Blog Archives
Robertson, David (editor) – That Comic Smell #2
It’s another fantabulous anthology comic from David and friends, and once again it seems like this one must have slipped to the bottom of one of my perilous piles of review comics, as it looks like he’s already hard at work on #3. Eh, it’s timeless anyway, right? Granted, I don’t see it for sale on his website, but let’s just move on. I’m sure that contacting the man will end up with you getting a copy of it. The list of contributors on the back inside cover is incomplete (and/or he uses nicknames), so if I missed a name and you know it, send me an email and I’ll add a tag with their name. Seems minor, I know, but you’d be amazed what you can find here if you click on various names in those tags. Anyway, there’s a comic here, and it’s a pretty damned good one. Sure, there’s the occasional “meh” story, as is the case for every anthology ever, but they’re few and far between. Stories include a fully fictionalized account of Jeff Lynne explaining Xanadu by David (that sentence will need explaining to most of you, but trust me, it’s a funny story), Loki “helping” a young girl who saved his pet my Mike Sedakat, an absolutely hilarious parody of the “Taken” movies by David (unless it’s a faithful retelling, as I haven’t seen any of them, and if that’s the case I have to see all those movies immediately), letting the intern loose on the advice column questions by ? (see, this is why I prefer artist’s names to be on their pages in anthologies, or at least clearly marked somewhere), a more than slightly trippy bit on how we all perceive colors by another ?, how Muhammad Ali was thrown out of the British Magic Circle by yet another mystery artist, and an owl and a cat in outer space by David. Several other shorties too that I’m not mentioning because I like surprises, of course. There’s one story that’s a little problematic, depending on where you fall on the “how often should we be talking about Kobe Bryant, considering the whole rape thing” spectrum. If you’re interested in a faithful retelling of his various accomplishments by a guy who was actual friends with Kobe from a young age (Nando), then there’s a lot to like about the piece. If you think, like I do, that you have to at least mention the rape thing in a story about his life, it’s maybe a little lacking. Oh, why did I save that for last? Who wants to end a review of an overwhelmingly funny/insightful anthology with something like that? My apologies. Yes, David still knows what he’s doing with this anthology/comics business, and yes, you should absolutely check this out.
