June 22, 2011
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Built #1
Here it is! Brian’s 100th ongoing series! OK, maybe I’m being a bit of a glib dick, as that’s not even closely to being literally true, but damn, this man has a lot of ongoing titles to juggle. It doesn’t hurt that they’re all in comics roughly the size of your thumbs placed next to each other, but it’s still an impressive achievement. This one deals with a robot who breaks free of his programming and decides to escape. This robot is on all the time, constantly improving itself, and it knows that its behavior will be noticed sooner or later, so this escape is a matter of self-preservation. Anyway, it manages to escape, is eventually found by a group of angry humans, and discovers just how unlikely humans are to listen to a sentient robot. Things end on a note that quite obviously makes this another continuing series and why not? There are all kinds of possibilities from here. Sure, “robot gains sentience, escapes from captors and wants to join humanity” story has been done before, but at this point I have full confidence in Brian’s ability to get something new out of it. That and Joe Badon’s scratchy, almost panicked art was perfect for the story. So yes, the verdict is that this is another potentially excellent series. Or another potential series that is abandoned early on, and only time will make that clear. For now I’d say it’s worth your support, but what do I know? $1
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Posted by Kevin
June 9, 2011
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Vigilant #1
Brian continues to be a mini comic machine with yet another new series. And when I say mini comic, I mean that the sample image (before you click on it to make it bigger) is larger than the actual comic. If you’re going to keep up with all of his books I’d recommend setting aside a shoebox or something for these tiny things, as my current plan of “let’s just leave these things lying around in piles” is not working all that well. So anyway, this comic deals with a group of vigilantes who are, um, vigilant. They watch out for the little guy, punish the evil guys, and wear short pants with their hooded robes. Maybe that last thing isn’t a listed part of their agenda, but it was still hard not to notice. As with many of Brian’s comics this one was fairly thin on detail and hard to get a handle on in terms of a potential series. His other series mostly became really intriguing after a few issues, so I’m not too worried about it. We didn’t learn much about this group, but the implication was that they were at least mildly normal during daylight hours. At this point I have all the faith in the world that Brian can turn this into a worthwhile series over time, but so far there’s not much here that you haven’t seen before. Shadowy group of crime fighters takes on the criminal element but they work outside the law! Yeah, we’ve all been there. If he focuses his considerable skills on putting out another few issues of this series I have all the faith in the world that he can make it interesting. If he decides to let this one go to focus on a half dozen other series that I’m already invested in, well, so far I wouldn’t miss this one too much. $1
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Posted by Kevin
September 9, 2010
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Mecha #1
That’s what Brian was missing: giant robots! Sorry, did I give away the ending? I was guessing people would have picked up on the giant robot thing from the title. Anyway, this is about twice as big as the usual BJM mini comic and, if this is at all easy to produce, I suggest he go with this format all the time. Much easier to turn the pages and bigger pretty pictures to look at, what’s wrong with that? This is the story of a man who can’t even remember his life before the Martians took over and has been fighting for his life as a gladiator. He eventually gets away with a group of people, spends years fighting Martians and eventually meets the woman of his dreams. Sadly, a happy ending is impossible in these books and things take a turn for the worse. This leaves our hero at a loss for what to do with his life… until he finds one of the old giant robots used at the start of the war with the Martians. I’m starting to just accept the fact that Brian has the ability to put out half a dozen series or so on a regular basis and have them all be intriguing in their own way, but it’s best to remember not to take this sort of thing for granted. Sure, he’s not the artist so he has that going for him, but I’d almost think it would be harder trying to keep the attention of a half dozen artists for the length of a series. Whatever it is he’s doing he should keep it up, as this is yet another winner. Or maybe it turns to crap in the next issue, but the guy has more than earned the benefit of the doubt by now. $1
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Posted by Kevin
August 14, 2010
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Cops and Crooks #1
Brian has this listed as a #1, but in this case I don’t get it. I suppose, if I squint my eyes just right, this could be the perfect beginning of a series. Or it could be the perfect example of a self-contained comic. Ah, who cares? He has a half dozen or so other series that he’s juggling, so either way works for me. This is the story of, well, cops and crooks. This has to be close to the shortest flip book around, as half of it deals with a cop and the other half deals with a man who wants to kill all cops and destroy the system. The cop had a rough but decent life, as his father (also a cop) was killed when he was four years old, but he was raised by a bunch of different cops on the force, with them taking him on their family vacations and generally doing all the things that a father should do. The other guy had a completely different experience, as his father was taken away by cops before he was even born, so he has, quite naturally, hated them ever since. There’s also the distinct contrast of the artwork, as Jason Young (I’m guessing the Veggie Dog Saturn Jason Young?) has a clean line with everything seeming to be sweetness and light, while on the Crooks half Eric Shonborn perfectly captures some scratchy (but still intricate) rage. Like I said, this could go either way in terms of it being a series. I could see them both eventually crashing into each other, or this just being fine all by itself as a commentary of the intrinsic nature of cops and crooks. Either way, as always, I’m on board, and you should be too. $1
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Posted by Kevin
July 29, 2010
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XO #6
It feels like I haven’t reviewed an issue of XO in ages. Granted, that certainly isn’t Brian’s fault, as he continues to crank out these minis at a ridiculous pace. Luckily he’s more than smart enough to put a recap on the first page, so people with spotty memories like me have a chance to get caught up. In the last issue there was the small matter of a murder and what to do with the body, so this issue takes care of all that. It’s less suspenseful than you might think, as the main character is given an address to take the body and goes on his merry way. Nobody seems to suspect anything, our hero gets cover at his work so nothing is out of the ordinary, and all he has to do is take a 12 hour drive down to Miami. Oh, and did I mention that our hero is 16 and has never left the area? After all the murders of the first few issues this one was downright serene, as the narrator contemplates the fact that he could now never become a writer (writers have to write what they know, and he can never risk news of the murder getting out) and wonders what other career he could come up with. By the end of the issue he has a pretty good idea, but why spoil that for you? In case people see the vast body of work that Brian has put out over the last couple of years and want to try something but don’t know where to start, I’m going to suggest going for a full series instead of getting one or two issues of everything. In the mood for a fantastic western revenge story? Get Just A Man. Like to read about failed relationships, or at least relationships that left serious emotional scars? Lost Kisses is for you. How about creepy government paranoia and parasitical invasion? Worms, my good chap (or chapette). Or, if “in over his head but still preternaturally calm about it”, why not try XO? $5 gets you pretty much any of the series I mentioned, and who doesn’t have $5 stashed away somewhere for good comics? $1
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Posted by Kevin
July 1, 2010
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Worms #6
And the spinning wheel of Brian John Mitchell comics lands on… Worms! Regular readers of this site and/or Brian’s comics know that the guy has a half dozen series (at least) that he’s working on at any given moment, usually with a few more that come out less frequently. “Less frequently”, in his case, still means more often than most comics that are the ONLY comic put out by other creators. He has an impressively prolific record, that’s what I’m trying to say. In this issue of Worms our heroine wakes up after having been eaten by a giant worm (not to be confused with the smaller worms that have been in past issues). She seems to have developed a rapport with the creature, so she leads it along with three other worms to attack the complex that has been holding her captive. Some serious mayhem, and it’s almost adorable on these tiny pages. There’s one thing that’s clear to me after reading all the issues (except #1) of this series: I still only have the vaguest idea of where this is all headed. I know that Lost Kisses is going to be self-contained stories of his lost loves, Just A Man is going to keep going until the hero learns what happened and gets his revenge/gets killed, but this one is so surreal that it feels like it could have ended a couple of times already, or it could just go on forever. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, just something I’ve noticed and haven’t been able to talk about due to my “no spoilers” policy. Anyway, as always this is worth a look, unless you haven’t read the other issues in this series, in which case it won’t make a lot of sense (but at least Brian is smart enough to put series recaps at the start of his comics). $.75
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Posted by Kevin
June 9, 2010
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Just A Man #4 (with art by Andrew White)
One of the many reasons I caution people not to take these reviews too seriously is that I do them every day. Well, I try to do them every day, but I come pretty close. As that’s the case, I’m reading these in all sorts of moods, and I’m sure there have been times when a crappy mood has translated into an unfavorable review, something I take every precaution to avoid, but there’s no way I’ve been anywhere near 100% successful. I mention all this because I had a negative reaction to the last issue of Brian’s Marked series, which was odd because I’ve been a fan of pretty much all of his other series (including the first issue of Marked!). So was it my mood? The comic? Road construction pounding in my ears while I was trying to type? I’m not sure, but will have a chance to revisit it when the next issue of that series comes out. Either way, I still absolutely love this one. This time around our hero has just discovered his wife (who he thought murdered in the first issue) is still alive, and that the “daughter” he has been sent to free from whorehouse is not the man’s daughter at all. Our hero frees another whore and gives her some new cash to start a new life and has a confrontation with the man who hired him for his “daughter”, so we’re still going to have to wait at least an issue to see what’s up with his wife. Fine by me, I’ve been enjoying every bit of this and am fine with him keeping it going for as long as possible. I’m a sucker for the hopeless gunman trying to get his revenge on the people who wronged him, and if things aren’t as cut and dried as we’ve been led to believe, well, so much the better. Things are rarely as black and white as depicted in most western stories, and the shades of gray are a welcome addition. I’m assuming you people are already keeping up with this series, but if you’re not and if you wanted to check out just one of his books, I’d go with this one. Or Lost Kisses, I love that one too. Or Worms, that’s creepy as hell. Or maybe XO… $1
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Posted by Kevin
May 23, 2010
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Marked #2 (with art by Jeremy Johnson)
It may have finally happened: Brian may have finally spread himself too thin with the pile of minis he’s putting out on a constant basis. I thought this issue was a little too pat, wrapped up a little too neatly. Things start off with a recap of the last issue (Brian has always gotten this right), then our hero Mark the former demon hunter (called out of retirement in the last issue) wakes up after taking a beating from his own inner demon, which he had to unleash to defeat the other demons. The issue is a mad dash from there, with the demon killing Mark’s girlfriend in his apartment, Mark getting a train ticket to get out of town (as he understands completely that “my inner demon came to life and killed my girlfriend” wouldn’t fly with the cops), and the demon confronting Mark at the train station. I’m still having trouble putting my finger on exactly what it was that felt… less in this issue than in the rest of Brian’s work. The ending was very neat, sure, especially when you consider how much trouble Mark knew it would be to release his demon and the relative ease with which their fight went (not to give anything away or anything, even though I kind of just did. Dammit).  With his consistent record of quality he’s earned the benefit of the doubt from me, so I’m guessing this inner demon thing will get explained more fully in future issues, or maybe he’ll just ditch this series entirely and focus on the half dozen other series he writes. Still, there’s some great artwork by Jeremy on these tiny pages, and the story all by itself was engaging. There was just something a little bit lacking. Yes, I know that as a reviewer I’m supposed to be able to pinpoint exactly what that is. Maybe Brian’s desire to have all the issues be at least mildly self-contained, which caused the fight to wrap up too quickly? That’s a noble goal, to keep everything satisfying if a person only buys one issue. Ack, I give up. There’s also the possibility that something in my brain wasn’t firing properly today; keep in mind that’s always a possibility with these reviews. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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XO #5 (art by Melissa Spence Gardner)
You know what I love most about this particular series ? It’s the fact that the murders have all been, on some level or another, justifiable. Granted, it’s been just barely justifiable in some cases (#3, for example, and this one) but there’s a case to be made for the fact that murderer was mostly trying to do the right thing. In this issue a young drug dealer is confronted by the brother of a man to whom he’s dealing drugs. He mentions this problem to his partner, who mentions it to the supplier, and is offered $5000 to take care of the problem along with assistance in getting rid of the body, but any action to be taken is purely up to the dealer. The dealer confronts the brother, meaning only to talk, but he confronts him while the guy is working on his car and he ends up getting accidentally killed in a manner that’s familiar to anybody who has ever worked under a car hood who has an active imagination. The comic ends a little abruptly, as we’re left to wonder exactly how this dealer is going to get rid of the body, but I still love all the ambiguity. Brian is doing an excellent job of giving all of his series a distinct voice, and the contribution of Melissa with the art has to be at least mentioned. That death shot was a particularly gruesome panel and she manages to make all of these deaths seem like they could be happening to somebody you know, no small feat. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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XO #4 (art by Melissa Spence Gardner)
Another issue of XO, another fun murder. Actually, I suppose you could call this an “almost murder”, followed quickly by the steps necessary to make it an actual murder. OK, I’m getting way ahead of the story. Once again, everything is presented like it’s a true story, which only makes the whole thing creepier. Brian comes home from grocery shopping to find his neighbor outside arguing with her boyfriend. He decides to step in, asking her if she’d like the guy to leave, and things escalate to the point where the girl just walks away and the guy takes a swing at Brian, which leads to him getting punched in the face. Trouble is that the punch was maybe a little too hard, as the guy doesn’t seem to be moving, and something has to be done about that body lying in the parking lot. I’m really starting to love these tiny things (in case you haven’t read the other reviews, that cover sample is just about actual size), as they’re imaginative and creepy and (while Melissa is drawing anyway) artistically swell. Not that the other ones are ugly, it’s just that Brian is more of a stick figure kind of guy. This is probably right around $1, and every one of these I’ve seen so far has been worth checking out.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Ultimate Lost Kisses #11 (with art by Dave Sim (!))
No, I don’t know if this is a continuation of the Lost Kisses series (what with the addition of “Ultimate” to the title), but as this is listed as #11 and the last issue with Lost Kisses in the title was #10, I’m going to assume that it is. I’ll get to the comic in a minute, but Dave Sim? I guess he has some free time these days, but kudos to Brian for getting him to illustrate a book of his. I’m actually finishing up the Cerebus series this week, as all the unrelated text pieces killed it for me the first time around and, while I have my problems with various theories by Dave (and his sucking all the joy out of his book for the last 50 issues or so), I doubt that I’d even still be reading comics if it wasn’t for his influence. I don’t know what his legacy is going to end up being, but I’d put the first 220 issues or so of Cerebus up there as one of the great achievements in the field. Isn’t there a comic somewhere I’m supposed to be reviewing? This issue changes the format of the previous Lost Kisses, as this is a fictional story (or at least I hope it is). A young woman gets a letter from her son, 18 years after she’d given him up for adoption and practically forgotten his existence. He’s on death row for killing a man and wants to meet her, but there’s nothing accusatory in his letter. She informs her husband (who she met ten years after her son was born) about his existence, tells him of her plans to visit her son, and she sets off. Brian is a master of taking the images given and expanding or shrinking them, using the images as a director would use a camera lens, and he does wonders with what he’s given here. It’s a powerful story, and I hope this gets Dave back into comics, assuming he even wants to after 300 issues of Cerebus… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Lost Kisses #10
Brian, with this issue, asks an important question: when it is OK to tell someone that you love them? On top of that, what exactly is love, and is anyone ever capable of really loving someone else? Those happy thoughts form the basis for this mini, so if you’re one of those people who is deliriously happy and in love, this one probably won’t do a whole lot for you.   It starts with Brian noticing that a lot more people are telling him that they love him recently, and he has a point: it’s used way too much. Then again, as he points out, he is a stoic guy from a stoic family, so maybe he’s just taking the whole thing too seriously.  He also concedes that maybe if he had a wife and kids (a lot of his friends are married with children) that saying “I love you” would probably be second nature. He concludes by saying that maybe he should give it a chance, or maybe he’ll end up lonely and bitter and won’t have to worry about people telling them that they love him because he’ll have lost all his friends. Once again it’s an interesting comic, and he really has no right being this productive AND thought-provoking. Just pick one or the other and save the rest for the other mini comics folk. I think everybody knows where I stand on these things by now, that they’re very much worth checking out. He does mention that he’s running out of ideas, but I’ll believe it when I see it… $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Lost Kisses #9
It’s getting to the point where I should give Brian a separate page for each of his titles to prevent this page from getting completely ridiculous. He just sent 5 more comics along, one starting an entirely new series, and this page is bulky enough as it is. Damn his productivity! Lost Kisses is definitely the most personal of his mini minis, as this time around he talks about how he much he values creativity and artistic expression over economic stability and how this inevitably gets him in trouble with the significant others of his friends. After all, when he encourages them to do more art, the reason against it is usually because of a job. The conversation then turns to how much they hate that job, which turns to questioning why they still work at a place they loathe, which is not a direction that most significant others would like the conversation to go. He goes on to talk about how he can’t seem to talk to these boyfriends/girlfriends like real people, as he always sees them as transitory, which is also how he sees life in general. Cats, on the other hand, are creatures that he wants to like him. He also mentions how much more he likes sleeping than sex, and once again generally shows that he is willing to talk about pretty much any personal detail, as he comes to terms with being stuck as a jackass for the rest of his life because changing would be too hard. It’s brilliant stuff and seems to be getting better as he goes along which, with this level of productivity, means he’ll be Dan Clowes in no time. These are all a buck each and I just noticed that he sells chunks of ten for $8, for those of you who like a bargain.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Lost Kisses #8
I finally found something to complain about with Brian’s comics: they’re so tiny that they can get lost in the general chaos of my desk. This comic came in months ago, and just now it fell out of a larger stack of comics when I reached for something to review. As complaints go it’s pretty weak, granted, but I figured some negativity was due on this page, especially as I thoroughly enjoyed this issue. This is the story of Brian’s ex getting robbed and beaten and ending up in a coma. He pulls no punches at all in describing his feelings towards her, even going so far as to wish (almost) that he had done it. If you wanted to complain about the stick figure artwork I guess you could do that, but nobody could fault Brian for a lack of openness. Honestly, pretty much everybody who’s ever had a horrible breakup (which is probably everybody who has ever dated) has at least thought about killing their ex, but few people are willing to go into this much detail about it. Brian doesn’t let himself off the hook either, going into some things he did wrong in the relationship and bemoaning his inability to completely move on from this relationship. As always, this is another solid mini, and people with more organizational skills than me should have no trouble reading these tiny things all in a clump and not losing them around their room…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Lost Kisses #7
In case you can’t read the caption, it says “Keys, Phones and Barcodes: What do these things have to do with each other?” It takes a while to get there, but he pulls it all together in the end. This is the story of Brian finding some house keys from an old girlfriend, and it happens to be the old girlfriend who he actually bought a house with years ago. She still owes him $5000, he has no interest in ever seeing her again and spends the issue trying to figure out what to do with them. The trouble is that the first half of the book is all over the place and I didn’t start piecing this story together until the start of the second half. He goes from a ringing phone right to a panel about the odd names of grocery stores in other states to questions about how the store located him in the first place. Reading it over again, I got what he was going for: the grocery store called him because of the bar code on the keyring, but it was awkwardly put together. He saves things in a big way with the second half though, because what do you do in that situation? He goes through all the pros and cons and eventually comes to a decision. Without ruining anything, it turns out he’s a nicer guy than I am. Brian sent a small pile of minis again this time around, so more tiny fun will be had in the near future. As for this one, I recommend it to anyone who has ever fantasized about revenge of an ex. Which is probably everybody…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Lost Kisses #6
The king of very tiny comics is back! OK, maybe I’m not allowed to call him the king of tiny comics. Many people are making mini comics, and many of them are pretty damned tiny, but very few people I know are this prolific while keeping their books this tiny… and still managing to pack engaging stories in the little things. This issue is a flip book (both by Brian), with one half detailing the reasons he should stay with his girlfriend and the other detailing the reasons he should leave. He makes a point in the beginning of the mini to say that this isn’t about any specific girl in his life, and I suppose that’s true of the comic as a whole, but a number of panels here just have to be about one person. Still, it’s not like he’s going to get sued or anything, as these minimalistic images make lawsuits pretty unlikely.  On the negative side, yes, he goes into things that are true of a lot of women, and no, I don’t think it’s misogynistic to say so. His negatives are lying, a lack of willingness to deal with past emotional scarring, spider veins, her being over her ideal body weight, appearance being more important than reality, having no taste in art, and rogue nipple hairs. On the plus side, his positives for a girlfriend are intelligence, a sense of humor, better self-esteem, the peace he feels while holding her, good hair, musical skill, and the simple fact that he loves her. Granted, some of the negatives are pretty petty, and some of the positives are generalities that you see in every dating ad to ever exist, but this is still a fascinating book. Leave this on the coffee table (if anybody even sees it amidst the clutter) and sit back and wait for all the awkward conversations that are sure to follow. Like everything else I’ve seen from this guy, it’s well worth a look, that’s for sure.
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Lost Kisses #5
Yep, that’s about actual size for this comic. It was actually shrunk from a smaller size a few years back and is now right around the size of a pack of matches, but somehow Brian manages to pack all sorts of goodness into this tiny package. This is a short version of the story of Brian’s life, his struggles to keep friends, to distinguish himself from humanity as a whole (although I would submit that a continuing interest in this medium is a good start), and his surprising lack of interest in many self-perceived failings. Turns out (spoiler alert!) that he has something called Asperger’s, so maybe this odd disconnectedness he’s feeling is simply a matter of faulty brain wiring. Honestly, when I see a comic this tiny, the best I’m hoping for is maybe a good joke or two, something mildly amusing because of the novelty format. The fact that he was able to put together an emotionally moving story while still being oddly disaffecting is impressive as hell to me. You can order all five issues at his website for $3.50, or maybe, what, $1 apiece? This is well worth seeking out for anybody who has ever felt listless and directionless, which I’m guessing is just about everybody reading this at one time or another…
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Worms #5Â (with art by Kimberlee Traub)
There are probably a few of you out there who have been reading this series thinking “Sure, this is an odd comic on a number of levels, but I haven’t been creeped out enough by it”. Well, your prayers have been answered! The escape from this institution (if that is in fact what it is) continues in this issue, as our heroine listens to the voice of her dead father (who is helping her to escape), makes her way out and then has to deal with the same people who shot at her last time. This time around she seems to have come to terms a bit more with the worms in her system, and it’s all I can do not to give anything else away. Let’s just say that Brian seems to have a gift for taking stories that seem to be going full steam ahead and veering wildly in a completely unexpected direction. Anyway, I’m along for the ride, as clueless about where this is heading as anybody else. That’s assuming you’re already reading this, and why wouldn’t you be? All these tiny comics for that tiny amount of money? Plus the (as close as you can come in the comics world) guarantee that this guy is committed to the comics and will keep cranking these things out, so you won’t get dumped in the middle of a story? Seems obvious to me. $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Worms #4 (with art by Kimberlee Traub)
Bits and pieces coming to light, that’s what this series is all about. This time around our heroine has a dream in which her dead father tells her that it’s time to wake up, while she still can. Upon waking she sees that instead of a ceiling above her bed there are storm clouds and silent lightning. One bolt of this lightning hits her IV, which has the odd effect of making her fine with the worms that are coming through it and into her body. It also gives her the energy to try to escape again, which is when her nurse comes in to check up on her. There’s no sense of my telling you much more than that, as there are few things worse than a suspense comic with no surprises, but we do get to see a bit more about the people holding her captive and, perhaps, why that security guard from a couple of issues ago seemed to be bloodless. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: send the man a pile of money so he’ll send you a pile of tiny comics. It’s so simple! $1
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Posted by Kevin
April 24, 2010
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Worms #3 (with art by Kimberlee Traub)
With a suspense comic it’s best to leave the specifics alone for as long as possible, as that generally ratchets up the suspense, and Brian does an excellent job of that here. We do learn in this issue why the title of the series is “Worms” (at least a little bit), but as for everything else… who knows? Our heroine from the last issue wakes up strapped to a bed, hooked up to an IV. She quickly sees that this IV has worms swimming in the liquid, then she sees that one of the creatures is swimming through the tube to her arm. Things get even more disgusting from there, believe it or not, and we’re left to wait until the next issue (if then) to get some idea of where exactly she’s being held and why. It didn’t take me long to get hooked on these tiny comics, but they’re like minuscule bundles of comic crack. You get a little tiny taste each time of what sure feels like a master plan, unless of course he’s making it up as he goes and has me completely fooled. Worth checking out either way. $1
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Posted by Kevin
