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King, David – Lemon Styles

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Lemon Styles

Huzzah for a comic that’s too big for my scanner! These images have been lovingly pilfered from other websites, including David’s, where you can read most of these strips for free. Or maybe all of them? Maybe all of them and more? Yeah, I think it’s that last one. Anyway, this collection has a few dozen of his four panel strips that can be read in any order (as David mentions a few times) along with a longer piece that’s meant to be read in sequential order. It might have made more sense to put all like things together instead of breaking them up with the sequential piece, just like it might have made sense to put page numbers on the strips when he refers to one of them by its page number in the end, but what do I know. These strips are damned difficult to describe to somebody who hasn’t read any of them, and I recommend that you go do that now. Some are funny, some are sad, some seem to make no point whatsoever until you let it rattle around in your brain for a bit and finally hit upon the meaning, but all of them have that special something to them that makes a good comic. No, I still don’t know how to describe that something, 11 years or so into my ramblings about comics, and that’s fine with me. Subjects in here include that long tube, a 40 year old eyelash, a dusty moth, a chaotic drone, a chemical that inhibits emotions, the future of murder, how can it be you if it’s not you, being boring, and learning to play an instrument. Sort of, anyway, and you’ll see what I mean when you finally read some of these for yourself, which you should have already done when I mentioned it earlier in the review, unless you prefer to finish things that you start reading instead of getting distracted in the middle. That makes sense. $9

Onsmith, Jeremi – Gag-Hag

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Gag-Hag Now Available! $4

This reviewing thing is, at times, the easiest thing in the world. Dan Zettwoch, Ivan Brunetti, John Hankiewicz, Jeremi Onsmith, Chris Cilla, Ted May, David King, Bryce Somerville and Johnny Ryan contributed to this collection of one-panel gag strips. So what you have here is some of the funniest people around and probably the best title for a collection of this type imaginable. What, you’re still reading this? OK, I’ll also mention that I had a really hard time just picking one sample, but I’m trying not to give too much away for free here. It’s $4, as you can see, and it’s available here, as you can see. What’s stopping you? Don’t you like to laugh?

King, David – Legion of Super-Heroes Sketchbook

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Legion of Super-Heroes Sketchbook

You know, I forgot all about the fact that I had two copies of this, meaning… it’s for sale here! Not that it’s the most urgent thing in the world to discuss, as sales have been a bit… um, sluggish up until this point, but there you have it. This is about half of a sketchbook with half comic stories thrown in. You have a variety of super-hero characters in a variety of poses (some of the ladies almost seem a bit risque, but maybe that’s only because they’re drawn with some large boobies), then you have two of the super-heroes having a fishing contest to determine who gets to ask the super-hero lady out on a date. Honestly, I can usually take or leave sketchbooks, but the few pages of actual comic in this are more than worth the price of admission. Contact info is up there, or you could just buy it and be the first on your block to get a comic from me!

King, David – Cavalcade

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Cavalcade

Well, it turns out that “Horse and Rider” was a title that was used for “equine pornography”, so David isn’t going to be using that title any more. This book has two stories in it, although I don’t think they’re both “big” in the literal sense of the words. How many times can I use “quotes” in one review anyway? The first story is about a bunch of cute, fluffy animals committing suicide in some fairly brutal fashions. The second story is big, and it’s about a man who’s down on his luck meeting up with a bunch of other people who feel the same way. That’s an incredibly simplistic way to put it, granted, so you should probably read it to see what you think. A bit depressing, I guess, but it’s a great wordless story about fitting in with other people who don’t fit in and being alone with yourself. Contact info is up there, or you could just order it from me. Do it! You know you want to…

King, David – Horse! & Rider #1

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Horse! & Rider #1

Three cheers for random funny books! I think I’ve heard of David King from other Chicago people (or he has a name that sounds like another name, it’s hard to tell with a memory as bad as mine), but I had no idea what to expect going into this. Oh, I should also mention that the book is a light yellow color, not white, but I figured I didn’t need to use up so much space to make it yellow. Executive decision! Anyway, the story in here has nothing to do with a horse or its rider. Instead it’s about a man who decides that , in order to make something of his life, he needs to start stealing pies. I’ll say no more, as it’s too short to go into at any kind of length without ruining stuff, but I will say that I plan on using the word “Piebag” a lot more than I used to, which was never. Check out his website by clicking on the title, or go here to see what the second story in the book is about. It’s $1.50 and absolutely worth it, you can also e-mail him if you’re already sold…

King, David – The Shortest Interval

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The Shortest Interval Now Available!  $3

One of the most fascinating scientific unknowns in our history is, to me, what happened between the instant of the Big Bang and the point when everything started rapidly expanding.  David tackles that idea in this fantastic comic, although I should point out his disclaimer at the back of the book: “The author is not a scientist and does not understand physics or anything.  Use this comic book as an academic source at your own risk.”  I also feel obligated to point out to any functioning adult who still believes the Earth (and the universe) is 6000 years old to please sit quietly while the grown-ups discuss a scientific theory.  So what happened?  David says that this interval was 10 to the 34th power seconds long (if I’m even reading that right, which should tell everybody all they need to know about my grasp of science), and proceeds to give a number of theories as to what might have happened during that time.  I picked my favorite for the sample.  As this is a tiny thing and I have no interest in ruining any of the other theories for readers, I’ll just say that he does bring more than a little bit of science to this as well as explaining who the period is named after.  Making science funny can also be a tricky thing, but he pulled it off beautifully.  This is well worth checking out if you’re at all curious about that undefined period of existence and how everything came into being.  And who isn’t curious about that?  $3

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King, David – Danny Dutch

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Danny Dutch Now Available!  $5

This is the sort of book that describes any sort of easy analysis, so if you’re not a fan of me hemming and hawing for a chunk of text, it might be best to move onto something else (after you’ve at least checked out the sample, of course).  This is a 4 panel strip that David does weekly, and he admits in the afterward that he has no clear plan for the strip in the long term, it’s just something he does to see what kind of comic he can get done in a week.  As such, the subjects are all over the place, with the strip I sampled below one of the few examples with what you’d call a punchline, because that’s the mood I’m in today.  Other strips deal with utter abstractions that are impossible to summarize, or at least damned difficult, without draining all the joy out of them.  OK fine, subjects in here include a man’s first suit, being too attached to things, a rock-thrower, freedom to draw, a dead body, an abandoned boat and, of course, vapors.  I feel like you probably understand this book less now than when I started, so let me make this easy on you.  You can find a pile of these strips right here and read a bunch for yourself.  I applaud what he’s doing, just wandering around and seeing what he comes up with (while still keeping in the four panel format, at least so far).  Maybe some of his other stuff is more “accessible”, whatever that means, but this one deserves support, and I’m curious to see where he wanders off to.  $5

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