As always with gigantic anthology collections like this, I like to make it easy on the reader. See that list of contributors in the tags? How many of your favorites do you see in there? Probably quite a few, huh? Then what’s left to think about? For the rest of you, or if you’re just trying to kill time at work, now I’ll say some stuff, then we can both go about our days. Hm, that seems like a grim way to sum up reviewing. Anyway! This is a collection of stories from people who are at their lowest points in life, so if you’re going into this expecting a barrel of laughs, you’ll be disappointed. There are some laughs, sure, as laughter can be the only way to get through some truly horrific times, but mostly it’s just sad. My biggest fear going into this, honestly, was seeing the worst parts of the lives of some of my favorite artists, but outside of a few of them, the artists were drawing the tales of people who submitted their stories anonymously. No, I’m not going to reveal which artists told their own stories; if you’re that curious about them get your own copy. There are also websites in the back so that anybody going through a similar issue in their own lives can get some help, so if you’re seeing too much of yourself in any of these stories, please do so. Not that you need to hear it from me, but I thought I’d throw it out there, because who knows when it’ll start seeming like good advice. There are roughly 40 stories in here, so I’m not going to go through them one by one, but I’ll give you some “highlights.” Subjects deal with reaching out for the last time and having it work out, the first time taking crack, getting beat up by cops (this one pops up more than a few times, which sadly isn’t shocking), using whiskey in a bong, getting addicted to voyeurism, a series of bottoms (a recurring theme was that there was rarely just one lowest point), having an imaginary dog, and very, very many slow descents to the bottom. It’s grim stuff, but it can also show you that there’s hope in even the worst times, as all of these people are still here to tell their stories. Get help if you need it, and give this comic a shot to see that however bad your situation is, there are people out there who have gone through something similar. $15
What a delightfully odd book! Forgive me for starting a review for a book with two “fuck”s in the title in such a prim and proper way, but I’m still processing. Also I just looked up his website and he has a book called “Monkey Chef” about his time in a South African monkey sanctuary, so you’re lucky I’m writing this at all and not running out to the closest comic shop to read that sucker. As for this one, I was bracing myself for mopey nonsense. Which doesn’t have to be a bad thing! But I was ready for shit to get real emo, real fast. Instead I found out that this is mostly a delightful romp through past and future versions of himself, both trying to survive and/or impress his lady by being a halfway decent caveman and trying to survive in a distant future where everybody has everything (except, much to his chagrin, the cure for baldness). All of that is somehow seamlessly tied together with his observations from his actual life. Yes, he does talk briefly about depression, but in such a hopeful and helpful way that I’d be hard pressed to call that mopey. This is a collection of all three issues of his series of the same name, but even if you are one of the people who grabbed the first two issues, this also has a third issue that is only available here, so you’re not getting out of this that easily. There’s also both a foreword and an afterward, both amazing in entirely different ways. And this might be a first, but no, I’m not even going to spoil those bits. I guess I should still try to write whatever it is that’s a regular review for me, so here goes. In this book Mike talks about the misery of running, life doing a real number on him, guesses as to what’s under his beard, a few fairly ridiculous questions for his wife that she apparently takes in stride (ain’t love grand?), fax cat, eye meat, a tree with a gun, dreams of the hairstyles he’d like to try and, of course, Sky Beast. You’ll notice that I didn’t get into the future or past stuff, because those are for you, dear reader! I thoroughly enjoyed this one and have no trouble at all saying y’all should give it a shot. Or maybe you should go for the Monkey Chef book first, because even without reading it I’m going to go ahead and call that one a masterpiece. $20
Posted by Kevin 
