the preview edition because I’m special!), so check out the website up there.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website (down as of 4/5/10)
The Sins of the Archons
You know, I can’t say that I’ve thought about it much before David Stanley, but why not use the cover page to keep on telling the story? Sure, I guess some covers look pretty cool, but when you’re dealing with a tiny mini, why not squeeze some more story into it? I think he had a good idea. This one is all about the creation myth, specifically how the Earth was created and the story behind Adam and Eve. The twist is that these are Gnostic creation myths, even though they sound an awful lot like the ones in the Bible. Oh no, could it be that the Bible isn’t literally true? Sorry, not to offend any of you fundamentalist types out there, but those people probably just ignore any information that conflicts with their tiny worldview anyway. It’s interesting, and tiny, and the gods in here resemble the Old Testament God a whole bunch, at least in terms of pettiness and anger. It’s probably $1, it’s an interesting read and it doesn’t have a proper cover! Run for your lives! Contact info is up there…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Silent Forest #1
There are times when you can judge a book by its cover, and this is one of them. I probably wouldn’t have even picked this one up but they seemed like nice folks and no one was at their table at the time (I got this at SPACE), so I got the book. It’s the story of some bears who live in the woods who are angry about a new golf course that interrupts their sleep. It’s pretty dopey, honestly. I’m sure there are some people out there who would enjoy this, but I’m not one of them. One thing for every creator to keep in mind is what the character’s dialogue would sound like said out loud, and almost everything in here would sound awkward in conversation. Not that funny and too cute for words describes this pretty well. Go to the website if you’re curious, here’s hoping for better things from them in the future.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Small Bible: The Old Testament
Who needs to read all 920 clunky pages of the Old Testament when you could just go and read 9 pages of highly condensed mini comic? As someone who had the bright idea to read the Bible over the last summer I really wasn’t sure what to expect here, but Shannon does manage to nail the high points. A brief synopsis of the relevant passage, a quote and an image later and you get the idea of things. Best of all there’s no axe to grind here, no moral viewpoint he’s pushing, just good old Bible stories. Bits in here include Joseph (you know, the guy with the technicolor dreamcoat), Moses trying to convince people of his veracity, and God being a general dick to his followers who doubted even a little bit, which seemed to happen a lot back then. Oh, and there’s also the bit about the ass, but I don’t want to spoil it. It’s a fun comic for everybody, nothing to offend the overly religious types and it’s pretty informative for the rest of us pagans. $3
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
The Perils of Alternative Energy Girl
What happens when an enviromentally conscious young women gets chloroformed, taken prisoner and set in a variety of dangerous situations? Well, it depends on why she was taken prisoner in the first place. This short book is all about this young woman screaming about the horrors done to the environment while facing life-threatening situations of her own, which completely ruins the plans of her captors to have some dramatic footage of a terrified young woman facing certain death. It’s a fun, relatively smart comic, if a bit short. Frankly, it leaves me wondering what else they can do, but this is a pretty good comic on its own. It’s only $1.50 and here’s a website for you to check out.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Why Comics?
Geez, what is a reviewer supposed to do with this? This is a short, utterly adorable comic that shows a few reasons why comics are a force for good in this world: the fact that everybody can make them, that the possibilities are limitless, that they challenge us, that they’re cheap to publish, and finally just because they’re fun! I’m far too jaded of a human being to be reached by this, but it’s also too utterly pure and good for me to make fun of in good conscience. This is meant for all ages, and it’s meant to inspire kids to make comics. I don’t see any reason why it can’t do just that, as long as it reaches the right hands. In the hands of the jaded, this could be a terrible force for evil in the world. Give it to the kids and keep your cynicism to yourself! No price, but I’m guessing it costs approximately one moonbeam or one sleeping puppy, or possibly $1.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Fleep Now Available! $5
Didn’t I say before that I was going to buy everything that this guy had? Like I do with so many other artists, I just never got around to it. After reading this I’m going to have to make that pledge again. This is one of the more innovative and original books that I’ve seen in quite a while. It opens up with the main character walking into a phone booth. He loses consciousness, wakes up, and is surrounded on all sides by concrete. All he can remember is that he went into the phone booth to call his wife… I’ll say no more. This gets my unreserved recommendation. It’s $5, go to his website and see what else you can find.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Publish Your Own 8-Page Mini Comic!!
I finally went over to Marek’s website and the man doesn’t look anything like what I figured. Not that anybody ever does when you see their work before you see the person, but I half expected a being of pure light and goodness, and he looks like a regular guy to me. Odd. This is, obviously, a how-to book when it comes to making mini comic. I had a different method back in the day (yes, I once made comics. No, they will never see the light of day), but this one works just fine. Marek has a whole line of these little things, all basically touting the general awesomeness of mini comics, and more power to him. Spend about $5, get the lot of these for the artistic kid in your life, or just get this one if you want to know a simple, practical way to put one of these things together. If you’re looking for death and destruction, you’ll probably want to wander off to other pages on this website…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Let’s Make It Readable!
Here’s another in Marek’s series of minis dealing with the grunt work of making comics, this time trying to get people to understand the aesthetics of text. Granted, it doesn’t seem like this would be an issue for people who are already making their own comics, but you’d be surprised how much stuff I see where some crucial chunks of dialogue are just unreadable. This comics shows Reed and Bill… OK, that’s just a terrible pun. Still, for the sake of the meaning behind this comic, I’ll soldier on. Reed has all the useful answers, Bill shows how not to do everything. Marek makes some good points here: to write the words before drawing the word balloon, to make sure of placement of the word balloons to have any given panel make sense, to step back and read your work from a distance to make sure it’s all legible, and to have someone proofread your work before inking. Marek won me over instantly with that panel, as easily corrected spelling errors are one of my biggest pet peeves. Granted, comic artists don’t have the spell check that I do when writing these reviews, but most of them do have friends, or they could post a few pages on their websites to get rid of at least the most glaring spelling mistakes. This is another good contribution to this particular series of minis, and Marek should thinking about putting all of these together when he’s done, as they’d make a decent “how-to” book for beginners. And, frankly, some people who should already know better. Marek was also nice enough to send me a gigantic collection of his strips, so look for that in the coming weeks. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may all be too much cute for a giant book, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong. No price, let’s call it $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Mimi’s Doughnuts Zine #17
Finally, a non-instructional comic from this man. Granted, I do have the hefty collection of stories, but I still haven’t had a chance to get to it. Still, this was a nice primer of what to expect from that giant book and, overall, I was pleasantly surprised. Anybody who reads this site on even a slightly regular basis knows that the three panel strip is a dangerous thing, often forcing the writer into horrible puns and is rarely a good idea. There are exceptions, of course, and just enough of them to make me give them a chance when I see them and not run screaming in the opposite direction. This book is an odd combination of all that, as some of the strips are three panels, some of them are the whole page and all of them combine to form a slightly jarring whole. That’s the first 16 pages anyway (out of around 40). Marek is nice enough to have a recap page to start off, telling us what must be just about everything we need to know. The big underlying story after that was of a group of friends dealing with holidays and trying to figure out alternative sources for energy. Yes, there is a serious environmental conscience on display here, and if you’re at all like me your cynicism may reach up and grab you by the neck. Still, more than a few funny bits and an excellent cast of rejected Christmas mascots won me over (Slushy the Snow Mound in particular is a fantastic idea). From here we go to two pages of comics from other contributors (assuming they’re all not just pseudonyms, which, come to think of it, they probably are) dealing with the financial crisis which, again, were actually pretty funny. One suggestion though: maybe Marek should put the date of the strips somewhere in them. Or somewhere in the book at least, as I could figure out that this was all 2008-2009 from the topical references (and, um, the note in the front that says everything is from 2008-2009) but as these things get older a little more specificity might be nice. After all, this is #17, which is an impressive number for this sort of thing, and Marek seems to be very serious about the concept of subscriptions. Following this is the heart of the book, a silent story about a farmer trying to make a living with his goods, trying out a deadly chemical to kill off the bugs and then dealing with the consequences. Generally speaking it’s not a good thing to have your villains be utterly adorable, but it manages to be a good story regardless. Finally there’s one page which is a call for the comics industry to be bailed out as well, to which I would like to wholeheartedly concur. Think of the tiny amount of money the government would have to give out to have all the mini comics creators in the world free to make whatever they wanted! Not to mention how little it would take for people like me to make this our full time job, bringing the word of decent comics to everyone. Just sayin’. So: I was pleasantly surprised by this, as I wasn’t at all sure what to expect after the instructional books. It might overwhelming in a huge collection, but I will be finding that out for myself in the weeks to come. $4
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Breakfast at Mimi’s
I finally got around to reading this big collection of the Mimi strips, so the question can be answered: it to too cute to be any good in one huge chunk? It turns out that my question is stupid, because this, while being occasionally adorable, couldn’t rightly be defined as “cute”. That probably makes no sense at all, so let me explain. This book is, essentially, a collection of the life of a family over a 4 year period. Things start off with Shayna (the oldest daughter of the family, and no, “Mimi” is never explained) in 8th grade and it ends shortly after her 16th birthday. It’s mostly a collection of full page Sunday strips, but there are still plenty of the three panel strips thrown in. Still not a fan of that format, but the strangest thing happens when they’re all lumped together on one page: they form a seamless story. If I had one complaint about this book, it’s that Marek should maybe number the strips (he does refer back to older strips at times, and while I knew what he was talking about because I just read the whole book, it would be tougher for people reading this via newspaper/mini comics). At its heart this book is (and I never thought I would say this about anything) uplifting. It’s the story of a family broken up by divorce, remarried with the birth father almost completely absent and a whole new set of relatives, all while dealing with the normal events of a childhood. It’s not all fun and games either, there’s child abuse and stealing in here, but they’re dealt with in a mature way that isn’t overly moralistic. I was completely blown away, if all this rambling isn’t enough of a clue of that fact. It’s easy enough for us cynics to dismiss this with a glance. Hey, if it’s in any Sunday newspapers it must not be that funny. I was very wrong on that one. Subjects in this vast tome include the opening and running of a doughnut shop (told mostly from the perspective of someone who hates doughnuts), a stepsister moving in with a fairly hostile sister, building a city for ungrateful cats, kids spiking the punch in their own unique way, trying to get fortunes into sealed fortune cookies, dealing with bullies, building a perpetual motion machine, vampire mosquitoes, 8th grade prom night, and going to a high school party. That’s only the first section of 4, and only a small sample section of that. There are plenty of samples at the website if you need convincing, but if this can win over an old curmudgeon like me it can win over anybody. And it’s only a measly $12!
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Website
Nicaragua
There’s a good reason why more people don’t do travel journals: it’s too expensive to travel. At least that’s my theory, it’s possible that most people who aren’t me just don’t like travel journals, although that seems at least mildly ridiculous. Marek has gotten around this slight problem through a grant that lets him and a couple of other people have basically a cultural exchange program: some Nicaraguan students came to the US to make comics, and they were soon on their way to Nicaragua to teach their craft. Honestly, the fact that we’re still giving out grants for things like this gives me some small hope that maybe this country as a whole really does value art and the value of learning things from other cultures. From Marek’s past minis it’s clear that he’s an ideal choice for this sort of thing, as his instructional minis were genuine all-ages books, useful to everybody. It’s also clear from this book that he just can’t stop teaching, as he takes time to jot down the things that it takes to make a successful travel comic. Everybody who’s just starting out should really check out this book and his minis. Getting a handle on the basics is clearly not easy for some people, but between him and Scott McCloud it should be easy to get a general idea of how to make comics. Anyway, this graphic novel is an impressive thing, taking the reader through various parts of Nicaragua. It shows all kinds of aspects of their lives (things you wouldn’t even think about), how Marek and his friends fit in and even has a (very basic) history of the region. Best of all, of course, is how the kids react to making comics. It’s clearly an alien concept to them at first, but Marek works at it, has some basic examples of how to tell a story with pictures and it’s impressive how quickly he’s able to get through to these kids. This is a review copy and it says that more actual samples of their work will be available in the actual printing, with even more samples up at his website. I’m sticking to generalities about this because it’s almost impossible to go into something to filled with specifics. Marek details the result of his asking a stupid question early on (even though it’s a question just anybody would have asked), the various living arrangements, the kids getting out of school and going right to work, the food (and how it changed wherever he went), even briefly going into the political situation. This is an engrossing work, miles above everything else I’ve seen from Marek, and it’s not like what I’ve already seen was bad. This is the kind of thing that should be taught in schools to show what we’re capable of as a race if we just stop to listen to to what the other side is saying. I loved it and it’s a measly (for the size) $10.
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Link to buy comics (website down as of 7/21/07)
Manya: Marie
OK, I don’t know much about Marie Curie and, seeing as that’s who this comic is mostly about, I thought it best to mention that right away. I’ll speak as someone with limited knowledge of the subject, so feel free to dismiss my uninformed opinion. Does that mean that I hated it? No, far from it, I just wanted you to know that I don’t know what I’m talking about. This one is pretty simple, where the last issue I read (see above) was all over the place, but in a good way. The bulk of this story is a day and night in the life on Manya. She hates her job, has dinner with her grandma and has a conversation from beyond the grave with Marie Curie. I learned a few things, the art is still incredible and the dialogue is fantastic, all around not much to complain about it except that it was slightly, um, dull. Sorry, I just didn’t know the character. There were more Manya books at the comic store and you’ll be hearing about the rest of them sooner or later too. Check this one out if you’re a fan of Marie Curie, otherwise stick to the other one and get this when you’ve read everything else these two have done. Contact info is above, don’t you know…
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Posted by Kevin
April 22, 2010
Link to buy comics (website down as of 7/21/07)
Manya: Prose, Poetry and Mosquitoes
I’m constantly amazed at the sheer number of comics that are really well done that I’ve just never heard of. Remind me to never assume that I know everything about comics just because I seek out the small stuff. Anyway, what you have in this comic is a gifted poet/author and a wonderfully expressive artist. How can you go wrong from there? There are more than a few great comics out there from female creators and it’s always great to add another couple of names to that list. My only fear with this was that this book came out in 1996. A little searching turned up a website. Turns out that they’ve been doing stuff ever since and they have quite a few books available. The site is a little sparse still, but it looks like they moved the site recently, so give them time for samples. The comic is all over the place, but in a good way. She deals with work, camping, growing up, oppression, stereotypes, and pretty much everything else that you can think of. This one is apparently sold out (unless you go to The Laughing Ogre in Columbus, OH like me), but I’d have to imagine that she has plenty to say in her other books too. Check some of their stuff out. I’m curious to see where they went from here…
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Posted by Kevin
