New review today for The War On Dental by Michael Aushenker. Also I found the button that deletes my entire inbox, and I was digging into it because I hadn’t checked it in at least a month, probably longer. So if you’ve sent me an email in the last month or so, maybe send it again if you want to hear back.
Aushenker, Michael – The War on Dental
July 14, 2021
The War On Dental
It’s always a good sign when a comic is actively hilarious, and this one more than crosses that bar. This is a story about dragons murdering dentists. If you’re understandably confused, relax, I’ll break it down a bit. Cast your minds back to maybe 2016 or 2017, when that one incredibly rich dentist flew to that one African country and murdered a very old lion that was a huge cultural symbol to the people. He was told not to, he did it anyway, and as far as I know the worst thing that happened to him was that some people called him mean names online (I just checked and it’s true. The lion was named Cecil, he was 13 years old, and the dentist is fine). That’s obviously a terrible story, and what would make it better is if the lions got together to pay this dentist a visit. This comic takes a different path: there’s still a dentist, but he kills a hibernating dragon and steals his fangs, which leads to the remaining lions coming up with a plan to take their revenge. Which, honestly, happens pretty quickly, as it’s not like a dentist has much of a chance against several enraged dragons. This isn’t quite satisfying enough for the dragons, who then kill his wife, his family, and destroy his business. From there the vendetta goes on to include all dentists, all people who kind of look like dentists, countries where the most dentists might come from, etc. So yeah, the rest of the book is complete mayhem. If you think it’s nothing but dragon murder, humans do briefly get their collective act together and find a couple of heroes (including the one listed on the cover, who must be from one of Michael’s other books?), which involves a giant mecha. It’s funny and more than occasionally brutal, what more could anybody want? I still don’t see an obvious way to order Michael’s books from his website, but go to it anyway and send the man an email. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/12/21
July 12, 2021I know, I know. Things have been crazy around here (new kittens! new bookshelves! new car!), but there’s a new review today for Four Stories by Brian Canini. And I’m writing three reviews this week, so that’s something. Right?
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Posted by Kevin
Canini, Brian – Four Stories
July 12, 2021
Four stories? In an eight page comic? Who would have thought that such a thing was possible? Granted, two of the stories are only a single page, but it’s still impressive. This is a really solid mini, and it even ends with a nice little update to the first story, which features a grimly realistic tale of a fish slowly developing the ability to walk on land and what happens to him when he gets there. All on one page! Next up is the meat of the comic, a tale about the hidden costs of dining out at a seriously upscale restaurant, which is a little too close to real life, and something that’s probably coming (if it’s not already here; I haven’t dined at a super fancy restaurant since before the pandemic, so I’m a bit behind the times). Next up we get the juxtaposition of a letter home from an aspiring star in Hollywood to the actuality of what she’s going through. And finally there’s a good old fashioned gag strip about how quickly time can pass you by and make you seem completely out of touch. As somebody who still has trouble grasping why it’s so terrible to use a period to end a sentence in a text message, boy howdy can I ever relate. It just means the sentence is done, not that I’m yelling at you! Ugh, kids today. Well, since those last two sentences aged me twenty years, I’d better wrap things up. This one has variety, a couple of surprisingly dense stories (especially considering the format), and a few laughs. All for a measly $2!
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/1/21
July 1, 2021New review today for O Human Star Volume One by Blue Delliquanti, which is absolutely fantastic. Dang it, did I give away my opinion in the preview again?
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Posted by Kevin
Delliquanti, Blue – O Human Star Volume One
July 1, 2021
O Human Star Volume One
So I just did a quick bit of research, and outside of a few shorts pieces in anthologies, it’s true: this is Blue’s first long comics series. Why did I feel the need to research this? Because it’s damned near flawless, and it will always be shocking to me when that’s true with anyone’s first try. Also, as I’m perpetually a day late and a dollar short, the third and final volume has been completed and should be coming out this year, so the story is over right as I’m getting into it. Ah well, I can still do my reviewers duty and get anybody who’s as constantly late as me on board. This is the story of Alastair Sterling, and it starts with him dying. Before you start making comparisons to Sunset Boulevard, no, he’s not dead for the whole story and narrating it. Well, he is dead. Ugh, I’m getting ahead of myself. He does die in the first few pages, true. But then he wakes up with his consciousness in the body of an extremely human-looking android and is told that this is because of his former assistant Brendan as he’s being driven to see him. Who’s driving him? Well, that ends up being a mystery, as he quickly learns that Brendan had nothing to do with this resurrection. Alastair was at the forefront of artificial intelligence technology before he died, and in the ensuing 16 years robots have become normalized and have their own rights. The bulk of this book is spent with Alastair trying to get a grip on this new reality, interspersed with flashbacks to show how the two of them met, how they researched their work and how they finally got it off the ground. Alastair also meets another synthetic life form, Sulla, whose personality was taken from his brain waves in one of Brendan’s failed attempts to bring Alastair back. Sulla, however, had requested to be a girl after her first few years, which raises all sorts of questions from Alastair. So how many mysteries are we up to? Mysterious benefactors, the questions about his robotic clone (not even close to the right term probably), how his relationship with Brendan is going to go after so long apart, a few more I’m definitely forgetting. So there’s all kinds of intrigue, but it’s also just so damned human. Sulla is a typical teenager, at least in temperament, and there’s the usual nervousness about trying to fit in with other teens, especially after a lifetime of home schooling has left her without many social graces. Alastair tries his best, but he’s clearly and consistently uncomfortable in this world. And Brendan’s collapse early on as he realized that this really was Alastair at his doorstep was devastating, as was his constantly walking on eggshells around Alastair and Sulla. I’m completely hooked and getting the second volume as soon as I wrap up this review, so expect a few words about that in the coming months. Maybe just in time for the third volume to be released so I can be at least mildly current? I live in hope. But yeah, in case I wasn’t clear: get this book as soon as you can. I guarantee that you’ll be hooked after the first few pages. $25
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 6/29/21
June 29, 2021New review today for Bee-Man: The Death of Bee-Man by Michael Kamison and Steven Arnold. Why yes, I am trying and failing to not fall into my more sporadic summer reviewing habits, why do you ask?
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Posted by Kevin
Kamison, Michael & Arnold, Steven – Bee-Man: The Death of Bee-Man
June 29, 2021
Bee-Man: The Death of Bee-Man
Don’t you hate it when you randomly pick one comic from a new stack by a team of artists while you’re pressed for time, read it, then quickly flip through the other comics from the stack and become convinced that you inadvertently picked probably the weakest of the bunch? What’s that you say? The amount of people in the world who relate to that are probably in the single digits? Oh yeah. Anyway! These fine folks sent me about a half dozen comics (don’t fret, I’ll get to them), but look at the cover of this sucker! Of course I’m going to go with that one first. This is the story of a team of scientists who are trying to reverse the dying out of the bees, but their first attempt ended with them accidentally making “vampire bees.” Erwin (the hero of the piece) is by far the most dedicated of the bunch, but it comes at the expense of his home life and new child. He eventually starts to hallucinate that the vampire bees are talking to him (or possibly they are; I wasn’t entirely clear on that), which leads to him trusting the bees far too much and entering a controlled environment to prove that they aren’t dangerous. Multiple bee stings ensue, and the guy ends up in a coma for ten years. When he wakes up things have changed quite a bit, and that’s before he notices some gradual and then sudden changes to his own body. I honestly can’t decide if I should go into spoilers here for the rest of it. I mean, when you call your first issue “Death of Bee-Man,” the writing is very much on the wall. I’ll just say that they stuck to the science of what happens when a bee stings somebody, and even with that the ending seemed abrupt, like they had just had enough of the story. There were some funny bits and some solid quotes, but this felt like something that should have maybe been a few issues long to let it breathe. Either way, that is some cover, and I’m looking forward to getting to the rest of the books from their pile. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 6/17/21
June 17, 2021New review today for So Buttons! #11 by Jonathan Baylis and a gaggle of his artist chums.
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Posted by Kevin
Baylis, Jonathan – So Buttons! #11
June 17, 2021
So Buttons #11
I guess I shouldn’t be amazed that Jonathan managed to put this together during a global pandemic, but I am honestly a little surprised. Sure, it’s not much different from normal, I imagine: Jonathan writes the stories, asks his various artist buddies if they can draw the stories, and the comics magic happens. Still… kudos! If you’ve never read an issue of this series before, these are autobiographical tales taken from Jonathan’s life, sometimes drawn by entirely new artists, sometimes drawn by a few favorites that he’s used in multiple issues. Also I noticed that every past issue of his series is currently in print (including the collected edition), so if you’re intrigued, get caught up! The man can tell one hell of a tale. Just wanted to get that out there in case I got distracted in the middle of the review. So what’s in this comic that was produced during a global pandemic? Would you believe only one story involves the pandemic, and even then only briefly (and tangentially)? It’s true! For everybody that remembers and appreciates Basil Wolverton’s work, Jim Rugg’s cover art is goddamn amazing. Subjects in this issue include the mythical Laphroaig 15 year scotch and the lengths he went to to try and get it (before it was eventually released as an anniversary edition), his work as a “make a wish” escort and the time he met John Cleese (this one takes you on some twists and turns, as there’s some serious danger that John’s going to end up being an asshole to this kid), his time at school abroad in London and how the comic shop he discovered there led him to small press books, visiting his old Waldenbooks job after it had been turned into a bank, his grandmother’s obsession with Bazooka Joe gum and how that eventually (kind of sort of) led to a job as a Topps intern and finally his tribute to Carol Channing (who shares a birthday with him). There are also a few more wordless pages, but I have to leave something as a surprise. And his bios of the artists tell you a lot about them and why he specifically picked each one for each piece. It’s a steal for $5 and I’m always happy to see a quality series like this make it to double digits while showing no sign of slowing down. Give it a shot if you’ve never tried his stuff before, and if you’re already a fan I guess all I had to say was “hey everybody, a new issue of ‘So Buttons’ is out!” $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 6/15/21
June 15, 2021New review today for Queen of the House by Grant Thomas. You know, I had a few plans for the 20th anniversary of the website (coming up in a couple of months, believe it or not), but it’s starting to look like none of them are going to be ready in time. And if there’s a more apt celebration for this particular website, I don’t know what it could be.
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Posted by Kevin
Thomas, Grant – Queen of the House
June 15, 2021
The thing about Grant’s comics is that they generally come in one of two forms: dense, meticiulously detailed comics like his “My Life in Records” series (and a few others) or these teeny tiny minis like Queen of the House. I’m guessing that if you look at the price tags (generally $1 for these and $7ish for the other series), but what’s a good way to let people know right off the bat? And is it really important to do so? It’s not like there’s any more inherent worth to one or the other; some people just have a minute to read a comic. Eh, who cares? How about this: if you see a scanned cover that looks unnaturally gigantic, it’s probably my scanner taking a huge image of a tiny comic. It it looks proportional, it’s probably one of his “regular” comics. Well, that was a pointless digression, but what I was trying to get across is that this is a tiny comic and there’s not a lot to say about it. We see the adventures of a cat left home alone, and we see it end with the one thing that’s always guaranteed to cheer up a cat. It’s cute, and us cat owner types will find a few things to love here. Other than that I can talk about the new kittens I got a month ago, or I could just recommend that you send Grant $5 and tell him to give you a few of these l’il comics so that you can get a sense of what he’s all about. $1
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 6/3/21
June 3, 2021New review today for Rust Belt Review #1 by Sean Knickerbocker and about a half dozen other artists. Enjoy, anthology junkies!
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Posted by Kevin
Knickerbocker, Sean (editor) – Rust Belt Review #1
June 3, 2021Website (for Sean Knickerbocker)
Hooray for a big old comics anthology! And by “big” I mostly mean the size of the actual comic (which wouldn’t fit entirely on my scanner) rather than the page count, which is still more than respectable. This has stories from six artists, about half of which I’d read before. I should also point out that the second issue is coming out in a couple of weeks (6/14/21, readers of the future), so for all of you skeptics that think series like this rarely get beyond the first issue, in your face! One of Sean’s goals (from his introduction) is trying to find a way for artists to diversify their income, as this issue was done in a time when in-person cons wasn’t an option, and it’s not like that’s generally a big moneymaker for the artists anyway. First up is a story by Andrew Greenstone about a cult that kidnapped 100 people and forced them to compete in trivia and games, with death being a very real possibility if you get something wrong. I want to quickly complement the layout of this book: the artist’s name is at the bottom of every other page and the title is on the opposite page, so there’s not the danger you get in some anthologies of stories with similar art styles briefly running together. Next up is Caleb Orecchio’s series of short pieces (that all tie together beautifully) dealing with a group of children, their animal pals and their bullies. And one poorly timed erection, but I don’t want to spoil anything. MS Harkness’s piece about a bank robbery is so amazing that I don’t want to give a thing away about it, so I won’t, but I will say that it got a literal “lol” out of me. Juan Jose Fernandez has a more contemplative piece about yearning featuring some haunting video game-esque imagery. Sean has a couple of stories with the same dirtbag characters; in one the losers are given an ultimatum to clean up their act, and in the next they receive an unexpected windfall while nefarious forces plot in the background. Yep, that one is obviously of the “to be continued” variety. Finally there’s Audra Stang telling a story that connects to her overarching narrative in her mini comics, further cementing the need for a complete edition when it’s all said and done. This is a damned solid anthology, and after looking at the list of artists in the second issue it’s looking like that one should be great too. There are a few pieces that look to be continuing in the next issue, which is a solid way to keep people coming back for more. I hope this works out; there are too few ongoing comics anthologies for my tastes. $10
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 6/1/21
June 1, 2021New review today for Save It For Later by Nate Powell, which if I was dictator of the world I’d make everybody read. Of course, then this book would be protesting me, which might cause a time paradox of some kind.
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Posted by Kevin
Powell, Nate – Save It For Later
June 1, 2021
If you’re not political, if you’ve somehow managed to maintain that state of blissful ignorance into 2021 after everything that’s happened the last several years… well, shame on you, but this is also a note to say that you won’t be interested in this review. I will say that maybe reading this book will get you off your ass and you should give it a shot, but if you’ve convinced yourself that everything is going to work out, nothing I say here is going to change your mind. So what’s this book about? It’s an unapologetic call to action (whatever that means for each person) and an unflinching look at what’s happening in our country, which covers quite a bit of ground. I think it’s Nate’s best work, and the guy has been around for ages, so that’s saying a lot. Yes, March was amazing, but that was John Lewis and Nate, this one is all Nate. After a brief introduction where he goes into what the book is and isn’t, he starts the first chapter with a quick punch to the face: the day after Trump’s election in 2016. I’ve seen books reference this, sure, but it’s a clear indication right off the bat that he’s going to dig into everything. The first chapter is devastating, as it details Nate’s depression, how quickly the white supremacists came out of the woodwork to celebrate, and what small measures they could take in their lives to make any kind of a difference, or at least to make their voices heard. The second chapter shows them making the choice to explain to their young child exactly what type of a person Donald Trump is, how he’s constantly lying and without any redeeming qualities, but how she shouldn’t worry, as his opponent was obviously going to win. This also led to them having to tell her what happened the next day, and their daughter ended up having to comfort them after the conversation. The third chapter is “the parenting chapter,” I guess, as they watch old footage of John Lewis getting assaulted by cops and some white nationalist marches with their daughter, leading to an awkward conversation where Nate has to defend the cops as not all bad (despite what he’s thinking as he’s saying it) and explaining to her why it’s wrong to ever use a swastika, even when playing. He also tells the story of his first time seeing the Ku Klux Klan having a demonstration in his home town and how his parents tried to laugh it off at the time. The fourth chapter is almost sweet, as it tells the story of how he took some friends with him to a comic convention in 2011 and how seeing it through their eyes gave him a new appreciation for cosplay. That was the case, anyway, until the Nazi cosplayer showed up, all smug defiance, and how he eventually chose not to confront the guy. The fifth chapter is the densest in the book, and it should be required reading for anybody who wants to get into the head of a white supremacist, as it’s unsparing in its descriptions of who these people are, how they justify their actions and how the bleeding of colors from their chosen flags means a whole lot more than some bullshit “blue lives matter” nonsense. For the sixth chapter we get the coronavirus, which tied neatly into the theme of manchildren who are contemptuous of science and want praise for doing exactly what they want at all times. Finally the last chapter is a small guide to what anybody anywhere can do to protest whatever is important to them and how it’s important to design your sign so that anybody objecting has to side purely with evil; “No Nazis anywhere,” for example, is tough to get too mad about without really telling on yourself. I don’t usually go into this much detail in reviews, but I’m still just scratching the surface of what he’s accomplished here. It’s not a bullshit message of “we’ll get through this together” without details, and he readily admits that he doesn’t even know how much worse things are going to get by the time the book is published. It’s a clear-eyed look at how perilous the current moment is and should frankly be given to anybody who’s too complacent in their life. If you don’t try to get them to be better, who will? $25
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 5/28/21
May 28, 2021New review today for Beastly by Ben Cherry, as I am ending the week with polar bears. Happy weekend everybody!
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Posted by Kevin
Cherry, Ben – Beastly
May 28, 2021
It’s another gorgeous wordless mini comic from Ben, on a completely different track from the last one we saw. It’s a simple enough story, but it’s fairly devastating. There’s a hunting expedition (the time frame of this one is left up to the reader; my guess is that it’s meant to take place decades ago, but I could be completely wrong on that) that manages to tranquilize a polar bear. This isn’t the wanton murder type of hunting, as this guy brings the bear back in the hopes of making money off of it. The bear is placed in a cage for a public viewing, but the public isn’t particularly interested, and the bear isn’t particularly motivated to put on a show. The hunter, unable to blame himself for this state of affairs, starts drinking heavily and berates the man he’s hired to take care of the bear. Unfortunately, he does this as the bear’s cage door is open for feeding time, and I should probably stop there to preserve at least a little bit of the mystery. It’s another intriguing comic from Ben, and as always I’m curious to see what he comes up with next. $4
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 5/26/21
May 26, 2021New review today for The Tay Bridge Disaster by David Robertson, which may or may not be your favorite story of a bridge collapsing. Depends on where you live, I guess.
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Posted by Kevin
Robertson, David – The Tay Bridge Disaster
May 26, 2021
Is this David’s first comic that’s only about a single subject (not including comics about dreams)? Probably not but I’ve forgotten the other ones because my memory is crap. If only there was some way to check, like a global database of everything that’s ever happened. This one is based off a historical tragedy, so you can Google some images if you’d like after reading it. I know I did! David does a nice job of laying out the history, getting the reader familiar with the architect, listing the theories behind the collapse (he says that nobody knows for sure, although Wikipedia thinks that mystery is settled), showing the construction, etc. There were several warning as the bridge was being constructed, which led to quite a few people who were able to use the “I told you so” defense. The architect behind the bridge didn’t live long at all after its collapse; it seemed to destroy whatever will to live the man had left. The bridge became the only consistent means of travel across the river, as the ferry service was shut down after a few successful train crossings. Things seemed to run fine for about six months, but when it gave out, it gave out in brutal fashion. I do like the idea that the pillars have never been removed and still remain next to the current bridge. It’s a nice memorial to the people who died as well as being a monument to checking your work, I guess? David also includes some poems and tributes to the incident that came out shortly after it happened, including some poems from the man who was thought to be the worst poet in the world at the time. It’s a fascinating story all around, even if it’s lacking in some definitive answers. Not that that’s David’s fault, it’s just that historians can’t seem to agree. No price listed, but probably around $10ish (check with David through his website)
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Posted by Kevin
