Lewis, Jon – Power of 6: The Twisted Apples Part One

April 28, 2010

Publisher’s website

Power of 6: The Twisted Apples Part One

A note about this particular page first: there were image scans of all the comics Jon had published (until about 2003 anyway) and links that no longer worked, but not much that could be called a proper review, so I chucked the whole thing. Sorry, but what’s the point of having a bunch of outdated links cluttering things up? Jon’s past series have been wonderful, wonderful things, if you can manage to find copies of any of them. True Swamp, Spectacles, and Ghost Ship are things you should always be searching for, if you don’t have them already. OK, how about this comic? Jon tackles a super hero group this time around, or at least I think that’s what they’re supposed to be. It opens with Convenient Boy, nervous about his upcoming interview with a team of actual heroes, sipping coffee and using his powers to warm it up for himself and his mailman. We follow him to an ordinary house and an awkward interview in which he gets to demonstrate all three of his powers (secreting stickum, making copies of things, and using the power of a microwave), all to disastrous effect. It’s a great introduction to the group, as they have to deal with the mess he caused showing off his powers. I know some people don’t do super hero comics, no matter what form they come in, even if done by one of the better comics creators working today. That’s fine, whatever floats that boat of yours. But so far this is funny, smart and completely human, something lacking in plenty of these types of books. And we haven’t even seen all the members of the group yet! It’s only a two-parter, so things will have to get wrapped up quickly next time around. I’m just thrilled that he’s working, and seems to have all kinds of things planned according to the back of the book. It’s $4.95 but it’s gorgeous and a pretty fat book, for what it’s worth…


Cates, Isaac & Wenthe, Mike – Elm City Jams #2 (with various artists)

April 22, 2010

Website

Elm City Jams #2 (with various artists) Now Available! $1.50

First, let me clarify that list of “various artists”: Linnea Duvall, Tom Hart, Bill Kartalopoulos, Jon Lewis, Tom O’Donnell, and Jeff Seymour. As always with these jam books, it’s all about trying new things and still making funny, interesting stories. These could easily devolve into academic exercises and it would be hard to fault anybody involved, but I laughed out loud more than a few times while reading this, and that generally doesn’t happen for “academic” books. The rules for this one are simple and wonderful. An artist can take a title (that they didn’t make up) and get to work, passing onto somebody else after a panel or two. The rejected titles are hilarious (my favorite being Meat: The Parents), so obviously the ones they did use are even better. The other method is a bit more complex, involving joining individual panels and filling in the blanks to make a coherent story. So how did they do? I don’t want to spoil a damned thing here, which I suppose is part of my “job” as a “reviewer”. So, while keeping it as mysterious as possible, some of the concepts here include making a deal with the devil, Bert and Ernie running Halliburton, the devil’s avocado, space as a mindfuck, robots in trees, a rapping chicken and knight, drowing in a submarine, and a cursed comic. So, to wrap up, what you have here is some of the best names in comics doing various experimental works that all somehow end up funny. What’s not to love? $2.50