June 13, 2011
Website
Blackguard #3
The crime issue! If you’ve read past issues of this anthology and think that this is a subject that this crew could handle very well, you were absolutely correct. My only complaint is that almost the first half of the book is dedicated to a letters page and comics and zine reviews. Not that I hate such things, but sometimes it gets in the way of the actual comics, and I’m speaking from my own personal and cranky bias about getting zines and comics all jumbled up. As for the comics themselves, it’s hard not to find plenty to love. When things start off with a color strip about Nazi superzombie monkey sleeper agents (by Ryan Vella), you know you’ve reading a book with tons of potential. Well I do anyway, it’s entirely possible that such a thing would turn you off immediately, in which case I’d recommend leaving this review now. It’s OK, there are plenty of other comics to read about on this site and not a single one of them has a Nazi superzombie monkey sleeper agent to bother you. Strips include an actual serial killer and the Hamburglar discussing royalties (by “Glenno,” which may or may not refer to Glenn Smith), Adam Pasion (or his story stand-in) lighting an empty pool on fire as kids, Stratu with a brother killing his sister after a stupid argument, scribbling a penis on a “Walk” sign (by Bize), Chris Mikul with the profoundly strange story of Kenneth Neu, Shaun Craike with his crisis of conscience after his only attempted theft, Neale Blandon with the story of the property theft of Mickey Mouse, Anton Emdin with the angriest man on earth and Dexter Cockburn (with one of the few stories of his without visible sexual organs) with the story of the murder of a young girl and the enigmatic diary entry detailing the deed. There are also two text pieces by Damian McDonald and Henry L. Racicot, both of which are well worth reading. As I already gave away in the intro, this comic is well worth picking up. I only mentioned about half of the stories to leave you with a lot of surprises, and even if you think that comic and zine reviews are wasted space (and, even though I pointed them out, I did notice a few comics I should probably check out, making me a bit of a moron for even mentioning that in a negative light) there are still more than enough comics here to make this worth the $5.
Comments Off on Various International Anthologies – Blackguard #2 | 
Reviews | Tagged: Adam Pasion, Anton Emdin, Bize, Blackguard, Chris Mikul, Damian McDonald, David Puckeridge, Dexter Cockburn, Doug Iannucci, Gerard Ashworth, Giles, Glenn Smith, Henry L. Racicot, Jason Dean, Julie Doye, Kapreles, Lark, Michael Aushenker, Neale Blandon, Ross Radiation, Ryan Vella, SCAR, Shaun Craike, Stratu | 
Permalink
Posted by Kevin
December 15, 2010
Website
Blackguard #2
When they say this is 18+, they are not fucking around. Just a warning to all you sensitive souls out there. This is a collection of stories about Dads, featuring that list of names on the cover (seriously, click on it to check it out if you want, I’m not going to type them all here). As you might expect, very few of these stories are positive, and most of them aren’t true, but they are funny stories. Highlights include Neal Blanden’s story about not being able to visit his mother for the last two months of her life because his Dad was seeing another woman, Dexter Cockburn (a hilariously fake name) and his story about a Dad helping out with an “adventure club” and his noticing how one of the girl members has blossomed, Glenn Smith and his litany of Dads throughout history, Julie Doye and her Dad’s new teeth, Anton Emdin with his “Deadbeat Dad” strips (which, if there were any justice in the world, would be in newspapers across the globe), Mike Diana playing with the concept of a Dad and his two-way mirror, Ryan Vella with the shortest “Tales From the Crypt” story ever, Chris Mikul with one of the few seemingly true stories in the book, and Lark with a brilliant bit of father/son bonding. There’s also an accurate table of contents (I bitch when it isn’t present, so I should praise when it is, right?), a series of reviews on other minis, and plenty of other fair to great stories in here that I haven’t mentioned to save you some surprises. No idea on the price of this thing, as the website doesn’t have a listing, but I’d have to say at least $7 for the fancy front and back cover and the sheer size of the thing. Contact the website, why don’t you, and you should also go there because the guy apparently spends a lot of time reviewing comics and such, which I clearly think is a good use of free time.
Comments Off on Various International Anthologies – Blackguard #2 | Reviews | Tagged: Anton Emdin, Ben Hutchings, Blackguard, Chris Mikul, D. Rat, David Puckenridge, Dexter Cockburn, Doug Iannucci, Gerard Ashworth, Glenn Smith, Henry Racicot, Josh Simmons, Julie Doye, Lark, Michael Aushenker, Mike Diana, Neale Blandon, Ross Radiation, Ryan Vella, SCAR, Stratu | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Cruel World #6
MUCH better with the art this time around, so three cheers for that. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m just guessing that you already read the review up there. This one is from 1999, so that still leaves a bit of a gap from here to modern day. You also have a story about teenage zombies (with no actual zombies present), a hoity-toity sperm, a brown mose (believe me, regardless of what that cover says, you don’t want to know what it is), a vanishing penis, the birth of the mullet, and a few one page gag strips. As they’re all funny, there’s not a thing in the world wrong with that. No complaints at all this time around, I thought this was quite a leap in quality from #1. Granted, #6 vs #1 should be a huge leap in quality, but not everybody manages to pull that off, so kudos to Anton. $3.50
Comments Off on Emdin, Anton – Cruel World #6 | Reviews | Tagged: Anton Emdin, Cruel World | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
April 23, 2010
Website
Cruel World #1
It’s not at all fair to judge this guy by his first issue, as it’s from 1996 and there’s plenty of new stuff of this to look at. Still, I only ordered this and #6 from Poopsheet, so this is all I have to go on at the moment. I can say just from flipping through #6 that the art in there has improved by leaps and bounds from the art in this one, but then, you would sure hope that would be the case. This is mostly about slapstick, manic behavior, mostly funny, sometimes not so much. You have a poorly planned bank robbery, a rabbit trying to work for the mob, Shooting Up With Sid, smashing faces, a cockroach as a sexual aid, Luke Perry, and another attempt at robbery, this time with a fast food joint. Like I said, more funny than not, so I’m looking forward to seeing more. $2.50
Comments Off on Emdin, Anton – Cruel World #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Anton Emdin, Cruel World | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
