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Granton, Shawn – Complexificationstrategory: A Ten Foot Rule Suppliment

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Complexificationstrategory: A Ten Foot Rule Suppliment

I’ll say one thing for Shawn: he’s the master of the ridiculously long titles. He says in the cover that he’s “sold out” to Dylan William’s Sparkplug Press, which is good news for everybody who hasn’t heard about Shawn yet, as now he might get into some comic stores. Beautiful, painstakingly detailed artwork mixed with entertaining and self-deprecating writing is what you’ll find in his comics. This one has a strip about his feelings on the world today, one on the mystery that is Portland’s fascination with Pabst, a guide to cheap eateries, and a few other random things. I can’t wait to see what he puts in his published comic. Here’s hoping that he gets successful and has some of his older stuff see print, as I’m curious to see what else he’s done (besides the best of, I guess). New address is P.O. Box 14185 Portland, OR 97182-0185, or just e-mail the guy to see what else he has or to order this for a buck.

Granton, Shawn – 3.05 Metres: A Ten Foot Rule Primer

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3.05 Metres: A Ten Foot Rule Primer

More often than I like I’ll get a comic where I know there’s more out there that could help me make up my mind about it. It’s always better to see a wider variety of a certain artist just to get the complete picture. Well, this issue is as complete as it gets, for better or worse, and I’m going to treat it as such. This is the creator-determined “best of” from the five previous issues of “Ten Foot Rule”. And a sample of his best is, well, pretty mixed. There are quite a few comics that are just mini comics by the numbers. Bad work experiences, dating troubles, punk shows, it’s all here. The problem is that while the quality of the art stays just about the same (it’s good), the quality of the stories don’t. The writing style stays the same, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that he doesn’t seem to know when something is just too boring to write about. One example is a four page text story all about a train ride that he takes. No, no story there really that could be considered all that funny or interesting, just four pages of travel details. In a “best of” book, that doesn’t bode well. Still, there are some real bright spots in here. The story about indie rock people and their hypocritical standards is great, as are the ones about the things that people have told him while trying to sell his comic around. About 2/3 of this is really solid, really worth checking out, and that includes one text piece about ibuprofin. For $2 it’s still definitely worth checking out. Actually, my only problem with it was that some of the stories seemed to me like they were too dull to be printed, and that’s obviously a completely subjective thing. Everybody else in the world might love the whole thing.

Granton, Shawn – Ten Foot Rule: When You Can’t Stand Yourself, Walk Outside

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Ten Foot Rule: When You Can’t Stand Yourself, Walk Outside

A note to any obsessive types out there reading this: the review for the Spring 2007 book was done today, 2/23/08, long after the review for the Winter 2007 book, which was done I believe in May of 2007. Any stupid things I say in that review about that comic being his first one in ages should be disregarded as I am occasionally a stupid, stupid man. This is from back when Shawn first started drawing every day, although he missed a few chunks here and there. It’s mostly about a trip around various parts of the country, hitting a few conventions, checking out the local biking scenes, and generally wondering (at least at times) if the whole comic thing was worth it. His conclusion seems to be “Yeah, but…”, which is right around where most people land on the whole idea. He also sent himself postcards from his various stops, which helps immensely to put some immediacy into the trip, even long after he’d returned. At the end of the book he has a long text piece on the virtues of Bikesummer, a sort of month long event dedicated to celebrating biking, something you biking enthusiasts should be looking into for this year. All in all it’s a solid journal comic, cheap and wordy, which is damned near the best thing in the world in my book. $2