Porcellino, John – King Cat #83

September 26, 2024

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King Cat #83

It’s time for another deep critical dive into everything wrong with the latest issue of King Cat, as per usual. Ha, tricked any new readers! I rarely if ever have anything bad to say about King Cat, so if you’re looking for a pensive, thorough, unbiased review, take it elsewhere. I mostly still write these reviews so that they appear on my website as a kind of beacon, even for people who scroll through the main page, that a new issue is out. Still, I will happily talk about what’s in here, because it prolongs the King Cat-ness of my day by at least a little bit. What’s John up to these days? Things start off with a grim comic detailing his empty apartment after his second divorce and the loss of his cat, followed by a comic about his incredibly leaky apartment. Next we see him waking up after falling asleep with a pen in this hand, writing a eulogy for his beloved nine year old Shar Pei dog, and taking his terminally ill mother around town to visit spots that she’s always enjoyed, which naturally leads to John taking his own trip down memory lane. Am I giving that story short shrift, seeing as how it’s probably the longest one in the book? Yep, and that’s so you can read it for yourself as unspoiled as possible, because there are plenty of lovely bits to it and I don’t want to yap about them here. There are a few pages of letters (I know letters pages are rare in any comic, but his are the only ones where I never skip a single one of them), a few more pages of dreams (several of which would ideally be transformed into comics if I had a pile of money that I could give to John so he could just make comics forever), and then his top 40 list, which made my idly wonder if there was ever exactly 40 items on one of his lists. That’s a lot of comic, are there more stories in here? You’d better believe it, this is a hefty issue. Just hints from now on though, so you’ll see an owl, a dead mouse, dogs, a tire shop, items spotted on a walk, a memory of plastic bag lined boots on a childhood walk to school, and a demolition derby. Another great issue of King Cat, and once again I have no idea where I’d recommend a new reader hop on this train (maybe Hospital Suite or one of his other collections if you can afford it), but the beauty of his stuff is that any issue is a good place to start. $7


Update for 9/24/24

September 24, 2024

New review today for The Flaming Skull of Death by Chris Auman, and yes, I am reviewing more than one comic this week. But not many more! Luckily I’ll be heading to CXC in Columbus this weekend, so I’ll have more comics than I have time to talk about very soon.


Auman, Chris – The Flaming Skull of Death

September 24, 2024

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The Flaming Skull of Death

True confession time: when there’s a code to be broken in a comic, even when the creator is nice enough to put the key to it on the inside back cover (like Chris did), I rarely if ever bother to crack it. Comics shouldn’t be work, is my general theory, but to each their own! Plenty of people would love to crack codes in their comics. I mention this because several key plot points of this one are in code, so buyer beware. Or buyer enjoy! It all depends on your preference. But then, you may ask, why am I bothering to review this, especially when Chris was nice enough to send me a few of his comics to choose from? Well, have you seen that title? It is mandatory for me to review any comic with a title that awesome. So what’s the comic about, except for the page that I didn’t translate, but believe it or not I did translate the rest of it? Jonas (after a wonderful page of a warning to the reader that what follows would be terrifying) is invited to his uncle’s castle. The message is cryptic, and references a code that his uncle was unable to decipher. He went along with it out of familiar duty, but the castle unnerved Jonas, seemingly more every time he visited. He decided to read the message that his uncle had left for him in the castle, which I glossed over, because it’s a full page of code, life is short and I am lazy. From there the skull appears and delivers his warning, which I DID translate, and which led to a chase scene. The rest of it is up to you, gentle reader, because I’m not spoiling the whole thing. It’s a fun book, even with me only having the vaguest idea of what a seemingly critical page says, with a solid ending. $6.50


Update for 9/19/24

September 19, 2024

Didn’t I just apologize last week for the lack of reviews? Well, consider this a repeat. I’m going to unearth the comics I still had left to review (that’s right, they’re in one of the still unopened boxes from the move) and get a few together for next week. Oh, and there’s a new review today for the last of the mini kus pile, On the Honeylands of Mars by Matti Hagelberg. Also it looks like the kus folks are going to be at Cartoon Crossroads in Columbus next weekend, which I’m seemingly going to be able to attend even though I live in Illinois now. Go to the convention, it’s free!


Hagelberg, Matti – On the Honeylands of Mars

September 19, 2024

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On the Honeylands of Mars

Every time I try to start this review I think of another layer of meaning to the whole thing and up doubting myself. Screw it, it’s not like anything on the internet is a historical document, at least not in the grand scheme of things. Just for as long as I keep paying the hosting fees, basically. Anyway! On the surface this is a simple tale about Lauri Kennta, the overlord of Mars, as he returns home after being away for eight years. We see almost nothing of Mars, except for his sad (and apparently constant) attempts to ask a young woman to marry him, as he’s politely misdirected by her parents. In terms of a palace, royal court or anything befitting and “overlord,”we’re left to wonder if the man is delusional or if they’re just details that aren’t relevant to this particular story. This particular story, again on the surface, shows him returning home, getting a hero’s welcome (so maybe I shouldn’t overthink things as to whether or not he was really an overlord), and finally getting some sleep. His dream, such as it is, shows the hopeless desperation he feels towards ever marrying that girl, and it also reminds him of the murder of a friend of his. For a “bonus” story, we also see a brief interlude from the perspective of the murderer, and it’s not a cheerful perspective to anybody involved. Have I broken my usual rule about saying too much about the contents of the comic? Kinda, yeah! But there’s a lot bubbling beneath the surface here, starting just with the cover image. It screams “get outta my yard!”, not the raw power of an overlord, and who knows what’s under the porch? And what’s the significance of his sleeping quarters changing to “fit the whole of space” in his dream? Plenty of stuff like is what I’m leaving for you to discover, so enjoy. $7.95 (or $22 for the latest set of four mini kus comics, which is what I always recommend)


Update for 9/12/24

September 12, 2024

Sorry about the lack of reviews. Sure, I’m settled in (new address on the right, send me some comics so I can be sure the new mailbox works), but this new job is a lot, and I’m still trying to settle into some kind of routine. Bear with me, I do have a 23 year track record of reviewing, so chances are good that I’m not just going to vanish from the internet. Oh yeah, new review for Into the Thicket by Mark Antonius Puhkan!


Puhkan, Mark Antonius

September 12, 2024

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Into the Thicket

Well, it’s inevitable with the mini kus books. I always run into one where I either don’t fully understand what the creator was going for or just don’t comprehend it. Sometimes both! As always, assume the fault is mine, but to help out, I’m going to do that thing where I quote the entirety of the synopsis on the back of the comic. It’s at least more coherent than I’ll be! “Toni ventures into the thicket, intending to perform a magical ritual to connect with his springtime spirit. As he delves deeper into the wilderness, he is forced to confront his innermost fears.” This is a wordless comic, meaning almost fully open to interpretation. It’s also gorgeous; Mark conveys quite a range of emotions from a character who is only showing his eyes for the entire comic. The fears that he confronts in the thicket grow increasingly terrifying, and they’re almost entirely in the second half of the comic, which is the part I rarely review anyway because hey, shut up reviewer! Don’t give the whole thing away. Is what I say when I’m reading a review, so I do my best to follow my own advice. Toni is clearly working through some PTSD and one gets the impression that he’s seen some terrible things, but this does seem to be a journey of renewal. Does it help him? Read it to find out! Like I said, it’s a gorgeous book, so don’t take my lack of understanding as a negative. If you’ve read more than a few mini kus books in your life, you know it’s pretty safe to trust these folks. And hey, if you’re worried, just buy the bundle of 4! I always recommend it for their comics anyway. $7.95 (or $22 for the sequence of 4)


Update for 9/4/24

September 4, 2024

Hey, I made it to Champaign! I’ve had a working internet for a whole day now and boy howdy, that just never works right on the first try, does it? I went out with a mini kus, so I’m coming back to Illinois with a mini kus: new review today for Comicum by Majenye!


Majenye – Comicum

September 4, 2024

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Comicum

Gosh, what a wholesome and innocent cover! I sure hope that I don’t open this up and find out that oh dear. Well, with a title like that you should already know to keep the kids away, if not it will be fine if they learn all about “a cast of polyamorous characters who live in someone’s rectum (from the synopsis on the back cover).” And really, that’s only a fraction of the story. Things start off with a beautifully colorful page of various animals, dinosaurs and sea creatures frolicking with each other. If you take a minute to really examine the image you’ll see that some of them are doing more than frolicking, but never mind that. Then we meet our hero from the sample image, but we only follow him for about half of the comic. And oh, what a half! He dresses up for the convention named in the title, where we meet a spectacular array of characters talking about doing a spectacular array of things. It’s all mostly implied up until this point, but then somebody at the con makes the mistake of laughing about violence, which completely enrages Mr. Octopus, who murders several convention goers, and then the scene switches to someone who is, um, thoroughly enjoying the snuff film of the event, until he’s interrupted by somebody with his own agenda. I’d better stop there, as there’s plenty more for you to discover; and really, even me describing a few things doesn’t lessen the effect of you seeing it depicted here. It’s a cornucopia of sexual mayhem, and you’ll learn a lot reading it. One way or the other, but if you’re a prude, come on, live a little! $7.95 (or buy the bundle of four different comics for $22)


“Update” for 8/20/24

August 20, 2024

So it turns out that moving from Ohio to Illinois (with as much stuff I have) is an incredibly time consuming process! I’d hoped to get another review or two in before I left, but here I am, leaving tomorrow, and most likely without an internet connection for the week after that. The new address is 306 E. California Ave Urbana IL 61801, in case you had comics you wanted me to review. I’ll be there Thursday, assuming all goes well, and why did I have to say that. Ah well. Back before the end of the month, in the meantime why not click on some random names in the “reviews by author” tab? Who knows, maybe you’ll find a new favorite artist.


Update for 8/8/24

August 8, 2024

Oh, mini kus. You got here just in time to give me a few comics to review while I’m in the chaos of moving and already having most of my comics packed. New review today for Undertow by Sara Boica.


Boica, Sara – Undertow

August 8, 2024

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Undertow

Oh, mini kus. It’s always a delight to get a new stack of comics from these fine folks, and I’m always excited to see just what selection of four or more artists and stories I’m going to be reading this time around. Then I grab the first one out of the stack, and it’s a devastatingly emotional tale of trauma and loss and how impossible it can be to pick up the pieces, and suddenly my mood is changed completely. It’s an amazing comic, don’t get me wrong, but here’s a trigger warning for anybody who’s gone through physical trauma like this and maybe don’t want to be reminded of it. It’s a story told in a word or two per page, sometimes less, and you can almost feel the pain on the page with the many black smudges from Sara’s fingerprints. It feels like a story that had to come out, that hurt to come out, and the reader is left with the uncomfortable question of whether or not it’s any better for her now that it has. Never assume autobiography, is a lesson I’ve learned (and forgotten) many times while writing these reviews, so I can only hope that this is fiction. I doubt it, but this much pain on the page still has me hoping that that’s the case. $7.95 (or here’s a link to this and the next three issues of mini kus)


Update for 8/1/24

August 1, 2024

New review today for Plastic People #13-15 by Brian Canini, and in case you didn’t see my last update, I’m moving in a few weeks, so please hold off on sending any review comics until you see an address with “Illinois” in it on the sidebar. Thanks!


Canini, Brian – Plastic People #13-15

August 1, 2024

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Plastic People #13-15

I accidentally read through #15-17 first, so I’m going to do my level best not to let loose with any spoilers for those last two issues in this review. Let’s watch how this old clunker of a brain does with that task together, OK? I actually thought that #15-17 worked seamlessly as a chunk of the overall story (same characters, same focus), but that’s not what I’m talking about here. #13 is mostly a dinner conversation with Gabe (one of the cops) and his friends, sharing theories about the killer and just generally chatting. A fairly casual issue, until you get to the very end of it. This is where my “no spoilers” policy on individual issues kind of falls apart, because #14 starts off with a jogger discovering the body from the end of the last issue, and this victim was also at Gabe’s dinner from the previous issue. Most of this issue is spent with the cops going through some theories and trying to knock down obvious dead ends, and then Gabe is called to the scene. In a rage, he decides to make a statement to the killer through the assembled media, which goes about as well as you’d expect, considering the fact that he just found his friend murdered. #15 is all about the consequences of that press statement, further theories about the victims and how they may or may not be connected… and a mysterious phone call. Too many spoilers? Eh, these multiple issue reviews are tough. The overall point is that this storyline is humming right along, which is a thing that definitely continues for the next two issues as well. It feels like one of those stories where the clues of who the killer might be are all here and it’ll end up being an “oh, of course” moment when he or she is revealed, but who knows? I’m still invested in the mystery, which I’d call solid work out of Brian after 15 issues. Check it out, although I’m obviously recommend an earlier compendium to start out, what with how numbering systems work and all. $4.99 (or $1.99 per issue)


Update for 7/30/24

July 30, 2024

NEWS ALERT! I’m moving back to Illinois next month. Long story, I’ll get into it later, but it involves a better job than I have now (if not, I’m making a huge mistake). So if you were planning on mailing me review comics, maybe hold off for a few weeks, OK? I’ll post my new address up here as soon as I know it. Speaking of which, if you know anybody who’s renting a house (or nice apartment) in the Champaign/Urbana area, maybe send me an email? New review today for Eyeland #3 by Nick Forker!


Forker, Nick – Eyeland #3

July 30, 2024

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Eyeland #3

You know what? Now that I’ve already written a half dozen or so reviews for random issues… I’m thinking that I’m going to go back and review everything that is left in order. What, were you trying to make sense of my thought process here? A hopeless task. But it’s clear that several of these characters do show up again later, meaning that there is a linear story going on here, even if it isn’t in every issue. So what’s going on this time around? We start off with a brief interlude of our hero showing how to forgive ourselves for past mistakes, then get into the story proper, which sure looks like a hero’s quest of some sort. He meets a wizard, who gives him a fairly standard choice at the start of his journey: would he choose a sword, a book or a pen? He chooses a book, its meaning is still ambiguous, and then we shift perspective to the porcupine, who has just that moment gained self-awareness. It’s alarmed, and hey, wouldn’t you be? The wizard then gives some final advice to our hero before vanishing, and we even get a character sheet for our hero for the nerds. Or anybody who’s curious about how exactly that dude’s qualities break down, I suppose. Then our hero and the porcupine both start their journey in the labyrinth, but I’ve maybe already said too much. Do they ever meet? What the heck are those two glowing points in the distance, could they be eyeballs? And who on earth is that dude on the last page? Questions to be answered in the next issue, I reckon, which I will be reviewing next, and not some random issue of the series. Probably. Assuming I remember this new plan. $5


Update for 7/24/24

July 24, 2024

New review today for Adorable Murderers by John Reynolds, as it turns out that this is “let’s review stuff from 2021” week here at the old Sloth.


Reynolds, John – Adorable Murderers

July 24, 2024

Website

Patreon

Adorable Murderers

I keep forgetting to link to Patreon pages for people, but please give me a virtual pat on the back for remembering to do it at least once. Maybe one of these days I’ll go back and update the contact information for 23 years worth of reviews and good lord just typing that made me break out into a cold sweat. Anyway! This is a collection of a year’s worth of John’s “A Fistful of Babies” web comic. It’s rude, it’s crude, it’s probably going to offend you in some way or another… and it’s mostly hilarious. As always, when I’m reviewing a collection full of short strips, I’d strongly advise anybody curious to just check out his website, as it’s chock full of free strips. If you like his humor, you’ll know it fairly quickly. For everybody else who can’t be bothered to click a link, I shall now go on to describe comics that are meant to be funny, meaning that I’ll say what they’re about, but those descriptions will be missing the bits that actually make them funny. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Subjects include realizing when you’re free from work, the horror inside of a melted snowman, a pretty solid nonfunctional internet joke but for life support, a punk mermaid, an embarrassed wizard, a formerly intimidating robot, a cleverly disguised principal, the grim reaper standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, a cat’s attitude to phone notifications, what the sun looks like from behind, a flasher bear, super fetus, a game of hide and seek that went too far, giving the sun a hug, an amoeba party, an alien losing a contact, and Garfield as a girl. That’s maybe a quarter of the strips, so don’t fret about me spoiling too much. I don’t know if any of these got a straight up guffaw out of me, but plenty of them got chuckles. What does that mean for a rating scale? Hell if I know, as I’ve never used one. Let’s call it a 73 and move on. $10


Update for 7/22/24

July 22, 2024

New review today for Sportsbar NY Part III by Martin Pohl, and if you know where to get further copies of this, please contact me. If not, everybody who’s interested can consider locating a copy to be part of a scavenger hunt. Fun!


Pohl, Martin – Sportsbar, NY Part III

July 22, 2024

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Sportsbar, NY Part III

Well, here’s a flaw in my plan to go back and review some of the older comics that were sent my way and then misplaced: some of those artists may just disappear from the internet. Granted, Martin (as far as I know) never even posted Part II of this series on his website as available for sale, and the same is true for Part III. The website he listed in the comic has expired, and all but one of the comics he has listed is sold out. But hey, there is a contact tab on it, so I live in hope that he can still be found. Meanwhile, I’m going to be all optimistic and review this one anyway. This one starts off with a warning that the story comes directly from the first two parts, for the new readers. Is it inaccessible to everybody else? Nah. Things start off with a hilarious (accidental?) duck murder that’s unrelated to anything else, and then we’re back into the story. To be clear, I read the last issue a few years ago, so most of the specifics have flown out of my head, except for the bits I just reread via my old reviews. Thanks again, past me! Although sometimes I wish you were more specific. Things start off with our heroes the snails having a conversation, which devolves into an argument, which further devolves into a drunken car crash. And it somehow even gets worse from there! Next up is back to our other heroes the bunnies, with maybe the calmest conversation in the book. Graded on a curve, of course. One of the two morbid pigeons is back next, being interviewed about his new movie and what happened to the other pigeon, followed up by catching up with what’s left of said other pigeon. The scene then seamlessly transitions to the two characters on a “wanted” poster (seriously, that was a Mr. Show level transition, which is the highest compliment I can give), who have a time machine, and boy howdy does that ever lead to some adventures. There’s lots more, of course, but I’ve probably already said too much, and the fun of this sucker is in the ride. I also have to add that his written note towards the end explaining what happened to the original last five pages of the comic was brilliant, and made what otherwise would have been some lackluster final pages into something hilarious. I hope Martin hasn’t stopped making comics, but if he has I wish you luck in tracking these three issues down. They’re worth it! $5 (probably, or $10, or who even knows if this comic still exists)