Yeah, so where are the reviews Mr. "I'm gonna review a mini-comic every week"? Well, I hate to make excuses but Thanksgiving slowed me down and a college final snuck up on me. But fear not, I have reviews of stuff by Brad McGinty, Josh Latta and Josh Simmons in the works. I just don't want to post them half finished. I should be a lot more consistent after said final and as new submissions start showing up in the mail box. Thanks for dropping by.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
26 November 2007
07 November 2007
SHIOT CROCK 13
(*Fat kitty not included.)Maintaining a thirty-four year streak of doing things that do not make sense, I have decided that the first new review for this new mini-comic review blog will be dedicated to a project that may not be a mini-comic. I'll start off with the inevitable question: what is a Shiot Crock? To answer, I'll just quote myself:
"What is Shiot Crock? Basically it is a collection of comics and other items from artists around the planet. The works are collected and distributed to all the contributing artists and a few critics for review and enjoyment. Each contributor is expected to check out all the material in the project and then post reviews at The Comics Journal's message board."
"What is Shiot Crock? Basically it is a collection of comics and other items from artists around the planet. The works are collected and distributed to all the contributing artists and a few critics for review and enjoyment. Each contributor is expected to check out all the material in the project and then post reviews at The Comics Journal's message board."
So, Shiot Crock is more of a collection of mini-comics than a mini-comic itself. It is a pretty exclusionary project. You can't buy one unless you buy one of the contributor's copies. So, why review a project that you the reader can't go out and buy? Well, most of the contributors do make mini-comics that they would be happy to sell you and I hope this review will provide a tiny glimpse into their work. Another great thing about Shiot Crock is that many contributors submit works they would not put anywhere else. Not to say that these are tossed off failed projects they had laying around (which may be the case for some) but that because these contributions are not intended for a large audience, the creators are free to try things they may not do for an anthology or even their own mini-comics. In short, Shiot Crocks can be filled with lots of weird stuff you wont see in other places.
This current volume includes 17 contributions from 15 different creators. I could have quickly populated this blog with a lot of reviews by giving each story its own entry but I feel it is more appropriate to look at the project as a whole. My copy of SC 13 arrived in a large white envelope containing two attractive packages. One a splatter painted manilla envelope and the other a gift wrapped book.I let my daughter tear open the gift wrapping. She was very excited. I was excited too. Getting presents in the mail is just about as much fun for one day as anyone deserves to have.
Inside the manila envelope is a very nice collage of art from all the contributors that Karen Lucas put together, a smaller splatter painted envelope containing a cool Shiot Crock magnet and a mini-comic which I assume was a carryover from the failed Shiot Crock 12. Inside the gift wrapping is Shiot Crock 13 itself.This edition is edited by Klopner and he did a fantastic job taking all the home made elements and putting it together in a very attractive and fun presentation. Every anthology should come with this many cool things to check out and read through. Klopner did more than just bind together all the submissions. He created nice little title pages for each story using the contributor's art and created a very nice cover depicting a cute comic girl appropriately reading her Shiot Crock on the toilet. Huge complimentary declarations to Klopner for making this thing a pleasure to look through and own.
I will now touch on each contribution in the same alphabetical order in which they are presented. I apologize for the poor quality and selection of scans but I did not want to break the spine and it takes a while to scan that many images so, actually, I take my apology back. It was hard work.
Kurt BeaulieuKurt Beaulieu presents four pages of crazy street lesbians with giant boobs. I really like his drawing style and the comics are funny. His art and narrative style are a bit abstract so I always have to re-read each panel but the comics have so much personality that the re-read is a pleasure and not a challenge. I really like Beaulieu's comics and if someone re-launched Weirdo and asked me to edit the thing he would be one of the first people I would think of.
M. Campos
Campos contributed six pages of what he calls "near misses and never happens". There are two really nice pages from a WWII biographical comic he apparently gave up on but show a lot of promise. There is a nice psychedelic page and the page sampled above that would both make a great posters or t-shirts if colored. There is a funny one page comic strip in which the jokes deliver but art looks a bit unfinished. I really like Campos drawing style and subject choices and would love to see some longer books so I will keep my eye out.
Lou CopelandCopeland profiles the "Great American" Davy Crocket in the style of educational comics but with the cyborg bears, astronauts and robots that school materials of yesteryear were afraid to document. Copeland's art is very good and the comic is funny. I'm dying to see the next episode of Great Americans which promises a profile of KC & The Sunshine Band.
J. M. HunterHere we have two submissions from J.M. Hunter but they are a part of a series. One is a full mini-comic called Not 2 Self and the other is in the Crock book itself and is substantial enough to be a second mini-comic and I assume it will be. Hunter's art is very aggressive with thick blacks and angry young characters jumping out from the panels. At first look I thought it was a bit over-the-top and bordering on sloppy but the more I thought about it I realized that the art is well suited for the story as well as it's target audience. Hunter's character design is strong. I really like the "goth pixie". The dialog seems to bank on profanity but it was not that long ago that I was an angry young man and was a part of plenty of conversations that sounded like this. Stylistically, this is not the type of comic I would make or maybe even the type I would buy but I don't suggest Hunter make any drastic changes. The continued existence of Oni and SLG publishing proves that there is an audience for this type of art and storytelling. My only advice would be the same advice a publisher gave me a while back, that there is nothing wrong with his craft that drawing 100 pages of comics wont fix. Good advice for anyone.
Kletz
Kletz provides a well crafted fight between Lockjaw from the Inhumans and Ace the Bathound. An idea so simple and genius I can't believe I've never seen it before. Very nice.
Klopner
Not only did Klopner do a very good job editing this Crock but he also provided my favorite comics of the project. His first contribution is called Sapphire Bullets. The first time I read one of Klopner's minis (a year or so ago in SC 11) I really liked the look of the book but thought the sexuality was a bit over the top. In Sapphire Bullets there is still a lot of sexual content but it feels more natural. The sexual content is consistent with the characters and, as unbelievable as the actions may be, they do seem to work in this world where these characters live. The dialog is sharp and I love the art style. Klopner's second submission is a collection of newspaper styled strips called True Candy. This second set of comics is my favorite of the book. I love the premise of a painter and a cartoonist living together as lovers and the comedy that follows. I love the characters and, there is no better way I can think of to say this but, I love the way Klopner draws the ladies. Sexuality is a big part of these strips as well but is handles in a clever enough way for these strips to work in an alternative paper format. I just wish there were more papers out there that would take a chance on this type of strip instead of running the same nationally syndicated strips all the other alternative papers run. (I'm pointing at you Creative Loafing!)
Dan Lester
Dan Lester presents a comic strip adaptation of the Turkish film The Man Who Saved the World aka Turkish Star Wars. I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan but I had never heard of this movie. At first I thought that Lester had invented the thing. If that were the case, this comic would have to be one of the oddest things ever. I did some googleing and found out that the film is real. Therefore, Lester's comic is no the oddest thing ever, but rather an adaptation of the oddest thing ever. Adapting this work to comics is a great exercise and results in a fun read.
Lucas
Karen Lucas offers up a few slice-of-life moments from a beauty shop. "Curl Up and Dye" is a clever title for the collection. The moments and dialog are funny and accessible. Her flat drawing style is charming and works well for this style of story telling. She uses thick blacks to give the pages a little punch and even uses black balloons and white lettering which makes the balloons a neat part of the panel composition. I can't guess if that was her intention but it works.
Dave McKenna
Dominique McKie
Kim McKie
Kim McKie presents "The Adventures of Staple Boy" which is exactly what it sounds like. A cute exercise in minimalism.
Rod McKie
I had to read Rod McKie's silent comic "Dia De Los Muertos" a couple of times to make sure I understood the story. This is not bad thing. McKie's art is strong enough to merit a second or third reading. The truth is, I always have this problem with silent comics. I like the dreamy effects of the tones and the odd appearance of the grown-ups.
David Robertson
If Wes Anderson wrote a two page comic about a wildlife film sound recordist it would be exactly like this two page story by David Robertson. (And I mean that with zero percent snark. I like Wes Anderson.) Robertson's drawing seems rushed but he manages to tell an elaborate story packed with laughs in just two pages. Impressive.
Barry Rodges
Barry Rodges' "The Life and Times of Edward Nooney" is a well crafted four page study of the comic form. Each page shows Nooney in progressive ages of his life with each of the four seasons providing the background. At each age Rodges used thought balloons to show the character visualizing snapshots of random memories. The idea is very clever and well executed. Each page is a nice stand alone piece but I believe it would work even better if all four pages were presented together as four panels on one page. It would have to be a pretty big page to do it justice so it probably would not work for a Shiot Crock submission. Rodges drawing and character design are very strong.
Shannon Smith
The final contribution is three pages of self-obsessed auto-bio nonsense from some jerk named Shannon Smith.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
05 November 2007
Welcome and/or Why Review Mini-Comics?
Hello! If you have stumbled over to this web page I assume you came to read reviews of mini-comics. Before I start officially posting any reviews I thought I would take a second to address the art form itself.
What is a mini-comic?
Beats me. I've seen a lot of mini-comics made a lot of different ways in a lot of different sizes. The main commonalities I can think of are that they are self-published and self-made... usually. Could they be mass produced by a major publisher? Maybe. It's frustrating to try and pin it down. Comics, and by Comics I'm referring to the medium itself, has a long history of things not being named what they are or not being what they are named. Is a floppy spinner rack Archie comic a book? Is an issue of Sin City expected to be as comical as Donald Duck? The terms Comics and Comic Books have been wrong from the start and don't even get me started on the term Graphic Novel. All I know is that when it comes to naming things, Comics always gets it wrong so why should mini-comics be any different?
If you've come to this site you probably are already familiar with mini-comics and have your own idea of what they are. As far as what my idea of them may be, I will now defer to the much smarter Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter.
"It used to be that mini-comics referred to a specific size of small-press comic book. Now, the word mini-comics is most frequently used to describe handmade comic books and those comic books that resemble them. This usually means comics printed on a Xerox machine or using a similar hand-operated printing process, but it can also include those rare comics that are published in more formal fashion that adopt the superficial properties of handmade comic books. They are booklets of varying size and shape that exist largely outside the established markets for comic book, graphic novels and newspaper strips. "
Recommended reading from The Comics Reporter:
"Reading Mini- Comics" http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/all_about_comics/all_about/78/
"Making Mini-Comics" http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/all_about_comics/all_about/77/
I suggest any Comics fan bookmark The Comics Reporter and read it every day. There are four things I read almost every day: American Elf, Journalista, The Comics Reporter and The Bible. A day without any of the four is unfulfilled.
Now the next question:
Why review mini-comics?
The half truth half joke answer to that question is so that people will send me free mini-comics. I love mini-comics. I love to hold them, smell them, read them, make them and share them. In the past seven years I have moved from metropolitan life to suburban life to rural life and I now have very limited access to mini-comics so, yes, I really want people to send me mini-comics. I also want my favorite medium/art form to receive at least a fraction of the attention I think it deserves. I want there to be great websites and review columns dedicated to the form. Unfortunately, there are not many of them around. I had been thinking of making an attempt to fill that void myself for years but I always had an excuse. Not enough time. Who would care? What makes me qualified? Etc.
One of my main concerns was that I just don't want to be a critic. I want to be a creator. I have written reviews for other sites and I ran my own comics review forum years ago but around the time I started making mini-comics I decided that I should not be both a creator and a critic. I'm still not a critic. I'm not a journalist. I'm not a columnist. I'm not even much of a blogger. What I am is a fan. Before I was a creator or non-critic, I was a fan. I'm a fan of the medium/art-form and as a fan I like to talk about the medium/art-form. So, that's all this is and all it should be, one fan talking about mini-comics. Now, just to clarify, this does not mean I will only review books I like. My intention is to review every book that is sent to me. Every single one. Just because I love mini-comics does not mean I love all mini-comics. My intention is to consider every book on it's own merits and to talk about what I thought worked or didn't and what I liked or didn't. Pretty simple. My intention is to review at least one mini-comic every week.
Why should you care?
Why should you want to read mini-comics reviews from a guy who's answer to the question "What is a mini-comic" is "Beats me"? Beats me. What are my qualifications? Does that really matter? I have a degree in something, I've written for this and that, I've read this and that, I've made some things, I've bought some things, I've been here and there. Whatever. You the reader, you the person-who-ended-up-at-a-mini-comic-review-website-for-some-reason-or-another, will decide if the reviews are worth reading. It is my hope and belief that the mini-comics themselves will drive this site, not me. I don't at all want this to be about me. I've got three or four other websites devoted to my own awesomeness already. I can't stand the thought of another. This will be about the mini-comics.
How do I get reviewed?
Simple. Send me your mini-comic. Email me at spaghettijunk@gmail.com and I will reply with the mailing address. I will only need one copy of each comic. If you want to send a second copy, I will forward it on to some other mini-comic fan or possibly another review site but I can't promise it will get you an extra review. If you want to save me some time, you are welcome to email me scans of the covers or a sample so that I don't have to do it myself. It is my intention to at least post the cover of each comic but we will see how that goes depending on how much time I have. I'm a full time student, jobbie job worker, husband and daddy so if I have to chose between scanning your mini and eating or sleeping, your mini may not get scanned. When sending scans, please make sure they are jpg and sized for bloggy blogs. I will not return anything you mail me ever. As a general rule, I don't participate in things that cost me money. My promise is to review every mini-comic that is sent to me at a rate of at least one a week. If you are lucky, your book might be reviewed the day I get it. If not, later.
Will I review other things?
Maybe. Webcomics? Yeah, if you ask nice and link me up. Zines? Probably. As long as it is in the self-made spirit of mini-comics and is, well, reviewable, I'll take it into consideration. Would I love you to send me a free t-shirt? Yes! Can I review it? Probably not. As much as I'd like to say, yes send me everything, I guess I want to avoid the things that have already been reviewed everywhere else. As much as I would love for indie publishers to send me their latest books, I figure the established sites already have that covered. Email me if you have something you want reviewed and ask if you are not sure.
What's in it for me/you/us?
Beats me. Personally, I hope to get some mini-comics and share info about them with others. For the reader, I hope you learn about something new and seek it out, buy it and enjoy it. For the mini-comic-submitting-person this will be at least one more link or blurb you can use to promote your book and at most you might get some constructive criticism to help make your next book better. Maybe. Either way, what's one mini-comic between pals?
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
02 November 2007
SHIOT CROCK 12
I never actually got my copy of Shiot Crock 12 so it will not be reviewed here but for the sake of continuity, here is a link to the Shiot Crock 12 thread on The Comics Journal's message board. WARNING: This thread contains much profanity and gnashing of teeth. Of course for those not embittered by their lack of crock, the thread may be comedy gold.
http://www.tcj.com/messboard/viewtopic.php?t=148
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
http://www.tcj.com/messboard/viewtopic.php?t=148
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
SHIOT CROCK 11
NOTE: This is a re-post of my review of Shiot Crock 11 which was originally posted on my main bloggy blog back on 3/12/2006. I post it here now for archival reasons since File Under Other will be devoted to mini-comics and because I just recieved Shiot Crock 13 in the mail yesterday. SC 13 will be my first official review for this site. That should happen sometime next week. 
Shiot Crock Issue 11 was shipped out last week and I was lucky enough to get a copy. What is Shiot Crock? Basically it is a collection of comics and other items from artists around the planet. The works are collected and distributed to all the contributing artists and a few critics for review and enjoyment. Each contributor is expected to check out all the material in the project and then post reviews at The Comics Journal's message board. This issue of Shiot Crock is collected in an awesome box much like the old rekerd box sets of yester year. Much standing up and clapping for Lou Copeland for putting this thing together. So far, I've made everyone who has been to my house look at it and I plan on taking it to Fluke in Athens (April 1st) and showing it off there.
For my contribution to the box, I made an extra-mini edition of Brush and Pen. It came out pretty good and I think I like the size better than the digest size in which Brush and Pen had been previously printed.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was this cool origami frog. It looked so cool that I debated for several days if I would open it or not. Then when I finally got the nerve to unfold it, I could not find it. I asked my wife, "Have you seen that cool frog that came with my Shiot Crock box?". She replied, "It hopped up on the bookcase in the kitchen." I finally unfolded it to find a cool little comic (about a frog) my M. Campos. Its a very well drawn and designed comic in a perfect size and format for this project. Very cool.
Beserkotron by David Robertson is very well produced. I like the art and the cover. The dialog is good and the characters are interesting but the story goes a bit long. Lots and lots of panels but I wouldn't necessarily recommend changing anything. It works and Robertson is obviosly having fun telling the story he wants to tell and drawing the things he wants to draw. This is what mini-comics should be, a story about something you are interested in (in this case, kids making fighting robots) that no one else is creating or publishing, so, you make it yourself and hope it finds its audience.
The Punch 'Ems by Joe Kletz is another well produced mini. It is a superhero parody much like Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot or Mystery Men. I like the characters, especially Donkey Punch and Hendrix-Bot Mark III. The art and story work well in the mini-comic format. The pages are not too busy and the pacing is good. The intro says Kletz considers this a one-shot but I would not mind seeing more.
Approximately 1/5 of 'the Iwerks Commemorative Dinner' is a pretty ambitions mini-comic. It is in a long skinny strip comic format and has very nice hand made binding and (what appears to be) a hand colored cover. This is a nice comic to buy and if I saw it in a store it would jump out at me and I'd want to own it. That being said, I found the comics themselves to be a bit intimidating. And I don't really mean that in a bad way. Its hard to explain. I'll put it this way, I love Chris Ware's comics. I think he is a genius. But if I just wanted to sit down and relax, I'd grab a Daniel Clowes comic before I'd grab the Chris Ware comic. Like Ware, Rodges comics take a bit more participation on the part of the reader. To make a long story short, this is exactly the type of comic, that I read once and don't really 'get' but later get drawn back to and read over and over again. I know, I don't make any sense. Sorry.
Dynamite Dan by D. Morris is a simple one page, four panel comic. There is not a lot too it but the one sheet format is good for this kind of project. I like the post-punchline punchline; "Remember Kids to Scrub Behind Your Ears When you Bath!"
Maynard and Willis by Lou Copeland also uses the one-sheet format but is printed on front and back and is a much more detailed comic. The art has a very nice style and the dialog had me cracking up. This comic would have fit in perfectly in my favoritre issues of Weirdo magazine. I'd love to see more.
That Schmuck by Henry Chamberlain is a very well done mini-comic. Chamberlain understands what works in the format and the art, lettering and pacing are perfect. The story is very good as well. This is the type of mini-comic I most enjoy. Short, self-contained stories that work more like a poem than a long narrative. That Schmuck is "A Special Supplement to Alice in New York". I've never read Alice in New York but now I am curious.
God Wrapped Himself in a Baby by M. Allison is another one-sheet format comic. I like the character designs. The art and lettering are great. But, like the Iwerks comics, this may be over my head. It feels like one page out of something bigger. No real beginning or end. I'm curious to see more though. It makes me want to pull out my Dave Cooper comics.
Toenails by Josh Sullivan is a cool little collection of gag comics. Some of the jokes try a bit hard to break the vulgar meter but they are funny. It's the type of comics you feel ashamed of yourself for laughing at. All of the comics are well drawn and I like his inks.
The Circles of Protestant Heaven, Part 1 by Casey Casein and Cynthia Seagren isn't a comic. I'm not really sure what it is. It may be a parody of the free religious 'tract' pamphlets people give out in malls, airports and door-to-door. Or, it may be a reverse Dante's Inferno. Either way, it is interesting but not convincing or funny. (Well, the Bugs Bunny picture is kind of funny but you can't lose with Bugs.) I'm not sure what the intention is. I actually am a believer of Christ and I try to read the good old B-I-B-L-E (yes that's the book for me) on a regular basis so maybe that makes me a bad judge of this item.
The Horrors of Hixville by Ashley Holt and Troy England Evitt III is a neat little folded one-sheet project. I really like the format of it. It is folded into eight squares so you get a cover, a title page and six character pages. Each character page has a very cool color drawing from Holt and a short bio. It's kind of a more mature and detailed adult version of the old Garbage Pail Kids cards. A very neat little item but it feels like a missing part of some bigger project.
Queer Gaspers by K. Thor Jensen is another example of why I love mini-comics. Its the type of story that works better in a mini-comic than any other format. I had to read it twice to really get it. Each page is a full page of art so when you look at two pages side-by-side it looks like there are two of these Gasper things reacting to each other. Nope, I figured out on the second read that it is just one Gasper having an adventure. From what I get out of it, this Queer Gasper, decides to leave the ground and go hang out in the clouds but this does not work so well and he gets sick or dies and ends up back on the ground. I don't know. It's an art comic. (It looks really nice and makes you think. It makes me think about how he did the tones. That's a lot of work if he cut tone paper for all those lines.) I don't know. It made me happy when the little guy made it to the top of the cloud and sad when he fell back down. I liked it. I want more.
Super Iffy by Yuri Duncan reminds me of an old 70's Hulk book I had. The book I had was a little junior chapterbook but every few pages it would have a full page illustration of the Hulk smashing something with a caption saying something like, "The Hulk is angry." Very simple. Very cool. Very fun.
Wrong Answer by Owen Harris is a music CD with a neat illustration and essay attatched. The cd is great. It's like DJ Shadow and Radiohead got sucked into the Tron movie. Computer music isn't really my thing but I enjoyed this CD and will probably make copies for some friends. The artwork is well done and I like the essay as well. Reminiscent of James Kochalka's Cute Manifesto.
This Comic Book Must be Destroyed by Richard DeWylfin shows a lot of talent, range and a twisted sense of humor. I'd like to be able to say I cant' relate to these characters but unfortunately, I've known a lot of these type of geeks and have imagined a lot of these 'what if' situations. This is an absurd comic and I'm not sure how to review it. At first I thought it was sloppy but the guy seems to be able to nail multiple art styles and the storytelling is polished. There is really no way I can describe or explain the thing but the type of folks that read The Comics Journal and submit comics to Shiot Crock (like myself) will probably find it hilarious.
Scenes From Gay Bars by Shane Patrick Boyle is a collection of sketches of what I must assume are scenes from gay bars. Some of it appears to be a comic story but there is no dialog and some of the sketches do not reproduce well at the mini-comic size so it is hard to follow. Several of the sketches are pretty good though. Some of them make me think of Bukowski stories and poems.
Panda & Jess: Jeopardy by Paul O'Keefe is probably my favorite project in the box. The art is very nice. It has a simple self-contained story. The characters are believable and the dialog feels real. It's just a good comic. O'Keefe knows how to use the comics page to stir emotions. I could really see how the two characters felt so separate and alone even though they were sitting side-by-side. My only complaint would be that it is short and that I want more.
Just a Story for a Box by Karen Lucas is a traditional auto-bio mini-comic. Almost too traditional though. It's about a 'first-time' mini-comic creator making their Shiot Crock submission. The thing is so dead-on and true to the first-time mini-comic that I did not think for one second that it was a first-time mini comic. It's too good. I thought it was either a mini-comic veteran doing a study in the art of mini-comic making itself, or a clever attempt from a mini-comic veteran to see if they could trick the Shiot Crock gang. (Right down to the side stapling as opposed to using a long stapler.) However, according to her posts in the review thread, Karen Lucas is a real-life first-time mini-comic creator. All that being said, pretending I don't know anything about mini-comics and pretending I never saw her posts on the message board... I like this comic a lot. It;s one of my favorite comics in the box. I'd like to see more comics from Karen Lucas. (If that is her/his real name.)
This untitled comic from Kurt Beaulieu is in the foldy format that I like to use a lot. One page folded into eight pages of comics. The art is good but the comics did not make a lot of sense to me. Unloved sock hell is kind of funny though.
Pete and Earl by Klopner is another superhero parody but more obscene than most. I like the art a lot and some of the jokes are funny but its hard to push the sex jokes farther and farther on each page. It gets repetitive. I'd like to see something else from Klopner though.
Little Cenobites (feat' Little Pinny), and Other Tales by K.D.R McKie is a family made mini-comic. I love this idea. A dad and his two kids put a comic together and all three are very good. This is a great little mini-comic. It really sums up everything I love about the medium. Great little stories in a nice pocket sized package. What more can you ask for? I hope dad and the kids make more of these.
So... that's the box. It's hard to review this many projects at once. I'm sure my opinion will change about several of them as I read them again over the next days, weeks, years. All in all it is an awesome box. It's a shame everyone can't go out and buy them.
Click here to see the review thread and find out what the other artists thought.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
Shiot Crock Issue 11 was shipped out last week and I was lucky enough to get a copy. What is Shiot Crock? Basically it is a collection of comics and other items from artists around the planet. The works are collected and distributed to all the contributing artists and a few critics for review and enjoyment. Each contributor is expected to check out all the material in the project and then post reviews at The Comics Journal's message board. This issue of Shiot Crock is collected in an awesome box much like the old rekerd box sets of yester year. Much standing up and clapping for Lou Copeland for putting this thing together. So far, I've made everyone who has been to my house look at it and I plan on taking it to Fluke in Athens (April 1st) and showing it off there.
For my contribution to the box, I made an extra-mini edition of Brush and Pen. It came out pretty good and I think I like the size better than the digest size in which Brush and Pen had been previously printed.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was this cool origami frog. It looked so cool that I debated for several days if I would open it or not. Then when I finally got the nerve to unfold it, I could not find it. I asked my wife, "Have you seen that cool frog that came with my Shiot Crock box?". She replied, "It hopped up on the bookcase in the kitchen." I finally unfolded it to find a cool little comic (about a frog) my M. Campos. Its a very well drawn and designed comic in a perfect size and format for this project. Very cool.
Beserkotron by David Robertson is very well produced. I like the art and the cover. The dialog is good and the characters are interesting but the story goes a bit long. Lots and lots of panels but I wouldn't necessarily recommend changing anything. It works and Robertson is obviosly having fun telling the story he wants to tell and drawing the things he wants to draw. This is what mini-comics should be, a story about something you are interested in (in this case, kids making fighting robots) that no one else is creating or publishing, so, you make it yourself and hope it finds its audience.
The Punch 'Ems by Joe Kletz is another well produced mini. It is a superhero parody much like Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot or Mystery Men. I like the characters, especially Donkey Punch and Hendrix-Bot Mark III. The art and story work well in the mini-comic format. The pages are not too busy and the pacing is good. The intro says Kletz considers this a one-shot but I would not mind seeing more.
Approximately 1/5 of 'the Iwerks Commemorative Dinner' is a pretty ambitions mini-comic. It is in a long skinny strip comic format and has very nice hand made binding and (what appears to be) a hand colored cover. This is a nice comic to buy and if I saw it in a store it would jump out at me and I'd want to own it. That being said, I found the comics themselves to be a bit intimidating. And I don't really mean that in a bad way. Its hard to explain. I'll put it this way, I love Chris Ware's comics. I think he is a genius. But if I just wanted to sit down and relax, I'd grab a Daniel Clowes comic before I'd grab the Chris Ware comic. Like Ware, Rodges comics take a bit more participation on the part of the reader. To make a long story short, this is exactly the type of comic, that I read once and don't really 'get' but later get drawn back to and read over and over again. I know, I don't make any sense. Sorry.
Dynamite Dan by D. Morris is a simple one page, four panel comic. There is not a lot too it but the one sheet format is good for this kind of project. I like the post-punchline punchline; "Remember Kids to Scrub Behind Your Ears When you Bath!"
Maynard and Willis by Lou Copeland also uses the one-sheet format but is printed on front and back and is a much more detailed comic. The art has a very nice style and the dialog had me cracking up. This comic would have fit in perfectly in my favoritre issues of Weirdo magazine. I'd love to see more.
That Schmuck by Henry Chamberlain is a very well done mini-comic. Chamberlain understands what works in the format and the art, lettering and pacing are perfect. The story is very good as well. This is the type of mini-comic I most enjoy. Short, self-contained stories that work more like a poem than a long narrative. That Schmuck is "A Special Supplement to Alice in New York". I've never read Alice in New York but now I am curious.
God Wrapped Himself in a Baby by M. Allison is another one-sheet format comic. I like the character designs. The art and lettering are great. But, like the Iwerks comics, this may be over my head. It feels like one page out of something bigger. No real beginning or end. I'm curious to see more though. It makes me want to pull out my Dave Cooper comics.
Toenails by Josh Sullivan is a cool little collection of gag comics. Some of the jokes try a bit hard to break the vulgar meter but they are funny. It's the type of comics you feel ashamed of yourself for laughing at. All of the comics are well drawn and I like his inks.
The Circles of Protestant Heaven, Part 1 by Casey Casein and Cynthia Seagren isn't a comic. I'm not really sure what it is. It may be a parody of the free religious 'tract' pamphlets people give out in malls, airports and door-to-door. Or, it may be a reverse Dante's Inferno. Either way, it is interesting but not convincing or funny. (Well, the Bugs Bunny picture is kind of funny but you can't lose with Bugs.) I'm not sure what the intention is. I actually am a believer of Christ and I try to read the good old B-I-B-L-E (yes that's the book for me) on a regular basis so maybe that makes me a bad judge of this item.
The Horrors of Hixville by Ashley Holt and Troy England Evitt III is a neat little folded one-sheet project. I really like the format of it. It is folded into eight squares so you get a cover, a title page and six character pages. Each character page has a very cool color drawing from Holt and a short bio. It's kind of a more mature and detailed adult version of the old Garbage Pail Kids cards. A very neat little item but it feels like a missing part of some bigger project.
Queer Gaspers by K. Thor Jensen is another example of why I love mini-comics. Its the type of story that works better in a mini-comic than any other format. I had to read it twice to really get it. Each page is a full page of art so when you look at two pages side-by-side it looks like there are two of these Gasper things reacting to each other. Nope, I figured out on the second read that it is just one Gasper having an adventure. From what I get out of it, this Queer Gasper, decides to leave the ground and go hang out in the clouds but this does not work so well and he gets sick or dies and ends up back on the ground. I don't know. It's an art comic. (It looks really nice and makes you think. It makes me think about how he did the tones. That's a lot of work if he cut tone paper for all those lines.) I don't know. It made me happy when the little guy made it to the top of the cloud and sad when he fell back down. I liked it. I want more.
Super Iffy by Yuri Duncan reminds me of an old 70's Hulk book I had. The book I had was a little junior chapterbook but every few pages it would have a full page illustration of the Hulk smashing something with a caption saying something like, "The Hulk is angry." Very simple. Very cool. Very fun.
Wrong Answer by Owen Harris is a music CD with a neat illustration and essay attatched. The cd is great. It's like DJ Shadow and Radiohead got sucked into the Tron movie. Computer music isn't really my thing but I enjoyed this CD and will probably make copies for some friends. The artwork is well done and I like the essay as well. Reminiscent of James Kochalka's Cute Manifesto.
This Comic Book Must be Destroyed by Richard DeWylfin shows a lot of talent, range and a twisted sense of humor. I'd like to be able to say I cant' relate to these characters but unfortunately, I've known a lot of these type of geeks and have imagined a lot of these 'what if' situations. This is an absurd comic and I'm not sure how to review it. At first I thought it was sloppy but the guy seems to be able to nail multiple art styles and the storytelling is polished. There is really no way I can describe or explain the thing but the type of folks that read The Comics Journal and submit comics to Shiot Crock (like myself) will probably find it hilarious.
Scenes From Gay Bars by Shane Patrick Boyle is a collection of sketches of what I must assume are scenes from gay bars. Some of it appears to be a comic story but there is no dialog and some of the sketches do not reproduce well at the mini-comic size so it is hard to follow. Several of the sketches are pretty good though. Some of them make me think of Bukowski stories and poems.
Panda & Jess: Jeopardy by Paul O'Keefe is probably my favorite project in the box. The art is very nice. It has a simple self-contained story. The characters are believable and the dialog feels real. It's just a good comic. O'Keefe knows how to use the comics page to stir emotions. I could really see how the two characters felt so separate and alone even though they were sitting side-by-side. My only complaint would be that it is short and that I want more.
Just a Story for a Box by Karen Lucas is a traditional auto-bio mini-comic. Almost too traditional though. It's about a 'first-time' mini-comic creator making their Shiot Crock submission. The thing is so dead-on and true to the first-time mini-comic that I did not think for one second that it was a first-time mini comic. It's too good. I thought it was either a mini-comic veteran doing a study in the art of mini-comic making itself, or a clever attempt from a mini-comic veteran to see if they could trick the Shiot Crock gang. (Right down to the side stapling as opposed to using a long stapler.) However, according to her posts in the review thread, Karen Lucas is a real-life first-time mini-comic creator. All that being said, pretending I don't know anything about mini-comics and pretending I never saw her posts on the message board... I like this comic a lot. It;s one of my favorite comics in the box. I'd like to see more comics from Karen Lucas. (If that is her/his real name.)
This untitled comic from Kurt Beaulieu is in the foldy format that I like to use a lot. One page folded into eight pages of comics. The art is good but the comics did not make a lot of sense to me. Unloved sock hell is kind of funny though.
Pete and Earl by Klopner is another superhero parody but more obscene than most. I like the art a lot and some of the jokes are funny but its hard to push the sex jokes farther and farther on each page. It gets repetitive. I'd like to see something else from Klopner though.
Little Cenobites (feat' Little Pinny), and Other Tales by K.D.R McKie is a family made mini-comic. I love this idea. A dad and his two kids put a comic together and all three are very good. This is a great little mini-comic. It really sums up everything I love about the medium. Great little stories in a nice pocket sized package. What more can you ask for? I hope dad and the kids make more of these.So... that's the box. It's hard to review this many projects at once. I'm sure my opinion will change about several of them as I read them again over the next days, weeks, years. All in all it is an awesome box. It's a shame everyone can't go out and buy them.
Click here to see the review thread and find out what the other artists thought.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
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