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Bennett, Marek – Mimi’s Doughnuts #19
Mimi’s Doughtnuts #19
I don’t believe it. Not that I want to call Marek a liar or anything, as I’ve enjoyed his comics immensely and he always seemed like a nice enough guy to me, but I don’t see how this was a 24 hour comic. OK, he used stick figures for the stories, and OK, the backgrounds are reasonably sparse, as that’s a requirement with 24 hour comics. Still, the backgrounds aren’t THAT sparse, the layout of the comic doesn’t look possible in a 24 hour time frame, and there are just too many distinct stories in here for me to understand the time frame. He did say in his intro that he had a number of stories ready to go before he started, that he used tales from his childhood, his friends and friends of friends to make these pieces. He also mentions that the restricting spaces of the stories sometimes changed the stories he was told/remembered a little bit, but the basics are the same as real life. Aw, screw it. I’m going to give up my skepticism and just give him credit for putting out an exceptionally thought out mini comic in a very short time span. The theme of the comic, as should be expected from that cover, is health. The characters from past issues of Mimi’s Doughnuts don’t make an appearance, as these are all stories about various health problems and the trouble that everybody has with their health insurance companies. The health problems listed include early allergies (and the awful moment when a young Marek (?) found out that he was allergic to cats), a persistent cough (and hey, that story was missing a resolution), spousal abuse (OK, the kids heard it as a mutual fight, but it didn’t look good to me), acne (with the hilarious ending of finding out years later that the pills prescribed may cause later heart problems), a broken/damaged thumb, a stroke (with his later fight against the symptoms of a deceased relative), a finger (with the obligatory fight with the insurance company for coverage of the problems), a kidney (and the insurance company’s deliberately cheating him out of his needed payment), a heart (with the heartbreaking tale of the young girl who would need a transplant possibly by age 25 and how tough it would be for her to ever get insurance because this was the dreaded “pre-existing condition”), blood (from a heart attack), and face (with a silly facelift and the conversation that went with it). It’s a great pile of stories that wasn’t hurt a bit by the 24 hour time limit. Check it out, anybody who has ever been sick can relate to some of the nonsense in this volume. $3
Bennett, Marek – Seeds
Seeds
People of the future, there’s one way for you to be able to tell that I was writing this on a Saturday (unless I finally get my act together, go back and put the posting dates on all these reviews): because I picked a small wordless mini about a family in the country shoveling off an ice pond instead of picking any of the other pile of comics I have to review (like that one on the Honduran coup I’ll be getting around to next week). Not to take anything away from this, but I needed something light and breezy and Marek fit the bill perfectly. This is, like I said, a story about hijinx while clearing off a pond for skating. The title does make sense, but you have to wait until the end of the story to learn why. This comic is, frankly, adorable, with the small kid trying to get out of the house without his hat, the prancing dad who’s trying to keep his freezing kid entertained, the mother coming to try and restore a semblance of order, and the Flintstones-style birds that help out by chopping wood while the family is away. Hm, maybe I would have been better off with the Honduran coup, that sounds too sweet to be believed. It kind of is, and I sometimes get my cranky on and bash comics like this, but not today. Today I just thought it was sweet, and I’ll leave the heavier stuff for a later day. No price, but I’m guessing one moonbeam. Aw, I couldn’t leave without at least getting in a tiny snide comment, could I?
Bennett, Marek – Why Comics?
Why Comics?
Geez, what is a reviewer supposed to do with this? This is a short, utterly adorable comic that shows a few reasons why comics are a force for good in this world: the fact that everybody can make them, that the possibilities are limitless, that they challenge us, that they’re cheap to publish, and finally just because they’re fun! I’m far too jaded of a human being to be reached by this, but it’s also too utterly pure and good for me to make fun of in good conscience. This is meant for all ages, and it’s meant to inspire kids to make comics. I don’t see any reason why it can’t do just that, as long as it reaches the right hands. In the hands of the jaded, this could be a terrible force for evil in the world. Give it to the kids and keep your cynicism to yourself! No price, but I’m guessing it costs approximately one moonbeam or one sleeping puppy, or possibly $1.
Bennett, Marek – Publish Your Own 8-Page Mini Comic
Publish Your Own 8-Page Mini Comic!!
I finally went over to Marek’s website and the man doesn’t look anything like what I figured. Not that anybody ever does when you see their work before you see the person, but I half expected a being of pure light and goodness, and he looks like a regular guy to me. Odd. This is, obviously, a how-to book when it comes to making mini comic. I had a different method back in the day (yes, I once made comics. No, they will never see the light of day), but this one works just fine. Marek has a whole line of these little things, all basically touting the general awesomeness of mini comics, and more power to him. Spend about $5, get the lot of these for the artistic kid in your life, or just get this one if you want to know a simple, practical way to put one of these things together. If you’re looking for death and destruction, you’ll probably want to wander off to other pages on this website…
Bennett, Marek – Let’s Make It Readable!
Let’s Make It Readable!
Here’s another in Marek’s series of minis dealing with the grunt work of making comics, this time trying to get people to understand the aesthetics of text. Granted, it doesn’t seem like this would be an issue for people who are already making their own comics, but you’d be surprised how much stuff I see where some crucial chunks of dialogue are just unreadable. This comics shows Reed and Bill… OK, that’s just a terrible pun. Still, for the sake of the meaning behind this comic, I’ll soldier on. Reed has all the useful answers, Bill shows how not to do everything. Marek makes some good points here: to write the words before drawing the word balloon, to make sure of placement of the word balloons to have any given panel make sense, to step back and read your work from a distance to make sure it’s all legible, and to have someone proofread your work before inking. Marek won me over instantly with that panel, as easily corrected spelling errors are one of my biggest pet peeves. Granted, comic artists don’t have the spell check that I do when writing these reviews, but most of them do have friends, or they could post a few pages on their websites to get rid of at least the most glaring spelling mistakes. This is another good contribution to this particular series of minis, and Marek should thinking about putting all of these together when he’s done, as they’d make a decent “how-to” book for beginners. And, frankly, some people who should already know better. Marek was also nice enough to send me a gigantic collection of his strips, so look for that in the coming weeks. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may all be too much cute for a giant book, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong. No price, let’s call it $1
Bennett, Marek – Mimi’s Doughnuts Zine #17
Mimi’s Doughnuts Zine #17
Finally, a non-instructional comic from this man. Granted, I do have the hefty collection of stories, but I still haven’t had a chance to get to it. Still, this was a nice primer of what to expect from that giant book and, overall, I was pleasantly surprised. Anybody who reads this site on even a slightly regular basis knows that the three panel strip is a dangerous thing, often forcing the writer into horrible puns and is rarely a good idea. There are exceptions, of course, and just enough of them to make me give them a chance when I see them and not run screaming in the opposite direction. This book is an odd combination of all that, as some of the strips are three panels, some of them are the whole page and all of them combine to form a slightly jarring whole. That’s the first 16 pages anyway (out of around 40). Marek is nice enough to have a recap page to start off, telling us what must be just about everything we need to know. The big underlying story after that was of a group of friends dealing with holidays and trying to figure out alternative sources for energy. Yes, there is a serious environmental conscience on display here, and if you’re at all like me your cynicism may reach up and grab you by the neck. Still, more than a few funny bits and an excellent cast of rejected Christmas mascots won me over (Slushy the Snow Mound in particular is a fantastic idea). From here we go to two pages of comics from other contributors (assuming they’re all not just pseudonyms, which, come to think of it, they probably are) dealing with the financial crisis which, again, were actually pretty funny. One suggestion though: maybe Marek should put the date of the strips somewhere in them. Or somewhere in the book at least, as I could figure out that this was all 2008-2009 from the topical references (and, um, the note in the front that says everything is from 2008-2009) but as these things get older a little more specificity might be nice. After all, this is #17, which is an impressive number for this sort of thing, and Marek seems to be very serious about the concept of subscriptions. Following this is the heart of the book, a silent story about a farmer trying to make a living with his goods, trying out a deadly chemical to kill off the bugs and then dealing with the consequences. Generally speaking it’s not a good thing to have your villains be utterly adorable, but it manages to be a good story regardless. Finally there’s one page which is a call for the comics industry to be bailed out as well, to which I would like to wholeheartedly concur. Think of the tiny amount of money the government would have to give out to have all the mini comics creators in the world free to make whatever they wanted! Not to mention how little it would take for people like me to make this our full time job, bringing the word of decent comics to everyone. Just sayin’. So: I was pleasantly surprised by this, as I wasn’t at all sure what to expect after the instructional books. It might overwhelming in a huge collection, but I will be finding that out for myself in the weeks to come. $4
Bennett, Marek – Breakfast at Mimi’s
Breakfast at Mimi’s
I finally got around to reading this big collection of the Mimi strips, so the question can be answered: it to too cute to be any good in one huge chunk? It turns out that my question is stupid, because this, while being occasionally adorable, couldn’t rightly be defined as “cute”. That probably makes no sense at all, so let me explain. This book is, essentially, a collection of the life of a family over a 4 year period. Things start off with Shayna (the oldest daughter of the family, and no, “Mimi” is never explained) in 8th grade and it ends shortly after her 16th birthday. It’s mostly a collection of full page Sunday strips, but there are still plenty of the three panel strips thrown in. Still not a fan of that format, but the strangest thing happens when they’re all lumped together on one page: they form a seamless story. If I had one complaint about this book, it’s that Marek should maybe number the strips (he does refer back to older strips at times, and while I knew what he was talking about because I just read the whole book, it would be tougher for people reading this via newspaper/mini comics). At its heart this book is (and I never thought I would say this about anything) uplifting. It’s the story of a family broken up by divorce, remarried with the birth father almost completely absent and a whole new set of relatives, all while dealing with the normal events of a childhood. It’s not all fun and games either, there’s child abuse and stealing in here, but they’re dealt with in a mature way that isn’t overly moralistic. I was completely blown away, if all this rambling isn’t enough of a clue of that fact. It’s easy enough for us cynics to dismiss this with a glance. Hey, if it’s in any Sunday newspapers it must not be that funny. I was very wrong on that one. Subjects in this vast tome include the opening and running of a doughnut shop (told mostly from the perspective of someone who hates doughnuts), a stepsister moving in with a fairly hostile sister, building a city for ungrateful cats, kids spiking the punch in their own unique way, trying to get fortunes into sealed fortune cookies, dealing with bullies, building a perpetual motion machine, vampire mosquitoes, 8th grade prom night, and going to a high school party. That’s only the first section of 4, and only a small sample section of that. There are plenty of samples at the website if you need convincing, but if this can win over an old curmudgeon like me it can win over anybody. And it’s only a measly $12!
Bennett, Marek – Nicaragua
Nicaragua
There’s a good reason why more people don’t do travel journals: it’s too expensive to travel. At least that’s my theory, it’s possible that most people who aren’t me just don’t like travel journals, although that seems at least mildly ridiculous. Marek has gotten around this slight problem through a grant that lets him and a couple of other people have basically a cultural exchange program: some Nicaraguan students came to the US to make comics, and they were soon on their way to Nicaragua to teach their craft. Honestly, the fact that we’re still giving out grants for things like this gives me some small hope that maybe this country as a whole really does value art and the value of learning things from other cultures. From Marek’s past minis it’s clear that he’s an ideal choice for this sort of thing, as his instructional minis were genuine all-ages books, useful to everybody. It’s also clear from this book that he just can’t stop teaching, as he takes time to jot down the things that it takes to make a successful travel comic. Everybody who’s just starting out should really check out this book and his minis. Getting a handle on the basics is clearly not easy for some people, but between him and Scott McCloud it should be easy to get a general idea of how to make comics. Anyway, this graphic novel is an impressive thing, taking the reader through various parts of Nicaragua. It shows all kinds of aspects of their lives (things you wouldn’t even think about), how Marek and his friends fit in and even has a (very basic) history of the region. Best of all, of course, is how the kids react to making comics. It’s clearly an alien concept to them at first, but Marek works at it, has some basic examples of how to tell a story with pictures and it’s impressive how quickly he’s able to get through to these kids. This is a review copy and it says that more actual samples of their work will be available in the actual printing, with even more samples up at his website. I’m sticking to generalities about this because it’s almost impossible to go into something to filled with specifics. Marek details the result of his asking a stupid question early on (even though it’s a question just anybody would have asked), the various living arrangements, the kids getting out of school and going right to work, the food (and how it changed wherever he went), even briefly going into the political situation. This is an engrossing work, miles above everything else I’ve seen from Marek, and it’s not like what I’ve already seen was bad. This is the kind of thing that should be taught in schools to show what we’re capable of as a race if we just stop to listen to to what the other side is saying. I loved it and it’s a measly (for the size) $10.
