August 6, 2014
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Ohio Is For Sale #1
Petty criticism alert: when you send me more than one issue of your comic, and when it’s the same title, maybe put an issue number somewhere in at least one of those comics? I get why you maybe don’t number the first issue, like if you’re not sure you’re going to keep going with the series, but there’s no reason not to put a “#2” somewhere in/on the second one. And that right there is my only complaint with this as a comic, because as far as the story was concerned I absolutely loved it. This is all about a dog-like creature who is writing the Great American Novel. It keeps getting longer and longer but doesn’t seem to be heading towards any kind of conclusion, which leads to a bit of a freakout pretty early on. Then two friends come visit our hero (pretty sure nobody was given a name of any kind; they were easy enough to keep track of in the comic but this might get a little confusing in the review) and they head out to the local 7/11. And that’s where we meet the character depicted on the cover, as he’s working at the 7/11 and very clearly on all of the drugs/crazy or both. From here an unfortunate accident takes the vehicle of the friend of our hero out of the picture, which leads to our friend having to get a job, and what a job it is. This may be my personal favorite representation of the ultimate pointless data entry job, but I’ll leave it to you to discover exactly what I mean by that. All kinds of little touches in here that add up to a thoroughly entertaining first issue. There’s the crew noticing a creature wearing only socks at the 7/11 (odd because these are all anthropomorphic creatures not wearing clothes and I had no idea where he was going with it), the co-worker who I was pretty convinced was somehow a sock puppet for the first few panels, and the picture of his wife that got the rare “laugh out loud” (see, I have time to type out all three words) out of me. It’s an engaging and intriguing first issue and yes, the cover for the second issue is somehow as great as the cover for this one. $8
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Posted by Kevin
August 5, 2014
Website for Jesse McManus
Website for Austin English
Spider Monkey #1
Why hasn’t the world put Austin English (writer) and Jesse McManus (artist) together before now? Stuff like that always seems so easy in retrospect. I should also point out that this is the first issue of a series, that it came out in 2011 and that it is now the middle of 2014 without another issue in sight. And yes, there is a continuing story, so that’s annoying, but it’s easy enough to take this as a self-contained story. This one starts off with a young boy who is able to talk to animals. The method that he uses to talk to animals is a little hard to explain, so I’m not going to bother, but I’ll just say that it’s a unique solution to the problem. Granted, I didn’t understand why his sister heard him talking to his mouse friend and only heard a series of “meows”, but maybe that’s just how all people/animal conversation sound. His sister has a unique way of connecting with the house whenever she gets home, which should also be seen to be believed, and I realize I’m dangerously close to not fulfilling any sort of useful function as a reviewer here. How about if I point out that Jesse is the perfect artist to show both things: the infestation of black lines from the animal conversations and the way reality seems to bend around Spider’s sister after she completes her route. Anyway, these two live in a strange town of some kind where they can also go see a man who custom makes masks and tells stories in them and of them. It also appears that people can get their heads split open and fix up the wound with tape, which sounds like a cartoon, although in cartoons you can’t see their brains. Mix all this together, throw in a school, some history about a performer who worked in squiggly lines and a performance from the mask maker and you have yourself a comic. It’s all a bit more linear than I made it sound, and I do hope that this isn’t yet another series that never makes it past the first issue (as I do have questions that they seemed to be on their way to answering with future stories), but either way this is well worth your time to seek out. And for $5 for this much comic there’s really no reason not to!
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Posted by Kevin
August 4, 2014
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Blackguard #5: Science
Before I get started, a note for anybody reading this from an alternate universe: this volume was supposed to include a story from ____, but because this took Stratu (the editor) so long to put together, he completely forgot to include it. And no, I am not going to list the name of the creator whose story didn’t get published, as I don’t want to be the one to break it to him or her. Anyway, the point is that shit happens, and I’m sure this story will see the light of day one way or another. As is implied by the title, this issue is all about science, filled with stories by artists who (by their own admission) may or may not know much of anything about science. Still, that doesn’t stop a good chunk of the stories from being fascinating in various ways. As always, your favorites will vary, but the highlights to me were the haunting horror of that cover (I don’t often mention the covers, but that is just amazing), successfully introducing a drug that added growth to the penis by Michael Amaral, Chris Mikul’s tale of his early interest in science and his attempts at experiments, Shaun Craike’s piece on various science fiction series that may or may not ever mention actual science (and he should probably prepare for angry mail from Star Wars fans, even though he’s dead right on the issue), Neale Blanden’s story of early experiments on a baby who was unlucky enough to have a mother who worked in the lab, Ryan Vella’s bleakly realistic take on what would actually happen to four explorers who landed on a strange alien world teeming with life, Bize and his explanation for how gas tanks work, Giles Kilham and Brett Weekes and their conversation with a young lady who thinks that she doesn’t like science, and somebody called Julie (hard to get much more anonymous than that) with her story of cutting up sheep eyeballs for a science class as a kid and the absolutely horrific mistake that she made. No, I won’t ruin the surprise. There are also two text pieces and a solid 8 pages of comics reviews. I learned about a few comics that I should probably check out, which is always helpful, but I have to confess that I skipped the text pieces. There, I said it. They always drag me down when I’m in the middle of a comic book, and this time instead of slogging through it I just passed them right by. Seems vaguely wrong to review a comic while ignoring content like that, but I did it and you can’t stop me. Maybe you would love them! Hell, maybe I would love them if I just gave them a shot. Anyway, there’s quite a bit here to enjoy, and quite a bargain for $5. Check it out why don’t you! $5
Comments Off on Various Artists – Blackguard #5: Science | Reviews | Tagged: Bize, Blackguard, Brett Weekes, Chris Mikul, Damian McDonald, David Puckeridge, Drew Gates, Giles Kilham, Glenn Smith, Julie, Kapreles, Leigh Rigozzi, Michael Amaral, Michael Em, Neale Blanden, Ross Tesoriero, Ryan Vella, SCAR, Shaun Craike, Stratu | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
July 29, 2014
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A Memoir of Art Volume 1: Prehistory
All these years of writing reviews (13 years, give or take) and I’m still not entirely sure how to handle reviews on comics that are a few years old. In this case Gail sent along the first four issues of this series, but this first issue was released in 2010, so chances are excellent that she already corrected the suggestions that I would normally make. Still, maybe not, and maybe the advice I give will help somebody else out, so I’ll go ahead with it. This is the story of the first muse in history, which is also presented as the only muse at this point in the story. It inspires Enoch and gives him the ability to convince his people to confront the Auroch and motivates Moombi (the ancestral mother of Kenya, according to legend) to fatten herself up so that she can have as many children as possible. It’s a fascinating story of the start of human creativity and I’m curious how she handles the concept for the next three issues. My complaint is more on the technical side of things, but typos in a story from the biggest artistic motivator in the world really should not happen. They shouldn’t happen in any story (everybody knows at least a few people who know how to spell, and even if you don’t it’s not difficult to find the correct spelling for words), but they really shouldn’t happen when you need to convey a solid authoritative narrative voice. But hey, chances are that this was caught and fixed for the next issues. Either that or I just trapped Gail into something that she is now completely unable to correct, in which case I’ll try to go easy on it in the next few issues. Still, this is a solid story about the birth of creativity, and there were only a few typos, so lighten up already, me. Check it out, learn about how inspiration started!
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Posted by Kevin
July 23, 2014
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Pow Wow #3
Huzzah! I’m sure I had nothing to do with this, but it looks like Brian is now putting synopses of the previous issues at the start of his serialized comics, and wow was that necessary for this one. It’s not always necessary (like for me previous review of Come Home Safe #2), but in a case like this this was really useful information. Granted, it still didn’t make a ton of sense, but it was good to know that the lead character had transferred all of the diseases of his grandmother into the earth. I’m not clear on whether or not that was a good thing, but at least I know that it happened. In this issue a golem comes to take his grandmother away, and our hero spends most of his time trying to get this monster to even notice him. We do get a bit of a sense of the powers of this guy once he finally gets to interact with this beast, but I’m still not clear on a few of the basics, so I’ll hold off on commenting on certain things until I’ve cleared that up. If you’re one of those people who buys your comics based on page count, this one was also at least twice as long as the last one I reviewed, so that sort of thing can clearly vary wildly. Of course, these are all so cheap that you’d have to have an odd phobia of some kind to base your purchases on page count, but who am I to judge your weirdness.
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Posted by Kevin
July 23, 2014
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Come Home Safe #2
It just occurred to me that Brian could probably put together a pretty nice book of poems if he just took all the illustrations out of these comics. If I’ve already said that in another review of his books then never mind, as I’m sure I’ve repeated myself more than once in these reviews. I blame him for writing over 200 comics and counting. Anyway! This issue (which seems like a stand-alone comic and not something where you need to have read the first issue to follow the story) deals with the brief breaks on a train ride home when you get out of the tunnels and get a peek into the windows of buildings. Sometimes you can see beds, which can remind you of other beds, which can lead to a whole different thought process entirely. It’s a a few idle thoughts on a train ride in the form of a comic, and I mean that in the best possible way.
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Posted by Kevin
July 17, 2014
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Tomboy (sample chapter)
Is it kosher for me to admit that my only problem with this comic is that it’s only a sample chapter of a much larger graphic novel, when the entire purpose of said comic is to serve as a teaser for the larger book (that is coming out in September)? No? Eh, I didn’t think so either. Still, when my only complaint about a comic is that I very much wanted to see more of it, it should be pretty clear that I had no real complaints at all. This whole thing is going to be a memoir of the early years of Liz Prince, as she tries to figure out how to navigate the world as something other than the typical girly-girl but still not quite a tomboy. This comic in particular starts off with her time on the baseball team when she was 10 and how her image of where she thought she should fit in did not coincide at all with where her coach thought she should play. In her mind she was a skilled pitcher, striking out everyone she faced, while her coach was perfectly content to stick her in right field and hope that no balls were hit in her direction. The rest of the comic deals with her time at a Girl Scout camp and the horrible things it taught her about how girls interacted with and talked about each other. She learned that girls could be made fun of regarding their bodies, even though it’s not like she chose her body. She also learned the horrors of swimming in a tee shirt, although she tells that lesson much better than I ever could, so maybe you should read all about that for yourself. I’d advise you to wait until the entire book comes out (she says September 2nd, so it should be somewhere around there), and you can use the link for her website to find out exactly how to do that. I think this means that the sample comic works as well as it could, as I can’t wait to see the whole thing and strongly advise the rest of you to check it out when it’s released. If you’re already a fan of her work you don’t need any reminding of that fact, but if you haven’t read any of her other comics this looks like a good introduction to her work. After all, what’s a better introduction to the work of an artist than the story of their childhood?
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Posted by Kevin
July 15, 2014
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Star Pilot #11
It’s a good thing that Frank printed the title at the end of this book, because if I just had to go by the cover I would have made a mess of that title. This is part of his series of comics that mostly aren’t related to each other, numbering system be damned. This time around things are awfully lyrical and we get an extended flashback to start things off. Our hero tries to escape but ends up having to jump off of a boat (he was a stowaway), and almost dies at sea but is instead saved by dolphins. Things didn’t improve for awhile even when he gets back to shore, but he eventually uses his skills to build up a steady business. Which is where his son comes into things, and which is where the action promised on that front cover starts to pick up. Once again I can’t say too much more without getting into spoilers, but I did have some slight trouble with the ending, so maybe don’t read the rest of the review if you really don’t want to know. I did enjoy the comic, as I’ve enjoyed most of this series, so take that as the ending of the review for you. For the rest of you, there is some trouble with making payments towards the local crime lord, and at the end of the book the son of our hero puts on a costume, steals the payments for that week and gives them back to the shop owners. If there’s more coming in this story, never mind any complaints that I might have. If this was another single issue story, it seems to me like things would escalate in a hurry right after a crime lord had all of his weekly payments stolen, and that that wouldn’t be the end of the story, as was implied here. Or maybe I missed something. I did enjoy his smaller panels for the flashbacks, as that really gave the flashback room to breathe, and I don’t think Frank is capable of putting out a boring comic. I just had a slight problem with the logic of the ending.
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Posted by Kevin
June 30, 2014
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Walrus #2
Walrus origin story! Anybody who read the last issue has to be curious about this one, and if you’re a human being you’re probably at least a little bit curious about the origin story for a walrus who plays the saxophone. It turns out that I was wrong about this series being one issue and done, and it was probably silly for me to think that the concept of a talking walrus living in a post-apocalyptic world would run out of steam after one issue. This time around we learn that our hero was a slave at a Sea World before the apocalypse and that his music playing was all an act. They didn’t even give him a working mouthpiece! Anyway, our hero fell in love with his human masseuse, but things got a little chaotic when the world ended and, well, you’ll have to see the rest of it for yourself. Brian recently mentioned to me that he was on the verge of having completed 200 different comics, and he’s almost certainly passed that mark by the time of this review. Just in case you’re a comic creator and had the idea that you were being productive, there’s a little fact to make you feel worse about yourself. You’re welcome!
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Posted by Kevin
June 17, 2014
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Rough House #2
It feels like it’s been months since I’ve reviewed an anthology, but I think we all know the basic rules by now. Somewhere between 25% and 90% (very rarely 100%) of the book is going to be somewhere between entertaining and incredible, while a few bits aren’t going to do much for me. The great thing about anthologies is that the percentage that moves you is going to vary from person to person, and on that account this is an incredibly balanced book. Portions of this book are also in color, so if you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if the Pink Panther puked all over a bus stop, wonder no more! Granted, you probably never thought of that before I mentioned it, but you’re definitely thinking about it now. 17 artists contributed stories (or the cover) here, and as usual I’ll mention a few of them that I really enjoyed while leaving the rest of them as surprises for when you eventually read them. This doesn’t mean that I hate or love the stories that I omitted. My thoughts are usually somewhere between those two extremes, which is why I’m not talking about those stories, but it’s also possible that I’m just not thinking about them while writing this review and will comically slap myself on the forehead for forgetting a story after posting this review. Just another unsolicited peek into my reviewing “process”! Stories in here include a swamp thing going into a night club by Nicolas Mahler, Kayle E’s take on whether or not to leave the house, James the Stanton with the aforementioned Puke Banter episode, Melinda Trace Boyce and some memorable nights from her time on the late shift at a diner, Mack White’s story of a fraudulent prophet from Roman times (and this story is from 1997, so you may have seen it before), Doug Pollard’s horrific tale of a monkey who eats too much and his unfortunate cellmate, Connor Shea on the literal war between two big pizza chains, Gillian Rhodes piece on a frog who just wants a job (or a cheeseburger), and Colin Zelinski’s take on the myth involving Leda and Zeus (complete with an overly graphic ending). That’s over half of the artists in here and I thoroughly enjoyed those stories, so that’s already a pretty decent ratio. My wish for all anthologies to have the names of the artists (and the page numbers) on the top or bottom of every page has still not come true everywhere, but the table of contents and the layout at least make it easy enough to figure out who did what. This is well worth a look, and pretty hefty (and colorful) for that $15 price tag.
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Posted by Kevin
June 10, 2014
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Scene But Not Heard
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this a few times on this website already, but Sam Henderson was a favorite of mine from the early 90’s (wow have I been reading small press comics for a long time). The strip that starts this collection in particular was something that I copied and showed to strangers for at least a month. Yes, this was before I had a comics review website, and no, I shouldn’t have copied that page, but it wasn’t nearly as funny with me describing it, so I figured it was OK. Anyway, Sam has been doing a strip based on the characters from that one strip for 16 years in Nickelodeon magazine, and this is a collection of either all of them or the best of them. Look at the sample for some idea of the dynamic going on here, but each strip involves two characters: a humanish creature and a bear creature. Neither one of them ever says a word, the strips are usually a page or two and they all involve hijinx of some sort between the two of them. Wow, that doesn’t get the funny across very well, does it? I should know better by now, but I’ll attempt to describe that one favorite strip of mine from 1993. These two creatures are grinning maniacally in the same panel. The human reaches over and plucks the nose from the bear and eats it. The bear is shocked, but pulls the eyes off the human and eats those too. And then… nope, this isn’t working either. The best way to kill humor is to describe it. Anyway, the humor is all in the expressions of these characters, as I’d have to imagine that having my cartoon nose pulled off my face and eaten would be a traumatic experience. This book runs about 120 pages, with actual pictures of the characters (and Sam) in the back, along with a brief “how to” about his strip. Oh, and there’s an introduction by Noah Van Sciver, which should have maybe been mentioned on the cover. Hey, there’s my single complaint! Anyway, buy this book. This is the perfect “all ages” book, with nothing dirty for the kids, and plenty for adults to enjoy. And for long-time readers of his, this is all in color, which is a damned treat. Oops, a swear word on a review for a kids book is not OK. My apologies… $14.95
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Posted by Kevin
