Sundstrom, Matt – PDX 100

October 10, 2011

Website

PDX 100

Well, this isn’t a good sign. Here I am trying to convince people to fork over the cash needed to keep this website going for another year, and I don’t have a damned thing to say about this comic. This is a gorgeously produced $10 comic that contains 100 drawings of different parts of Portland. And… that’s it. Matt drew different sections and sorted them all into geographical locations, so if you’re a local you can at least flip to a certain section of town to try to find something recognizable. If you’re not a local of Portland and if you really have no interest in the city one way or another, I’m completely comfortable telling you to skip this one. Basing this review purely on technical terms, there isn’t a thing wrong with this comic. I also don’t want this to seem like I’m crapping on Matt, as he’s done other comics that I’ve enjoyed, and I think there’s even another comic of his around here somewhere that I still need to review. It’s just that I don’t see why this comic exists. Looking around on the internets a bit I can see that this was published by a company that just publishes Matt’s books and it’s based out of Portland, so this does make sense in that context. Matt also apparently spent a lot of time wandering the city, as several of the pictures are of what appears to be random houses, so I’m sure the whole thing was a blast for him. Maybe I get stuck too much on price tags, and $10 does seem to be about right for a book of this size and quality. It just seems excessive at a time when so many people are broke and mini comics as a whole are becoming more and more of a luxury purchase. At least give me something to convince people to buy! Ack, I didn’t intend for this level of vitriol, as it’s a mostly harmless book for the world at large and probably quite a nice thing to have if you live in Portland. I’ll shut up now and suggest that you just buy some of his other comics instead. $10


Sundstrom, Matt – Second Chances

June 29, 2011

Website

Website where you can buy the book

Second Chances

Who else is sick of the seemingly endless eight hours a day you have to spend at an office? I’m guessing it’s most of the people who are in that situation. I’m currently not stuck in that hellscape (but am well aware that that’s a temporary reprieve, barring a pile of money falling in my lap from above), but Matt clearly either is or is well aware of that mindset. This comic is a mostly silent tale of Matt going through an average day. There’s Matt stuck at a computer, hunching further down as the day goes on, and getting bounced around on the subway. He picks up a pizza, eventually falls asleep and is woken up by a read oddity. He had been given a flower earlier in the day that can bring life to inanimate objects, so he decides to make a substitute for himself and send it off to work. Meanwhile Matt (I should probably just say “Matt substitute,” as I have no idea if this is really supposed to represent Matt and we all know the dangers of assuming) runs off to the wilderness and survives on his wiles. Things progress, the cardboard Matt ends up doing really well at work and with Matt’s old colleagues, and actual Matt (as represented in the comic, obviously) gets more than a little tired of roughing it. He decides to return to his old life, but by this point cardboard Matt has plans of his own. I’ve seen plenty of comics where the artist bitches endlessly about their sorry lot in life, but kudos to Matt for showing that there are always crappier options to your crappy life, and it can be dangerous to get exactly what you think you want. It doesn’t hurt that the art is gorgeous and that almost every panel tells a story (they kind of have to, what with it being a mostly silent comic and all, but Matt pulls this all off perfectly). Excellent production values for a $3 comic too, which leaves you with exactly zero reasons not to check this out. $3