Schuster, Eric (editor) – The Horror #2

February 7, 2013

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Website where you can buy Lutefisk Sushi E

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The Horror #2

Hey, wait a minute, this isn’t an anthology! That “edited by” credit on the cover threw me right off. I guess an argument could be made that this IS an anthology, as around six other people contributed to this, but it’s a trick. The bulk of the story is the first chapter of “Dog Boy” by Eric Schuster, and everything after that is a full page spread of various assorted creatures. Is that an anthology? I need a ruling from a judge over here. I don’t think it counts. But hey, I can always review the actual comic part. The comics in this Lutefisk Sushi E box have mostly been self-contained so far, and that’s a good thing, but I can see the wisdom behind putting part of a continuing story in this box, as it’s basically a small press sample platter. Anyway, what we see so far is a young man going outside for a smoke break and getting into an altercation with a, well, dog boy. Or werewolf, or whatever it is. Oh, and the werewolf is riding a bicycle. The young man gets bit, as there wouldn’t be much of a continuing story otherwise, and things end with him getting a mysterious visitor at his door. It’s an intriguing start and I’m curious to see where it goes from here, but the danger that it becomes another cliched werewolf story is high. That mysterious visitor at the door is what’s keeping hope alive, as I do wonder what was up with that man. The full page spreads are pretty good too, with my favorite being “Surprise Minotaur” by Nathan Anderson. Yep, another good one in the mini comics box, another reason to buy the whole damned thing.

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Pollard, JP – Fear is the Mind Killer

January 31, 2013

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Website to buy Lutefisk Sushi

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Fear is the Mind Killer

Since I’m generally so nice in these reviews (but not always! Yes, you can find many bad reviews on this site if you look hard enough), I thought I’d start off with a negative: that cover looks terrible. Not the lines or the design, but that awful yellow color. Sometimes simple is best, and a plain old black and white cover would have worked fine here. That being said, I don’t have a whole lot of complaints about the actual story. Sure, I could have done without some of those spelling errors, but that “24 hour comic” on the cover is the great “get out of jail” free card for such things. The story here covers some familiar territory in small press comics (paralyzing self-doubt, wondering why you can’t work up the energy to make comics, letting every little setback throw your whole plan off), but JP has an interesting take on it. He had a job where he was making good money but kind of hated it, so he made a pact with his wife that they would leave their comfortable town, she would get a job in Chicago and he would work on his comics. Then… nothing. Well, she got a job, but he didn’t keep up his end of the deal for quite a while. We see the many reasons why that was the case, his observations from wandering around the town during regular business hours, and how he finally got going with his comics. And would you believe that Henry Rollins indirectly had a lot to do with it (even if JP does draw him as a black and white hulk)? It’s an engrossing story, even if we know how it ends (there are ads for his other comics on the back cover). Not that we really do know how JP’s story ends because hell, it’s still going, right? Here’s hoping he keeps it up, because he had some really innovative uses of words and word balloons in there, among other things.

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