Bird Hurdler
A free sampler of some cartoonists you publish? What a great idea. And not just your average sampler, as the stories in here are self-contained, not just bits of stories to show off the artwork. They even have more available! It's a good thing to be this impressed before I even get to the contents. Stories in here include Julia Gfrorer's (and I would love to hear how that's pronounced) story about getting killed by the chief man-witch and having to babysit for his child, Andrice Arp's tale of a creep on an Amtrak train getting shot down, Zack Soto's quiet piece about a relationship falling apart (told as an actual physical beating), Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg's story of a cat trying to figure out the treat it got on Thanksgiving that was the best thing ever (and its sorrow at never being able to get said treat again due to the ethical constraints of its vegetarian owner), Farel Dalrymple's piece on a botched magic spell and a girl who beats up boys on a regular basis (the only story that was a "part 2″, but it held up fine by itself) and a silent sleepy story by Theo Ellsworth. On the Spark Plug website they say that it's available for $.01 and postage, but I'll bet if you ordered a healthy stack of comics from them and asked politely they'd probably throw a copy in for you. Or maybe Nerd Burglar is better (as it's also free), but I haven't seen that one yet and this one if fine by itself. Any time I get a story told from the perspective of a cat I'm happy, as I'm apparently slowly turning into a middle aged woman. I still only own one cat though, so all hope isn't lost for me yet…
It's actually called Rosetta: A Comics Anthology, but you all get that, right? As for the book, it's pretty much your average anthology, in that some of it is great (John Porcellino, Marc Bell, David Collier Ron Rege), some of it is not so great (James Kochalka and some of it is downright incomprehensible (M.S. Bastian, Renee French). Don't get me wrong, I usually love James Kochalka's stuff, it's just that I really didn't need to see the breakdown of one of his diary pages. Isn't it self-explanatory enough as it is? Overall the whole thing is definitely worth a look, as more of the pieces are good than not and the production of this book was pretty amazing. It looks great. Unfortunately, that great look makes it $20, unless you go to Amazon quick and get it before they take the discount off. Another good thing about this is that there's a lot of international talent, something we don't see enough of in general. One problem I had was with Megan Kelso's story. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, it's just that it was the length of a regular comic and it seemed sort of out of place in this setting. I say this fully knowing that I'm going to get her collected story when it comes out… Anyway, worth a look, but I've seen too many great anthologies this week already to get too excited over this.
And to think that I was regretting saving this one for last. After that Bogus Dead book in the middle of the week I was pretty sure nothing else was going to touch it, then along comes this book. In my opinion. there are two ways to make a great anthology. You can either have a lot of pieces, fast and furious, and you'll come away with a good impression of the book as long as the majority of them are solid, or you can have a book with only a select few, long pieces. Orchid is comprised of seven long tales adaptations of gothic stories. The only one that didn't do anything for me was Poe's "The Raven", and that's mostly just because I've seen so many adaptations of it at this point in my life that I just don't want to see it again. A personal problem of mine, granted, but that doesn't change the fact that everything else in here is creepy and good. Kevin Huizenga (the back says that he "used to do a comic book named Supermonster". Please don't tell me that he's done, that's one of the best series out there and I only just found out about it!) has the longest piece, a disturbing tale about the power of visions. Here's a list of the other names, and let me know if you need and more convincing: Lark Pien & Jesse Reklaw, Ben Catmull, T. Edward Bak, David Lasky, and Dylan Williams. It's only $8 and I couldn't recommend it more highly. Get this and Bogus dead and your anthology needs for the year should be pretty much met. If the website still isn't working, you can send money to: Spark Plug Comics P. O. Box 10952 Portland, OR 97296-0952.
Hickee #1
Anybody out there looking for the funniest anthology ever? EVER? OK, maybe some people would contest that, and I'm sure there are a few things that I'm forgetting, but this is the total package. I bought it because I mistakenly thought it was a new Graham Annable comic, but boy am I glad I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, he does have the funniest story in here, out of four or five that are tied for funniest. There's one story that's retelling a song (even that had funny art), one with a guy farting and one that might have had a moral. Those were the ones that were below perfect. Everything else… ah, why rave about it? I'll put the single funniest page in comics up as a sample (note from 8/6/07: turn out the computer ate those funny pages. Sorry). If you disagree, well, don't buy it. If you agree at all, it's all going to be funny to you. That story actually continues and gets even funnier, if you can believe that. Watch out because Alternative Comics is putting out a collected edition of this in a few months and you'd better believe that it'll be up here as soon as I see it online. Here's a list of contributors, and don't let the fact that you might not have heard of these people scare you: Joe White, Marc Overney, Nathan Stapley, Razmig Mavlian, Scott Campbell, and Graham Annable. Anybody know if they have any solo efforts? E-mail the crew for ordering info or just wait for the big book…
Are you somebody who likes to laugh while reading comics? One of those old fashioned types who's here for the "funny book" aspect of it all? This is, and somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, the funniest book you're likely to find. I could really cut and paste the reviews for all issues of Hickee, with a few minor changes for actual stories, and leave it at that. Putting out a book that makes me laugh out loud more than a few times is an impressive enough acheivement, putting out multiple books that do that is practicallyshowboating at this point. OK, fine, so it's funny. What's in this particular issue that'll get you to check it out? There are a number of short piece by Nathan Stapley, including Depressed Pitcher, Football Players, Good Game, and Pee Wee's. There's Joop Joop by Razmig Mavlian, in which we get to see what happens when all the wishes of a small female child come true. Or maybe you'd prefer Getting Creamed by Joe White, an epic adventure of a farmer trying to milk his cow. Perhaps Gladiating by Scott Campbell, because somebody has to root for the guy with a net as his weapon. Not convinced yet? How about The Anna Nicole Smith Board Game by Vamberto Maduro (what, too soon?), a wonderful guide of her path to fame, fortune and early death. And, as always, Graham Annable raises the bar for funny with his piece, Frank's Big Hand, in which a losing poker player finally has enough. It's cheap at $2.95, that cover could fold out into a board game if you wanted to buy two copies and wreck the other one, and I did mention the part about all the laughing, right?
Here it is, the funniest anthology comic ever. It's not? Fine, show me something funnier, I dare you. I'd love to see it if it exists, but I doubt it. If I had any doubts that the series would lose some steam or something after the first issue, I was happily proven wrong with the release of this collected edition. This is silly humor at its finest. I wouldn't feel compelled to point that out if it wasn't for the introduction of Sam Henderson, as he complains about being lumped into the same category as Graham Annable. There are many different types of humor comics out there among the very few alternative humor comics, and it's important to try and keep them straight. If you like laughing, you'll love this book. Few things have made me laugh out loud as much as sitting down and reading this volume. It's $12.95 and it's such a no-brainer that I'm not even going to try and hype it up any more.
Triple Dare #2
The thing about experimental comics is that, well, they're usually not all that good. Sure, they're interesting to students of the genre, and it was neat to read about the strict rules that the people involved in the first Triple Dare had to follow. Here's my problem: this is a book with two of my favorite comic people ever, James Kochalka and Tom Hart, and two other people that I'm trying to learn more about, Matt Madden and Nick Bertozzi. There's not really a bad story in here, but there's nothing all that great about it either. It would be nice to have a book with all these people in it that I could just hand to people and say "Look, here are some of the best comic people working today!" and have it be their best stories too. Maybe I ask too much. It's an interesting book. All the stories have to be on an island, and then are other stipulations, but hey, it's a surprise. Let's just say that they're inventive and possibly a little obnoxious when you know about them. If I have one piece of advice for the next issue it's that they should keep these stipulations secret and let the people figure them out for themselves. My favorite in the book was probably the Bertozzi story. Like I said, there's nothing bad in here, it's just that maybe all this daring is dragging the stories down a bit. I know, that's the whole point, it's not like my opinions have to make any sense or anything… If you're looking for a copy of this, go to the Alternative Comics website and ask nicely.
I'll give you a list of some of the names and you tell me if this is worth your while: Jim Woodring, Pat Moriarity, Robert Crumb, Rick Veitch, David Lasky, Eric Theriault, Jeremy Eaton, and Aleksander Zograf. Granted, there were a few names that I didn't recognize at all, but there were all kinds of interesting dreams in here. Come on, tell me that you're not wondering if Jim Woodring's sleeping mind is as fascinating as his waking one. It's an odd mix from all over the world and, as with any anthology, some things work and some things don't, but what this has over the other anthologies is that everything is… unprotected, in a way. Sleeping is out most vulnerable state and everything listed in here is honest, even if some it's kind of dull. Well worth a look, if only to see what these people dream about…
Alternative Comics #1
This was the comic that was free on Free Comics Day a couple of months back, so I'm honestly not sure if you can get it online anywhere or not. Check the website and e-mail somebody, otherwise check out your local comic store to see if they have any left, because it's a great piece of work. The idea is to showcase all of their artist's best work and they pull this off beautifully. Sure, Sam Henderson could have had more than a page out of his sketchbook, and I would have liked to see more out of Steven Weissman than a cover, but overall everyone associated with the company (again, check the website, as I'm too lazy to type everybody in) had either a good or a great short story in here. There were links to everybody in the book as well, meaning that anybody who picked this up randomly could find whoever they liked best, and that's the point of this book. Kudos on a job well done, and I'd have to think that this did a better job of promoting the medium than almost anything else could have. After all, it was free!
I might have a differnt criteria for a good anthology than most people. When I get an anthology, I get it to check out work from a lot of different people at once. Therefore, as long as the vast majority of them aren't actively bad, I usually feel like it was a good anthology. Well, there wasn't a single bad story in this, so mission accomplished. Lots of familiar names in this (Cole Johnson, Zack Soto, Dan Zettwoch, Jesse Reklaw, Thien Pham, HOB, Damien Jay, Gabrielle Bell) and some unfamiliar names (Howard John Arey, Ellen Lindner, Andrice Arp), which is always a good thing. More than a few of those people are getting e-mails from me to see if they want to be in the distro, in case you were wondering. There's no theme here, which is also a good thing, and stories include a young girl reluctantly spending time with her father, a man trying to find a working bathroom, a cute pug, getting sucked into the television, dating literal monsters, a stranded pirate rhymer, giant babies taking over the world, and how horrible it is to quit smoking. Great stuff in here all around and it's only $11.95, well worth a look. Here's the Alternative Comics website, or just click on the title if you're feeling spendy…
I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that I'm speaking mostly to people who are either of a progressive mindset (or why would you be reading about independent comic books?) or are Republicans smart enough to know that the current bunch of opportunists and criminals near the White House don't have a thing to do with their beliefs. If you buy what these people have to say, nothing you see in this book is going to convince you of anything. It's all that "liberal" comic company making stuff up, never mind the fact that the sources here for the quotes are immense, and boy there sure are an awful lot of coincidences leading up to a lot of bad things, and a lot of the people closest to this family have benefitted the most from these horrible things. I have no interest in talking to you if you believe all of these things were a happy coincidence. You should read this more than anybody else, but you won't, so why bother telling you to? This book is as complete and concise an account as you're likely to find about all the major players in this administration, how they got there and what they did with the power once they had it. The ongoing US policy of torture is graphically documented here, with eyewitness accounts from the innocent people that we tortured and locked up for years without filing charges. And if that's news to you, you REALLY need to watch the news more often. A lot of the best folks in the comic world have stories in here, including Ted Rall, Spain Rodriquez, Jamie Crespe, Lloyd Dangle and Peter Kuper. Granted, this book does veer into mostly unfounded conspiracy theories at times. OK, maybe not so much "veer" as "dives right into". Still, like I said, there have been an awful lot of happy coincidences over the years for the Bush family, and the charges in here should at least be looked into by more people with actual positions of authority. This book is at its best when detailing known facts about these people and what they've done, which is as damning a list as you're likely to find in recent memory. If you have a relative of some kind who believes in the crap these people are spewing and you just can't find a way to get through to them, you could do a lot worse than to try and get them to read this. At the very least it should start a real discussion, which is another thing this country is sorely lacking these days. This is $18.95, but it's available at Amazon right now for around $13.
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