Blog Archives
Taylor, Dan W. (editor) – Time Warp Comix #8
Time Warp Comix #8 Now Available! $.50
This comic immediately passed one important test for me, and probably only for me: it was tough to pick out only one sample to use, and for an 8 page book that ain’t bad. It’s a quick blast of a comic with nothing lasting more than a page, with the usual cast of characters. Artists, that is. There’s Richard Krauss with the sampled strip below (I just love that constantly widening perspective), Jim Siergey with the legally required strip with the bad puns, Bob Vojtko (how do you pronounce that name anyway? I’ll bet he’s long since tired of answering that question) has the dark side of the nursing home, and Bill Shut closes the book with a bizarrely wonderful drawing. Dan Taylor gets 4 pages, as he is the one who puts all this together, dealing with buying a comic he used to read as a kid and marveling at the technical changes, the realities of putting out a physical comic versus counting hits on a website, and another age joke at his expense.  It’s another solid, tiny, cheap collection of strips, so why won’t you buy it already? $.50
Taylor, Dan (editor) – Time Warp Comix #2
Time Warp Comix #2 Now Available! $.75
I hope nobody out there is trying to read these reviews sequentially. Once again, I read them way, way out of order, although now that only #3 is left to review I will be reading #2 and 3 in order. Whoopee! This time around the comic is half one-page pictures, meaning no story of any kind for those bits. In order, for the curious, those are an interpretive blot by Bill Shut, something utterly fantastic by M. Roden, a real mystery by… somebody (seriously, is there no space for some sort of tiny table of contents?), and a monkey with Frida Kahlos by Jim Siergey. You could take those or leave those (although I particularly enjoyed the Frida Kahlos), but then there’s still the comic story to consider, and it’s fantastic. It’s a three page tale by D. Miller about a burned-out artist trying to come up with fresh gags for a magazine about tits, dicks and balls. Comic versions of tits, dicks and balls anyway, and this artist is at the end of his rope in terms of being able to come up with anything else remotely funny. It’s a great piece and makes the whole comic damned near unmissable. Check it out, or go nuts and just get a pile of these cheap things.
Taylor, Dan (editor) – Symphony in Ink #3
Symphony in Ink #3
Geez, looks like I was cranky for the review for #2. I try to judge everything on merit and not let me mood effect anything, but really, who knows? However I’m feeling on any given day is bound to have an effect on what I write, which isn’t entirely fair, as my daily mood translates to a review that stays up forever (at least how time is determined online, anyway). Ah well. This one was a blast, and the construction of it had a lot to do with it. The contributors were Jenny Gonzalez, Steve Steiner, Andy Nukes, David DeGrand, Bill Shut and Dan Taylor, and I thoroughly enjoyed how Dan spaced out the stories, even putting little panels of his own under the Jenny Gonzalez strips when there was extra room. Everybody else but Steve Steiner had multiple pieces and Dan scattered them beautifully, with Steve getting the “centerfold”. As for the content, Bill Shut had a few full page pieces of art (didn’t do a lot for me), Andy Nukes had the same thing (oddly, I enjoyed his pieces), David DeGrand had a couple of thoroughly bizarre pieces about shaving a nose and giant fake heads (that I loved), Steve Steiner had a piece about why he hates squirrels (LOVED and am glad to see that Steve can see the truth about those vermin) and Jenny Gonzalez had 5 hilarious strips (she can do no wrong as far as I’ve seen). Oh, and Dan, in his job of “filling in the blanks” under the Too Negative strips, had a few decent funnies of his own. Definitely the best issue of the series so far. $2.50
Taylor, Dan (editor) – Symphony in Ink #2
Symphony in Ink #2
Here we have an example of my fundamental problem with anthologies in general: even when I like a series of anthologies (granted, this one was only based on reading one issue), there are times when individual issues of it don’t do a thing for me. This is one of those cases, as I did like the first issue. This one starts off with a story by Lorena Caiazzo, probably the best piece of the book, about a couple of kids trying to figure out what to wear for Halloween. Tom Brinkmann is up next with a piece about Funky Fetish Fashion Dolls, an OK piece about dominatrix action figures. Michael Roden has a poetic piece next, an illustrated ode about flying through dimensions that didn’t do a thing for me. Finally there’s Dan’s story about a cold zombie who hangs around with a hobo for warmth, with predictable consequences. There are also one pagers by Brad Foster, Bill Shut and Thomas Ferranti with faintly amusing shorties. As a whole it’s OK. If you like enough of these people, as with any anthology, that’s probably enough for you to check it out. If you don’t like them or know them already, there’s not a lot here to make a fan out of anybody else. $2
Krauss, Richard – Midnight Fiction 2008 Desk Calendar
Midnight Fiction 2008 Desk Calendar Now Available! $6
The contributors: Sean Azzopardi, Scott Ball, Hunt Emerson, Brad W. Foster, Allen Freeman, Richard Krauss, DC McNamara, John Porcellino, Bill Shut, Jim Siergey, Dan W. Taylor, Bob Vojtko, and Steve Willis. In case you’re wondering how this thing work, it’s beautiful in its simplicity. These are individual pages inside of a CD case, so all you have to do is flip the CD lid over backwards and you have an easy stand for your desk calendar. So instead of Dilbert or some other crap in your office cubicle, you can show the world how cool you really are with a calendar full of small press art. It starts with November of this year (2007), so you get a couple of bonus months with your calendar.
