Baylis, Jonathan – So Buttons #14

October 31, 2024

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So Buttons #14

This feels like one of those comics that started off being about one thing, but then life happened and it ended up being about something else entirely. Probably his most emotionally devastating issue yet; it definitely hit me right between the eyes a few times. Oh hi, do you not know what this comic is? That’s OK, Jonathan writes these stories about his life while various comics people illustrate them. And, like the best autobio people, he has great stories to tell. This issue very much starts off as being about celebrities, as he tells his story of meeting Producer Gary from Howard Stern (and relaying the story of what that show was like on 9/11, which I’d never heard before, with Box Brown illustrating), his jealousy of his wife getting to meet Chester Brown before him (but finally ending with his own great moment, illustrated by T. J. Kirsch), his briefly meeting Jaime Hernandez and being at least mildly unimpressed with Love and Rockets (with art by Sophia Glock; everybody is entitled to their own opinion, even if it’s wrong), and having James Earl Jones give the commencement speech at his college (with art by CM Campbell). OK, I can’t help myself. Would Love and Rockets be so universally loved if they’d stopped after the initial 50 issues like they’d planned? Who knows, but the fact that they’ve kept it up for 40+ years and had the characters age and evolve as they have is something that unlikely to ever be matched in comics. And… hopping off my soapbox and back into the review. Apologies to all concerned. This is right at the midpoint of the comic, and it shifts from here into family stories, including trying to show his son the original Pinocchio movie, learning about the death of the man who’d been selling him comics for 40 years, saving a baby from choking and, in the real shift of the issue, the death of his mother. The rest of the stories involved her in ways great and small, and I was thoroughly impressed by how various stories used panels from others to illustrate how completely she was a part of his life. Like I said, it’s devastating stuff, and for what it’s worth I’m genuinely sorry for his loss. $10


Baylis, Jonathan & Various Artists – So Buttons: Slice of Cake

September 6, 2019

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So Buttons: Slice of Cake

It’s a convention compilation! What that means is that a number of these stories appeared in previous issues. Maybe all of them, although at least a couple of the artist names were new to me. This is all just a warning to say I’ve reviewed several of these stories already, and if my opinion has changed in the meantime, it should be a good reminder that you’re reading reviews from a mush brain. I thought they would all be about food, but it about the CAKE convention in Chicago, not literally cake. Still, about 2/3 of the stories are about food. Most of the rest of it is the various stories (drawn by Marvel legend Fred Hembeck) dealing with his time as a Marvel intern, the time he met Joe Simon, and his time working for Valiant comics. The food stories deal with his struggles with pork (I definitely reviewed that story very recently), his OCD M & M habits, the grey roast beef, the secret to the brisket, and finding the perfect coffee blend. But wait, there are still two more stories! One deals with Jonathan coming up with the perfect comeback after it’s too late to matter, and the other is his vague connection to the greeting card work of Robert Crumb. So if you have all of his comics already, maybe these are all in other comics? Unclear. But if you’re looking to get all your Hembeck stories in one place, or all of his food stories, this is a really solid collection of tales. $10


Lindner, Ellen & Day, Jeremy (editors) – Strumpet #2

April 5, 2013

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Strumpet #2

Who likes their anthologies to be international? Everybody? Then you’re in luck! Women from all over the globe contributed to this one. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, like all anthologies, but that mix still leans heavily in favor of entertaining/thought-provoking stories. Stories include the mundane aspects of a day in the life of an astronaut in the future by Myfanwy Tristam, Robin Ha’s trials and tribulations while traveling through Italy, Rachael Ball with probably the most visually striking piece about (literally) capturing shadows, Ellen Lindner’s work as an extra and her quest to meet Bill Murray, J. Homersham’s silent tale of a fish party, Patrice Agg’s story of communication problems and their unfortunate resolution, an excerpt from Nicola Streeten’s tale of her abortion (which I’m guessing also includes other subjects, but the excerpt just deals with the abortion and the immediate aftermath), Karrie Fransman’s tales of two different comic conventions, Shamisa Debroey’s plans for the future, Badaude’s story of artists at work and play, Lisa Eisenberg’s homesickness manifesting itself into a floating trip home, Emily Lerner’s tale of a road trip to retrieve some old items from storage, Julia Scheele’s love letter to a bus and Kat Robert’s delightful idea of a very brief interlude between this life and the next. I’m leaving a few out because hey, what’s life without surprises? Overall this is a damned solid pile of stories, more than worth shelling out $10 bucks to give this 90+ page book a shot.

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Various Spark Plug Anthologies – Bird Hurdler

May 2, 2010

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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…

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