June 8, 2016
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Threadbare: Clothes, Sex & Trafficking
There’s a long list of things I would do if I was a rich man, but high up on that list would be funding comics journalism, or graphic journalism. Whatever it is that Joe Sacco established roughly 20 years ago, anyway. This is a rare occasion where I’ll cite Wikipedia, but they list Emi Gennis, Jen Sorenson, Dar Archer, Matt Bors and Josh Neufeld (among others), and I’m constantly surprised that this isn’t more of an established thing by now. As Anne makes clear in the introduction, that’s mostly because funding is incredibly difficult to come by, especially with a project like this one that covers years of interviews, travel and multiple artists. I’m only going to briefly summarize these sections, as they’re chock full of details (and footnotes after the fact), so the only way to really do them justice is to read them yourself. The title gives you the basics of what’s covered in here, and it’s broken down into four sections. First up is The United States, which deals with fast fashion, the real life of a model, clothing stores, thrift stores, warehouses full of clothes to be recycled, and the trade agreements that “govern” this whole mess. The story of the model (and her description of the ones that were best able to adjust to the environment and the ones who weren’t) is heartbreaking, as is the general waste and pollution caused by the thrift industry (and how little of the profits actually make it to charities). The second section deals with Austria and the history of textiles and fashion, including stories from people who have lived their whole lives in the industry and are seeing it start to vanish due to competition from the larger clothing chains. The third section tells the story of Cambodia, the working conditions and wages of the factories, how that sometimes turns into sex work and how it can cycle back into garment work due to a lack of other options. The fourth section is The World, and it’s probably going to be the most surprising chapter for people who only have a passing knowledge of the sex trade industry and trafficking. The shocking bits (to me, anyway) detail how sex trafficking (slavery, basically) is treated the same in the US as voluntary sex work, and how funding for getting rid of sex slavery often gets tied up in ridiculous moral rules that come from the hyper-religious types. Fighting these moralistic scolds is incredibly difficult because they’re successfully blurred the lines for years, and money that could be more effectively put into housing and counseling for actual victims instead goes into advertising to convince people that their children will be sold into slavery if they leave their parents’ sight for a few minutes. It does conclude on a hopeful note, with some practical advice on how to change things for all of the various problems they’ve documented, but it’s daunting to say the least. Even if you think you’re an expert on this subject I guarantee that you’ll find new information in here, and the comics are drawn by the some of the best artists working today. If you know any millionaires please tell them to throw some money at people who are looking to do this type of graphic journalism, because the world needs more of it. $13.95
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Reviews | Tagged: Anne Elizabeth Moore, Delia Jean, Ellen Lindner, Julia Gfrorer, Leela Corman, Melissa Mendes, Sex & Trafficking, Simon Haussle, Threadbare: Clothes | 
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Posted by Kevin
June 19, 2015
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Cringe
Quick, think of the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you. Now imagine yourself writing and drawing a comic story about it. That right there should make you cringe, which means you’re in luck, as that’s what this anthology is all about! This book has right around 30 small press artists, some new and some who have been around for awhile, who are willing to share some shameful incident from their past. I don’t think anything in here will get anybody put in jail, but it’s hard not to cringe while reading some of these. I’m not going to review every story because there are so damned many of them (and for a measly $8!), but the highlights include Shaenon K. Garrity wetting herself while out with a group of other cartoonists (including a big name guy, but I won’t spoil the surprise; I particularly loved the way she ended her strip), Sam Spina’s unfortunate method for drinking a rum shot when he met the Bacardi girls, Adam Pasion’s particularly gruesome retelling of an incident involving a finger in the eye, Geoff Vasile dodging a bullet (not literally), Chad Essley and his series of embarrassing moments (hard to top the one where he volunteered to breakdance at school on stage), Fred Noland’s theories on some crayons he used to own, Chad Woody and his racist former roommate, Box Brown and his former habit of eating light bulbs (it’s not quite as life-threatening as it sounds), Stephen Notley and his experience of being “that guy” at a comic convention (you know the one, the guy who gets up to ask a rambling and pointless question and has no idea how to get out of it once he gets started), and Sam Henderson’s experiences with having seizures while surrounded by strangers. It’s a damned fine mix of stories, and at a ridiculously cheap price. Save yourself the embarrassment of not owing this anthology of embarrassment! Ugh, I feel dirty for saying that. I’ll let myself out… $8
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Adam Pasion, Alan King, Andrew Farago, Box Brown, Cara Bean, Chad Essley, Chad Woody, Chris Carlier, Cringe, Danny Hellman, Delaine Derry Green, Elijah Brubaker, Fred Noland, Gabby Schulz, Geoff Vasile, J.T. Yost, Jamie Vayda, Jeffrey Brown, Jess Worby, John Kerschbaum, Julia Gfrorer, Lizz Lunney, Noah Van Sciver, Peter Conrad, Sam Henderson, Sam Spina, Shaenon Garrity, Stephen Notley, Steve Lafler, Victor Kerlow | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
December 18, 2013
Website
On Your Marks #1
Oh, what a crank I am. I get a pretty damned great anthology filled with small press people living in Seattle who could use a little more exposure and I can’t help thinking that I would have liked it better with a clear indication of which artists did which pages. They’re even all listed on the inside front cover, but they’re inside of a drawing, which makes some of them tough to make out. Does this take away from the quality of the content? Not one bit, no, as it’s not like it’s impossible to figure out who did certain pages with a little bit of work. Eh, I blame it on the general tone of the holiday season. All this Christmas music everywhere just bugs me. And if you ever needed more proof that I am in fact a total curmudgeon, there you have it. Anyway! This is a collection of mostly one page strips, done by all kinds of people that you either already know about or should be ashamed of yourself because you’ve never heard of them. Stories include Ben Horak having the comic he made when he was 6 read by adults (with a perfect final panel), Tom Van Deusen’s creepy piece about a head growing out of a roof and what happens when it’s removed, Bobby Madness and the sacrifice he made for the environment, Kelly Froh’s traumatic moment on an aimless afternoon, Pat Keck and his dungeon Gremlins, Aarow Mew and the result of his “spider” bite, Julia Gfrorer’s tale of a creepy ouija board experience, Rick Altergott and Pat Moriarty’s story of what cats think is going on with their litter boxes, Marc Palm’s Flannelwolf and Frankcan, Robyn Jordan’s worries about what she’ll be like in 10 years after she has kids, David Lasky’s questions about what you would do if you were a superhero, and Max Clotfelter’s mistaken assumption involving getting his older brother involved in protecting him. Like I said, it’s a damned solid anthology, full of ridiculously talented people. Maybe next time they’ll put page numbers on the pages to lessen my crankiness, or maybe it’s something I need to work on on my own and I’m sharing too much here… $4
Comments Off on Various Artists – On Your Marks #1 | Reviews | Tagged: Aaron Mew, Aiden Fitzgerald, Andrice Arp, Asher Craw, Ben Horak, Bobby Madness, Chris Cilla, Darin Schuler, David Lasky, Elaine Lin, Eroyn Franklin, Ian Sundahl, Jack Hayden, James Stanton, Jason Miles, Jennifer Parks, Julia Gfrorer, Kaz Straepek, Kelly Froh, Kinoko, Marc Palm, Max Clotfelter, Michael Litven, Moseley Smith, On Your Marks, Pat Keck, Pat Moriarty, Reuben Storey, Rick Altergott, Robyn Jordan, Sean Christensen, Short Run, Tim Goodyear, Tim Root, Tom Van Deusen | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
June 19, 2013
Website
Unknown Origins & Untimely Ends
You should have a pretty easy time knowing whether or not you’d be inclined to like this book from the title alone, and I’m happy to tell you that the contents more than live up to it. Emi has been doing mini comics on this theme for a few years now, and she took her chance to edit this anthology and ran with it, doing a really fantastic job of picking out/accepting these stories. I should say up front that I have no patience for those stupid “ghost hunting” shows with the shaky cams and the loud noises and won’t believe that aliens have visited us until I see solid proof (which is not the same thing as declaring that no other life exists in the universe), but overall this isn’t that type of book. These are all, as Emi says in the introduction, unsolved mysteries, so the reader doesn’t get the satisfaction of getting the story neatly tied up in a bow by the end. Instead you’re left wondering what the hell happened for these 32 stories. If you’re a naturally curious person and/or at all interested in the weird and bizarre then you’ve probably already stopped reading this and ordered a copy. For those of who are too polite to quit reading in the middle of the review (and it’s OK if you do, I’ll never know), subjects include a mysterious gelatinous goo that rained down on a town, the monster with 21 faces, an unexplained shower of meat from the sky, an arcade game that quickly came and went in 1981 under mysterious circumstances, a tumor that was bigger than the carrier, Gef (of which I will say no more but this may have been the most intriguing tale in the book), that weird hum in the air that some people can hear all the time, the Nain Rouge and his continuing destruction of Detroit, the money pit of Oak Island (which some bored billionaire should look into), creepy kids with black eyes trying to enter homes, the Leatherman and theories of who he might have been, unsolved murders at a campsite, the former Prime Minister of Australia vanishing while swimming, the missing body of Addie Mae Collins, why 9 campers in Siberia ran from the safety of their tent (sometimes barefoot) and why they never went back to it, two bodies and their lead masks, Rasputin (an oldie but a goodie), Frederick Valentich and the UFO that seemed to by toying with him, D.B. Cooper and his disappearance (it’s an ever funnier story to anybody who watched Justified this season), a bridge where 600 dogs have committed suicide, the Axeman, and a serious skeleton in the closet of Orson Welles (possibly). DC comics used to do a series of “Big Books” on various subjects, and after seeing this I’d suggest that they start it up again and put Emi in charge. Not every story was perfect, granted, but good luck not having several of these stories haunt your dreams. Also good luck on not taking to the internet to learn more about them, as I already know how I’m spending the rest of my afternoon. And look at that pile of talent in the tags section! Why would you possibly need any more convincing to check this out? $12
Comments Off on Gennis, Emi (editor) – Unknown Origins & Untimely Ends | Reviews | Tagged: Aaron Whitaker, Andy Glass, Bobby Mono, Box Brown, Danielle Chenette, David Allan Duncan, Doug Slack, Emi Gennis, Emy Bitner, Evan A., Graham Kahler, J.T. Yost, Jackie Roche, Jason Bradshaw, Jenn Woodall, Julia Gfrorer, Lizz Lunney, Melinda Tracy Boyce, Mike Roy, Nate McDonough, Nick Soucek, NIkki DeSautelle, Noah Van Sciver, Owen Heitmann, Phillip Sevy, Sabin Calvert, Sam Alden, Sam Spina, Sarah Benkin, Simon Moreton, Steve Seck, Tod Parkhill, Unknown Origins and Untimely Ends, William Cardini | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
May 10, 2012
Website
Flesh and Bone
It’s not easy to pull off being hauntingly dark and funny in the same book, but Julia has pulled it off. On a fundamental level, this comic is about a young man who decides to ask the local witch (?) to reunite him with his dead love. It’s actually much deeper than all that, as he doesn’t want to go to hell for killing himself to be reunited, and it gets into the price the witch has to pay to accommodate him, and the sheer despair that the young man feels seemingly at all times. And have I mentioned that it’s more than a little unnerving at times? It really lingers on him lying on the grave of his lover and how broken of a man that he’s become. I don’t want to dig too much into it for fear of spoilers (and because all of you reading this should really give it a look if you’re a fan of comics), but moments in it that really stood out for me where the initial forest ceremony, the pattern in the tea leaves, his despair, the comment of the witch when she finally sees the man’s lover, those poor kids who wander into the witch’s house, and above all the witch’s conversation with a demon/patron/whatever that thing was. All of the man’s parts were a raw, exposed sadness nerve, while the sections with the witch were… damn, I don’t know what you’d call that. All-knowing but willfully ignorant of certain things? Whatever it was, the whole comic was utterly engrossing. $6
Comments Off on Gfrorer, Julia – Flesh and Bone | Reviews | Tagged: Flesh and Bone, Julia Gfrorer | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
May 2, 2010
Website
Bird Hurdler
A free sampler of some cartoonists you publish? What a great idea. And not just your average sampler, as the stories in here are self-contained, not just bits of stories to show off the artwork. They even have more available! It’s a good thing to be this impressed before I even get to the contents. Stories in here include Julia Gfrorer’s (and I would love to hear how that’s pronounced) story about getting killed by the chief man-witch and having to babysit for his child, Andrice Arp’s tale of a creep on an Amtrak train getting shot down, Zack Soto’s quiet piece about a relationship falling apart (told as an actual physical beating), Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg’s story of a cat trying to figure out the treat it got on Thanksgiving that was the best thing ever (and its sorrow at never being able to get said treat again due to the ethical constraints of its vegetarian owner), Farel Dalrymple’s piece on a botched magic spell and a girl who beats up boys on a regular basis (the only story that was a “part 2”, but it held up fine by itself) and a silent sleepy story by Theo Ellsworth. On the Spark Plug website they say that it’s available for $.01 and postage, but I’ll bet if you ordered a healthy stack of comics from them and asked politely they’d probably throw a copy in for you. Or maybe Nerd Burglar is better (as it’s also free), but I haven’t seen that one yet and this one if fine by itself. Any time I get a story told from the perspective of a cat I’m happy, as I’m apparently slowly turning into a middle aged woman. I still only own one cat though, so all hope isn’t lost for me yet…
Comments Off on Various Spark Plug Anthologies – Bird Hurdler | Reviews | Tagged: Andrice Arp, Bird Hurdler, Farel Dalrymple, Julia Gfrorer, Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg, Sparkplug, Theo Ellsworth, Zack Soto | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
