Sperandio, Christopher – Li’l Jormly

July 21, 2022

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Li’l Jormly

Look, I’ll make this review very simple. If you’re a fan of the mini kus books, of course you should get this one too. And the less you know about it, the better. OK? If that’s good enough for you, please click right on that link and buy it. For everybody who wants some (ok, any) details, let’s get into it! Right off the bat, even though you can only see half that cover, it’s obvious that there are some horrors that don’t quite match the whimsical nature of the artwork. Jormly has chicken feet, and what appears to be an octopus hand. And is he a cyclops too? Yep, sure enough. Things start off with one of those fake “back of the comic” ads that I thought were played out at this point, but it made me laugh, so I’m not going to spoil what it’s about. The comic itself starts with one of the denser recaps I’ve seen in a tiny text caption, as we learn that there were three apocalypses that led to this current moment, with some brief detail of each. We also learn that Jormly was “orphaned into the broken world”, and he’s had a miserable life. Don’t let that jolly look fool you! He soon asks a friend where he originally came from, and decides on a quest to return to that location. And then… the comic turns into a children’s activity book, complete with the word jumbles, mazes, etc. that you would normally find in such things, but of course more horrific because of the circumstances. We get some brief updates from our hero along the way, who’s looking a bit worse for wear each time. Basically if you’d rather work on an activity book, this one has you covered, and if you’d like to wallow in a bleakly hopeless future by living vicariously through a pantsless pig, you’ll be doing plenty of that too. Give it a look, is what I say. $7


Update for 7/19/22

July 19, 2022

Probably not the greatest idea to mention my covid positive status and then take a week off reviewing, huh? I’m fine, outside of maybe some long covid I haven’t found out about yet. But enough about me! New review today for Applewood Canyon #5 by Brian Canini.


Canini, Brian – Applewood Canyon #5

July 19, 2022

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Applewood Canyon #5

It’s the grand finale for the series, as our “heroes” still have to figure out some way to get the dead body out of town. There’s the north entrance, which is guarded 24 hours a day, so that’s out. And the south entrance is a literal minefield. What can they do? Obviously I’m not going to tell you, as it would be a gargantuan dick move to wait until now to spoil the ending. It’s always tricky when I can’t get into such things, so I’ll just say that I thought the ending was… fine, I guess? It solved their central problem, but it also felt like the ending just kind of happened and that was that. Which, granted, is how endings work, and you can throw this whole review away if there are further issues planned. Honestly, it’s probably one of those things where I was anticipating a zig and Brian instead zagged. Who can’t relate to that! I also thought we were going to get into further detail about the nature of the town (what kind of town has guards at one end and a minefield at the other?), but that never happened. Which I get in one sense, as that probably would have required a whole other series. And since Brian is a comics making machine, there’s every chance that he has such a series in mind or is already working on said series. Overall this was still a really fun and/or disturbing series and I think that fans of his work should definitely check it out. $1.99


Update for 7/8/22

July 8, 2022

New review today for Poem by M.D. Usher and T. Motley, and you may remember that second name because I’ve been reviewing his stuff since the earliest days of Optical Sloth. Happy weekend y’all!


Usher, M.D. & Motley, T. – Poem

July 8, 2022

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Poem

So there I was, reading the introduction for this book, where M.D. (I’m assuming he wrote the intro; it’s unsigned) talks about how this book is sui generis, how there’s never been anything quite like it produced. And, unlike my usual habits, I even read the back of the book first, which also made similarly bold claims. Well, I’m a crusty old reviewer who’s seen it all! I dare this book to impress me, much less make good on such a lofty claim! Well… yeah, they were right. Completely, utterly right. Any long time reader of this website will know that I often turn my nose up at “illustrated poems,” and poetry in general just isn’t my thing. So when this book was described as a “pastiche introduction to the conventions of poetry,” that it would yield “new rhythms and rhymes and give the poetry of the verbatim original a new dimension,” well, you could probably see my skepticism from space. But Tom (sorry if I outed him and he’s officially going by “T.” now) illustrated it, and he’s always solid, so what the heck, I’d give it a shot. And honestly, it completely blew me away. Maybe one other way to describe this is as a medley of lines from various poems, all expertly mashed together and made into something entirely new with T. Motley’s images. It’s rare for me to go back through a book right after I read it, but I did that here, flipping through pages with a general “how did they DO that” bemusement for the juxtaposition of the words and images. Understand also that some words became images, or maybe it’s the reverse, and that level of ingenuity delighted me. There was also an extensive listing of the various poets included in the back, with biographies that were actually fun and witty, often including some of their lesser known poems with that information. I’m always happy to be proven wrong, and I was wrong to be skeptical here. This book is a delight, and if you have any interest at all in poetry it’s essential reading. If you’re like me and don’t have much of an interest in poetry, give it a shot anyway! You may come away from it with a new appreciation for poetry, or at the very least what can happen when two people who clearly love the genre put their heads together and come up with something completely new. $20


Update for 7/6/22

July 6, 2022

New review today for Shooting by Pedro Burgos, as I try but fail to go a week without reviewing one of the mini kus books. Oh, also I have covid, so please don’t breathe in too close to your screen. It took two and a half years, but it finally got me (I’m doing fine, please don’t fret).


Burgos, Pedro – Shooting

July 6, 2022

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Shooting

Ah, the world of modeling. It’s horrific, and it seems like there’s a better than even chance that the photographer is going to be somewhere between a general jerk or a misogynist. This is a short but brutal tale about a guy who’s trying to get good shots of his model, but his true thoughts come through after she collapses while striking a pose. He’s overheard by a young lady who’s also watching the shoot and is instantly dismayed to find the camera turned back on him. The rest of the comic is the open question of whether there’s any consequences for a person like that, and if so who should give it to him. Or I’m reading it wrong, which is always a possibility, especially with the mini kus books. Pedro uses a full page for every image, allowing plenty of room to breathe for what is a fairly claustrophobic profession. No matter how much wide and open a space the models are given to pose, the lights see everything and even the food they eat while not on a shoot affects their ability to get work. It’s in intriguing and more than slightly disturbing tale, which is probably as it should be when covering a world like this. It’s worth a look, especially if you have any experience in that field, on either side of the camera. $7.95


Update for 7/4/22

July 4, 2022

New review today for The Lighthouse in the City Volume 8 by Karl Christian Krumpholz! Sure, it’s a holiday, but I’m stuck at home with covid so you get a review. Yep, way after it’s fashionable I finally got hit by the pandemic. Always late to the party!


Krumpholz, Karl Christian – The Lighthouse in the City Volume 8

July 4, 2022

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The Lighthouse in the City Volume 8

For all that I sometimes give artists grief who only put out a book every few years, it’s even trickier as a reviewer to keep up with the people who constantly produce comics. Karl was nice enough to to send along a half dozen or so books after I reviewed his fifth volume earlier this year, which then leads to the problem of what to review next. Read them all in order and talk about them? Nope, this time around I decided to review the most recent volume, with the hope of getting back to the earlier stuff at some undetermined point in the future. That never seems to work with me, but I live in hope! This collection covers October through December of 2021, and it also wraps up his second full year of daily strips. The level of detail he packs in these strips is astounding; I get that he’s able to illustrate for a living, but this is not a man who follows a simple formula for daily strips. Generally speaking, the four panels then out format is the most common for daily strips, but Karl is fine making a three or four page story out of the events of that day if that’ll make a better story. Granted, he also has a few strips that are silent sketches, but he even puts so much detail into those that I’d hardly call them an off-day. So, what’s going on in this volume? If you’re reading this in the far future you may have forgotten, but things are rough all over these days, and this volume reflects that reality. The first strips starts off with a quote from The Thin Man (the book by Dashiell Hammett) that ties into the madness of the vaccine deniers, so he’s right off to the races. There are just under 100 other strips in this book, dealing with loss (way too many of his friends passed away during this time period), hope, trying to get back to normal (i.e. being comfortable going out with friends again with not everybody wearing masks), and the introduction of a new cat in their lives, and this cat naturally ends up being the star of the show. Sure, I’m biased towards cats, but I’m also right. This feels like maybe as vague as I’ve ever been in describing a comic, but I am completely fine with that. This is a guy who’s wrapping up his second year of daily strips and frankly seems like he’s at the top of his game right now. They’re unlike most other daily strips I’ve read (the level of detail especially, but it’s also rare for a book like this to not ever feel repetitive) and I’m pretty comfortable recommending this to anybody. As to the question of which volume you should start with, that’s quite a bit tougher. Maybe pick the most eventful chunk of three months or so from your own life over 2020-2021 and see how his life was in comparison? That way if you enjoy the book you can always go back and read what came before and after it. Or just pick a number between 1 and 8 and get one at random. Give it a shot, is what I’m saying. $12


Update for 6/30/22

June 30, 2022

It’s mini kus time! Just in case anybody thought they were going to call it a day after putting out the first 100 issues of their series, they’ve sent along everything up to #110. This one is #103, and it’s Grandad Reg by Patrick Wray and Clara Heathcock.


Wray, Patrick & Heathcock, Clara – Grandad Reg

June 30, 2022

Clara’s Website

Patrick’s Website

Grandad Reg

I was recently asking where all the pandemic comics were, but it seems like they’ve been coming a lot more quickly recently, and this is another solid addition to the list. This is the story of Clara’s grandad Reg, who passed away from covid in April of 2020, right around the first big wave. She goes through some of her favorite memories of her time with the man, but the main theme of the book is one of confusion. How do you mourn somebody when there’s no event to mark their passing? Everybody was quarantined at the time, so all she has is a few people to contact over Facetime. I was lucky during the pandemic (not that it’s over, at least as of June 2022) in that I never contracted it (or if I did it was an asymptomatic case) and no close friends or family members died from it. Reading about her experience, and how she had to piece together any sense of peace or closure from it, was heartbreaking, and a reminder of just how many people had to deal with this over the last two years. Patrick did a solid job with the artwork, conveying just how stuck in time Clara must have been while still showing a sort of grieving process for her and her family. Does this mean that I’m recommending yet another mini kus book? Yep. I’ll bet nobody could have seen that one coming! But this is another excellent reminder of the sheer range of the series and the artists involved. I’ll bet the next one will be a wordless tale of the life of a dollar bill, or something else completely unrelated to this one. Anyway, now I’m starting to review mini kus and not this comic, but yes, give this one a shot. Especially if you had your own losses during the pandemic, this one might help you process how it all went down. $8


Update for 6/28/22

June 28, 2022

New review today for Applewood Canyon #4 by Brian Canini. You’d think my stack of Brian’s comics left to review would be decreasing, but if anything I’m just holding steady. 21 years running this website, and he might be the one that pushes me to start doing bulk reviews, or at least a few issues at a time. How else am I going to finish Plastic People?


Canini, Brian – Applewood Canyon #4

June 28, 2022

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Applewood Canyon #4

It’s the penultimate (a word I just don’t get to use often enough) issue of this short series, and when we last left our heroes (?) they were bagging up a body and starting to take it away. The issue ended with a flashlight being shone on them, so in this issue we naturally see who was holding the light. It turns out it was… a small child. With a surprisingly quick grasp of the situation, to the point where it’s hard not to instantly wonder what else is going on with this kid. The rest of the issue deals with her making an offer to the two of them, their response to said offer and what happens once they try to take the body out of town (a town which we were previously told was locked down at night). So! Lots to wrap up in the final issue, and only 8 scant pages to do it. This one has gone a long ways from the faux documentary style of that first issue, that’s for sure, but I’ll make the prediction now that we’ll be left with many more questions than answers. I could very well be wrong, but I probably won’t be (this time). Mainly because I want to know the life story of that kid, and there’s just not enough time to deal with that while wrapping up the main plot. Either way, it’s been a blast of a series, and a pretty cheap one to get all the issues, in terms of Brian Canini series, anyway. $1.99


Update for 6/24/22

June 24, 2022

New review today for Odd Clods #1 by Steve Steiner, which is both a mini comic and a newspaper. No, somehow the comics world at large still hasn’t figured out how to refer to these suckers…


Steiner, Steve – Odd Clods #1

June 24, 2022

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Odd Clods #1

Confession time: I’ve often been hesitant in the past when it comes to reviewing comics that come in newspaper formats. Not for any aesthetic reason, it’s just that I’m a simple country reviewer, with a regular old scanner that can’t handle the size of such things. Well, I think I’ve cracked the case. The sample image cut off a little bit of the words, but I think I nailed the combo cover image. And that concludes the segment of the reviews that nobody asks for: behind the scenes at Optical Sloth! I’ve been reviewing Steve’s book for lots of years, but it’s been a few since I’ve seen any of his stuff. He sent along a few of his newspaper comics, and this one in particular is a hoot, and a bit of a departure from some of his other stuff that I’ve seen. It’s a collection of short pieces, but thanks to the format he doesn’t have to worry about space constrictions and he uses that to his full advantage. Subjects include a hilarious piece on how teachers have learned to detect the early warning signs of a potential anti-christ in their classroom, the terror of seeing unknown warning lights in your car while driving, an awkward message sent by an even more awkward gift, the different types of parasites in the midwest, the research and conclusion of a recently discovered terrarium in the human stomach of a comatose patient, a simple test for determining what types of hair you’ve found in various apartments, and a brand new personal defense system that’s designed to stop bigger dudes (and impress horrible women who are only attracted to violence). You know, I was going to wrap this up by mentioning how his (already impressive) artwork has somehow managed to get even better, but after going through that wrap-up on the stories in here, I should really point just how damned funny this comic was. Just about every one got a laugh out of me, with the possible exception of the stomach terrarium story (which was really more of a horror piece anyway). Give it a chance, why don’t you? Don’t you like funny things too? $10


Update for 6/22/22

June 22, 2022

New review today for My Life in Records #7: Gemini Dream by Grant Thomas. Y’all are watching the January 6th hearings, right? Just a public service announcement if you’re not, as it’s some riveting stuff.


Thomas, Grant – My Life in Records #7: Gemini Dreams

June 22, 2022

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My Life in Records #7: Gemini Dreams

Just a general question for the comics making portion of the audience: do you consider how your book might look on the shelf at the comic store when you’re making it, or is so much of your business done online and/or in cons at this point that it doesn’t come up? It’s a minor thing, but I ask because Grant didn’t put “#7” anywhere on this sucker (I found it on his website), but maybe that’s not particularly important these days. Anyway! This continues the ongoing story of Grant’s early life, as told at at least partially through the music he was discovering/listening to at the time. This one delves even further into his early home life, especially in the first story. The sampled image shows just how far Grant’s brother was willing to go when his door was taken off the hinges, along with Grant’s efforts to block out the noise with his own music. Next up is a piece about an attempt by him to try transcendental meditation after reading about it in the liner notes for a Moody Blues album. I have to admit, trying this out on the drive to a camping trip ended up going a little better than I might have guessed. Finally there’s a brief piece about his years mowing lawns with a push mower, which was chosen primarily because there was no motor, so he could hear his music much better then he would otherwise. He also goes into some detail about how he chose his clothing at the time, and what it meant to him. Once again, this dude and I have some serious similarities in our formative years, so if you, gentle reader, thinks that I can’t have that in common and remain unbiased, well, maybe you’re right. But it’s been a fascinating ride so far, with significantly more depth and emotion in it than you might expect from a comic “about” music. Give it a shot, if you haven’t already, and especially if you’re anywhere near your mid to late 40’s. It’s very good even if you’re not, but if you do fall in that range the music might seem a lot more familiar… $7.50


Update for 6/20/22

June 20, 2022

New review today for a graphic novel I’m finally getting around to: O Human Star Volume Three by Blue Delliquanti!


Delliquanti, Blue – O Human Star Volume Three

June 20, 2022

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O Human Star Volume Three

You know, this is my third review in this series (out of three books), and I don’t think I’ve included this disclaimer yet: these reviews are being done by a cisgender guy with the best of intentions, so if I’ve made a mistake in using a gender pronoun, please send me an email and I’ll correct it. I feel like it’s relevant to mention this now, because the conclusion naturally left a lot of the gender identity questions up in the air. If you haven’t been reading the series (and shame on you if that’s the case), I’ll briefly sum things up. Alastair Sterling’s consciousness gets brought back to life after his physical body was deceased for several years, but the identity of who’s done this is a mystery. Alastair was in a relationship with Brendan when he died, so Brendan built a humanoid robot with the partial consciousness of Alastair in them. This robot, as they aged, decided that they weren’t a man at all, so they transitioned to female. Which, naturally, raised all sorts of questions in both Brendan and the returned full consciousness of Alastair. All caught up? That’s great and all, but you should really read the previous two graphic novels to have a hope to catch up on the hundreds of pages of nuance that I just glossed over. Anyway, this volume starts off with an extended sequence about the creation and early years of Sulla, and the natural but confusing (to her and Brendan) realization that they were really female. This also covers some of the advances in robotics, AI and human part replacement technology, which also answered a few questions I still had rattling around in my brain. From there we go back to modern day (which is the future of the people reading this, obviously), and things there are grim. The last volume ended with Sulla (who was passing as human) outing herself to her friends by flying and Alastair running away (as everything going on was just too much for him). This is right around the point in the volume where I run into a brick wall, because the answers start coming pretty quickly at this point, and I’d be a real jerk to reveal them all in a review. I’ll just say that I’m sitting here, trying to think of something that was left unanswered, and I can’t come up with anything. I’d call that a solid ending, wouldn’t you? We do get the answer of who brought Alastair back, and I have to say that it’s not somebody who was on my list of suspects. So, again, kudos on a genuinely surprising ending. Blue also includes a short story about Lucille, who really gets the chance to shine in this volume. So after all is said and done, am I recommending this series? Yes, absolutely, why do you think I’ve been praising the bejesus out of this for three volumes? The scientific and ethical questions alone are worth the price, but the gender questions layered on top of that (and placed in a world where sentient past consciousnesses can have any body they want) raise it up to a whole new level. This is damned near a masterpiece and everybody who values my opinion at all should give this a shot. $25


Update for 6/15/22

June 15, 2022

New review today for Perry Midlife by S.R. Arnold, as I sit here listening to Pegboy for the first time in many years thanks to the nostalgia blast I got from John Porcellino’s comic earlier in the week. Does anybody outside of the Chicago area remember them? Hm.