Mirsky, Robb – Sludgy #4

April 25, 2022

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Sludgy #4

It’s everybody’s favorite constantly melting creature who’s just trying to have a good time, Sludgy! Which, in case you’re new to this, is actually more than one creature, and they can make more Sludgys through various bodily excretions. Vomit, specifically, at least as far as this issue is concerned. This one has three stories in it, each showing off a different aspect of life as a Sludgy. First up are two Sludgy friends as they travel through the forest. They get hungry and end up eating some mushrooms that have pretty extreme hallucinogenic side effects. Remember, these creatures can make conscious, sentient duplicates out of themselves, which is problematic enough when you’re not tripping in the forest. As it is, there’s some serious questions about which Sludgy is which and what aspects of what they’re seeing are actually happening. Next up in the story of a Sludgy whose home is in danger of being flooded, and since water can dissolve a Sludgy things get tense in a hurry. Finally there’s the Sludgy who just wants to introduce himself to a pair of young lovers. He stops himself, realizing that his appearance might cause a panic, and thinks he’s come up with a better way to say hello. I’ll leave it to the reader to discover whether or not he was correct. These comics are a hoot, and seemingly every story raises more questions about what exactly is going on with these creatures, so I’m curious to see what happens next. Bring on the Sludgys! $6

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 4/15/22

April 15, 2022

When last I talked about my weekly reviews for Meeting Comics, there was a bit of a cliffhanger in whether or not I’d be able to find my copy of #19 before I continued reviewing the series. Then I got busy at work and couldn’t post for a couple of weeks anyway. <cough> Um, anyway, Andrew was nice enough to send me another copy, so the mystery is resolved! Except that I still don’t know what happened to the original review copy he sent along, but that’s more of a cliffhanger for me, not you. New review today for Meeting Comics #19 by Andrew Neal!

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Posted by Kevin

Neal, Andrew – Meeting Comics #19

April 15, 2022

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Meeting Comics #19

Before I get to the comics, I just wanted to commend Andrew for how he’s portraying the whole Tina and Ellie/Kevin and Ellie/Thomas and Tina romantic mess. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to turn it into a big old drama explosion, but he’s instead treating it like a group of adults who are confused by their new feelings but are all crystal clear that they don’t want to hurt anyone involved. It’s refreshing and realistic. Well, up until Tina and Ellie spend the bulk of the issue trying to exorcise the Dark Lord, anyway, but it’s not like he could leave that story thread just hanging out. So, what’s this issue about? The bit on the cover gives it away, and technically the back cover is even a bit of a spoiler. But you can’t see if here, so it’s still a mystery to you! Other stories include Thomas and Marisol being forced to quarantine together (and it’s a testament to Thomas’s restraint that it takes a few strips before they start going at it; that sexual tension has been flying off the page since they first met), Tina and Ellie trying to figure out their relationships, Gil’s secret twin brother Al, and Marisol taking a new job. Still, the bulk of the book is all about trying to get Gil free from the Dark Lord, and you’d better believe that that exorcism does not go exactly as planned. And you’d also better believe that I’m not giving away the ending here, as that’s been an underlying storyline for the bulk of the series run. This one may be a bit less laugh out loud funny than previous issues (although it still does have more than a few hilarious moments), but that’s only because there’s some unexpected heart here. It’s great, and a satisfying conclusion to that whole arc. It’s also apparently the first issue that Andrew didn’t post online for free, so if you’ve been mooching up until now, buy this one to see how the story ends! $5

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 4/13/22

April 13, 2022

New review today for Trashcan Private Eye by Rob Jackson. Just to be clear, he LIVES in a trash can. It’s not like he IS a trash can.

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Posted by Kevin

Jackson, Rob – Trashcan Private Eye

April 13, 2022

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Trashcan Private Eye

I won’t tell you why, but I will tell you that this comic ends with a song. And still I somehow resisted the temptation to not use that final page as the sample image! Sometimes this reviewing thing is a sheer test of willpower. So what’s up with this one? It’s a sprawling conspiracy, all with our hero Trashcan P.I. at the center of everything. Things start off with our hero creepily sizing up a young lady who’s come by his office… er, trash can, trying to get help in locating her missing brother. This is where a traditional noir story would begin their romance, but this comic doesn’t go anywhere near that. Possibly because the dude lives in and conducts business out of a bin, which traditionally has been a bit of an impediment in the romance department. So our hero tracks down leads, gets knocked out (which I’m using as a sample image purely because I’ve also often wondered why it’s so accepted in movies to bludgeon people into unconsciousness), and generally spends the bulk of the comic trying to get to the bottom of things. It all spirals into a vast connected gaggle of characters, and you’d better believe that things end in mayhem. I recently watched The Maltese Falcon and was a bit surprised how many of those tropes made it into this issue. Of course, noirs all have at least similar events happening (femme fatale, double crosses, bad guys accidentally telling the detective too much, etc.), so it’s not like I’m assigning any nefarious intent. Besides, all of the ladies loved Sam Spade, so that’s a pretty substantial difference right off the bat. And since I’m not going to tell you all the bits leading up to the dramatic conclusion, I’ll have to content myself and you by revealing a few of the (fantastic) names that Rob has come up with. Wall Face! Big Orange! Smart Guy Eddie! Big Jim Tuckshop! OK, that last one doesn’t even have a cameo, but what a name to put on a mailbox. If you’re already a fan of Rob’s, of course you should give this one a shot. You probably knew that already, as it’s not like the guy makes a lot of stinkers. If you’re new to his work, I’d recommend one of the heftier titles, but if you’re also on a budget and love noirs, you could do a lot worse than this one. If my internal currency converter is even close to correct (it almost certainly is not), then this is roughly $6.

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 4/11/22

April 11, 2022

Sorry about missing a couple of weeks there! If you’re curious about why I’m so busy at work lately, google “Ohio Congressional Maps.” Hours of fun, and maybe an explanation about why somebody who works at the local Board of Elections has been spending a lot of time doing, re-doing and then re-re-doing stuff at work that’s supposed to be routine. New review today for Applewood Canyon #2 by Brian Canini!

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Posted by Kevin

Canini, Brian – Applewood Canyon #2

April 11, 2022

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Applewood Canyon #2

The creepy tension from the first issue continues here, overlaid with that wholesome narrator telling an unseen audience about the charms of this town. If you didn’t read the review (or the comic) of the first issue that might be a little confusing, but who would just jump in at the second issue? In the previous issue we saw a bit of the town, and this time around we focus on one house in particular. Our narrator checks the door and, as it’s such a trusting town, finds it unlocked. We get a brief tour, have the residents of the house explained based on a large family portrait, and are suddenly distracted by a loud noise coming from downstairs. Any more than that and I’m well into spoiler territory, which is a constant concern anyway while reviewing 8 page mini comics. Maybe I can get away with saying this: it’s going to be extremely tricky to continue the unseen narrator action going into the third issue. But that’s fine! Two issues in and I’m completely hooked on the mystery, and Brian is doing an excellent job of ratcheting up the tension. Some of the asides are also brilliant; after getting detailed bios of two of the people in that family portrait, we land on the third one and the only piece of information the narrator is willing to dole out is “deceased.” Raises a whole lot of questions, huh? I’d recommend this series pretty highly so far, and since Brian is the man of a thousand comics series, I’ll even go ahead and say that you should start with this one. I suppose it could still fall apart, but it’s certainly off to one hell of a start. $2

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 3/24/22

March 24, 2022

Time for the weekly Meeting Comics review, this time for #18 (by Andrew Neal)! There are only two issues left in the Meeting Comics series proper as of this writing, and I’ve got some possible bad news on that front: I can’t locate #19. Meaning either that Andrew sent me #1-20 of this series and forgot #19, or meaning that I misplaced it. I’m betting on the second option, so I’ll do a bit of digging around before next week, but consider this a cliffhanger. Can the hapless reviewer locate the penultimate issue of Meeting Comics before his scheduled weekly review? Tune in some point next week to discover the answer!

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Posted by Kevin

Neal, Andrew – Meeting Comics #18

March 24, 2022

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Meeting Comics #18

Could it be that things have finally started to calm down for our heroes? Eh, not really. I mean, sort of, but only a little bit. We start off with several strips in a row about Tina and Ellie, as they’re both coming around to the idea that their fling might actually be more than that. Oh, and they also chat quite a bit with Gil/The Dark Lord, as they’re trying to find some way to get them separated. We get to see a bit more of the new office dynamic at the porn studio. How’s Val handling not being the boss? You’ll be amazed! Well, I don’t know what amazes you, but it is pretty damned funny. Although I guess I don’t know your sense of humor either. Eh, trust me already, or why else are you still reading this review? In other strips Thomas get ready for his porn premier (as the Ribbon Cutter, of course), but a new nemesis pops up that could make things tricky. He also has possibly the best super villain name of all time, but I’m not going to spoil that here. Also, if Thomas can’t make his porn shoot, who could possibly step in? The story may have shifted almost completely from the early issues, but it’s still funny as hell, which is all anybody can ask for in this world. No, not free health care or a world without war, you shut up about that. Just the idea that comics that are supposed to be funny actually are funny. Like this one! $5

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 3/22/22

March 22, 2022

New review today for Applewood Canyon #1 by Brian Canini, and yes, that’s another brand new series from the man. If anybody is wondering why I don’t give his comics the weekly review treatment like I’ve been doing for Meeting Comics lately, it’s because I’m terrified that Brian would actually be able to keep up with that schedule. The man’s prolific!

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Posted by Kevin

Canini, Brian – Applewood Canyon #1

March 22, 2022

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Applewood Canyon #1

Here’s another intriguing start to a series from Brian, the Cal Ripken of comics! Uh-oh, an extremely dated reference. See kids, Cal Ripken is famous mostly for his streak of consecutive baseball games played in a row, which I think was way over 2,000. Google has just told me 2,632, which is insane. Anyway, my point is that Brian has been making comics for a whole lot of years, and in that time he has produced a whole lot of comics. OK fine, so it’s a flawed analogy! I was shooting for a compliment. This follows Brian’s usual (?) format of an eight page mini, and as a first issue the whole point is to get the reader hooked on what might happen next. He succeeded on that front, as I’m very curious. This issue is done like an olde timey tourist commercial for why somebody should visit a town, but it’s peppered with imagery that adeptly disrupts any sense of comfort you might have with this seemingly quaint little burb. As it’s a shortie, it’s tough to say much about it without ruining something for the reader, but putting a panel of a 30 foot high wall (with “expertly equipped guard towers”) in between a panel showing quaint stone walkways and a serene dog park was an excellent way to bat away any expectations I already had going for how the series might develop. This “commercial” ran for the whole comic, so we got to meet a few characters and even learned about a rival town, so I think everything is set up quite nicely for future issues. Brian being Brian, he already sent me the first 5 issues of the series, so I’ll be able to check for myself very soon. And I still have to go back to Plastic People and see how that’s going, but that’s more a note for myself than part of the review, so please ignore this last sentence if you’re not me. Check it out, get in on the ground floor! $2

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 3/17/22

March 17, 2022

New review for Meeting Comics #17 by Andrew Neal, and there are only a few more of these suckers left for weekly reviews. In case anybody was wondering.

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Posted by Kevin

Neal, Andrew – Meeting Comics #17

March 17, 2022

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Meeting Comics #17

It’s impressive (especially in hindsight) how on track Andrew was able to keep his series during the pandemic. It also caused a few great issues dealing with some of the funnier bits of it, but with this issue covid has gone into the background and he’s back focusing on his people. I’m assuming covid pops up again, what with knowing that these strips were produced right before the 2020 presidential election and the covid surge after it, but this is as close to “back to normal” as this comic has been lately. Of course, that still means that lots of thing are batshit insane, but that’s just Meeting Comics for you. Tina and Ellie’s affair does get discovered, in absolutely hilarious fashion, but the response from Kevin and Thomas is still being worked out. I was also surprised that it was an ongoing thing and not just a “victory lap” after they solved their case, so we’ll see later how that affects things. The Dark Lord gets more screen time here than usual, but right now he’s not having a huge impact on the story. Kevin has his own secret, which may or may not come up later. Job offerings are hitting the gang, and a good chunk of them have decided to work for their budding porn empire. Andrew also includes The Last Garbageman on Earth, which I’m assuming was its own mini, and the title kind of says it all. He does manage to include the (at the time) upcoming presidential election in the discussion, and if only fixing that problem was as easy as he depicts it here! My apologies if this has gotten boring for the reader, but yes, this is another solid issue, and yes, you should really be giving this series a chance. Before it would mostly apply to people with horrible office jobs, but at this point it’s covering so much ground that it’s damned near for everybody. Well, except the prudes. I’m guessing all the casual sex and working for a porn startup wouldn’t meet with too much approval in that joyless crowd… $5

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 3/15/22

March 15, 2022

New review today for Nugget #2 by Tony DiPasquale, which is one of those comics that’s difficult to adequately explain, but I give it my best shot.

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Posted by Kevin

DiPasquale, Tony – Nugget #2

March 15, 2022

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Nugget #2

What a spectacularly unnerving comic. I mean that in the best possible way, of course! Otherwise I’d be curled up in a ball in a corner, too traumatized to even write a review. Apparently I missed making this comparison the first time around, but his work does remind me a little of Jim Woodring’s Frank. Outwardly cute protagonist, silently wandering around a world that’s trying to kill him in all sorts of creative and disturbing ways. Still, that’s where the similarity ends, and it’s possible that Tony never read Jim’s comics. Anyway! This is another collection of a few short pieces, and I’m not going to try quite as hard to avoid spoilers this time around, so look out! First up is Dogs, about our hero (I’m just going to assume his name is Nugget) narrowly avoiding being eaten by a monster at sea. He heads home for a peaceful nights sleep, which may or may not be what he ends up getting. Next up is Cake, which is too horrific for me to talk about. I’m still getting chills when I think about that one. Mother is up next, which is only marginally less disturbing, and even then it’s an obvious matter of opinion. Nugget does end up meeting his mother, or maybe he does. But, like everything else that happens to him in an average day, he’d probably have been better off never leaving the house. Finally there’s Bubbles, which is the sample image I used below. Balls of goo dropping from the sky interrupt Nugget’s card game, and they have a profoundly negative effect on his friend. He and his other friend make a run for it, but how do you fight black goo balls falling from the sky? If anybody is looking for a quote to sum up my thoughts, how about “adorably nightmarish”? That seems to be the long and short of it, which is one of those phrases I’ve never fully understood, but I’m still sticking with it. Once again I should point out his spectacular cover, and once again I hope that convinced some people seeing it at comic shops. Check it out, unless you demand happy endings in your comics.

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 3/11/22

March 11, 2022

New review today for a returning favorite: Andros #9 by Max Clotfelter. Happy weekend everybody!

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Posted by Kevin

Clotfelter, Max – Andros #9

March 11, 2022

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Andros #9

Here’s a little bit of trivia for y’all who have stumbled across this website for the first time: way back in the day (and my memory is not specific, so please allow some leeway here), maybe in my third year of reviewing comics (so around 2003), I ran a review for the third issue of this series, and it looks like I was undecided at the time. It was an anthology back then too, which probably had something to do with it, but the years have made one thing clear: I’m a fan of Max’s work. Even when it’s stuff that I don’t get, there’s something so compellingly grimy about his art that it’s impossible to look away. And if you’re taking “grimy” to mean sloppy, just look at that sample and try that one again. There are several stories in this one, a few of which were already in various small press anthologies, so if you’re somebody who reads every single one of those, I guess you might have seen one or two of these before. For everybody else this will all be brand new, and even if you’ve seen those pieces there’s still plenty in here to recommend it to you. There’s a hilariously tragic story of the time he went to a seedy strip club with information that for $80 they would “do anything” to him. Not to spoil anything, but it didn’t end all that well. There’s another piece about how he slandered a girl when he was a kid with a story about how she had sex with the whole football team at a party (he wasn’t even at the party), which morphs into a tale of how he could protect himself from her irate brother. As always, there’s his centerfold, which should forever ruin any sexy connotations from that word usually being applied to Playboy and the like. The level of detail here is insane, and I don’t know if it’s a good or a terrifying sign that I understood the meaning behind it right away. There’s another story where he talks about a tape that he made in the early 90’s featuring his “burp solos,” and there’s still even a copy of it out in the world as of this writing. Finally there’s a longer strip that talks about his early troubles with panic attacks, a toxic relationship he lived through and even a small glimpse into the origin story of his long term relationship with Kelly Froh, who is also an incredible cartoonist and somebody whose work you should be seeking out. There are also a few single page strips with his redneck characters from past issues, sort of like if Hee Haw got run through a David Lynch filter. I’m clearly biased, but there’s some great stuff in this issue, and it’s only $1 more than the issue I reviewed way back in 2003. Check it out already! $3

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 3/9/22

March 9, 2022

It’s time for the weekly Meeting Comics by Andrew Neal review, and this time it’s #16! The stack of these comics to review is getting thin over here, so you’d better hop on this train now.

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Posted by Kevin

Neal, Andrew – Meeting Comics #16

March 9, 2022

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Meeting Comics #16

The pandemic continues, and the fallout from the last issue is hitting all kinds of people. You remember, that’s the issue that took place over one insane and ridiculous day? Of course you’ve already read it, what am I saying. There’s Kevin and Ellie trying to return home and being kicked out by everybody else, because their chances for covid are pretty high after that protest. There’s Val, maybe at her most Val, which is both saying something and a genuine joy. The Dark Lord is back, despite being mostly dead, and he’s taking some serious liberties. Kevin has some issues with his band being taken in a more corporate direction. The mystery of the bootleg Ribbon Cutter merchandise is revealed! Speaking of, the Ribbon Cutter is approached to do porn, which leads to an absolutely delightful duet with his nemesis. Once again, that’s not even half the stories, but things are moving right along, and they haven’t missed a beat after everybody got fired from their jobs. It’s almost like the comic was funny on its own, with or without making fun of corporate life! Also I’m just going to go out on a limb and say that if you haven’t read any issues up until now, this is as good a place as any to jump in. A few characters get new starts, and sure, you’ll still be missing some crucial context. But if you’re on a tight budget and don’t want to just buy the first collection of strips and/or read the many free sample strips on his website, maybe start with this one. $5

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Posted by Kevin

Update for 3/7/22

March 7, 2022

New review for Just Can’t Shake Your Memory by Rachel Scheer, and there will eventually be a quiz for the sample image I used in that review, so pay close attention…

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Posted by Kevin

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