I’ve been reading David’s comics for… a decade now? Time doesn’t work properly in my brain any more. Anyway, my point is that this might be the most visually diverse issue of one of his comics yet. David always draws a few of his stories, so you’re obviously going to get his style for those, but several other stories were by people I hadn’t seen before, making this issue really stand out. Not that that would matter much if the stories were garbage, but good news everyone! There were some pretty solid stories in here too. Like what, you ask, as I set up the segue? Stories in here deal with the age gap in McDonald’s employees (with Clio Ding), trying to relate to a sign about loving music at a record store (with Zu Dominiak), the constant destruction of the old in favor of the new in this modern culture (with Helena Edwardson), a parody of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s critique of the Black Hole Disney movie that went off the rails quickly in a delightful way (with Andy Hanks), the last “witch” to be burned (with Rozi Hathaway), the differences in depictions of a raised middle finger (with Olivia Hicks), when The Police (the band) finally and briefly got back together (with Marc KZ), the timeless majesty of Purple Rain (with Francesca Mancuso), and the impotent fury of watching as the host of a quiz show on tv gets the answer wrong (with Ludi Price). And lots more, obviously; I doubt if that’s even half of the stories. Are there stories that involve Star Wars in some way? Always, yes! Is there an oddly touching story involving a person dressed up as Goofy at a theme park? Very specific question, but also yes! It’s another solid pile of tales from David and friends, and hey, why not give it a shot? One of the joys of his comics is that they’re all self-contained, so don’t fret about being lost.
I was curious so I just looked back on how I labeled all of my old reviews on David’s books, as he’s the writer but usually only the artist on some of the comics. I was all over the place over the years, sometimes calling him an editor (which I’m sure he is too), sometimes listing the various artists, usually not. This is all to say that all of those names in the tags? Those are all of the artists in this issue. I never go story by story in these reviews, so if you liked one piece in particular, look up that artist why don’t you? Christ, now I’m telling people how to use the internet. OK, moving on. This is another collection of short pieces by David and friends (nothing is longer than a couple of pages this time around), and it’s yet another solid pile of stories. If you’re thinking that “yet again” is a slam, no it is not. Somebody putting out quality work on a consistent basis should never be taken for granted. Stories this time around deal with whether or not the Titanic cracked in half before sinking (I had no idea that this was a controversy for decades before the wreckage was found), explaining the gap in observable work between comic writers and artists, car people vs. non-car people, the disturbing process of “weeding” in public libraries (basically pulling books from the shelves permanently that haven’t been checked out in a certain number of years), trying to do a nice thing for a new writer, how some painful memories may be ridiculous but still manage to haunt you, rejecting the cop-out answer that saying you believe in god doesn’t hurt anything because you’re covered if it does or doesn’t exist, how the official Star Wars Celebration has changed over the years, and being yelled at by an automatic fridge to close the door. That last one was illustrated by Peter Conrad, another one of those artists who were around in the early days of the website but I’ve since lost track of. Well, he’s still making comics, which is always a positive sign. I mentioned maybe half of the stories in here, so that leaves plenty of surprises for you to find. So, to recap: are these great stories that I will enjoy? Yes. Are there a wide variety of stories so that I’ll still like plenty of them even if some of them aren’t for me? Also yes. When in doubt, should I just throw money at indie comics in case I like them, because even if I don’t like a particular issue that still means that the artist is more likely to make comics in the future? Absotively yes. All clear?
Posted by Kevin 
