Slam Bang #1 Volume 2
Note to comics people who parody those old ads in the back of comics: it’s hopeless. Chris Ware did it however many years ago in Acme Novelty Library, and he did it brilliantly. Anything after that is just a waste of time. In my opinion anyway, and I’m just some schmuck with a website. A couple of the parodies were funny, most of them just sort of meh, but I still think that particular form of parody has been done about as well as it ever could be. Oh yeah, and there was a comic somewhere here too, wasn’t there? The first story, by Anton Bogaty, is about a monster self-help group that helps them deal with life after they’re no longer scary. Pretty funny, and three cheers for all the unmentioned cameos. Next up is a little illustrated poem/song called Darby O’Spudnuts by Mark Martin, a so-so shortie with a great title. Then you have a couple of shorties by Christina Wald called Slacker A.C., about a teenager who’s supposed to be the antichrist but who is too consumed by video games and girls to care about this true calling. My favorite of the bunch, this one could be seriously funny as a regular mini… or it could fizzle out and get old quick. Hard to say, but I think it’s worth a shot. Kevin Hanna has a couple of newspaper sized strips with some really stupid punchlines. Maybe he has better stuff on his website, but I didn’t see anything here to impress me. Next is a story by Sygnin called Spanky the Ouija Monkey, about a frantically violent monkey who desperately wants to be spanked. Finally you have a short sample of Last Kiss by John Lustig, where he takes old romance comics and inserts his old dialogue. This one left me mostly indifferent, but I have more from the guy that I’ll be getting to soon, as it’s a great idea and I want to see more before I pass judgment. Oh, and this is the first issue in 13 years, which probably isn’t the best sign in the world. Here’s an e-mail address, this one is $3!
Posted by Kevin 
