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Chaos #29
No, that's not the real name of the creator of this comic. And, frankly, I have my doubts that that e-mail address is still valid, as the website it's connected to sure doesn't seem to be working. So why do I bother? Mostly because I'm always impressed when a comic hits double digits (let alone #29), and my theory is that somebody out there knows who made this comic, where they can currently be contacted and whether or not they're still making comics. After all, 2005 wasn't all that long ago. So how about the comic? It was mostly funny, which makes being unable to figure out who made this even more annoying. First up is the only long story in the comic, a 6 pager about a fake drug that lets the user control the minds of people within ten feet of them. Once they get outside that range, however, the person they were controlling knows that they were used and is bound to get a little angry, so they have to work fast. Naturally guys start using this to trick women into having sex with them, but this is a little tougher than the users initially think. The rest of the book is mostly one page strips including a fake ad for drugs, a list of personal worsts in terms of drugs, the fact that the author doesn't know anybody who has ever tried heroin (starting to sense a theme?), a fascinating story about Rube Waddell (look him up, you won't be sorry), a conversation about the new remake of Assault on Precinct 13, Iraqis voting, how to break into underground comics and a recruiter trying to get soldiers to reenlist. This leaves the one other (slightly) big piece: a story about a recruiter who successfully talks a young kid into joining the army. So, really, that's why I'm writing about this even though I have no idea who did this or how to get more copies of it (other than through Poopsheet, as they do have absolutely everything): he/she talks about current events and even gets a little political. Well, that and the comic is gorgeous, as you would expect after 29 issues of practice. It's worth a look if you can find it, and if anybody knows more about this please contact me. Oh, and if you can find it, according to the cover, it's free…
side b: the music lover's comic anthology
When I think about music comics one of the first names that comes to mind is Jim Mahfood so it is very fitting that he is in the book. His story is just four pages but it is one of the more detailed things I've seen him do. It's very text heavy but the subject matter is interesting enough to the music nerd part of my brain to keep my happy.
Torso is a six pager written by Kat Vapid and drawn by Ryan Kelly. The writing is really sharp and clever and Kelly's art has a lot of the same things I like about Phillip Bond with a dash of Paul Pope. I actually have a Ryan Kelly graphic novel in my basement that I have not had the time to get into. I'm going to make time. I really like his stuff.
