As always with gigantic anthology collections like this, I like to make it easy on the reader. See that list of contributors in the tags? How many of your favorites do you see in there? Probably quite a few, huh? Then what’s left to think about? For the rest of you, or if you’re just trying to kill time at work, now I’ll say some stuff, then we can both go about our days. Hm, that seems like a grim way to sum up reviewing. Anyway! This is a collection of stories from people who are at their lowest points in life, so if you’re going into this expecting a barrel of laughs, you’ll be disappointed. There are some laughs, sure, as laughter can be the only way to get through some truly horrific times, but mostly it’s just sad. My biggest fear going into this, honestly, was seeing the worst parts of the lives of some of my favorite artists, but outside of a few of them, the artists were drawing the tales of people who submitted their stories anonymously. No, I’m not going to reveal which artists told their own stories; if you’re that curious about them get your own copy. There are also websites in the back so that anybody going through a similar issue in their own lives can get some help, so if you’re seeing too much of yourself in any of these stories, please do so. Not that you need to hear it from me, but I thought I’d throw it out there, because who knows when it’ll start seeming like good advice. There are roughly 40 stories in here, so I’m not going to go through them one by one, but I’ll give you some “highlights.” Subjects deal with reaching out for the last time and having it work out, the first time taking crack, getting beat up by cops (this one pops up more than a few times, which sadly isn’t shocking), using whiskey in a bong, getting addicted to voyeurism, a series of bottoms (a recurring theme was that there was rarely just one lowest point), having an imaginary dog, and very, very many slow descents to the bottom. It’s grim stuff, but it can also show you that there’s hope in even the worst times, as all of these people are still here to tell their stories. Get help if you need it, and give this comic a shot to see that however bad your situation is, there are people out there who have gone through something similar. $15
A disclaimer is absolutely necessary here: I don’t have kids, may or may not ever have them, and view the process of giving birth as something that happens thousands of times a day (or millions if you want to take all the animals of the world into account), which makes it anything but a miracle. That’s right, I’m an asshole! Surprise! Eh, I have nothing against kids, but I fully expected a book detailing the home birth of Chris’s latest child to have at least a few moments that completely confused/alarmed me. This one starts off with a positive pregnancy test, and strips from there include subjects like Chris wondering if he should tone down his subject matter while his wife was pregnant (her verdict: no), telling his kid that she was going to have a sibling, telling a friend about the pregnancy and his reaction, getting a new place to live, trying to figure out a name (and sadly not going with Volaticus, which I am officially stealing if I ever do have a kid), trying to guess the gender of the baby, working with the midwives, and Chris wondering how to make telling people that he self-publishes sound cool. Then the scene shifts a bit to a story that seemed to meander to me while I was reading it, but it all fits in by the end. Chris was at work and was thinking of tieing one on (“getting drunk” to you whippersnappers (young readers)), but a woman came into the restaurant that made people uncomfortable. He finally told her to leave, so she stood outside the window knitting and generally freaking people out. He finally (and reluctantly) called the cops, but there wasn’t much they could do because she wasn’t doing anything illegal. They finally left and ignored her, but the end result of it was that he barely drank at all. This ended up being a big deal because his wife gave birth the next day, a couple of weeks earlier than her due date, and it might have been a disaster if he was hung over. The birth itself was graphic, in case you’re freaked out by such things (if you are a little growing up might be in order), but overall it seemed to go smoothly, or maybe Chris shortened the labor for the sake of the comic. Anyway, the whole comic is basically a sweet love letter to his wife and kids, with tips for other people who want to try home births. So yeah, I’d recommend this for people who are thinking about giving that a shot. It was also thoroughly entertaining to a childless heathen like myself, but I do have one big question. Is it really normal for the mother to chop up and eat the placenta? Because that sounded gross as all hell to me (again I have to point out that I NO expertise in this matter). Just curious! $5
Posted by Kevin 
