I can be a little rough on anthologies at times, but that’s almost always for technical reasons, and this anthology does all of that stuff right. The artist’s name is clearly labeled at the bottom of their story (you’re not seeing it for the sample image purely because it’s the second page of a two page story by Kat Wong) and their contact info is clearly provided, usually in multiple formats. That’s all it really takes, so take note, other anthology editors! This is also one of those cases where the temptation to be lazy in the review is strong, because take a look at that list of tags showing all of the artists with stories in this sucker. SO many names that I’ve already reviewed, it’s just a solid list of names of a lot of the people doing the best work in comics today. But no, the show must go on! “The show” being me yakking about comics for a bit before that vague, undefined voice in the back of my head tells me that I’ve said enough. This one starts off with a strip from Roberta Gregory, and kids, if you don’t know who that is, she’s been doing this since (just after) the original comics underground days, and also just so happens to have a giant new collection of her work out as of maybe a week ago. Following that are stories about really getting into a deep clean (by Megan Kelso), sifting through the mess and finding the positive aspects of dealing with a father with dementia (by Meredith Li-Vollmer), getting into the cat psychology of chasing a laser pointer (by Kiku Hughes), being able to take in all of the different people that two people in a partnership can be over the years (by Robyn Jordan), maintaining your mood with scents (by Ellen Forney), drastically misunderstanding some Australian slang (by Natalie Dupille, but I would have honestly made the same mistake), regretfully going through how a stool became haunted (by L. Armstrong), living the life of a gargoyle gardener (by Lara Kaminoff), getting older and the dreams you have to leave behind (by Rachel Scheer), learning how to cope with and live in a terrible world (by Amy Camber, with some solid advice), some life advice for turning 50 (by Tatiana Gill), and the end result of doing kegels every time the world gets you down (by Marie Hausauer). That’s maybe half of the stories; there are 34 artists in here. All of the stories are either one or two pages long, and a whole bunch of them made me curious to see what other comics that author has created, which is another task that this anthology has done successfully. Also your buying this supports the Short Run festival in Seattle, so you get to support a great cause while reading a pile of great comics stories. Everybody wins! $15
I’m going to type a lot of words now, as is my way, but to be very clear about this comic right off the bat: I’m fully on board for this journey. Any quibbles (and I honestly can’t think of any at the moment), any doubts, I’m still fully invested in seeing where Alex takes this thing. To anybody who’s jumping into my ramblings with the review for #2, that’s ridiculous, but things ended up previously with the flushed fetus Robert (talking from birth, mind you) surviving his experience in the sewer and wandering out into the world. This one picks up in 1974, about 26 years after the first issue, and Robert is a full grown dude. What was his life like? How did he make it this far? Maybe that’ll get dealt with later in the series, or maybe it’s irrelevant and I shouldn’t worry about it. Alex has a fantastic (and surprisingly thorough, considering how complex the story has been so far) synopsis on the inside front cover, for new readers and anybody who might have forgotten bits of it, which is something I’m always happy to see. We’re reintroduced to Robert, who’s a broke poet, and the audience at this particular poetry reading is pretty sick of him always bringing things back to the sewer. Which is a succinct, hilarious way to let the reader know that he’s scarred for life from an experience that would definitely do that to a person. We meet Robert’s neighbor Dandelion, who is also haunted by that grinning devil, not that either of them know that about the other person. We spend a good chunk of the issue with her, so I’m guessing that’ll be something else that comes in to play more later. We see that his mother is still around, and the oddball cartoonist neighbor is still doing his thing, but in a more sinister fashion, which the back cover (actually the end of the story; Alex used ALL the pages for this 66 page behemoth of a tale) lays out explicitly. Oh, and there’s the killer, or maybe it’s a killer. And Robert’s girlfriend, and Dandelion’s therapist and abandoned car, and that wandering cop… lots of ingredients bubbling around. It’s a thoroughly engaging story, and the only thing that has me even slightly hesitating before buying the next available issues is the eternal “do I just wait for the collected edition to come out” conundrum. If you see a review for #3 shortly, I guess that answers that… $14
What an absolute fucking journey this comic is. Oh hi, do you have no idea what you’re in for here? This is the first issue (out of four, at least as of early 2024) of this series, and the early issues are getting pretty rare, so if you’d like to get in on this ride, Domino Books still has copies available as of this writing. I went into this totally blind, and I think the only comic I’ve seen from Alex before this was Dog Biscuits (from Fantagraphics, it was incredible). This one starts in 1948 with a woman dining alone at an outdoor cafe. We see bits of her history and interests throughout this meal, along with an overheard conversation on top of her experiences. She heads home, has an embarrassing (to her) encounter with a bum on the street, and arrives home to a letter from her fiance breaking up with her. We also meet a couple of her neighbors and learn about her interest in becoming a great artist, so at this point I was pretty sure I had a sense of where the story was heading with a whole cast of characters coming together. I was completely wrong, because after a frenzied all night painting session, she ends up on the toilet with an early Chester Brown-esque page full of struggling. Readers of Ed the Happy Clown, you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, she ends up giving birth to a tiny… baby? It’s talking right away, but let’s go with baby. She doesn’t want the shame of having to explain it and figures it would ruin her life, so she flushes it away. At this point the real story starts up, probably, unless it shifts back to the lady in the next issue. But the rest of this one is the adventure of that baby and yes, you can go ahead an assume it survives. There are the flying creatures of the sewers, a lactating rat, a cage, a desperate rescue attempt, and an accidental murder, but I’ve said too much. This book is gorgeous (it took a supreme act of will to not also include that amazing back cover as a sample image), the story is compelling and all kinds of weird, and I have absolutely no idea where he’s going with all this. So yes, I’m glad that I got the first two issues at the same time, and I’ll be getting the next two as soon as I can. $12
Posted by Kevin 
