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Various I Know Joe Kimpel – Future
Future
You all know the drill on these I Know Joe Kimpel anthologies by now, right? 4 artists giving their take on whatever the title of that anthology happens to be? OK, just checking, don’t get all offended or anything. This one is about the nebulous concept of the future, so these four are able to take the concept and veer off into wild directions. Jennifer Tong starts off with the highlight of the issue (i.e. the one I was sure that I was following correctly), dealing with two people who are chatting online, having holographic interactions, before finally deciding to meet in person. I love this one because if you took away the bells and whistles (holograms, a device to let them fly) the personal side of it happens every day. Jason Overby is up next with an illustrated poem about needing to keep moving to stave off death, or at least that’s what I took away from it. Emily Wieja then has the most interpretive piece of the bunch, dealing with pollution, a bird eating a worm, an eagle and… aw hell, I don’t know. I’m still trying to piece that one together. To me it was a bunch of pretty pictures that didn’t add up to anything resembling the story title (“Mirror”), but sometimes I get stuck in my literalist ways. Finally there’s a silent piece by Jose Luis Olivares in which a tiny man clothed only in grapes tries to give a pretty flower away after witnessing the true horror of the world and, after a series of hardships, finally meets a woman that’s about 50% boob. Hey, I didn’t draw her, and maybe I only noticed because I’m a creep, but they were pretty hard to miss. Also pretty harmless, as they were on a tiny adorable cutout woman. Oh, and I should also point out that the actual cover is a bit shinier than the sampled image, in case you like shimmering gold on your comics. All told I’d say they have better anthologies available, but there’s enough good stuff in here to make it worth a look. $7
Various I Know Joe Kimple Anthologies – Sorry
Sorry
The kids are building a comics army. Don’t panic though, that’s a good thing. I have to admit, I haven’t thought a whole lot about what happens to all these people taking classes at places like the Center for Cartoon Studies after they graduate, but luckily for the rest of us it looks like they have it all figured out. That website listed above has about a dozen whippersnappers, freshly graduated and ready to make some comics, with plenty available from just about everybody listed. This is the first of 4 anthologies, done mostly to defray the cost of going to conventions, and it’s great to confirm that yes, it sure looks like this medium does have a promising future. First up is probably the highlight of the anthology, Mermaid Monster Blues by Caitlin Plovnick, a disturbing yet highly plausible retelling of the mermaid fable by Hans Christian Anderson. Next is Bluejay the Imitator by Colleen Frakes, based on a native story of the bluejay trying to find his place in the world. Next, well, I take it back: Monkey Bars by Mario Van Buren has to be the highlight, as it goes into detail about why it’s a bad idea to distract kids climbing on the monkey bars. Finally there’s Burn by Emily Wieja, the silent tale of a pyromaniac. While there will probably always be people just randomly putting out mini comics, it looks like in the future there will also be a substantial pile of people who are professionally trained putting out mini comics. Over the long run this should have the effect of raising the bar for everybody else, and three cheers for that. $6
