I try to keep up with the comics from the people I enjoy, I really do. But there are people like Kelly out there, putting out quality comics on a steady basis, and it’s just impossible. I mention this because this comic is from 2012 (it’s 2020 as I write this, roughly a few years before the U.S. breaks down into several nation states), and taking one look at Kelly’s website shows me that there are at least another half dozen books that I missed. Where oh where is my benevolent billionaire who’s willing to fund me making reading and reviewing comics a full time job? Ah well. Samson! As the title suggests, this is the story of Samson, a gorilla from the Milwaukee zoo who was a huge hit for 30 years. Kelly has some strong memories from when she was a kid, everything else in here is research or stories from relatives who were around longer. It’s not a particularly uplifting tale, although I should mention that I haven’t been to a zoo since I was a kid and am absolutely biased against the concept. Samson’s companion died young, they tried to put him with another female gorilla but they never really got along, he got really obese from lack of activity, and regularly bashed the glass walls of his cage. His death was sad, naturally, as was the way the zoo botched the handling of his body so it wasn’t possible to use taxidermy. There’s also one hell of a kicker at the end, but I’ll leave that surprise for the readers. It’s another great story from Kelly, and I clearly need to leave myself a reminder to catch up on all of her newer comics. You should too! $2
Is this really Kelly’s first graphic novel? Looking over her comics here and on her website, it sure looks that way. Well, if you’re one of those weirdos who only reads graphic novels and turns your nose up at mini comics, you’re in for a treat here, as Kelly has been doing her thing for over a decade now, honing her craft. Yes, you should also check out her mini comics too, and not reading mini comics is just damned odd, straw person I made up in my head. There’s a lot going on here, so much so that I started the book over after finishing it. If you have a short attention span, that’s all the review you need right there: I read most of this book again right away. Obviously I loved it! Things start off with Kelly and her friend Missie (name possibly changed) in Portland in 1994, living in a hostel, barely getting by and not at all sure that they made the right call in coming to Portland. Next we get to see what brought her to that moment, how she became friends with Missie in Wisconsin, their experiences with drugs and parties, how they already seemed to start veering off into different personal directions before they left town. There’s a whole lot more to the chapter than that, but why spoil all the surprises? The last chapter shows them moving to Seattle, the trouble they had again settling in (better than Portland, but barely) and how the reality of them drifting apart became unavoidable. Nothing is belabored here; it’s all subtle enough that I read it again when I was done, after all. The awkward moments at parties, how her friend saved her at least once from creeps, that devastating moment at a party when some guy said horrible things to her while she was on acid (having been there, very few things can more quickly strip you down to a blubbering mess, existentially at least)… there’s a whole lot to love here. It doesn’t hurt that Kelly was born in the same year as me, so I can personally relate to the atmosphere and music, but don’t be afraid, kiddos! Not knowing what the fuck you’re doing with your life in your early 20’s is a universal condition. Buy this book, and know that once you realize how much you like it, there’s a whole library of her past comics just waiting for you to discover. $14
Hey everybody, let’s take a road trip with two of the most talented cartoonists around! OK, it’s a virtual road trip, in that it’s you reading a comic about the trip that they took, but you get what I mean. Kelly’s Mom has agreed to give Kelly her old car, but she lives in Wisconsin and Kelly lives in Seattle, meaning the only way to get the car back is via a very long 4 day road trip. So Kelly and Max set out together, got on a flight to Wisconsin and then drove back, drawing stories all the way. OK, they probably did most of them when they got back. I’ve really got to stop leaving myself open to such literal misinterpretations. The front and back of this book are filled with postcards, receipts and various bits of trivia that they found along the way. The bulk of the book is full of comics about their journey, with subjects like forgetting the exact date while driving (sometimes that’s more important than others, apparently), the inherent overthinking that goes into visits with the family, taking in the sights of the small towns, finding out that prairie dogs are poisonous (who knew?), a list of various foods eaten and bands listened to, an irresistible hat, and finally getting back home. I undersold the “taking in the sights of small towns” thing; that’s a solid chunk of the comics. But they ran into an awful lot of oddities, so I didn’t want to delve into too many of them before you read the book. I also found out on the back cover that they were nominated for an Ignatz for this series, so kudos to the both of them! It’s well deserved, even if that means some other asshole probably won if they’re only mentioning the “nominated” part. I kid, obviously, I’m sure whoever won was great. But give these people some awards! And if you’re reading this and can’t give them awards, at least give them some money for the comics, because they’re great. $4
Hey kids, or anybody who has started reading comics in the last few years? Are you interested in the history of mini comics, why they’re such a source of passion for so many people? Well, maybe not in numbers, but in level of interest and dedication in following certain artists? Your answer is this volume. If you have no interest in the history, away with you! This one can be for the old timers. This is a collection of the best of the “Not My Small Diary” anthology, and if you read small press comics in the 90’s and 00’s, you will recognize plenty of these names. In fact, good luck not getting lost in a Google hole or trying to figure out what so many of these people are up to these days. Notable names include (but are not limited to) Jeff Zenick, Dan Zettwoch, Patrick Dean, Raina Telgemeier, Jesse Reklaw, Carrie McNinch, Sam Spina, Roberta Gregory, Kurt Wolfgang… you know what, there are just too damned many names, and they’re all in the tags, so check that part out. If any of those names made you say “hey, I wonder what they’re up to these days” then this book is for you. These are mostly snippets of stories, but they’re all complete by themselves. Sometimes the stories follow a theme, like notable dates or moments in their lives, but really they’re all over the place. If it seems like I’m avoiding getting into specifics, that is entirely the case. If you were around for all these artists when they first started, you’re going to get lost in this instantly. If not, this is an excellent way for you to figure out what the big deal was about these people all along. I guess it’s possible that it’s the nostalgia talking and that people might not connect to these stories now, but screw that. These are tales of human weakness (and occasionally triumph), and those stories are universal and timeless. Most of the original issues of this series are out of print, so this is your best option all around. The book itself is $7.50 if you see Delaine at a convention, but if not $10 should be enough to cover the shipping, and I really can’t recommend this enough. It’s rare for any anthology not to have a weak story or two, but these are all golden.
Has the theme of falling on your face/ass/other ever been the subject of a comics anthology before? I can’t think of one, but it’s such a natural fit. This naturally made me think of various falls in my life, and I kept coming back to one what wasn’t really a fall and also wasn’t me. I was walking with a couple of friends on an icy road years ago. One of these friends is 6’6”, and my other friend and I noticed him start to slide. This is one of those moments when time slows down, but after the fact we would both swear that he had fallen far enough backwards for the back of his head to slide on the ground, but he somehow more or less kept his balance and never did completely fall. Not sure even today if that’s a good story or a “you had to be there” story, but it’s notable that I still remember it maybe 15 years later. Anyway! The point of that story is that it’s impossible to read this comic without thinking of pratfalls you know and love, and Rob has assembled quite a talented bunch here to tell their stories. There’s Carrie McNinch’s story of getting her thumb slammed in the door (and her mother driving away with said thumb stuck in the door), Becky Hawkins and her amazing collection of bruises and cuts (not the mention her ridiculously unlucky landing spot), Aron Nels Steinke almost knocking his eye out, Tessa Brunton’s spectacular rolling fall, John Porcellino’s skateboarding mess, Jason Viola’s trip to Russia and the impression he must have left with some of those people, Noah Van Sciver and his preventative precautions taken to prevent ever being hurt again, Cara Bean’s skiing “mishap”, MariNaomi’s bowling injury (yes, it is possible), the cat of Gabrielle Gamboa taking her eyebrow, Tony Breed getting away with one, Max Clotfelter getting seriously punched, and the causes of Rob Kirby’s various scars from waiting tables. With a list of talent like that I doubt that I have to do much convincing, so just do yourself a favor and pick this up. Then, if you haven’t already, work your way back through the older comics of these folks. You deserve it! $5
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
Comic conventions! Maybe you’re one of the people who only go to conventions to buy comics and don’t create them yourself, but have you ever wondered about life on the other side of the table? Not really? Well, you really should try putting yourself in their shoes for a few minutes. This anthology has all kinds of stories from conventions, good and bad, from some of the champions of small press comics (if the industry had formal champions, which they should maybe think about doing). Stories in here include Max Clotfelter’s first time working a table when he was a kid, Cara Bean and Sara Carson’s long road to a triumphant show, Kelly Froh’s two worst shows (I hope), Carrie McNinch’s problem with shyness, Rob Kirby’s mostly bad day (but with plenty of good things in it, like the progressive redneck parents), Mark Campos’ ingenious trick to selling original art, Aron Nels Steinke dealing with a friend getting a tv deal while having a slow day himself (along with dealing with an annoying kid), Gabrielle Gamboa’s hilariously illustrated conversations among cartoonists, Justin Hall’s description of finally getting the sale after talking a guy into it for 20 minutes, Tony Breed dealing with putting a book together and the reality of the show, Matt Moses and Jeff Worby narrowly avoiding a beating/murder, Zine Crush trying to get a copy of their zine to the object of their crush without being obvious about it, Rick Worley learning the truth about Dash Shaw, Jason Martin showing the good and the bad and John Porcellino showing us the weather paradox at cons. Oh, and a bonus piece by Kelly Froh (I’m almost positive) showing us the moment at a con when her spirit leaves her body. I’ve seen plenty of comics about convention horror stories in my years of reviewing these things, so I was a little nervous about a whole anthology on the subject, but that was silly of me. This whole thing is full of goodness, and should probably be handed out to obvious first-timers as they walk into cons as a public service. $4
Ah, to live in a world where the talented small press comics people had all the resources in the world at their disposal. I’m generally a fan of Kelly’s covers anyway (mostly because the combination of the title and her often fantastic title got me wanting to read the book immediately, which is kind of the point of a cover), but in this case she got a friend from art school to design the book for her (his name is Manfred Naescher if you wanted to look him up) and he designed a really gorgeous book. Crikey, do I need to get my parenthetical asides under control. Anyway, this comic is basically a listing of some of the more interesting seniors that Kelly has met working in retirement centers and their various personalities. It’s not as dense as some of her more personal comics, but there’s still plenty in here to love. That sample below was my favorite, but there’s lots to choose from, and I always love it when there’s coloring in small press comics that’s done this well. A low bar to clear, you would think, but it’s surprising how many people either rush that aspect or screw it up. With her experience in this field I’d say maybe it’s time for a new generation of Duplex Planet, what with David Greenberger not doing the comics any more (unless I somehow missed any new stuff completely since around the year 2000). Kelly clearly has some stories to tell in this field, and there’s always a place in the world for some forgotten wisdom from people who have seen it all. Or, you know, just guys with half a moustache. $4
Hey, Slither! It’s been ages. For people who don’t follow the website or Kelly’s work, that’s not to say that she’s been slacking for years, that after starting Slither 8-10 years ago (at a pure guess) she’s just been coasting. She’s done plenty of other mini comics, and at least a few of them that referred to this period in her life. Anyway, this one is all about her last year of art school in Vancouver and her falling in love with her current boyfriend (it always feels stupid to call somebody that when they’re over 30, but I’ve never been able to come up with a good alternative either. “Significant other” is just odd). The introduction mentions that she intended to finish this in 2006, so I guess you could call it late, but it fits right in with the other issues of Slither. Stories include her little section of Vancouver (and how her friends and everything that mattered was within walking distance), her awful experiences with her printmaking teacher, her boyfriend coming to visit and that developing into a situation where he was soon moving in, various activities around town, spending time in Georgia, her bad movie club (wasn’t Larry Drake, the “mentally challenged” character from L.A Law, in The Dentist too?), mice in her apartment, and finally graduation. It’s another solid mix of short pieces that leads up to her life during that years and, as always, I think you should buy it. What can I say, I remain biased towards the good stuff. Oh, and one more thing as a general reminder to people who send review comics: if I don’t review your comic within a few months of you sending it (depends entirely on how much of a backlog I have to get through), then that means either it got lost in the mail or it got lost here. Mounds of mini comics are not a good organizing system, but maybe the second decade of this site is when I’ll finally get that shit organized. For everybody who doesn’t send me review comics, please disregard that entirely and just buy her comic already. $2
Two Days Away From Staring at Birds From a Park Bench
Would somebody send me a crappy mini comic? I’m getting tired of all these great minis. Well, not really, but variety is the life of spice and all that. From the title I was thinking that this was going to be a comic about aging, but no, it’s all about Kelly losing her job and trying to find another one. There’s her initial reaction to losing it (laughing out loud, as the man firing her was apparently a moron), sitting around at work during the transition period with nothing to do, and her entirely too honest spiel at a family reunion. Then the unemployment really kicks in and Kelly starts finding it hard to bother getting up in the morning. There’s also the reactions of friends and family, Kelly’s ongoing freakout about the lack of employment (that even she was surprised by), and the utter lack of a response from all her applications. More than anything this comic demonstrated how pretty much all of us are hanging on by a thread that could be taken away on a whim from somebody that we’ll never meet. Creepy, huh? Things do take a hopeful turn towards the end, more or less, but then she includes a block of text on the back cover talking about how unemployed people aren’t even counted in the statistics after they stop looking for work (like me!) and how long it’s going to take, even under ideal conditions, to get it all back to “normal.” It takes skills to make this funny and insightful instead of just depressing, but she managed it. No price that I can find, but I’m going with $2.
I’ve found over the years of reading these books with funny pictures in them that there are two kinds of “collections of random stuff not collected in a single comic before” type of comics. One is the rushed mess of a comic, often half-filled with sloppy sketches, that was clearly done with the intention of having another (or one) book available at a convention. Then there’s the good kind, the kind that is full of stuff that just happened to be in different anthologies and sure, it probably doesn’t go together in any kind of logical sense, but who cares? Good comics are the goal here, not comics that tie together. This book fits that second description, as Kelly put a bunch of solid stories in here. Doesn’t Kelly know that you’re supposed to half-ass it for anthologies? Stories include a damned sweet piece about her Dad, an old boyfriend’s surprise party and how he was hit on all night by a male friend, cramming in a lunch break, “Accidental Adventures in S & M” (worth the price of admission all by itself), a page of small observances from her day, an early experience with live music (and not knowing a mildly famous guy by sight), and her odd crush on an older professor. There are a couple of pages that are portraits of various people, and not one of them was filler in any way. Once again I have nothing but praise for one of her comics. Sorry to disappoint the people out there who live for savagely negative reviews, but most of those folk left here years ago. $2
Unless you’re that mythical creature who was lucky enough to live with friends and family in perfect harmony before getting married and living happily ever after with another person, chances are you’ve had some problems with roommates over your life. I’ve lost friends because of roommate drama, as have pretty much everybody else I know, and I still think that I able to avoid the worst of the possibilities of roommate drama before deciding years ago that I was going to just live by myself from then on (outside of getting married or moving in with somebody for something other than a financial reason, that is), and it’s suited me just fine. This brief history lesson into my personal life was brought about because of this comic, as Kelly asked an old roommate of hers (who she describes as the perfect roommate for being able to put up with just about anything and still call the offender a friend) to make a list of all his old roommates since moving to Seattle in 1992. What came out of it was a fascinating cast of characters, all briefly described on a single page with their likeness. Maybe this will be worse than your experience with roommates and it might (sadly) be better, but people described in here include a mooch (there always has to be at least one), a man who didn’t care about world news but got constant updates on his phone for sports teams scoring (and his conservative wife), a pot smoking USA basher, a perfectly groomed hipster who never left the house, a nut cracker collector (also a deadbeat), a constant liar, a gay Mormon, a kid who smelled like greasy hamburgers, a horticulturist on steroids, and a confused hooker. He even briefly describes his experience with Kelly, but they’ve stayed friends and the only remotely bad thing he had to say about her was that she “dated an obviously gay man”. There are a couple of other winners in here, but you get the idea, and the fact that there are surprises left means you might recognize an old roommate in the unlisted pile. It’s odd for nostalgia, good for a cautionary tale, and also good to gawk at the many wonders of how human behavior changes when forced to live with strangers. $2
If you’ve ever thought while reading a comic “This is nice and all, but I wonder why this artist didn’t pick a career as a bio-chemical engineer instead”, Kelly gives an excellent rundown of why she was scared off of science early on. This little mini depicts a true lunatic of a teacher from her seventh grade, a man who started picking on her on the first day of class or, as she puts it, “before I’d actually done anything wrong”. Slapping his ruler on her desk to scare her, putting her in a dark tiny room next to the classroom for punishment, having no concept of personal space, writing “do science!” on her hand and then making her scrub it off in front of the class, this guy didn’t seem to do much of anything that would qualify as teaching. Unless his goal was to teach a young Kelly about the nature of assholes in the world and to avoid such folks whenever possible, in which case he did an excellent job. Everybody who went to school can relate to somebody like this guy, or (I hope) at least a lesser version of him. For every truly inspirational teacher I had there were probably a dozen who were just holding down a paycheck or seemed to actually loathe the students, and this comic is an excellent story about one of the latter. The only way it could have been better is if the guy had gotten some sort of comeuppance at the end, but the real world, sadly, rarely works that way. And yes, for the curious, this still means that I’ve liked all of Kelly’s comics that I’ve seen. What can I say? She has the comic skills. $.50
Kelly spent 6 months working as a contract worker for Amazon.com, and this is the first of what she calls “hopefully many” comics about her time there. She thought it would be cool to work for Amazon but found out differently, and here’s hoping we hear more about the customer service end in one of these minis. I know my experience with them has been fairly miserable, at least when they get an order wrong (which, in all fairness, has been only rarely).  Anyway, this comic is the story of Norman, a guy she worked with who was a stoner and a recovering drunk who played a lot of video games. They didn’t seem to have much interaction, but Norman was set off one day by the security guard talking on his cell phone (which was against the rules, but the poor guy was supposed to just “look alert” for his eight hour shift with no distractions). A brief argument ensued, a firing and a transfer occurred, and the rest of the comic deals with Kelly being forced to testify about the incident and a near-miss years later when she almost ran into the guy (working, ironically enough, as a security guard) at an art museum. This is a tiny thing but, as it’s told in her style of almost being a letter home (i.e. she’s never afraid to unleash potentially embarrassing details and also does an admirable job of preemptively answering any questions you might have after reading), these tiny minis of hers feel more like a meal than the average $.50 mini. Usually minis that cheap are strictly for cons or are tiny wordless tales, the few tiny ones from her have been a bargain along with being a great read at any price. In case you’re currently broke and want some bang for very little buck, this is an excellent place to start. $.50
Wow, that cover is tremendously hard to see in a scan. This is an anthology of autobiographical comics, which automatically means that I like it, so I’ll try to be a bit more critical this time. There are a couple of great stories by Max Clotfelter, one about almost getting killed in grade school and one about the average events of a week. Every embarrassing detail is exposed here, which is always fun. Then there’s a story from Liz Prince about who’s stinkier, which is a short but fun strip. Aarow Mew just sort of wanders around aimlessly, and I can’t tell you why it bugged me here and not in the other strips, but there you go. Kelly Froh has a great story about a crush on an art school teacher, Rob Schultz has a one pager about wackiness in Iraq (maybe not the funniest subject matter in the world) and Kaz Strzepek has a story about trying to make out with his girlfriend back when he still lived with his parents. Max probably had the best looking art in here, with Kaz a close second, if you’re going to by that standard, even though it’s usually not a tremendously important criteria in autobio. The important thing is that everything in here is engaging and interesting (except maybe for Aaron’s story, but that’s a question of taste). I’m going out on a limb and saying it’s $2, check out the website!
Kelly takes care of one of the worst problems with autobio comics right away here, as she has plenty of interesting things to write about. A fair amount of comics like this are just plain dull, and that is never an issue with this one. This covers the summer of 2005 and as such it’s a remarkably focused book, sticking to a pretty strict timeline. It starts off with an awkward date with an internet friend (portrayed as one silent page of panels) and keeps right on going from there into living with her parents again (at age 31, briefly), trying to find a summer job, her dealings with the people at her pizza place job, saying goodbye to everybody, taking a trip to Seattle and finally ending up back in Vancouver. She uses all sorts of different techniques here, sometimes going with silent stories following text pieces, sometimes going with the more traditional comics with text (although no word balloons, maintaining an unintentional website theme for the day), and occasionally even going with photographs. It’s a great layout for a book and even ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, even though I have some idea how it turns out, as this was about the summer of 2005, after all. And all that for a measly buck!
I suppose I should pick one issue out of all these Slithers and recommend it to anybody who wants to get a good example of Kelly’s work. And that would be… this one! It’s odd, because this is the least “comic-y” of all her issues, as the bulk of this issue is a text description of her second semester at art school in Baltimore. Luckily for the reader, Kelly is equally capable of excellent writing as she is at the pretty pictures. Things are broken down into seemingly minute detail, but it never manages to get dull. She tries to adjust to a new city while having no money and few friends, starts counting all the time she’s wasting waiting for the perpetually late bus, walks the usual tightrope of trying to keep peace with a roommate, and starts a phone relationship with somebody she met online. This relationship seems to be the thing that takes the most out of her, as this guy lives across the country and their phone conversations pretty much have to occur at (for her) 3 in the morning. As usual, Kelly doesn’t disappoint with the effortless honesty in describing how things went with the guy, even including a free insert comic detailing how their eventual meeting turned out. It’s rare that you can curl up with a mini comic, but on this rainy March day this was a damned welcome way to spend a chunk of the afternoon. In my continued war against chronological order, this is the last issue of the Slither pile reviewed, and I have to honestly say that you could pick any issue out of this pile and still see what she’s capable of. A bit of a rarity, especially considering how first issues are generally just hints of what’s to come. She did improve over the course of the issues, granted, but there’s plenty to love all the way through. $2
Slither #4 (art by Chris Warren & Aaron Mew) Now Available! $1
Checking over that last review I can see that Kelly promised depravity this time around, and she delivers! Or at least she delivers if you consider talking about sex like an adult talking to other adults “depravity”. This issue covers a time span (I believe) through 2004, dealing with such things as traveling, dealing with her family for a wedding, visiting all sorts of friends, trying to imagine how she could ever fit in in New York, the sheer delight of kicking an asshole in a movie theater as he walks by, and Warren. Warren was her love interest (is there a more modern term for that I could use? “Love interest” makes me feel downright prim and proper) at the time, and Kelly honestly goes through how they got together, how she resisted at first but eventually got won over, how Warren lost interest once he saw that he had achieved his conquest, and how she let the whole thing die. The thing I love most about Kelly’s descriptions of her relationships is the absolute lack of any self pity. She tells a story about Warren telling her a pretty cruel thing, but it’s very clearly told because it’s an integral part of the story, not out of some desire to get sympathy from the reader. Self-indulgent auto-bio cartoonists, take note. The issue wraps up with the reader matching outfits to their respective cities, and a listing of the various types of people who ride buses, and I think I’ve seen all of them except the overtly paranoid guy. Another excellent issue, and anybody who doesn’t take a few minutes (and a few dollars) to get a stack of her comics is only hurting themselves.
It’s the second year of Kelly’s time at art school, and this issue goes through the horrors involved, or at least the highlights. Maybe “horrors” is too strong a word, maybe “uselessness” or “inanity” would be a better word. Essentially she’s there trying to learn, improve her craft, get a little sense of art history, that sort of thing, and what she gets are egocentric teachers: one who wants to do her work for her, one who has a creepy alter ego, and one who is so in love with the sound of his own voice that the class is lucky to get any useful information at all. She goes through the rest of her year in this issue as well, telling us all about nights out, a sexy wedding, an art show, her intimidating pilates class, an awkward night on stage with a comedian, a date with a filmmaker, and some things she will both have and never have, given her debt and imagined status in life, I suppose. It’s all wrapped up with a few pages of looks people cultivate to find a soul mate, and good luck not finding something to laugh at there. Another solid issue, although you have to forgive me if I’m a little more excited for the next issue, as she promises depravity inside. Yes, it’s Monday and I’m already looking for more depravity… $1
So who wants to read the sometimes painful process of living with your parents out in the middle of nowhere (Wisconsin) while pushing 30? Kelly has yet to disappoint with one of her minis and this one is no exception. This issue tells the tale of the time with her parents, with flashbacks thrown in occasionally to illustrate who exactly these people are and their meaning in her life. She also goes through a failed romance over her time in Wisconsin with an old friend who just happens to be married. Most of the book is dedicated to this time in her life, with the last few pages telling a morality tale about how maybe it’s not so bad to be trapped in corporate life after all. Another engrossing issue, if it wasn’t for my personal policy of reviewing stuff from people sporadically instead of all in a row (to give more theoretical readers a chance to see their name on the front page) I would have torn through all five issues already. $1
Posted by Kevin 
