Sent to you by Jack via Google Reader:
Amazing Adult Fantasy #16
That there is an excellent title for a mostly mundane diary comic. Tim did this strip for two years, from 2001-2003, and put out 24 issues. These issues have been collected into larger books , which means they're still available, which means I'm allowed to ramble about them here. Not that there would be anything stopping me otherwise. This issue details December of 2002, but Tim mostly does a good job of making it seem timeless, as he keeps the topical references to a minimum. I doubt if that was a conscious strategy to make the work more universal, but kudos to the guy either way. Every day is three panels and topics include trying to motivate himself to paint, drinking, going out to shows and movies, dealing with car insurance, getting his first credit card, stealing Mario, getting screwed (figuratively) at Kinko's, and the usual general hanging out. Hey, it's a diary strip, the format is pretty well established by now. Of course, the fact that he was doing this 8 years ago tells me that he may well have been at least mildly innovative with the format, it's just been imitated since then. But wait, there's more! Tim submitted a strip to Young American Comics for their Bizmar issue and he reprints it here after it was (probably rightly) rejected. Finally the book takes a sharply depressing turn as the last page is dedicated to stories of illegal abortions and their consequences from 1969-1970. Yeah, let's outlaw that again, you conservative nutjobs. My only complaint is that the print is occasionally smashed up a bit and/or a bit faint, but never really to the point where it's completely illegible. It's a pretty decent book overall and I do have at least one more issue to read, so that'll give me a more thorough understanding of the guy. Meanwhile, these collections of this series are a measly $5 per 6 issue collection, which is a steal.
Amazing Adult Fantasy #21
It's always a bit odd to read these diary comics in anything other than sequential order. After all, you are reading about the lives of these people, and in this case things jump ahead 5 months. Oh well, it's my own fault for getting a random selection of these from the cheapie Poopsheet sale. This time around Tim is running a comics shop, so there's lots of inside info on that, and who among us who reads comics isn't at least a little curious about the specifics behind the stores? Also included in this issue are strips about playing a gig alongside accidental hippies, talking to one friend on the phone when you think you're talking to another friend of the same name, a text rant about how it's impossible to be a good rich Christian, being too fat to fit in your good clothes, going on a diet, choking on broccoli, destroying a toilet, and offending Spielberg fans. There was also an annoying turn for the last third of the comic as Tim was starting up some sort of mystery project but was unable to talk about it, finally revealing towards the end that his comic store had taken over another store. Why the mystery? Were these things printed daily or something? Oh well, it did let him go nuts with the random imagery. He also announces in this issue that it's only going up to #24, which he apparently stuck to. All told, it's a fun series. A bit of a time capsule, granted, but it's funny on occasion and insightful, which is all you can ask for from these things. Like I mentioned in the last review, these are $5 for collections of 6 issues, which would make on nice beefy comic.
Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to Optical Sloth using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
No comments:
Post a Comment