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Meyer, Doug – Napalm Pinata: The Lost Years
Napalm Pinata: The Lost Years
One thing you can say about “best of” comics is that if they suck, chances are nobody is going to buy other issues of your comic. Why should they? You just put out a collection of the strips that you think are the best and the issue is lame! Not that that’s what happened here, I just wanted to offer a word of caution to comics folks to make sure their best stuff really is in their “best of”s. Ahem. So what do we have here? Mostly comics from Napalm Pinata #1-3, with some other stories from anthologies and whatnot. That story I raved about from issue #3 is in here (go ahead and read that review, it’s right up there, if you’re curious), there’s Bumble Doug, crazy Virginia, an escape from a demon using word balloons as actual balloons (a funny idea that goes on for a few too many pages), rearranging a sleeping man’s dream for maximum creepiness, an impassioned plea to let comics be fun, the best stories from #3, a Rabie Babie, and mentioning imminent death. Oh, and the first strip he ever did on the back cover, to give you a bit of historical context. I think he’s gotten better with each issue that I’ve seen, and it’s reflected here with the later half of the issue getting better than the first half. Still, this is a good career retrospective, and if you don’t like at least half of the stories in here you’re probably not going to like any of his stuff. This is about 60 pages so I’m thinking it’s around $4, but why not send the man an e-mail and find out?
Meyer, Doug – Napalm Pinata #4
Napalm Pinata #4 Now Available! $2
You know what I hate? Reviewers who start off with something like “This issue/movie/book defies description!” then go on to describe the item. Well, this comic kind of falls into that category, but here I go, blathering on for a few more lines. This book, unlike #3, is mostly one complete story (except for a tiny wordless story at the end about a pregnant clown). It helps the book out in a big way. It’s all about a… hm. Here’s where the trouble begins. See, there’s this light bulb, and it gets blown up to about twice the size of your average beach ball. Then animals are dropped into it, one by one, with the insanity increasing with each addition, until things boil over. How do these animals get dropped through a solid surface? How do you blow a light bulb up anyway? Who cares? This book is hilarious and ridiculous, and I’m happy whenever I get that combination in a comic. It’s available in grey, purple or black and white cover, in case you were curious, and contact info is up there. Oh, and it’s the first of two parts, meaning that there is a cliffhanger that I’m not going to give away. Tough luck!
Meyer, Doug – Napalm Pinata #3
Napalm Pinata #3
I’m not sure what to make of this one. I enjoyed most of the issue, as it’s all a very random collection of jokes and short stories, but it wasn’t something that I thought was all that great. Then somewhere in the middle is the story that I sampled, and if you think the part that you can see is odd, you have no idea how much stranger it gets after that. To give you a hint, it involves a cat, an octopus and a dog and it’s one of the funniest stories I’ve seen in a while. It’s worth getting for that alone, but what else is in here? Well, there’s a man belching up a baby, a chick that mysteriously turns into eggs, a robot who finally gets off the assembly line, a tiger who turns his friend into money so they can be better friends… and that’s all I’m going to give you. Doug uses a few different styles here, as it looks like he’s just trying stuff out, but a lot of it works and the story about the guy who gets his brain replaced with eggs is priceless. E-mail the man and demand that he make more comics, OK?
