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Miers, John – A Collection of Comics

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A Collection of Comics

It’s best to get my complaint out of way at the beginning: that title is stupid. There, I said it. Of course this is a collection of comics; every comic produced that doesn’t follow one story is a collection of comics. That being said, the content is various shades of brilliant, and I mean that literally. The first half of the book is a silent pictorial representation of the Tower of Babel being built followed by the deity that so many folks seem to actually believe in causing everyone to speak in tongues and wandering off in confusion. Every page of this deserves to be on the wall of a fancy art house somewhere, and I’d know more about where that might be if I had spent much time in fancy art houses. The colors are vibrant, explosive and utterly perfect for the story they’re telling. He also includes the relevant bible passages for this story so you can see exactly what he’s trying to convey on each page. Seriously, this review is about to explode from hyperbole overload, but I don’t know if I’ve seen a more appropriate use of the colors available to tell a story. Everything after this was bound to be a bit of a letdown, but John manages to hold it together for the other three stories. There’s a lost man trying to catch his plane, a man drawing a portrait of a woman and maybe being a bit too honest with it and a fight scene for all you action fans out there. That last one dissolves into blobs of paint and goo, which is some strange way was the perfect ending to a book that started off so tightly depicted. You can read all of these pieces for free on his website, although I’ll bet that you could also order the book if you asked John nicely about it. I have no idea of the price, but it’s in full color and it’s the size of a magazine, so I’d guess at least $7.

Miers, John – Slab Comix Deluxe Edition

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Slab Comix Deluxe Edition

If you’ve been reading this site for a very, very long time, you probably remember the wonderful world of Slab.  If not, well, that’s why I keep all the old reviews on this site, and you can go check out the old issues of Slab now if you like.  Not a thing in the world is stopping you.  This is supposed to be the collected edition, but I have to start off on a sour note: my favorite story from the first issue of Slab, the tale of some workplace drudgery, isn’t in this volume.  Ah well, nobody is ever really happy with a “best of” collection, somebody always has to bitch and point out that it doesn’t have THEIR favorite story.  Today, I am that guy.  Luckily there are still plenty of great stories in this one, including Slab Rogers (in which our hero crash lands onto a planet and it attacked by all organic life on said planet), A Brief History of Slab (the history of the world told by Slabs, at least my second-favorite story of Slab made it to this collection), Slab Marlowe in “The Big Slab” (and you haven’t lived you’ve seen Slab Marlowe talk about how well a woman Slab is built), and Bruce Slab: Enter the Slab (exactly what you might think, it’s a martial arts battle between two Slabs and a genuinely wonderful thing).  Every one of these stories is up at his website, so it’s the easiest thing in the world to form your own opinion about the guy.  As for me, he sent me his books way back in the early days of the website, and I missed the world of Slab.  It looks like he’s moved on to different things (I’ll get around to reviewing the other book he sent in a week or so), but the Slabs will always rule.  Maybe if I bug him enough he’ll put my favorite Slab tale up on his website too.  No price, but I’d say $6 because it seems like a good random number for this sort of thing…

Miers, John – Slab II

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Slab II

Oh glory be! I was afraid that John was just going to publish one issue of this, or at the very least that I would never see another copy, what with us being in different countries and all. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about, as Slab is back with a bigger issue this time. Three stories in this one. The first one is about Slab Rogers, Pilot of the Future. The second is another one that’s told entirely in symbols (about which I have to say that the man’s nothing short of a genius, if I’m allowed to call somebody that for using symbols instead of words). The last one is about Slab Marlowe in a parody of Humphrey Bogart and the old mystery movies. Honestly, I’m a huge fan of the middle story, which is basically the history of the world told in symbols. The other two have their moments (and are probably easier to write), but they just don’t have the same kick to me. Still and all, it’s a unique comic and well worth the $4 to check it out. Or if you’re in Chicago you can apparently find it at the good local stores (Quimby’s and Chicago Comics, along with others that I’m forgetting because I haven’t been to them). He has a new e-mail address, so send orders there, OK?

Miers, John – Slab Comix #1

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Slab Comix #1

There’s something inherently beautiful about a comic done completely at work, using Microsoft’s Word and Paint programs and done with almost all “liberated” materials. That’s where this book came from. And there are times when that shows, when a book is crappy but it’s OK to like because it was done with so much spirit, but this book doesn’t have that problem. It’s the story of a, um, slab as he goes through his daily routine. As John says in his letter, it’s a tale of drudgery and failed romance. There were almost too many poop jokes, if that’s possible, but that’s the only mild complaint I have with the book. This is one of those where the word balloons are filled up with pictures, so no dialogue is ever actually spoken. It doesn’t matter, and honestly I can’t picture this story being told another way, so that’s a great compliment to John. This is well worth the $3 to check out. Here’s hoping he keeps that crappy job for a while so he can put out more comics! E-mail him for details or send money to: 66a Settles Street, London E1 1JP.