The APE Report
The APE Report
I picked up a lot of stuff at APE. Here are my reviews of most of it. Some of it is stuff I bought. Some of it is stuff that people just handed me. I'll try to give as much information as I can about each thing, but there's a lot of stuff and I'm lazy.
Be a Man by
Jeffrey Brown. This is a hilarious book. It says all the things I think, all the time, and don't dare say. Your crazy primitive doodle artwork is funny, too.
Best Zine Ever! issue 4. This is a zine review zine. It's a good one. You look inside, there are tons of zines, each described in a little paragraph so you can decide which ones you think would be interesting to purchase... and there's an address for each as well so you can do so. Like a little
Factsheet5 or
Zine World.Bob the Angry Flower: The Ultimate Book of Perfect Energy!!! by
Stephen Notley. I like Bob the Angry Flower. It's weird. The artwork is (mostly) very polished and reads well. The writing is generally funny, not always geared toward a punchline. Some of the strips just trail off like a haiku, letting the reader do the rest of the work. It's great stuff. And when Stephen signed my copy, he personalized it in a way that unmistakably reveals that he's very observant and a hell of a nice guy. Also: a stickler for grammar? That's me too! And: an index? In a comic book? How much does that rule!
- Note: It's okay to break rules for dramatic effect. So when I end a question with an exclamation mark (to make a rhetorical exclamation) or start a sentence with a preposition (like this one) I'm doing it on purpose. Save your emails about how I'm not really a stickler for grammar.
Cash Million Dollars by
Asa Shumskas-Tait. A guy in a captain hat handed me a free sample comic strip from this series. It was drawn okay, and it was pretty funny. Then I picked up a copy of the mini, which is a collection of hit-or-miss strips. The artwork is a little lazy, and some of the jokes don't seem worth the effort. Still, there's potential in there.
D. A. R. C. and
Tales of the Dreaded Atrox by
Team Atrox (Paul Cibis, Emory Herbertson, Leslie Levings, Matt Miksch, Frank Smith, and Jeff Stone). The artwork is okay. One of you should learn to do good lettering. The writing is okay. Some of the stuff, actually, is hilarious. Some of the other stuff kind of feels like you're drawing and publishing every idea that comes to you. Weed out the non-hilarious stuff and you'll have one
hilarious bunch of stuff!
Dent by Joseph Cotsirilos. Joseph, you dropped off this book while I was away from the table, but never returned to talk to me about it. Maybe that's a good thing, since I have had more time to look at it. I remember reading comics years ago and noticing that sometimes there was a kind of halo around foreground objects, so that the lines that make up background objects never touch objects in the foreground. Sometimes, but not always. So I started doing that in my own work. I left a little white space around foreground objects. But then I would run into trouble if I had a foreground object in front of a black or patterned area. Do I leave a white line around the thing? What now? Later on, I read Dave Sim's book about self-publishing, where he says that it's all about how your lines meet. I thought he meant that all the lines have to meet, and you should not be sloppy by not making sure your lines meet. Then I talked to Sergio Aragones years after that, and he told me that you should never have different objects lined up so that they share a line or a corner, because it's confusing. What do these things have to do with each other? Well, it tells me
when to leave that little halo around things now. You don't have to do it unless you get backed into a corner. If you would otherwise have the foreground and background objects share a line, or if there's some other visually confusing thing that is happening, then you need that little white space to fix the problem. But all I knew at the beginning was that sometimes it was there and sometimes it wasn't. So sometimes I put it in, and sometimes I didn't. Joseph, your artwork shows a lot of potential and you have your own style, for sure. Your writing is complex and interesting. Your comic is engaging and smart. Now you need to work on learning the reasons why certain things work in certain ways visually. And of course, like many, you need to learn to letter. But don't give up, because I want to see your next book, and the next one after that! You're a hard worker, and it shows.
Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man by
John Porcellino. Very interesting to see how your early work looks, kind of variable, and then CLICK it snaps into your distinctive look. The story is thought-provoking. I like. Very nice.
Don't Be So Stupid and
Everything In This Book Is True by
Aaron Mew. Funny! Pretty good art. I can see you working out what role you want the brush to have in your artwork, and what kind of shading you are going to like. In the interest of full disclosure, Aaron was one of the artists who appeared in
On the Other Hand, an anthology I compiled where the artists all drew with their non-dominant hands.
Ears of Cat Asshole Superpower I found this on the floor in the middle of all the tables while I was packing out my stuff. This is the kind of thing that the creator probably feels is a deep work of genius, but it's almost incomprehensible and it's poorly drawn. I would feel a little less confident about accusing the artist of drawing it while stoned if it weren't for the picture of the bong on the inside front cover (if you can call it that—it's a single page folded so that it makes a little booklet). Too bad, because the title holds such promise.
Fortune's Bitch by Shannon O'Leary. The pacing's a little weird, but it's an interesting story. An interesting beginning, I should say. It makes me want to read the rest of the story. I look forward to seeing how it develops.
Foxymoron by
Travis and Molly Fox. I have issues 4 through 6 and the 2005 Collection Thingie. It's kind of cool. The artwork looks a little Jim-Mahfood-ish, and the writing is a cross between slice-of-life and impeach-Bush. Pretty good overall though, with a lot of potential. Love to see a graphic novel from you guys.
Ghastly Jack by Ralphie Repulsive. 4-color cover, interesting artwork, story seems like it might be worth a look. But since you didn't think it was worth doing good lettering, why should I think it's worth reading?
Girl Fuck by
Erika Moen. The artwork and layout remind me very, very much of places like food co-ops, women's centers, retreats, and other communal places. There's a very kind of left-wing, instructional feeling to this. Since it's an instruction manual about lesbian sex, that's appropriate. Although I'm probably not your main target audience, I thought this booklet was very thorough and well executed.
Heru by
Toshiko Kamiyama. Nice art style, great personal story. Good storytelling—it moves along quickly and stays interesting. I really identified with your character the whole way. Great and funny! Shibui yo! Yokatta!
Hut-Jack'd by
Trevor Alixopulos. This is an odd one. Your style is definitely unmistakable now. Parts of this book are really hilarious. The whole thing has the feeling of having been drawn at a salon or something, because it feels like there are some in-jokes there. I like this book.
Jane's World by
Paige Braddock. The cover is gorgeous, and I must admit that I was a little let down by the artwork inside after seeing that great cover. Still, the artwork inside is very nice, with a loose, experienced hand. The writing is sophisticated but easy to follow, and the characters are likeable and believable. It's a great comic. I say yes!
Long Tail Kitty: Graveyard Shift by
Lark Pien. Great artwork! Story was good. Creepy, funny, fun, as usual. Little bits of Patrick O'Donnell and Steve Weissman went through my head as I read this, but it's all you.
The Magic Whistle by
Sam Henderson. Sam, you are hilarious. I realized after I bought the collection and Number 6 that I already had the collection. So I gave it to my sister and kept Number 6. She thinks you're hilarious too. And your artwork is even hilarious. I'm not sure if I've ever seen you laugh or smile. That somehow makes everything even funnier!
New Anthems for the Modern Mouse by Andrea Rodriguez. I didn't like it. It seems to be part of the "weird, scary world" school of alternative comics. I bet Slave Labor will pick it up. Andrea, I think you will be successful. Don't take the fact that I don't like this book personally.
Papercutter serial anthology. This has a variety of work by a bunch of people. I picked up two issues. It's clear that the editors have kind of an artsy, literary sensibility and are very choosy about the work. The pieces are all very good. Some of them take some effort on the part of the reader.
Red-E and the Lynnx by Chris Fowler. Couldn't even finish reading it. Please study anatomy. I think your hero, Super-Eddie or whatever his name is, it's hard to identify with him because you're kind of making fun of him too. If there are no characters that the reader can identify with (by imagining ourselves in their place) then it's hard for the reader to follow you on your path.
The Road to God Knows... by Von Allan. The pacing seems very slow, and the artwork is kind of awkward. It seems like you're imitating a style I've seen in Vertigo comics, but struggling with it a little. That said, it looks like a very worthwhile story. I just find myself having trouble getting through it.
Shirtlifter by
Steve MacIsaac. There's something odd about the art. Part of the linework looks like it was done in Illustrator, and part of it looks like it had to be done on paper, with a pen. Whatever. The story is very effective. It's interesting the exact level of explicitness you chose—it's almost cinematic. This is not a pornographic book, but it's certainly adults-only. Like R, not NC-17. In any case, the story did draw me in. I am not sure about how you draw hair and cloth, but those are two things a lot of us struggle with.
Small Favors by
Colleen Coover. If there's a more fun way to approach sex, I don't know what it is. Your drawings are lovely, the characters have delightfully lascivious personalities, and the whole thing works together as a hell of a romp.
Spaz by
Kaz Strzepek. Funny! A little like Johnny Ryan, but maybe a little nicer personality to the book, and there's something really great about the artwork. The lettering, while informal, is just fine—like you actually take time to slow down when you're writing, instead of just scribbling words in the balloons. Nice! And the cover's very attractive! In the interest of full disclosure, Kazimir was one of the artists who appeared in
On the Other Hand, an anthology I compiled where the artists all drew with their non-dominant hands.
The Stereos—Battle of the Bands by
Brandon Hanvey. This is a pretty good story, but it could be told a little tighter. I think it could have been a shorter book. I like the characters. The artwork seems rushed and a little lazy. And I hate computer lettering. I think you should be taking the kind of time with your artwork that you seem to be afraid to spend on your lettering. Generally, though, I liked it. I read the whole thing; that's something.
TooMuchCoffeeMan stuff by
Shannon Wheeler. The set for the opera looks great! Rock in a Hard Place looks great! Your new logo (which I have on a coffee mug and t-shirt) is also great! I hope the magazine comes back from hiatus, and I'm going to have to go out looking for the one book of yours I don't have since you sold out of it at the show.
Tuesday by
Tom Neely. As always, great art style. Tom, you're pushing the envelope again. You're always conceptual. This is a very interesting way to break that 4th wall. Nice little package.
Video by
Stephen R. Buell. Nice artwork, but it's one of those stories where after a half-dozen pages you're still not sure what the hell is going on, what are the rules for this world? Here's Keisha Bell (I assume) watching TV and wearing a gas mask, telling us her very religious husband (who is sleeping, not wearing a gas mask) became a vegetable after Jesus returned to Earth, and then this other guy that Keisha went on a date with one time shows up at the door, and Keisha says to him "Wait here—and lay off the gas" and he's wearing some kind of a device to administer nitrous oxide or something, and she's pointing a gun at him, and she's apparently changed her shirt. Or maybe I missed something and it's someone else. What the hell is going on? Who is the hero of this book? Why should I keep reading?
Void and... by
Toby Craig. Beautiful dreamlike artwork. Surely self-published and self-bound, yet
full-color throughout! I don't really understand the story though. It's a continuation of a previous book that I also don't understand. But that might just be me; I didn't do well in high school English.
Wrong Comix and other stuff by
Nathaniel Orman. It doesn't look like you enjoy drawing.
Your New Religion by
Joe Sayers. Hilarious. Artwork is very simple, but not in a lazy, ignorant way. More in a "just enough to serve the joke" way.
And finally...
5 Comics for a Buck by Slave Labor Graphics. In my bag of 5 comics, I got a
Squee! and a
Java Town and
Mr. Day & Mr. Night and
Sparks and something else. Here's what I learned:
- SLG doesn't care about lettering.
- I still don't like Jhonen Vasquez.
- That goth humor thing? Yeah, that's still going on.
Out of all those books, I like
Sparks because there's actually a character to identify with. It's not mean-spirited. The other books just seem like they're mean and lazy.
Java Town is kind of a parody of those alternative newsweeklies; it ends up being like one of those Saturday Night Live sketches that just seem to go on long after the joke is worn out. Oh, yeah, there are a few short comics in there too. Whatever.
Mr. Day & Mr. Night looks like lots and lots of minicomics, with its flat jokes, lazy artwork and boring, complicated backstory revealed clumsily. But it's not a minicomic. And
Squee! is, well, the lettering is non-professional, the artwork is okay and has a distinctive style but you can see places where the guy is unsure of himself, the stories, some of them are okay and some of them I didn't like as much. It's not that I don't want to give the guy a fair shake. But I just find all that goth stuff hard to look at, unless it involves nudity.
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