Blog Archives
Clotfelter, Max – Snake Meat #8
Just so you know: the link on the title doesn’t go to where you can buy this specific issue. But it does go to Max’s comics that Spit and a Half has available (23 as of this review, either his comics or comics where he’s a contributor), so if this issue still isn’t listed by the time you see this, maybe just buy another one of his comics. What about this one, you ask? Snake Meat is where he mostly does silent comics with a few “talkies” thrown in. It feels ridiculous to call the silent comics “sketches,” as there’s an insane level of detail to all of them (as the sample below proves), but if you’re in the market for a linear storyline, Snake Meat generally isn’t the place to go. If, however, you’re looking to be amazed/baffled/revolted/terrified, this is the series for you! As such, they’re tough on a simple country reviewer like me, so I’ll just say that one of his joke strips was a fairly straightforward gag, while the other was like if the writers and cast of Hee-Haw had been on whatever drugs they could find for several days and then decided to shoot an episode. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one was which. Look, this dude has been around since the very earliest days of this website, so you know the drill by now. If you like his stuff, give it a shot. And if you’ve been reading reviews about him here for several years and still haven’t read his stuff? You should still give it a shot. I suppose only haters get a pass here… $3
Clotfelter, Max – Snake Meat #2
Snake Meat #2
Picture the most vile and disgusting thing you can in your brain right now. Seriously, go ahead and do it. Chances are really good that whatever you have in there, Max has something worse than that in these sketchbook pages. And I’m not talking about a horrible act, just a horrible thing. He manages to find the inherent ugliness behind almost everything in these sketches of his. It seems like there are a few more regular strips in here than the last issue of Snake Meat to go along with all of this sketchbook pages, so I sampled one page of each to give you a better idea of what you’re getting here. I do love to look at these sketchbook pages, even if it does hurt my soul at times to do it, but I’m yearning for the day when he puts out another regular, story-based comic, as all it takes is one look at the samples on this page to see that the man has a serious gift for the funny. Contact info is scattered around here, this one is $2…
Clotfelter, Max – Snake Meat #1
Snake Meat #1
So how exactly are you supposed to review a sketchbook again? Never have figured that out… Well, I like Max’s art a lot, if that tells you anything. And, as this is a book of him drawing, I’d have to call that a recommendation. There are a few bits of actual story here, but mostly it’s just a series of unconnected pictures. The pictures are mostly solid though, not much in the way of half-finished sketches, so the book looks great. If you only read comics with a coherent story in them, the last two pages are fantastic. The rest of it’s all over the place or, as Max puts it in the disclaimer, “Yet another half-assed zine consisting of nothing more than sketches I’ve scribbled on typing paper over the past four months”. That’s a whole lot harsher than I would have put it, but I guess it’s technically accurate. $1, contact info is up there, check it out!
