Many, many, minis: Depression, joy, love, sorrow; these run the whole gamut of emotion

Weather
By Gabby Schulz
Published by Secret Acres



Gabby Schulz (a.k.a. Ken Dahl) is a cartoonist like no other, somehow able to depict the saddest, most cripplingly depressing events and make them not only hilarious, but also lyrically beautiful. This wordless comic depicts a schlubby fellow on a packed airplane in mid-flight as he stumbles to the lavatory in misery, flashing back to a consultation with a doctor in which he was unable to afford medical care, possibly for a life-threatening disease like cancer. His cares are briefly forgotten when he glances out a window and imagines himself flying gracefully through the clouds, naked and alone from all the miseries and humiliations of life. But, this being a Gabby Schulz comic, the horrors of human existence quickly intrude on his reverie in the most disgusting manner possible, bringing him right back down to muck-encrusted earth.

It's a short piece, fully in line with Schulz's style, featuring gorgeous cartooning, images both beautiful and disgusting, and a reminder of the awfulness of life, while still acknowledging the moments of beauty and wonder that make everything else worthwhile. There's nothing else like Schulz's comics, and that's probably a good thing; I don't know if I could take more than one of him.
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Deathzone
By Michel Fiffe
Self-published



I know next to nothing about DC's Suicide Squad comics from the 80s, aside from the basic concept of villains pressed into government service and forced to undertake dangerous missions, but it seems to be pretty well-regarded among those who enjoy capes-and-tights stories, and this tribute by Michel Fiffe makes a good case for it. But it also provides Fiffe with a chance to riff on the visual styles of artists like Steve Ditko and just have fun with characters and concepts that he enjoys. He ostensibly retells a certain storyline in which the team fights a squad of terrorist supervillains, but it seems that at least the ending must have been changed from the original story. Whatever the case, it's obvious that Fiffe is having fun coming up with crazy depictions of superpowers, interesting confrontations between characters, occasionally shocking bits of violence, and neat visuals, especially once everyone gets sucked into another dimension and attacked by weird monsters. It's all pretty awesome, and probably more so if you're invested in the characters and their histories both together and apart, but just experiencing the palpable enjoyment that is radiating from the page makes the read worthwhile. Fans of Fiffe, Suicide Squad, and any overlap between the two shouldn't miss out on something this fun.
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So...Buttons #5
Written by Jonathan Baylis
Art by Paul Westover, Thomas Boatwright, Noah Van Sciver, and Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg
Self-published



This issue of Jonathan Baylis' autobiographical series is a bit shorter (and cheaper) than usual, containing only four stories, but it's still a satisfying bite of decent little tales from Baylis' life, illustrated by a cadre of talented artists and embellished with an eye-catching cover by Tom Scioli. The stories include an amusing look at Baylis' fear of taking his dog to the vet, a depiction of his determination to recreate the coffee blend that his deli stopped selling, a sort of gag about the pressure-valve release of a shared joke following the emotional trauma of watching Schindler's List, and a cute story about trying to find the secret behind cooking the perfect brisket (a story which was also included in the Digestate anthology). As always, Baylis works with excellent artists who are perfectly suited for the mood of each individual tale, with highlights including Paul Westover's over-the-top exaggeration of Baylis' tears, Thomas Boatwright giving him cartoonish displays of anguish and stiff-jawed resolve, Noah Van Sciver's sort of thousand-yard-stare and the relief that humor can bring to it, and a perfect plop take by Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg. It's all as good one would expect from previous issues of the series, another chance to have a visit with a pal and hear some of his stories.
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Losers Weepers #1-3
By J.T. Yost
Published by Birdcage Bottom Books



There's something fascinating about found notes, photos, and other such objects, as any reader of Found magazine knows, a glimpse into complete strangers' lives that offers tantalizing hints about the complexities of their personalities and situations, and a reminder that there are countless others surrounding us, each person as rich and deep as the rest of us. J.t. Yost apparently shares this fascination, crafting the stories in this series of minicomics into stories that could fit around various notes or letters that he had chanced upon.

Of the three extant issues (there is apparently one more to come at some point), the first is the most effective, taking a heartbreaking journal entry by a young woman who is contemplating breaking up with her unstable (due to a life of abuse and drugs and a traumatic brain injury) boyfriend, but worries what will happen to him if she does; and also incorporating some filthy rap lyrics scrawled on an envelope and a note from a junkie about borrowing some cocaine. Around these artifacts, Yost comes up with a sad tale in which the girl from the journal runs into her ex-boyfriend years later, her current happy relationship sending him into a spiral of drug use and despair. The other issues stretch a bit to incorporate humorous notes from schoolkids, poorly-worded bulletin board ads, and letters from prison into interrelated tales of woe, to the point that they seem unnecessarily miserablist, trying to wring pathos out of some basic building blocks that don't fully support it. But Yost is really just doing what most do when they encounter these bits of human ephemera, trying to imagine the stories behind them and see the humanity from this tiny glimpse into their lives. His approach, while fairly dark, is as valid as any, and it's neat to watch him spin characters and dramatic situations from these basic threads. Would that we all could be so eloquent when contemplating the drama unfolding around us.
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Thinger Dingers
It's Dream Time, Snoop Doggy Dogg
By J.T. Yost
Published by Birdcage Bottom Books




These two minis are more of a catch-all for J.T. Yost, with Thinger Dingers collecting various short comics that have appeared in anthologies or magazines, and It's Dream Time, Snoop Doggy Dogg featuring several dream comics similar to some Yost had done previously. One's mileage on the latter may vary, depending on tolerance for this sort of "Dude, I had the craziest dream last night!" narrative. Me, I like the surreal weirdness of Yost being at a party crashed by Snoop Dogg wearing a Richard Pryor mustache, carpooling with Dick Cheney and avoiding being poisoned by the former VP, Roseanne Barr being his mother for some reason, having his wife be stolen by Arnold Schwarzenneger, or running into Henry Rollins as a hot dog salesman. One could probably attempt to psychoanalyze these dreams, especially if they know Yost outside of the comics he makes (which I don't), but even outside of any consideration of their "meaning", they do a nice job of capturing of some of the bizarre stuff that our brains can get up to when we're sleeping. Yost's cartoony characters and celebrity caricatures work really well for the types of strangeness they're telling, somehow managing to make the emotions and interactions seem just on the far side of "normal". If you're open to this sort of thing, the comic is definitely worth a look.

As for Thinger Dingers, it's more of a "miscellaneous" collection, featuring stories both fictional and not, with the longest being "Ruemates", in which Yost relates tales of several bad roommates he's had to suffer over the years (and he doesn't let himself off the hook, noting that his weird taste in music and propensity for adopting stray cats doesn't make him the ideal living companion), including a drug-abusing porn star and a pretentious asshole who wouldn't let anyone else use his furniture for fear of "body oil contamination". There's also a funny two-page story about a friend's crazy hillbilly "alter-ego" that he would freak people with at parties, especially when drunk; a cute story about the lullabies Yost sings to his baby daughter; and a couple fictional stories about pigeon relationships and a badly-managed old-timey funeral parlor. It's a nice collection of Yost's work, the perfect use of the format to compile work that wouldn't really fit anywhere else. I really enjoy Yost's cute style and sense of humor, and the way he grounds his cartoony characters in realistic settings, making for down-to-earth looks at relatable human behavior. I'll be sure to keep my eye out for any future minis he releases into the wild.
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The Mire
By Becky Cloonan
Self-published



Becky Cloonan's minicomics are always a great chance to see her talent unleashed on something original. Not that there's anything wrong with her work on properties like Batman or Conan the Barbarian, but when she gets to devote her imagination to depicting beautiful, fantastical, mournful works like this, the results are so much more satisfying. This particular mini sees a medieval knight send his squire to deliver a message to a castle in the middle of a swamp that seems to be haunted. After some supernatural scares, the boy, who was lamenting the missed opportunity to join an impending battle, learns that his relationship with his master was much more complicated and, as a closing montage reveals, tragic, than he had ever realized. It's a sad tale that's visually arresting, featuring a distinctive silkscreened cover colored with an eerie green tint that enhances the creepy, moody art of the interior in the imagination; distinctively gruesome ghosts, and a beautifully sad ending. I wish Cloonan had the opportunity to create comics this this on a larger scale and more regular basis; as it is, I think these minicomics are an annual labor of love for her, and I'll be sure to go to whatever lengths necessary to read them as long as she keeps putting them out.
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The Stolen Lovelight
By Paul and Tara Abbamondi
Self-published



This minicomic by the husband-and-wife team Paul and Tara Abbamondi is a sort of sci-fi romance, and it's a bit slight, but the art is a nice example of a cartoony style reminiscent of someone like Faith Erin Hicks or Hope Larson, and there are some nicely creepy moments within. The story involves a woman who arranges her own kidnapping in order to escape the possessive jerk she was being forced to marry. But when she wakes up on the kidnappers' spaceship, she is all alone, aside from Doc, the robot left controlling the ship, an oddly attentive artificial intelligence that starts getting kind of creepy and calling her "lovelight" all the time. When M, the man she was trying to escape, shows up to "rescue" her, she learns Doc's disturbing secret and tries to escape. The ending is slightly unsatisfying, although it does attempt to demonstrate that love conquers all, which is a nice thought. As a whole, the story is a bit rushed, and I don't know if I fully understand what happened in the finale, but there are some really nice moments, like the initial kidnapping, the eerily empty ship, and the increasingly unsettling attitude Doc starts exhibiting. I do like Tara Abbamondi's art a lot, so she's a talent I'll be sure to keep an eye on. That's one of the great things about minicomics: discovering a new artist that you want to see more of.

Minicomics, and others not so mini

So...Buttons #4
Written by Jonathan Baylis
Art by David Beyer, Jr., Thomas Boatwright, Fred Hembeck, Eric Kim, T.J. Kirsch, Tim Ogline, Paul Salvi, Noah Van Sciver, and Paul Westover
Self-published

If you've read any of the previous issues of Jonathan Baylis' minicomics series, you know what to expect with this one: autobiographical stories illustrated in a range of styles, possibly adhering to a theme of some sort. The theme for this issue is "movies", sort of, along with various somewhat-tangentially-related anecdotes. Baylis alternates between talking about his history and discussing movies and directors that he likes, touching on subjects like the New York Mets, origami, his time as a Marvel Comics intern, Jewish comedians, King Kong, Robert Redford, Sam Fuller, Jim Jarmusch, Dino DeLaurentiis, and OCD M&M eating, always lending a personal touch, as if he's having a conversation with the reader, a sense enhanced by his on-panel appearances. It certainly helps to have a number of talented artistic collaborators; regular series artists T.J. Kirsch and Thomas Boatwright bring a nice, cartoony familiarity to their particular subjects (candy, Star Trek, and Redford for the former, Kong, Jarmusch, and Alfred Hitchcock for the latter), while Fred Hembeck brings the Marvel Bullpen to life wonderfully, Noah Van Sciver gives New York sports fandom a nervous, jittery energy, and Eric Kim lends placid romanticism to the subject of origami. It's really nice work all around, another installment of good autobiographical comics in the Harvey Pekar mold. Baylis can probably keep doing this for quite a while to come, and he definitely should.
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More More Mores
By Joey Jacks
Self-published; buy it from Quimby's

I always hate to get into a pointless "is this a comic or not" argument (even with myself), but it's hard not to at least address the issue with this minicomic/zine, which consists entirely of abstract drawings like the one on the cover, without any narrative linking them other than similarity in style. But whether or not it's worthy of the label of "sequential art", it's still pretty fascinating, all sorts of weird shapes smashed together to make whatever the reader/viewer wants to interpret it as. Are these topographical maps? Alien landscapes? Circuit diagrams? Inscrutable flowcharts? Who knows? The level of detail, which seems random, yet calculated, forming different configurations on every page, makes for page after page of examination, even if you have no idea what you're really looking for/at. There's little like it, which makes Joey Jacks a minicomicker to watch; I'd love to see what else he can do.
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Coffee and Beer Money
By Becky Hawkins

Self-published

Becky Hawkins seems to be operating more in the stereotypical minicomics mold than Joey Jacks, filling her pages with autobiographical tales and self-analysis, in an appealing, if not exactly groundbreaking, manner. This issue of her "French Toast Comix" series sees her enjoying karaoke with friends, having adventures while working on a cruise ship, and lamenting her interpersonal skills and relationship difficulties. It's engaging stuff, especially when she relates an art-based epiphany or considers her unflattering depiction of herself. The shifts in artistic style are also interesting, some pages drawn simplistically and sketchily, others using rougher linework, some experimenting with heavy shadows, some filling in nice background details; she seems to still be trying out different instruments and techniques from strip to strip, sometimes just jotting down a gag or observation, other times putting together multi-page anecdotes, working toward a consistent, natural personal style. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for more comics from her; it should be interesting to see how she develops.
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Dinopopolous
By Nick Edwards
Published by Blank Slate Books

Blank Slate's Chalk Marks series seems to be a less-artsy answer to Fantagraphics' Ignatz line, taking the form of large-size pamphlets with high production values, but containing more populist types of stories, in the sci-fi, fantasy, kids' adventure, character-based drama, and autobio genres. This particular entry by Nick Edwards is pretty excellent, a great dose of wacky cartooniness that fills pages with detailed whimsy and beautiful designs. It follows a boy named Nigel and his talking dinosaur Brian on an archaeological adventure  involving aliens, communicable diseases, and evil lizard-men, and it's funny, exciting, and adventurous in its cool use of the comics page, with the tails of word balloons and discriptive insets snaking expressively toward their objects, panel layouts taking unique forms like a tunnel winding across a two-page spread, and trippy inter-dimensional weirdscapes that seem like a cross between Steve Ditko and Brandon Graham. I wasn't previously familiar with Edwards, but after this, I'll be on board for whatever I can find by him, whether it's more adventures in this world (which is primed for further exploration, featuring likable leads, an arch-villain, a Basil Exposition-like dispenser of missions, multiple layers of secret civilizations and dimensions, and a sense of anything-can-happen fun) or something completely new. I hope I don't have to wait too long.
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Monster Christmas
By Lewis Trondheim
Published by Papercutz

Lewis Trondheim is kind of a sure thing when it comes to making entertaining kids' comics, and this is no exception. This one is the second in a series (although, oddly, it is being published in English before the first book, perhaps in order to be out by the titular holiday) starring what appears to be super-deformed versions of the bird-creatures Trondheim uses to depict himself and his family in his diary comics, along with a four-armed, three-legged, ten-mouthed monster that sprang to life from the children's drawings and became a sort of family pet. This one sees them take a ski vacation, on which they end up meeting Santa and getting caught in the middle of a chase between him and another, more ferocious monster. It's funny and lively, told entirely through images accompanied by past-tense narration by the children, who relate all the details with a mixture of childlike wonder and incomprehension. Trondheim captures that kid's-eye-view of the action really well, the kids commenting on everything as if it's fairly normal, treating the crazy events as only slightly outside the norm, since most everything is new and exciting to children. The actions of the parents is especially well-depicted through this filter, with their irritation, exasperation, exhaustion, and fear conveyed mostly through captioned descriptions like "Dad says that to save Santa we'd risk getting ripped to pieces and smashed by the monster and that it might be dangerous. We say, 'Oh...okay.' So everyone gets back in the car to continue the trip". It's all wacky, lively, insightful fun, another entry in the growing library of good Trondheim comics for all ages that are available in English. Here's hoping for many more to come.

Minicomics mayhem, part two

It's about time...


Salvaged Parts
By Lucy Knisley
Buy it online at Knisley's blog

Lucy Knisley's diary-style webcomics are a pretty great example of the autobio genre, winningly cute and humorous but also interestingly self-examining; maybe being regularly posted for free online helps, but she's been successful in print as well.  And with this minicomic, she has managed to bridge the gap between the two, in a way, offering it as a digital download for the price of two dollars.  It's a way to signify that this is something less frivolous than the cute cat images and descriptions of delicious foods that often fill Knisley's regular posts: an examination of the emotional impact of the (amicable, yet still difficult) breakup with her boyfriend of several years.  It's a heartbreaking grouping of several short pieces, as Knisley considers the empty bed frame left when her ex takes his mattress a symbol of her situation, has a chance encounter with a childhood possession that helps remind her of what is important to her, and receives a beautiful gift from her grandfather that helps her get through her heartache.  As is usual for Knisley's comics, it's all wonderfully illustrated, full of great uses of comics as a visual language to communicate concepts and emotions, with the images combining with the ever-present descriptive captions (a necessity, when communicating a personal message such as this) to become more than the sum of the parts, a beautiful, sad little comic that triggers universal emotions and helps its author deliver her message, shouting her feelings out into the void where then can be recognized and understood by all of humanity.  This is the exciting new frontier of comics in our digital world, and Knisley is leading the way forward.

Also recommended:  Make Yourself Happy, Knisley's collection of various webcomics, including several sessions of hourly comics (in which a cartoonist draws one two-panel strip for each hour that they are awake in a day), a travelogue of a trip to Paris, and a recipe for homemade pickles!
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Good Minnesotan #4
By Nicholas Breutzman, Toby Jones, Kevin Cannon, Joshana Anderson, Tom Kaczynski, Neville McKinnie, Luke Holden, Megan Hogan, Raighne Hogan, Justin Skarhus, Zak Sally, Sean Lynch, Noah Harmon, Lupi, Joseph Nixon, Steroid Party, Sarah Tulius, Maddie Queripel, Ed Choy Moorman, Eric Schuster, Dan Moyer, Martha Iserman, Lizardman, King Mini, Buck Sutter, Anna Bongiovanni, Mayme Donsker, Will Dinski, Reynold Kissling, Tim Sievert, and Eric Ruby
Buy it online (eventually?) from 2D Cloud

Wow, that's quite a list of contributors, isn't it?  This "issue" of a minicomics series that gathers a bunch of diverse work together from various cartoonists and other artists who live in Minnesota is actually several little booklets, all bound together in an illustrated slipcase, making quite a deal for five dollars.  As with any anthology, it's something of a mixed bag, containing professional-level short pieces by established creators, more messy, experimental stuff from lesser-known talents, and some random photos, sketches, and bits of art that seem thrown in to fill out the package, yet manage to fit the theme of "oddball stuff from up North".  Notable stories include Kevin Cannon's "A Brief History of the Fram and the Men who Loved Her", a bit of history about a ship that several explorers used to try to be the first to the North (and later South) Pole, which contains plenty of Cannon's signature cartoony wit; Tom Kaczynski's "Ransom Strange", a sort of Daniel-Clowes-meets-Richard-Sala bit about a weird doomsayer; Sean Lynch's abstract "The White Dot", which manages to make streaks of ink seem interestingly intense; Lupi's "The Poo Lagoon", about a trio of young people who wonder about the source of the feces they find floating in a public hot spring; Megan Hogan's bizarre "Geirdoz", a photo comic starring some knitted creatures; a weird fable by Anne Bongiovanni  about some kids burying their mom and eating the onions that grow on her grave; a funny one-pager by Will Dinski about the fate of an Evel Knievel wannabe; and a hilariously over-the-top barbarian story by Tim Sievert.  The rest of the sketches, photos, and comics might not be up to that level, but they're mostly interesting at the very least, and some of them make for strikingly different styles, offering a pretty wide range of talent and material, all united by geography.  Not a bad package at all; if you can get your hands on it, by all means, check it out.
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So...Buttons #1-3
Written by Jonathan Baylis
Art by T.J. Kirsch, Mr. Alan, David Beyer Jr., Tim Ogline, Thomas Boatwright, and Danny Hellman
Buy them online from Baylis' site

This series of minis is masterminded by Jonathan Baylis, although he takes the Harvey Pekar route, handling the writing while various collaborators provide the art.  The first two issues, which came out in 2007 and 2009, respectively, seem to follow Pekar's lead as well, telling autobiographical stories about various subjects, from Baylis' childhood, to his relationship with his girlfriend (and later wife), to what is probably the highlight of the series, a story in which Baylis took a tour with his uncle on the aircraft carrier where the latter served in Vietnam.  There's a marked increase in quality as the series progresses, with the first issue containing some pretty amateurish art by David Beyer, Jr. and a "Mr. Alan" (and some quite nice work by T.J. Kirsch, who contributes to every issue here, and can be seen regularly illustrating the webcomic She Died in Terebonne), as well as several pieces in which Baylis awkwardly faces the readers and addresses them directly.  The second issue works much better, showing real development in storytelling skill, and some wonderfully cartoony art by Kirsch.

And then with the third issue, which only came out recently in Fall 2010, Baylis and company switch tacks entirely, telling a suite of fictional horror stories (making for a slightly confusing first story, which stars a Baylis lookalike who narrates a gruesome breakup tale) that effectively communicate a dark, creepy mood and atmosphere.  Beyer illustrates two stories here, and he has really grown since the first issue, lending a great deal of nastiness to what could be fairly rote vampire and zombie tales.  Kirsch is back for a lighter piece as well, rounding out what could either be a brief departure for the series or a bold new fictional direction.  Whatever the case, it's kind of fascinating to read these issues all in a row and see Baylis and pals hone their craft over a few years.  Hopefully, the wait for the next issue won't be as long.
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Yearbooks
Written by Nicholas Breutzman and Shawn Feltz
Art by Nicholas Breutzman
Colored by Raighne Hogan
Buy it online from 2D Cloud

This isn't really a minicomic, but it kind of feels like one, having the feel of something personal and hand-crafted.  Nicholas Breutzman co-writes and draws an affecting story about a high school kid with an interest in art forming a sort of relationship with a teacher, and finding out that the man isn't the best role model.  The story is full of the awkwardness and intense emotions of the teen years, and it ends up being pretty sad, as the teacher, who seems interested in encouraging his students who show artistic talent, turns out to be something of a sociopath, demonstrating this through his cold, unfeeling attitude toward the subjects of the art that he shows off to his young charge.  There's a creepiness around this guy, leading to a somewhat expected scene between him and a female student, but it's not sensationalized, just something that happens.  In fact, the whole story seems to take the shape of a simple incident or memory, rather than an eventful bit of TV-ready drama. Sometimes things just happen, and we're left to puzzle over them for years, or, if we're the creative types, turn them into art.  Breutzman certainly put together something interesting, a small sliver of what seems to be a vibrant, realistic scene, one that lives beyond its pages.  It's unsettling and affecting, and certainly worth the time it takes to read.