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COMIXVILLE #7

(Send a stamp to Comixville / PO Box 697 / Portland, OR / 97207-0697 USA)

Comixville is a pocket-sized guide to what's new in the world of mini-comics and it comes out every few months. This one's got teaser descriptions of nearly 40 comics, about half of which also include art repros. Also in this issue is an interview with The Assassin and the Whiner's Carrie McNinch. In my opinion, Comixville provides a nice service in an attractive package and is worth your support.

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< comics/x >



THE FIERCE RIVER PIRATES: "THE ISLAND" #1-5

(Carol Pond / address removed by request)

At the request of fans, Carol Pond has revived her Fierce River Pirates, Ringnose and Nobeard (last used in her 2-hour comics project last year). I'm glad, too, because they're fun characters. In the first five issues of this storyline (with more to come), the pirates pick up hitchhikers and hear two conflicting stories about the haunted island nearby. Is the island really haunted? If so, by whom? And what about that treasure? Carol's comics are fun and for all ages. Send her a trade and check 'em out.

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< comics/x >



PLASTIC FARM #2

(Plastic Farm Press / 1552 Crestview Ave. / Hagerstown, MD / 21740 USA. Web: www.plasticfarm.com)

Review by Alan Rankin

In this issue, writer-artist Rafer Roberts continues the reprinting of his Plastic Farm mini-comic in full-sized comics form. (I love his disclaimer that “the grey bars on the top and bottom of your page…reflect the original aspect ratio of this comic book.”) The punk-flavored story involves a boy raised in an orphanage, teen bullies, and a benevolent ghost. The introduction of a stereotype named “Raoul” is an unfortunate close to the tale, which is continued in following issues. The 8-page backup feature, “Progressions,” is a martial-arts story, heavily influenced by the manga/anime style, with terrific art by Jeff Coleman. Progressions is also a mini-comic, and from what I can tell, this may be its debut in a full-sized comics format. Check out www.progressions.org for more on this one.

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< comics/x >



WATCHING DAYS BECOME YEARS

($4.50 ppd from Sparkplug Comic Books / PO Box 10952 / Portland, OR / 97296-0952 USA. Sparkplug's website, Jeff LeVine's website)

Many of you will remember Jeff LeVine's 1990s work such as his No Hope comic and Destroy All Comics, a magazine about same. LeVine has been laying somewhat low for a few years, but certainly hasn't quit drawing. This new volume from Sparkplug collects 40 pages of autobiographical comics about working and living in the city. Many of these strips aren't conventional, straight comics; rather, they read more like poetry. Or diary entries. Or mini psychological profiles – brief reports on what was happening in his head at the moment. The artwork is expressive and there are a few really effective inkwash pages. One of my favorite strips features scenery from the author's daily walk to work; this one should appeal to those who enjoy Jeff Zenick's drawings. LeVine's work here is personal, sometimes funny, sometimes depressing and certainly worth reading. To get a better idea of what to expect from this book, check out the archives at his website for tons of interesting stuff.

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< comics/x >



KAMEELMAN #3

Review by Alan Rankin

(A1 Oregon Publishing / PO Box 1324 / Lake Oswego, OR / 97035 USA. Web: www.kameelman.com)

This issue highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of this unusual new comic. Kameelman is a teenage clone, genetically engineered with chameleon DNA, so he can assume the appearance of anyone else. He and his support team of friends use these abilities to intervene in other people’s troubled lives, confronting such real-life issues as hazing and sexual harassment. The latter topic is the subject of this issue, as the group deals with Todd, a young cad who treats women like objects. Todd is pressuring his girlfriend to have sex before she’s really ready – I’m sure the book’s teen readers can readily identify with the issues involved.

The comic also features a continuing subplot about the sinister scientist who created Kameelman – but it’s not as involving as the main storyline. Worse, in this issue, it actually diverts the reader’s attention from the climax of Todd’s story. For my money, they could have ditched the subplot entirely, keeping the focus on what is already a complex issue (sex – it doesn’t get more complicated than that, especially for teen-agers). Another unique feature of Kameelman is that each story has an alternate ending on the book’s Web site, and readers are invited to vote on which ending they preferred. In the case of issue 3, I would have chosen a combination of the two endings – one in which the title character was more involved with the story’s resolution (as he was in the Web ending), but that confronted the issue of sexual responsibility a little more directly (as in the comic). This time around, in my opinion, both the scientist subplot and the multiple endings diluted what was otherwise a careful treatment of a complex subject.

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< comics/x >



THE BAREFOOT SERPENT

(Top Shelf Productions, Scott Morse)

Scott Morse's latest from Top Shelf is about a family struggling with the loss of a child. Set in Hawaii (is the family vacationing?), the focus is on a little girl, the surviving child, and the people she encounters who influence her (seemingly expeditious) healing process. Although I've never been to Hawaii, one of the things I appreciate about this book is that the setting seems authentic. The drawings make me want to go there, I love the dialect (Hawaiian slang is great) and there's even a bit of spooky Hawaiian folklore. And, I swear, I can smell the ocean air and hear the palms blowing in the breeze. The book's ending seems a bit abrupt and maybe too tidy (in short, the magic of the islands allows them to carry on), but it's an enjoyable story. I can easily see it being done well as a film (live action or animated), for what that's worth.

The novelty of this project is that the story is also intertwined with the films, techniques and life of filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. The main story is framed by biographical material and is laden with scenes and characters directly inspired by the director. Unfortunately – and I hate to admit it – I'm not well enough versed in Kurosawa's work to see all of the layers, so I'll just have to take Morse's word for it. It's important to note, however, that you don't even need to know who the man was to enjoy this story. Also, while the bulk of the book is in black & white, the biographical sections are in full-color (that's around 32 pages) and they're quite nice indeed.

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< comix/lit >



OUT OF THE BLUE #16

($3.00 from Larned Justin / PO Box 471 / House Springs, MO / 63051 USA. Web: candidcartoons.com)

This is the final print issue of Out of the Blue. Larned's plans are to continue the work – in addition to drawing more comics – in October at his website under the new title "Electric Blue". This time around my favorite stuff is Matt Holdaway's "James Brown" story about several Brown-related occasions, Andy Nukes' poetic-yet-nonsensical one-pager and an installment of Joel Orff's "Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll". There's also stuff, though, by Kel Crum, Joseph Shea, Steve Skeates, Mike Goetz, John Miller, Claudio Parentela and others.

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< comics/x >



PISTOLWHIP: THE YELLOW MENACE
by Jason Hall and Matt Kindt

Review by Mark Campos

(Top Shelf Productions, www.topshelfcomix.com)

Second in a series about a 1930s detective and his culture-reference strewn world. The previous book (which I haven't seen yet) won all sorts of acclaim, but this one is a disappointment. The story is unsurprising, which is fatal to mystery stories: the detective and his pals moof around, the criminal is exactly who you think he will be, and some loose ends (introduced in the previous book?) don't get tied. And the art is too loose for this sort of thing, producing heartbreaking pages like the one beautifully Photoshopped to look like an old dime comics cover, but the line art is full of clams. Could be better.

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< comics/x >



SELECTIVE MEMORY #1

($2.50 from Jason Neuman / 11861 Killimore Ave. / Northridge, CA / 91326 USA. E-mail)

From the creator of Cyril the Little Dead Boy comes this collection of random comics and gag cartoons. Some of them – like most of the stoner material – don't do anything for me for various reasons. My favorite pieces, though – and the stuff that surprised me the most – are the autobio stories and a few of the gag panels. Once Neumie finalizes his art style (his various influences show through pretty clearly at this point), I think people are going to stand up and take notice. The seeds are certainly there.

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< comics/x >



THE MASTERPLAN

Review by Mark Campos

(Top Shelf Productions, www.topshelfcomix.com)

This year's story brick from the prolific Scott Mills is an SF adventure that spans 18,000,000,042,058 years and 306 pages: an adventure involving a planet-bending scientist, his priest brother, and his ex-wife who hates him. The story flashes by without much development, and Scott's minimalist art dances itself pretty thin at times. Some interesting ideas are left in the dust. Still, there's not another book like it on the market, and Scott's unique
storytelling voice is always fun to hear.

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< comics/x >



PIG'S MISSING POO

($3.00 from Robert Goodin, robertgoodin.com)

This is a collection of interesting work by Robert Goodin, who used to run Robot Publishing. There are several stories in here, my absolute favorite of which is a one-pager about a bodyless head who longs to see the rest of the world. The morbid final panel made me laugh out loud, which caused my partner to ask "Penguins again?" I replied, "No, no, much better than penguins." Anyway, very funny. The other stuff in here is also funny (and/or sad), but not so extremely. One strip, "The Monkey & the Crocodile", will give you a taste of what you're missing if you haven't read the recent Top Shelf Asks the Big Questions (which Goodin co-edited). And if you like the cover drawing, do yourself a favor and check out the finished, painted version here.

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< comics/x >



BEACH SAFARI

(Top Shelf Productions, Mawil)

This is the first I'd seen of Mawil Witzel's work and I really enjoyed it. It's essentially a story about a rabbit who mysteriously washes up on a beach and the creatures he encounters there while trying to figure out who to get home (or if he even wants to). It's about friendship, love and adventure. But, most of all, it's about summer. Now I've never washed up on a beach only to meet beautiful women in a near-paradise. Still, this book really evokes what summers mean to the young (and young at heart). Beach Safari is sort of a Good-bye, Chunky Rice as filtered through the talents of a European influenced by the Beach Boys and countless summer movies. Hopefully, my description doesn't cheapen the story as I really did enjoy it and will look out for more work by the author. With characters both cute and sexy, the artwork is lovely, the writing is pleasant and it's got me ready to hit the beach. Recommended.

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< zine:pop culture >



BETTY PAGINATED #25

($2.00/£1 – + post, I'd imagine – from Dann Lennard / PO Box A1412 / Sydney South, NSW / 1235 / AUSTRALIA. E-mail)

This seedy zine from Australia covers all sorts of lowbrow pop culture, but especially wrasslin' (I'm sorry, wrestling) and anything having to do with naked chicks. Some of this issue's features include porn star obituaries, naughty pics of an Australian Temptation Island star, a look at the banning of French film Baise Moi, nudie Aussie Big Brother pics, Rockbitch, Bettie Page (of course), a great four-page comic about metal music by Glenn Smith, several pages of interesting reviews (all sorts of items, including snacks!) and a whole bunch of stuff about wrestling (both international and Australian). Seeing as how I don't even know the difference between "heel" and "babyface", the wrestling articles don't do much for me, but they're full of passion and other fans would no doubt dig it. It's a fun zine, though, and there's plenty of non-wrasslin' content to enjoy.

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< comics/x >



WHEN I'M OLD

(Alternative Comics, www.indyworld.com/altcomics)

I actually hadn't read a great deal of Gabrielle Bell's work before, but it's clear to me now that a collection was long overdue. There's some nice work in this mix of autobio, pseudo-autobio and fantasy. In these stories there's much longing, angst and disconnection (not to mention a bit of horror). Some of Bell's characters will make you flat-out uncomfortable.

The three most enjoyable stories, in my opinion, may also be some of the more recent work (but I'm not certain about that as most of the pieces aren't dated). They are: "Jet Lag", about a trip to London to visit family. It illustrates that people are screwed up everywhere and makes me wish my family was a bit more eccentric; "Anatomy of the Heart", a discussion of broken hearts and how to fix them. Considering the subject matter, this one's executed quite cleverly; and "The Virgin & the Gipsy", a D.H. Lawrence adaptation about a love that never was. Is there nothing more decadent than the Western world of the 1920s?

This book collects both older and more recent work and I found myself enthralled with most of it. Bell's knack for dialogue and depicting interpersonal relationships makes for characters I'm interested in. Check it out.

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< zine >



YOU IDIOT #1

($1.00 from Nate Gangelhoff / PO Box 8995 / Minneapolis, MN / 55408 USA. Web: www.pickyourpoison.net)

This is a fun zine. Nate provides a valuable service here in that he's suffered through – and written reviews for – products no one should have to be subjected to. Brave Mr. Gangelhoff tackles several anti-drug video games from the '80s, religious video games and books about Satan's influence in rock music, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter (written by his mother) and cat astrology. My favorite articles are those about the video games. I was intrigued by the descriptions (and screen captures), mystified by the connection between religious and anti-drug games and now really want to play some of them. This zine could do with a little more editing, but Nate has a good sense of humor and knows lunacy when he sees it. If you enjoy laughing at the thing we call American society this will give you more reason to do so.

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< comics/x >



NOT ELVIS #2

(Geo. Erling)

I don't know that this one is even really available through mail order, but it does exist (and it's new), so I wanted to mention it here for the sake of any historians out there and others who'd be interested. This eight-page mini features drawings of characters who are certainly not Elvis (although they may beg to differ). Artists in this one are editor George Erling, Hilary Barta, Bruce Chrislip and Bob Vojtko. It's great stuff and the kind of thing that reminds me what drew me to this mini-comix jazz in the first place.

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< zine:politics >

NERO FIDDLED WHILE ROME BURNED

(Jacob David / PO Box 3050 / Eureka, CA / 95502 USA)

This is essentially a big ol' anti-Bush rant. Lots of good points are made, but I had difficulty reading it. Too much alliteration and too many cute nicknames like "Asscroft", "the Crackhead Cowboy" and "Shrub-Without-Nub" to take seriously. I mean, hey, those guys are assholes, but sometimes too much is enough. He also sent along To Usher in the (Hopefully Short) Era of the Fascist American Theocratic State, which is a couple of pages of Bush Administration-related quotes.

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< zine:resource >

FANZINE FANATIQUE Summer 2003

(Send a trade to Keith & Rosemary Walker / 6 Vine Street / Lancaster / LA1 4UF / ENGLAND)

Nice to see another new issue of FF so soon. Fanzine Fanatique reviews, as far as I can tell, everything sent in, so you get an interesting mix of SF, perzines, poetry, mail art, comics and more. The reviews are informal and even conversational (as Keith sometimes writes directly to the reviewee) and the format is simple and to the point.

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