Midnight Fiction Presents Bug Infested Comics #5 by Bob Vojtko and Richard Krauss.
Published by Midnight Fiction.
http://www.midnightfiction.com/
7 pages (the cover makes 8). Full color cover and interior pages. 4 1/2 X 5 1/2".
Available here for $2.00.
Bug Infested Comics #5 is representative of a format of comics that are almost their own sub-genre of mini comics; small, pocket sized, short, cheap and equaling the comics equivalent of a business card. I like this type of comic and make them myself. They are very practical because they can be made on the cheap and that allows you to pass them out in much the same way you would pass out a business card. Like a business card, much of the point to the thing is to redirect the reader to the website but with the added bonus of a few jokes. As far as this type of comics go, this is one of the best looking examples I've seen. It is well designed and has full color inside and out. A very polished looking little book. Two bucks seems like a lot for a comic of this size but the shipping is free so I suppose, really, you are paying for the shipping. If one were to be purchasing a few other Midnight Fiction books I think the cost would balance out. Not to speak for them but I'd suspect they would sell this book at cons for closer to $1. Still, full color printing isn't the cheapest way to go. I myself would have gone the black and white route and sold the things for fifty cents to a dollar but, then again, my cheap foldies don't looks as good as this book.
As far as the jokes go in this particular comic, it's just not the type of thing I'm into. I have enjoyed my fair share to Mad and Cracked magazines and that style of humor but it is the longer pieces I get the most out of. All of the strips here are bug related gags so if you think bug jokes are funny, then this is the book you've been waiting for. Basically, if you laughed at the above posted cover image then you are this comic's target audience and should buy five copies.
Bug Infested Comics # 5 contains three page length strips from Richard Krauss and one four page comic from Bob Vojtko. Krauss demonstrates a very nice cartooning style consistent with what you would expect to find in Mad or the Nickelodeon magazines. His strips look really nice and are at least as funny as some of today's newspaper strips. Vojtko's four page story is also a good looking comic. The style (sampled above) is very cute and would fit in nicely in any kids comics mag. The book itself is so short it is unrealistic for me to try and give you, dear reader, an accurate assessment of either creator but that is kind of the point of these things. The book provides just enough of a sample to lead me to the Midnight Fiction website where I find that Krauss has been involved in comix self-publishing since about the time I got my first Luke Skywalker action figure and that Vojtko's comics have appeared in Hustler Humor, Harvard Business Review, Nickelodeon Magazine, Highlights for Children, The Lutheran, and Woman's World. I've seen Midnight Fiction promoted around the internet and I appreciate what Krauss is doing with it. It seems to be founded in and dedicated to a real appreciation to this type of comedy comix without a lot of pretense. According to the about page, the site updates every Saturday and you can find new comics, reviews, blog entries etc. If humor is your thing, it is worth the visit. Business card comic, mission accomplished.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
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