New review for Mile High: Adventures in Colorado Medical Marijuana Book One by Mister V. Which reminds me, get out and vote in November, people of Columbus (and Ohio in general)! If you want legal marijuana here, that is. Or if you don’t, vote against it. Weirdo.
Mister V – Mile High: Adventures in Colorado Medical Marijuana Book One
October 13, 2015
Mile High: Adventures in Colorado Medical Marijuana Book One
Hey look, it’s one of those rare occasions where the subject of the book I’m reviewing is topical! Well, for me, anyway. Ohio is voting in a few weeks on whether or not to legalize marijuana, and this book is entirely the story of a young man as he takes his first steps to getting medical marijuana after Colorado legalized it in 2000. Still, the legalization process was a mess, as it was still illegal in the rest of the country and the federal government was still eager to jump in and close down dispensaries whenever possible. Anyway, Matt (the hero of the book; possibly Mister V, possibly not) catches his niece smoking in his garage late one night. She’s smoking an e-cig or whatever it is that lets people smoke THC oil and not the plant itself, but as he’s letting her have it for smoking underage she catches a whiff of something and ferrets out his own pot stash. They take turns smoking using each others preferred method, which leads Matt to go into the story of how he got started. His basic problem was simple: Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This would cause him all sorts of digestive problems, and he takes some time going through the methods that he’s tried over the years to get it under control. He eventually discovers that smoking weed is the only thing that settles his stomach and gets him hungry enough to really want to eat, so he starts looking into the process of getting legal weed. The rest of the book is a descent into various levels of shady dispensaries, countless legal forms, waiting in lines, not being sure at every turn whether or not he was being scammed (spoiler alert: he was a few times). This is the first book out of three, so there’s clearly more to come in this story, but this volume tells a solid and complete story all by itself. If you’re against the concept of medical marijuana and think the “medical” aspect of it is a joke, you really need to read this to see one of the many ways in which it can legitimately be used to help a sick person. If you’re already on board with the concept (medical, recreational or both) then there’s plenty to love here, including his early stories of trying out the edibles in the absence of any indication on how much he should eat or how strong the food was. Everybody who’s ever had an edible has been there, and Matt came out of it better than most. Anyway, I almost said this was highly recommended, then I realized that there was a pun in there, so never mind. It’s just plain old recommended. $9
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 10/12/15
October 12, 2015New review today for What’s Your Sign, Girl edited by Rob Kirby and featuring a gaggle of artists with stories in it. A gaggle is the correct term, right?
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Posted by Kevin
Kirby, Robert (editor) – What’s Your Sign, Girl?
October 12, 2015
Full disclosure time: I think astrology is nonsense. Relatively harmless nonsense, but nonsense nonetheless. It’s fortune telling but made for everybody who was born within the listed month, as if every human in every 12 month period shares the same characteristics, but told in such a way that it could apply to just about anybody regardless. I have occasionally given a sign other than my own to somebody who asked me (at a party or bar, usually) and have delighted in their going on and on about my various characteristics that fit me perfectly while belonging to a completely different astrological sign. I just wanted to make that perfectly clear before I started discussing this book, which is edited by a person who does get a lot of enjoyment out of astrology. 12 cartoonists also offer their takes on their signs, with only a few of them being even slightly skeptical. I could have used more of that, but it’s already pretty clear that I’m biased, so I’ll move on. Rob starts in the introduction with his own history with astrology and what it’s meant to him over the years, but he’s also clear that he doesn’t expect everybody to buy into it and encourages opposing viewpoints. He also provides a detailed description of the various signs and some of the other qualities associated with them, in case you were curious and/or needed context. So now that that’s out of the way, how about the stories? The highlights for me included Whit Taylor’s tale of the struggles of being a Gemini, Tyler Cohen eventually coming around on being a Cancer, Cara Bean (with my favorite piece) of Aslan coming down from the heavens to explain being a Leo to her, Rob Kirby going into specifics about being a Virgo and his experiences both with it and discussing astrology with other people, Rick Worley as one of the few skeptics in regards to being a Libra, Aron Nels Steinke on leaving a movie early (and also how his being an Aquarrius mixed with his wife being an Aires) and Marnie Galloway on being a Pisces (and the most righteously skeptical of the bunch). If you are interested in astrology, even a little bit, there’s a lot to love about this book. If you’re not even a little interested in it, like me, there’s still some great artwork, a few skeptics and an insightful peek into the minds of people who take all this seriously. And if you’re short on money, at least you get an awful lot of comic for $10.95.
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Annie Murphy, Aron Nels Steinke, Cara Bean, Dan Mazur, Delaine Derry Green, Eric Kostiuk Williams, Kevin Budnik, Marnie Galloway, Ricky Worley, Robert Kirby, What's Your Sign Girl, Whit Taylor | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 10/9/15
October 9, 2015New review today for Sky in Stereo Book 1 by Mardou, as I managed to sneak in a review at the end of the week. Things should be back to normal next week, and if things go really well I’m going to try to double up on the reviews for a bit to catch up. If things don’t go really well, at least regular reviews will be back, right? Happy weekend everybody!
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Posted by Kevin
Mardou – Sky In Stereo Book 1
October 9, 2015
There are times when I regret that running this website for the last 14 years has changed the ways that I find and read comics. In the old days, back when I was reading comics just to read them, I would have probably heard of this series as it came out and followed it that way. Since I constantly have a stack of review comics to get to I rarely have the time to go searching for new series, so this ended up being completely new to me. Which isn’t a bad thing, as it works incredibly well as one half (ish) of a whole story, but it would also have been fun to see it evolve and change over time. Eh, if that’s my biggest problem right now that must mean that I’m leading a pretty trouble-free life. Anyway, hi comic! This is the first volume (of two) of Mardou’s series about a young girl growing up in northern England. It’s mesmerizing, as that period of life for most people is chock full of stories and events, and Mardou navigates them all brilliantly. I’m assuming that this is fiction until I hear otherwise, but things start out with Iris’s (the main character) stepfather inviting some Jehovah’s Witnesses inside, basically to mess with them. They come back when he’s not home and end up legitimately converting her mother, who then does her level best to convert Iris, who, at 16, is content to go along with it for a little while so as not to make waves. But it’s also around this time that she discovers Sartre, which gets her questioning the point of everything, which gives her the courage to tell her mother that she’s no longer interested in this religion. That particular blow-up is raw and sadly much too realistic, as everybody knows that recent religious converts are often the most fanatical. From there Mardou gradually comes to a kind of peace with her family (her stepdad thinks the whole thing is funny, mostly, although it clearly gets on his nerves at times) and Mardou is growing up and moving on to college, although still living at home, which is always problematic. This is a case of the journey being the whole point, so I’m not sure how much more I should dig into here. She gets into drugs a bit, but is indifferent to it until one specific case of it working as well as she could have hoped. She gets her heart broken, but sets her sights on another boy, kind of, and that goes about as smoothly as your average teenage relationship. And the last chapter is insidious in the way it convinces you that everything is fine with her, that she has come to some serious realizations about the world, before… ah, see? Shouldn’t really get into it. I’ll just say that I can’t wait to see what happens in the next volume, although I guess I could always seek out the comics instead of waiting for a review copy. Either way, I recommend this first volume unreservedly. If the biggest problem with a book is the fact that I didn’t like that it ended, I’d call that a success. $17.95
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Posted by Kevin
“Update” for 10/6/15
October 6, 2015Looks like not as much work came in as I was afraid of, but there’s still a hefty pile of work to do in the next couple of weeks. What that means for this website is that I’m probably too busy to post reviews this week, but maybe not! Maybe things will get done sooner. If not, by the middle of next week at the latest is when the reviews will start pouring in again. Yep, keeping it vague. Sorry!
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 10/5/15
October 5, 2015New review today for Birthday by Theo Ellsworth, another one from the mini kus pile. As for further reviews this week, today was the close of voter registrations at work. If a bunch of them came in and I’m stuck working a lot of overtime, reviews will continue to be scarce for another week or so. If that didn’t happen, I’ll go back to regular reviews this week. I’ll post some kind of update either way tomorrow to clarify things.
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Posted by Kevin
Ellsworth, Theo – Birthday
October 5, 2015
This is the highest compliment I can give: Theo Ellsworth is gradually becoming the Jim Woodring for this generation. Not that the current Jim Woodring is out of steam, and Theo (or any other human) still has some work to do before fully capturing that mantle, but he’s well on his way. If you’ve read Theo’s work in the past, you can agree or disagree, but at the very least you should be able to see where I’m coming from. This is also the first time (that I know of) where Theo’s comic is in full color, and it’s as glorious and disturbing as you would imagine. This is the part where I try to describe the comic, and on that count I am going to fail miserably, with the parts I get right mostly coming from the description on the back of the book. This is the story of a very nervous young man right before his “Inner-Space Birth Ritual.” See, I took that right from the description, as I had very little idea of what was happening before reading that. Anyway, keep an eye on the backgrounds throughout your reading of this comic, as there are little touches and/or creatures all over the place. Anyway, our hero finally gets a globe placed onto his head and the ritual begins. culminating in a final page that makes total sense in context, but try showing that to anybody as a single image. Anyway, it’s about rebirth, resistance to change, peer pressure, and I’m just making stuff up now. It’s a visual adventure through the mind of this young man as he undergoes an intense metamorphosis, how about that? It’s a fantastic book, with none of those pesky words cluttering things up, and it’s well worth your time to hunt it down.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/28/15
September 28, 2015New review today for Jerry’s Journal #3 by Neil Fitzpatrick. Looks like this might be another one of those weeks at work, so this might be it for reviews until next week. I’d love to be wrong, and if that’s the case I’ll put up a few more reviews. I certainly still have a pile of comics to get through, it’s just that free time is at a minimum…
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Posted by Kevin
Fitzpatrick, Neil – Jerry’s Journal #3
September 28, 2015
Jerry’s Journal #3
I can already tell that this review is going to be confusing, which is probably because I’m of two minds on this comic. See, a few years back Neil and his girlfriend had an exceedingly unpleasant breakup. I know this because a couple of his comics dealt with it in the modern comic tradition of being vague about everything because EVERYTHING that is said about anybody anywhere gets back to them through some form of social media. But it was clear that he was profoundly hurt, and working through it at least partly through his comics, which is also a traditional form of therapy among cartoonists. Well, about half of the strips in this one are also about that breakup, and at some point such strips stop being therapy and start being self-indulgent and more about wallowing in misery than working through it. This is not the case if he’s had another breakup since then, or if this comic (that came out in 2014) was from the early part of that year. But (and speaking as a champion person who wallows in bad breakups) you just have to move on eventually. I said I’m of two minds about this comic, which is because the other half of this book was hilarious, insightful, depressing, or some magical combination of all three. In other words, the exact type of stuff that has made Neil one of the greats in the mini comics world for more than a decade now. Subjects in those strips include God taking an honest look at his creation, Jerry’s constant hijinx (which have moved more to mental pain than physical pain), and ruminations on life and what about it is worth living. Maybe your tolerance for wallowing in every aspect of a failed relationship is higher than mine, or maybe you’re going through one yourself right now, in which case I’d recommend this unreservedly. If not I’d still recommend this for the other half of the strips and because those solid black eyes will never be anything but mesmerizing. As for Neil and relationships, sometimes the cliches work: getting back on the horse (so to speak) is key, as is the realization that anybody capable of causing you that much harm is not worth dwelling on, as that’s exactly what they want, assuming that they’re as terrible as you’ve come to believe. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Fitzpatrick, Neil – Jerry’s Journal #3
September 28, 2015
Jerry’s Journal #3
I can already tell that this review is going to be confusing, which is probably because I’m of two minds on this comic. See, a few years back Neil and his girlfriend had an exceedingly unpleasant breakup. I know this because a couple of his comics dealt with it in the modern comic tradition of being vague about everything because EVERYTHING that is said about anybody anywhere gets back to them through some form of social media. But it was clear that he was profoundly hurt, and working through it at least partly through his comics, which is also a traditional form of therapy among cartoonists. Well, about half of the strips in this one are also about that breakup, and at some point such strips stop being therapy and start being self-indulgent and more about wallowing in misery than working through it. This is not the case if he’s had another breakup since then, or if this comic (that came out in 2014) was from the early part of that year. But (and speaking as a champion person who wallows in bad breakups) you just have to move on eventually. I said I’m of two minds about this comic, which is because the other half of this book was hilarious, insightful, depressing, or some magical combination of all three. In other words, the exact type of stuff that has made Neil one of the greats in the mini comics world for more than a decade now. Subjects in those strips include God taking an honest look at his creation, Jerry’s constant hijinx (which have moved more to mental pain than physical pain), and ruminations on life and what about it is worth living. Maybe your tolerance for wallowing in every aspect of a failed relationship is higher than mine, or maybe you’re going through one yourself right now, in which case I’d recommend this unreservedly. If not I’d still recommend this for the other half of the strips and because those solid black eyes will never be anything but mesmerizing. As for Neil and relationships, sometimes the cliches work: getting back on the horse (so to speak) is key, as is the realization that anybody capable of causing you that much harm is not worth dwelling on, as that’s exactly what they want, assuming that they’re as terrible as you’ve come to believe. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/24/15
September 24, 2015New review today for Facility Integrity by Nick Maandag which, as of SPACE in Columbus this year, was John Porcellino’s favorite comic of the year. Or possibly one of his favorites. Either way, when I asked him what I absolutely had to have, he pointed me to this without hesitation.
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Posted by Kevin
Maandag, Nick – Facility Integrity
September 24, 2015
I read plenty of comics for this website that I enjoy, as it would be silly to keep going as long as I have if I hated comics. But perfect comics are rare, and this one is damned near perfect, outside of possibly that title, but even that is perfect once you know what it means. This comics starts simply enough, with a manager of some sort starting a meeting by saying “pooping.” It’s hard not to be instantly intrigued, and it turns out that this guy has just completed a study that shows that productivity in his office is being wasted by 4% because of all the time spent in the crapper. This leads him to conclude that the only way to address this problem is to ban pooping during office hours, magnanimously leaving them the lunch hour for their daily poop. Naturally, the question of enforcing this comes up, which leads to the hiring of a few security guards: one for each of the restrooms, and one outside the office to make sure nobody tries to sneak out to use other facilities during business hours. When I describe this book as perfect, I mean specifically in his use of corporate speak and the ideas that are considered logical only in the office world, as he has that nailed. There are the office drones who dream of hitting the lottery (and put up with almost any indignity because of that false hope), the varying opinions of the temps who are hired as security guards (the one outside the office was clearly living for the moment that he eventually gets to “save the day”), and the cold way in which this whole idea is described as a good and necessary thing (down to the manager berating lesser employees for not coming up with this themselves). Even while writing this I’m thinking of several little moments that’s probably best for you to discover, but trust me when I say that this book is packed full of them. Honestly, the corporate world will probably find a way to make this idea work eventually, so when they do we can all look back at this book as the prophetic masterpiece that it is. Meanwhile, it’s a hilarious work of fiction showing how badly things can go wrong when “productivity” is the only concern. $10
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/23/15
September 23, 2015It’s days like today, when I get a review comic for somebody I’ve been reading since I started reading the good comics, that keeps me hooked to this website: Extra Good Stuff by Dennis P. Eichhorn and a gaggle of amazing artists.
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Posted by Kevin
Eichhorn, Dennis P. & Various Artists – Extra Good Stuff
September 23, 2015
You can file this review under “you kids today,” if you like to know that type of thing right away. What I mean by that is that there are two people out there that everybody else attempting autobiographical stories should be compared to: Harvey Pekar and Dennis Eichhorn. Sure, Harvey had a movie made about him, meaning that even casual comics folk may know the name, but Dennis, for reasons that baffle me, has never gotten that kind of attention. They also wrote completely different types of stories, as Harvey was all about daily life, the mundane bits mixed in with insights about the human condition. But Dennis, man, Dennis has lived a hell of a life, and he’s chock full of fascinating and/or hilarious stories to tell. Dating back to his Real Stuff series in the 90’s he’s had nothing but the top comics artists in the field helping him out. Back then it was both of the Hernandez Bros, Chester Brown, Dan Clowes, Peter Bagge, I think even Robert Crumb… basically anybody you can think of from that era. So, since this is a collection of (mostly but not entirely) new stories, he brought in some of the best artists working today. The stories in here are all over the place and from various portions of his life; if I had any complaint it’s that I sometimes wished for context as to what age he was or when exactly the story happened (although he did usually give a ballpark estimate). Stories include his very first writing gig interviewing a terrible local band (with Ivan Brunetti), his first night as a taxi driver and how he learned to trust prostitutes (with Max Clotfelter), a fantastic prank on Mormons/a shitty neighbor (with Dame Darcy), a very surreal medical experience with Fox News blaring in the background that also involved him finding out that Harvey Pekar had died (with RL Crabb), finding out that the Coast Guard is not legally bound in any way in regards to searching boats (with Colin Upton), and sifting for gold with a (literally) crazy friend. There are other solid stories in this collection too, but it’s best to leave some things a surprise, right? I checked a bit online and somehow there doesn’t seem to be a definitive collection of his earlier series, so maybe Fantagraphics or Top Shelf should get on that, legal mumbo-jumbo permitting? That’s a pile of really great stories with some of the best artists in the world that are somehow still out of print. Regardless, this is plenty worth checking out all on its own, and if you stumble across any old issues or Real Stuff (or, if you’re old enough, Real Smut), pick that sucker up too. $10
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Aaron Lange, Colin Upton, Dame Darcy, David Collier, David Lasky, Dennis Eichhorn, Extra Good Stuff, Gerald Jablonski, Ivan Brunetti, J.R. Williams, Jim Blanchard, Kelly Moriarity, Max Clotfelter, Michael Arnold, Noah Van Sciver, Pat Moriarity, R.L. Crabb, Sean Hurley, Stan W. Shaw, Tom Van Deusen | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/22/15
September 22, 2015New review today for Falling, A Dandelion, Upside Down by Victor Edison. If you guessed that the name of the comic was the name of the three stories inside, huzzah for you!
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Posted by Kevin
Edison, Victor – Falling, A Dandelion, Upside Down
September 22, 2015
Falling, A Dandelion, Upside Down
I have a slight dilemma in reviewing this comic: there are a few scenes featuring kanji, which I can’t read. But they’re only background noise; in one case the main character of a story is literally surrounded by a kanji bubble throughout his story. I’m going to assume that it’s more incidental than crucial, and if I’m wrong about that, well, oops. This comic has three stories in it, and they all deal with floating in one way or another. First up is a young main (the one who is surrounded by kanji) who jumps from the top of a building. He gets almost down to the ground when time stops, and that’s when the interesting bits start to happen. Next up is the story of the spores of a dandelion, as a little girl blows on them and sends them on a journey. Finally we have a story about a man who wakes on his ceiling and soon discovers that his world is literally upside down. It’s a really solid grouping of stories and I appreciated the running theme, as it combined to leave me feeling completely unmoored by the end of it. I thought the final story was the best of the bunch because it’s one of those weird fears that everybody has probably felt at some point in their life: what if gravity just stopped working for you? It’s utterly irrational, of course, but it’s still a terrifying ordeal to contemplate. That look on the face of our hero as he contemplated stepping outside said it all. So yeah, it’s definitely worth checking out. And if you get this and can read kanji, get in touch with me to let me know what I missed. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/21/15
September 21, 2015New review today for My Hot Date by Noah Van Sciver, and I am going to make every effort to make this a regular old week of reviews. As always, my work and/or life may conspire against this.
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Posted by Kevin
Van Sciver, Noah – My Hot Date
September 21, 2015
My Hot Date
There are a few things you can assume right away when reading a comic/book/story. Chances are that it’s about something memorable to the author (if based on true events), and chances are that thing was not a good thing that happened to them. Sure, there are stories of the greatest day in the life of the author, but those are (anecdotally) more rare than the “worst thing that ever happened” stories. Which is my roundabout way of saying that there will be spoilers in here, but before I get to that, I’ll sum up my conclusions: if you’ve enjoyed Noah’s past comics (and why wouldn’t you?), then you’ll love this. It tells the story of his first date and digs deep into the life he was living at the time. So even if you haven’t read any of his comics, you’ll still relate to the story, and in some cases you’ll relate too much, for which I apologize. Anyway! Noah is nice enough to sum up the state of his life on the first page, but it boils down to his father leaving his family, Noah’s mom being forced to take a series of crappy jobs to pay for the six kids that still lived at home and rarely being around because of it, and Noah’s family taking over the lease of an apartment that his older brother bailed on, leaving the six kids and the mom in a tiny apartment. Oh, and Noah at this point is 14, which is an especially awkward year for anybody. The bulk of the comic is just Noah going about his life, chatting with a girl on AOL, with his friends teasing him about the fact that she probably wasn’t even a girl. Noah doesn’t shy away from depicting his “street” talk from the time; it’s mortifying but lots of white kids tried way too hard to project at least a slight aura of menace. Which leads to a fantastic moment where Noah is called on this while getting weed (for the first time) with a friend, and he doesn’t have much of a defense. But with that title you’re probably most curious about the date, and it’s as brutal as you may have expected. He finally gets Colleen to agree to meet with him, and I don’t know what specifics they got into online, but she’s clearly older than him, late teens maybe? And she came with a friend. Which, in the early days of internet dating, makes sense, but it sure didn’t help the awkwardness. I won’t get into details so you can enjoy those bits for yourselves, but for any young ladies who are somehow reading this, know that you have serious power in dating situations in the teenage years. Noah didn’t even try dating again after this for another 6 years, as crushed self-confidence can take some serious time and effort to get back. Overall this is a hilarious, insightful look into life in 1998 and the awfulness that is dating as a teenager. $7
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Posted by Kevin
