Apollo Astro « Optical Sloth

Turnbull, Jack – Apollo Astro #6

April 27, 2010

Apollo Astro #6

Now that’s a long time between issues. Looking at Jack’s website, he’s up to #9 in this series now, although it looks (at least from this one) like there’s not much of a continuing thread holding it together. This issue, for example, is three stories strung together, much as is usually done in the “mini comics” world. Not sure where I was going with that so I’ll just quit while I’m still slightly ahead. First up is a poem about working and still clinging to some of your youthful ideals, or at least still being able to remember those ideals. Then you have a wonderful wordless story about a… um potato who loses a leg and tries desperately to get it back without being able to say anything. Finally you have the strongest piece in the book, a story about a girl who’s trying to remember why she’s on a bus going to visit a boy she got to know during summer camp and piecing it together from a photograph. Not that she has amnesia or anything, she just wonders how well memories hold up to real life, and the winner there has a tendency to be memory. Another really good issue, if a bit dated at this point to be putting up on the website. Hey, I’m just reading it now, it’s new to me… $4

Comments Off on Turnbull, Jack – Apollo Astro #6 | Reviews | Tagged: Apollo Astro, Jack Turnbull | Permalink
Posted by Kevin

Turnbull, Jack – Apollo Astro #5

April 27, 2010

Website

Apollo Astro #5

I love getting that second issue from a creator that I liked the first time around. Sure, the first one I read was good, but what about other work? Was the early stuff as good? How about later issues, did he/she keep it up? I’m happy to say that this issue was much better than #4, and I liked that one just fine. There are a few shorter pieces in this, but the bulk of it is the story of a boy as he grows up in a town where he’s told to stay away from the “bad people”, but by the time he’s in high school there are bad people everywhere. I don’t want to ruin it for anybody who hasn’t read it, but the scene with the 13 year old boy came as a complete surprise to me, even with the hints thrown in with the fingernails. That’s a sentence that makes no sense to the people who haven’t already read this, which is fine because you should read it. I still don’t know about his earlier issues and, after his introduction about how much he’s changed and how that’s reflected in the comic, I’m not sure that I want to. Some of the dialogue is a bit stilted here and there. That’s about as much of a complaint as I can muster. It’s $3, contact info is above, check it out! Oh yeah, and I liked the smaller stories too…

Comments Off on Turnbull, Jack – Apollo Astro #5 | Reviews | Tagged: Apollo Astro, Jack Turnbull | Permalink
Posted by Kevin

Turnbull, Jack – Apollo Astro #4

April 27, 2010

Website

Apollo Astro #4

It’s really odd to go from reading the new Mr. Show book right into a serious tale (sort of) about high, school, but I’ll give it a shot. High school stories are a dime a dozen, granted, and it takes a little something to make one stand out. This one’s good enough to qualify. It’s the story of Harry Pearson, a sophomore who makes robots and has a huge crush on a girl who’s dating a cartoonist. Already different from the norm, because the vast majority of these stories are written from the perspective of the cartoonist. I like a lot of little things about this comic. The way he programs his robots to call him master, the fact that the girl he likes is as much of an asshole as the the guy she’s dating, the radio interviewer making fun of him afterwards. Pretty much everything works here. As far as the art goes, it’s hard not to compare him with Alex Robinson, both in look and in the general tone of his stories. I don’t know if he’s read Alex’s stuff, but the art is eerily similar. Anyway, well worth a look, and I’d like to see how he does shorter stories. Lucky for me, he has other issues in print… Send him an e-mail to see what else he has around.