New review today for Belligerent Kitties #1 by Ken Eppstein and a whole bunch of artists.
Eppstein, Ken & Various Artists – Belligerent Kitties #1
September 17, 2015
Belligerent Kitties #1
Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, or at least you can if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, but I’m not in your head so never mind. See that image on the cover of a cat insulting you or the mythical generic reader? Well, there are 25 more pages of that in here by a variety of artists, some funny, some not so much. Which makes it a good thing that humor is subjective, as you might think that anywhere from 0-100% of this comic is funny and you would also be correct. Anyway, the comic itself was mostly funny, but the real winner for me came at the end. Ken, bemoaning the lack of support for the comics that he makes that he genuinely loves and is proud of, has decided to sell out. So it’s time for cat memes! If he really did stick it he can always use the Hollywood formula for actors who don’t like to constantly star in garbage: make a garbage comic to rake in the bucks, then use said bucks to finance the comic that you do want to make. Simple! I’ve just solved the financial feasibility of all mini comics, assuming that nobody out there minds completely selling out from time to time. No price listed here, but $2 sounds reasonable as a guess.
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Reviews | Tagged: Alan Reeve, Amanda Propaganda, Angela Oster, Ashley Ribblett, Belligerent Kitties, Bernie Crowsheet, Bob Corby, Bob Ray Starker, Brad Maurer, Brian Kraft, Christian Hoffer, Darren Merinuk, Eric Blair, James Moore, Joel Jackson, Kate Isaacs, Katie Valeska, Ken Eppstein, Kent Grosweiler, Matt Wyatt, Nix Comics, Rodney Fyke, Stephanie Owen, Tim Anstine | 
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/16/15
September 16, 2015That’s right, I meant it about regular reviews this week for once (as two in a row clearly makes a pattern, right?). New review today from a new batch of Mini Kus comics, this time Limonchik by Mikkel Sommer.
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Posted by Kevin
Sommer, Mikkel – Limonchik
September 16, 2015
If the world is going to end, this comic has my new preferred method for it to happen. It’s something that had never occurred to me before, but now that it has I can’t think of any other way. This comic is almost entirely silent (except for one fateful phrase), and it’s the story of the Sputnik 2 satellite finally coming back to the planet after being in orbit for 50 years. And, just in case you know your history about such things, you may also recall that there was a dog in that satellite. Well, in this comic the dog comes home. It’s tough to say all that much more about it without giving anything away, which is a constant danger from these mini kus comics. You’d be hard pressed to find a more cheerful yet somehow terrifying image than that dog traveling through Russia, but specifics are going to have to stay vague. I’ve yet to see a really solid argument for not trying as many mini kus comics as you can get your hands on, and this one definitely continues that trend.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/15/15
September 15, 2015Finally, a break in the work nonsense. New review today for The Washington Tragedy by Robert Hendricks, and unless my computer explodes I’ll have 3 or 4 more reviews up before the week is done.
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Posted by Kevin
Hendricks, Robert – The Washington Tragedy #2
September 15, 2015
The Washington Tragedy #2
Robert reminded me in the letter that came with this comic that I should probably re-read the first issue again before getting into that, which was sound advice, but clearly demonstrated that my “let the reviewed comics pile up as they may” brand of organizing is not as common as I might have thought. I’m sure that first issue is around here somewhere, but narrowing that down would take some time. Anyway, he included a synopsis at the start of the comic, so you can get the gist of the first issue there. To recap, in case you’re reading the review for the second issue of a two part series, there was a Congressman in the 1850’s named Dan Sickles. Phillip Barton Key was the district attorney of Washington D.C. and was quite the womanizer, and his list of conquests included Dan’s wife Teresa. Hilariously, Dan also had plenty of infidelities, but this happened in the 1850’s, when women were just barely regarded as people in the eyes of the law. Anyway, this issue starts with Dan just finding out about this affair and having a long and heated conversation with his wife. He eventually gets her to write out a signed confession detailing exactly what happened, and the next day (while he’s going over his options with a friend) he notices Phillip across the street from his house, trying to give the signal to Teresa to come over. This naturally sends Dan into a rage, he grabs a few pistols from his house and, well, you can probably guess what happens from there. Still, Robert does a great job of not shying away from anything, using eyewitness accounts (as the confrontation happened on a busy street) to show just how brutal it was. I’ll leave the winner of the confrontation a mystery, but the rest of the comic details the trial that happened as the result of the murder, and the unique alibi that the defense chose to try out for their client. The epilogue was also nicely done, as I wondered what happened to ____ after the last page of the comic. So overall I’d say that while I thoroughly enjoy Robert’s Stranger 2 Stranger series, he could clearly put out some quality historical comics too whenever the mood strikes him. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Not really an update for 9/2/15
September 2, 2015Sorry about the lack of reviews yet again, but it’s busy season at the Board of Elections. Yes, even in August/September 2015. In theory I’ll be able to put some reviews up next week, so here’s hoping! I know there was a time when I was able to work 12+ hours a day and still somehow put out regular reviews, but I’m officially too old for that now. Ah well, the good news is that it lets that King Cat review sit at the top of the page for a couple of weeks and everybody should read that comic. So the lack of reviews is really a public service!
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 8/18/25
August 18, 2015New review today for King Cat #75 by John Porcellino, in an issue that’s all about the original King Cat. Yes, I know that he did not yet have Maisie when he started King Cat, but it feels true nonetheless.
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Posted by Kevin
Porcellino, John – King Cat #75
August 18, 2015
King Cat #75
I had quite an introduction for this review ready in my head. This comic marks the 25th anniversary of King Cat (I’ve been along for the ride for roughly 20 of those years), and I was planning to talk about his impressive body of work, the influence John has had on independent artists throughout the years, all that stuff. Then I read the comic, and all that flew right out the window. This might well be the best single issue of King Cat that John has done. I’m not going to claim that definitively without going back and reading the previous 74 issues again, but if it’s not the best single issue, it’s in the top 2 or 3. The entirety of this comic is the life story of his former cat, Maisie Kukoc. Maisie is instantly familiar to fans who have read his book for years, and what was also known to me was that Maisie had died a few years back. She popped up in stories from time to time, had several about her specifically, and she was basically just a constant presence throughout the series. And, honestly, I thought I had shed all the tears I was going to shed about the death of this cat that I had never met, but I was very wrong on that. Full disclosure: during busy times at work, I sometimes read a comic during my lunch, then write the review on the same break, putting the whole thing together for the website when I get home. Well, today I had to stop reading this comic three different times to keep myself from bursting into tears (as opposed to some manly dribbling of tears that I was denying), and even then it was all I could do to keep from sobbing by the time I got to the inevitable end. This could have easily been a tale about John’s life throughout those years, and he does provide the relevant context as her story progresses, but this is purely about Maisie and the life they had together. There are too many adorable little touches for me to mention them all, but that panel with Maisie stretching her little arms out towards John when he goes to pick her up from the vet after she suffered an illness just about broke my heart. As did him learning from a girlfriend that Maisie sat by the door five minutes before he came home every day to greet him as he came in. They had a great life together (well, she had a great life and John lived a regular human life, full of ups and downs) and she lived to a ripe old age for a cat, so I know the logical thing is to leave it there. But as Harlan Ellison once said, fuck death. There’s no doubt in my mind that some of these tears came from knowing that my cat is currently the same age as Maisie when she died, and although my cat seems healthy, things can change in a hurry, and I have a lot of trouble picturing a life without her. This comic might just break your heart a little, especially if you have pets, but I still can’t recommend it highly enough. Every pet owner is going to have to deal with this eventually, and seeing all the good times mixed in with the ending at least lessened the blow a bit. He also included a few pages of the games she loved to play at the end to try to lighten the mood a bit, but then there was his message on the back cover about how he still finds her hairs occasionally when opening a book, and it was right back to the waterworks for me. All I know is that my cat is getting some serious attention when I get home today. $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 8/14/15
August 14, 2015New review today of a tiny preview comic because it’s Friday: Monster Wrestling Mayhem Preview by Jason Davis and Jeremy King. Happy weekend everybody!
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Posted by Kevin
Davis, Jason & King, Jeremy – Monster Wrestling Mayhem Preview
August 14, 2015
Monster Wrestling Mayhem Preview
If you’re reading this in the future this might lack context, but here in present day it’s a Friday afternoon in August and I was in the mood for a light and fluffy comic. If and if there’s one word to describe a comics about monsters wrestling, it’s “fluffy.” Granted, I may not have thought that metaphor through. Anyway, at four pages this is more of a preview for a comic than an actual comic, but there’s still plenty in here to talk about. Please note that if you have no interest in monsters or wrestling, chances are you won’t find anything here for you. The title should have already given that away, but this is just to make it clear that the title is not ironic. Anyway, this one starts off with a match between a mummy and a zombie. Which, as the announcers pointed out, would be a very slow match. Anyway, it’s going along fine under “zombie rules” (meaning that any zombie can replace the zombie in the ring until one of them is pinned) until a mysterious figure appears in the crowd and comes down to the ring. Spoiler alert: it’s a yeti. For such a short comic they did manage to pack in a few goodies for wrestling fans. The opening page with the crowd scene had all kinds of recognizable faces/signs/t-shirts in it, and the artist did some good work with the basic wrestling moves. I’m intrigued to see if anything comes from this, as it sure seems like this could be made into a regular comic series with little trouble. If this is all that ever comes of the idea, that would be a shame. No price listed, but I’m guessing probably a buck.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 8/13/15
August 13, 2015New review today for Dexter’s Digs #2 by Chris & Gin (Chris and Ginger Ludden). More reviews tomorrow if all goes well!
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Posted by Kevin
Ludden, Chris & Ginger – Dexter’s Digs #2
August 13, 2015
Dexter’s Digs #2
See, this is why people should go to SPACE and spend their money indiscriminately. Not that I’m saying this comic looked terrible, but I had never heard of it, and I still bought a copy. Granted, this indiscriminate spending means that I didn’t stop by the tables of lots of people I already knew I liked, but I never claimed that this was a flawless strategy. Anyway! This is the story of an archaeologist and his wiener dog and their history lessons. Well, mostly the history lessons come from Dexter, translated into comics that humans can understand. Right off the bat it’s clear that I will approve of this comic, as it starts with Dr. Clark talking about “snatching national treasures from impoverished nations across the globe.” From there the two of them go into a Chinese restaurant and, despite the protests of the staff, launch into the history of the first emperor of China. It’s probably a good sign when my main complaint about a comic is that the funny bits were coming from too many different directions, as their time on television had tons of subtle visual jokes along with the captions on the tv screen. It’s clear that the tales from Dexter about various historical happenings has practically limitless possibilities, so here’s hoping Charles and Ginger keep exploring the oh-so-exploitable past. Sure, a lot of history looked grim in real time, but tragedy + time = comedy, everybody knows that! $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 8/11/15
August 11, 2015New review today for Autobiographical Conversations by Ryan Claytor, and maybe reviews will be back to normal this week? I’ll go with probably. Either way, this is the last week of SPACE exclusives, as mailed review comics are starting to pile up too, so I’ll go back to my random comic reviewing next week. Yep, another exciting peek behind the curtain on how I pick the comics to talk about…
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Posted by Kevin
Claytor, Ryan – Autobiographical Conversations
August 11, 2015
Autobiographical Conversations
It’s probably best to start this one off with a “warning” of sorts: this is a comic between the writer/artist and a professor about the nature of autobiographical stories, specifically comics. That’s right, an autobio comic about autobio, so if those aren’t your types of comics generally, this is most likely a comic that you should avoid. Unless the intense focus on the subject matter (and the lack of much in the way of personal details about the author) flips it back around to being interesting again to you. What do I know, I’m not in your brain. Anyway, it’s right up my alley, and also impossible to review in any coherent form without giving away some of their conclusions and/or making this a 3000 word review about my own thoughts on the subject. But my thought come from years of reading such comics, while theirs come from years of schooling and, as such, their thoughts are the better ones to follow. Anyway! The vast majority of this comic is a conversation between Ryan and a professor on his campus. They discuss the merits of showing autobio stories from the perspective of the author versus only focused on the author, emotional truth versus literal truth, and how your perception of yourself is most likely different from how other people see you, and whether or not it’s possible to tell that truth if you’re also including your own perceptions of other people. It’s heady, fascinating stuff, or at least it will be if you like autobio comics. I think it would be anyway, purely for anybody out there who spends too much time in their own head. If that sounds like you, give this a shot! Ryan has been a favorite of mine since the early days of this website (2001), and it’s always nice to see those guys and ladies still making great comics. $12
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Posted by Kevin
Another fake update! (8/4/15)
August 4, 2015Work has blown up yet again, and if you think it’s been bad recently, keep in mind the I work at a Board of Elections in Ohio, so it’ll get a lot worse next year. Anyway, if all goes well I’ll be able to put together a few reviews before the end of the week, if not I’ll try to get some extras up next week to make up for it and to try and get through that SPACE pile. Oh, and my fundraiser is closed. Good to know that that was a bad idea, but I’m shooting to get to England myself for that convention next year anyway, assuming that I can save enough.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/29/15
July 29, 2015New review today for Not Dog #2 by Amalia Degirolamo. And fine, one last plea for money to get me to England for that comic convention. Please note that I gave an inflated amount to begin with in the hopes of a perfect trip; at this point I’d happily go for less than half of that ($2000 should get me there with enough money to at least buy a few comics). If I get a tiny amount of money (which seems optimistic at this point) and can’t afford to go, that money goes right into buying comics that I’ll review here, most likely from John Porcellino and his Spit and a Half shop. Anyway, I’ll let this sit here through tomorrow and will be back on Friday with a final update for the week. If this fundraiser goes down in flames I’ll just start saving so I can make the trip next year.
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Posted by Kevin
Degirolamo, Amalia – Not Dog #2
July 29, 2015
Not Dog #2
I’ll certainly give credit to Amalia for truth in advertising: that thing is definitely not a dog. This is the story of two dudes, their many kittens (all named) and a creature that looks kind of like a very large toad, but with teeth. And it scoots around the carpet like a sick dog. Anyway, it’s a horror show, and Dave decides that this thing has got to go, but Morris loves the ugly creature and has even made a harness for it so he can carry it around on his person like those weird people and/or hippies do with their babies. Morris takes the “dog” for a walk (meaning Morris walks around with the “dog” in his harness) and he stumbles across an ugly baby competition. His reaction is hilarious and completely appropriate; I only wish this was a longer comic so we could have gotten to see more of those ugly babies. Anyway, anything after that is a spoiler, so I’ll leave it a mystery whether or not he gets to keep this lovable (?) creature. I thought it had a solid finish and am curious to see the further adventures of this crew. But hey, this is the second issue, so clearly I missed the “origin” story, which is a real shame. Even without it this is a fun little mini, and when my only complaint is that I would have preferred to see more ugly babies, it’s clear that the comic was a success.
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 7/28/15
July 28, 2015More SPACE comics! New review today for Doctor Cat in Professional Cats by Sarah Sobole. As you may have guessed from that title, it features cats!
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Posted by Kevin
Sobole, Sarah – Doctor Cat in Professional Cats
July 28, 2015
Doctor Cat in Professional Cats
Quick, what’s your opinion of cats? If you can’t stand them, you’re a monster who should quietly leave polite society immediately. For the rest of us, the only problem with this comic is that this much cuteness condensed into one comic might be too adorable for words. But I’m here to provide words, so I shall persevere! Even though my mind might flash back to the image of all the cats on the back of the lady trying to do push-ups (who gives up more out of cuteness overland than the actual weight of the cats) or the sea captain cat who refused to get onto his boat until it was taken out of the water, I shall stay strong. The basic idea behind this comic (which I’m guessing is comprised of strips taken from Sarah’s website) is that Doctor Cat wonders for the first time what other jobs he (I’m just going to call all these cats “he” for no particular reason, knowing full well that I’m probably wrong) could have taken up besides being a doctor. There’s Artist Cat, Baseball Cat, Garbage Cat, Personal Trainer Cat, Firefighter Cat, and a few more that I’ll leave as a surprise to anybody who buys this comic. Most of the comics are funny, every single last one of them is adorable, and they’re usually both. The art is fantastic, and this being in full color was a nice touch. If you like cats at all, buy this book and enjoy. Also check out her website, as she had t-shirts at SPACE that I’m regretting not getting now, but I only had so much money. And if you don’t like cats, how did you get all the way to the end of this review? I thought I took care of you early on. Shoo! For all the sane people, this is $5 and she has lots of comics to choose from.
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Posted by Kevin
