Franz, Aisha – Eyez

April 12, 2016

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Eyez

How soon exactly will it be until our every waking moment is under surveillance? Hell, why not our every sleeping moment too? Or is it already happening and we just don’t know it yet? If you relate to that sort of paranoid (but all too realistic mindset), do I have a comic for you! This is the story of a human who is just trying to sunbathe naked on their roof. As they’re relaxing they notice the whir of a drone and retreat back into their apartment, but even there the drone can peek in through the windows. Once this person is secure they transform back into their real self… but surveillance can come from unlikely places, and it’s difficult to be sure if you’re ever really alone. This is a wordless book that is creepy as can be, especially if you’d prefer not to be watched all the time and feel increasingly helpless about stopping it. For example, do you have a camera on your laptop? Do you know that creeps can tap into that even when it’s not powered on? Or maybe I watch too many spy shows and am getting my information wrong, but you don’t really know, do you? Damn it, like I needed to be more paranoid. Thanks, Eyez! Seriously though, give this a look. The art and coloring are both gorgeous, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to be creeped out. $6

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Baltic Comics Magazine – Baltic Comics Magazine #5: After Snowfall

April 27, 2010

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Baltic Comics Magazine #5 – After Snowfall

Enough of all those stupid Various pages on this site.  From now on everybody gets their own page!  This is a collection of stories from 18 different artists (about half from Latvia, the rest from Germany, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, Finland, Spain, and Lithuania), all dealing with stories set, obviously, after snowfall.  These stories go all over the place, as stories from every good anthology should do, with all sorts of artistic styles.  There’s Kolbeinn Karlsson telling the story of Dracula’s last days on earth (and how he bit a woman just so he wouldn’t be alone when he died), Ruta Briede with a silent piece about a lonely man in a snowglobe, Ines Christine Geisser showing the tragic consequences of stealing giant blocks of ice from a frozen lake, Hironori Kikuchi (the sampled piece) with a deceptively adorable story about stuffed animals and a human noticing that pieces of their story haven’t had the snow filled in, Yoshi cluing us all in as to how to know which way to dig if you’re trapped in an avalanche, Johan Klungel shows a suicide that didn’t work exactly as intended, Ernests Klavins with a brilliant Lord of the Rings parody where the snow is very useful in tracking the invisible Gollum, and Aisha Franz has a great piece about how an underground child (Americans, think Cabbage Patch Kids) comes up a little too early.  That’s roughly half of the people involved, anyway, and just about everything in here has something to recommend it.  About 2/3 of this is in color, and I mean vibrant, strong colors.  All that and this is still only a measly $6 (U.S., cheaper with places with a functioning economy), while still being the size of a mini comic (although fatter).  If you’re sick of the same old stuff, this is a perfect place to start expanding your horizons. $6