I had the pleasure of attending the Small Press Expo in autumn 2003, and this page highlights creators that I saw there. Mostly it consists of miniature reviews of books that I bought, but there's a few other things I want to note, too, so don't be surprised if something other than a book review catches your eye. I know that small press creators can have a hard time getting the word about their books, so I'm here to do my part and spread the word, whether that's praising a title or telling you to run screaming the other direction.
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Slow News Day, by Andi Watson, 2002, Slave Labor Graphics The only reason I got this book was because I had read some articles about the creator, Andi Watson, and I wanted to try out some of his stuff. I really wanted a copy of Geisha, but this is what I found. I remembered seeing this book on the Slave Labor website, so I picked it up. Brief plot summary: Katharine Washington, a young American woman, gets an internship with a British newspaper for the summer. Being a fresh college grad she is full of idealism, but what she finds isn't what she expected. First, she's not in London, but out in the country. Second, the Wheatstone Mercury has only one reporter, and mainly exists to sell ad space. This lone reporter doesn't take kindly to our young American, which her can-do attitude and seeming disregard for British tradition. As you probably expect, however, everyone gets changed over the summer... I didn't know what I was getting myself into, and when I first started reading it I was surprised at how simplistic the drawings were. Character designs were very simple, though it was pretty easy to keep the characters separate. Something crept up on me over time, however, that being Mr. Watson's impeccable capturing of emotion. I noticed that Mr. Watson's use of eyebrows and eye directions did a masterful job of displaying emotions. It was very easy to follow the story flow by watching what the character's eyes were doing. Full facial expressions are also put to excellent use, and I found my mind "filling in" the rest of the character's physical details based on the visual clues provided by the artist. The story wasn't the best I've ever read, and ended at what didn't seem like the end, but I enjoyed the book overall. Now I really want to grab that copy of Geisha... |
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Grand Gestures, by Robert Ullman, 2003, Alternative Comics I got this book at SPX mainly because I had $4 left in my wallet and, wouldn't you know it, this book was only $4. And the cover looked interesting. So, with only a quick flip-through, I decided to deep six the rest of my dough and buy the sucker. The story is about three guys, seemingly either recent college grads or upper-classmen, and their issues with women. One guy is a total horndog who will jump any women who lets her guard down. The second guy has a girlfriend that he doesn't really care for, and the third guy can't seem to find first base with a map, if you know what I mean. And so the guys go about life doing their thing. I could tell you everything that happens (the book is only 48 pages), but why would I do that? It's not the destination, it's the journey, right? Well, maybe if the journey actually took you somewhere. See, the problem I had with this book was that nothing really happened. Here's a case in point. Ken has a girlfriend, Audrey. Problem is, he doesn't really like her. Well, he likes her, but not that much. And she wants him to go on a trip with her and some of her friends, but he doesn't really want to go, so they have a talk, and Ken wusses out and says some lies about how he's stupid and stuff, and she buys it, but he still doesn't go with her on the trip, so they'll probably break-up, but who knows, because the book ended. So after 48 pages for all these guys, nothing changes. They're still doing what they were doing. So what was the story, here? What was the point? If Mr. Ullman just wanted to draw pictures of people he could do that and put out an artbook. Why do a comic if you don't have a story? Or maybe there was a story and I completely missed it. The art was pretty good. The style is a little simplistic, but it works pretty well. The publisher should have used better paper, though; it's all yellow and doesn't look good. If you want to see some samples from this book, you can visit the artist's website. |
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Complex City: All In a Day's Work, by J. E. Smith, 2003, Better Comics I bought this book solely because when I saw being sold by the author at SPX, I recognized it. I believe I first heard about it from Scott Kurtz at PVP. Anyway, I figured that if Scott said it was good, it must be good, so I promptly laid down ten bucks and picked up a copy. This book is a collection of issues 1, 2, and 4 of the Complex City comics series published by Better Comics. Why not issue 3? According to the back of the book, issue 3 deals with the character Bulletproof, while the issues collected here deal with the character Bulldog Malone (pictured on the cover). So, this collection is all about Malone, a six-foot anthropomorphic bulldog who is also a police detective in Complex City. So, what is the story about? Well, Complex City is a pretty odd place. It has aliens, superheros, mad scientists, lots of criminals, cyborgs, and all sorts of sci-fi and sci-fantasy stuff. The series has a late-Fifties or early-Sixties feel to it, with the way things are designed and drawn. It's got that whole "pulp" feel to it. The characters are very inventive, too. Not only is the main character a dog, but you have two brilliant scientists, a cyborg with two brains, bizarre transforming aliens, a weird superhero-type guy, and more. It's almost too much to take. I will admit that this book left me feeling flat. It just didn't really grab my attention. Yes, there are interesting characters. Yes, it is humorous at times. The problem is, I never came to really care about the characters or the story. Reading the story was mildly interesting (the last chapter being the best), but I'm not sitting here thinking "Man, I can't wait until I get to read more Complex City!" Oh well, you can't win 'em all. |
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Finder, Sin-Eater volume 1, by Carla Speed McNeil, 1999, Lightspeed Press This is the only book I bought at SPX on a dare. I had walked by this table around 2PM. I recognized the artist's name from her Mystery Date comics that had run in the Mythography anthologies, so I stopped at the table and talked to the guy for a little while. He could tell I wasn't going to buy anything, so he gave me a free copy of issue 32 of Finder and told me to read it at lunch. If I liked it, then I needed to come back and buy the first TPB. Free comics are something I can't turn down, so I took him up on his offer. Wouldn't you know it, I found the comic very intriguing (even though I didn't understand anything that was going on), so I returned later in the day and bought this book. I liked this book, though I can't really say why. I can't even really say that anything happened, storywise, either. The reader is constantly bombarded with new information, whether it is now material about the setting (a huge, domed city somewhere in what may be the future, but you don't know for sure), new characters, or memories of said characters (there are a number of flashback sequences). There is a good sense of wonder and discovery prevalent here, as you are constantly seeing new things and discovering new little tidbits about the setting and the characters. At the end, though, I'm not sure that anything really happened. If I had to guess, I would say that the book is really about Jaeger, a "finder" (whatever that is) that seems to just wander through life. He has some standard stops, but other than that he is your basic drifter, though he seems to have some interesting abilities that let him survive things others couldn't. I'm not really sure the book is about him, though. I have a feeling that the setting is the real star here, not any one of the inhabitants. At the end of the day, though, I'm just not sure. I'm also not sure if I'll be picking up any more of the TPBs, but if I saw one in a store and the price was right, I probably would. One final note: there's some "adult" humor in here, so don't let the kids read this book, okay? |
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Air, by thien! Pham, 2002, E-Z Cheese Comics This book is fun! Air is the story about a young man who is the son of a famous air hockey player. He played a lot when he was younger, but his fiancee doesn't like it, so he hasn't played in years. The situation changes when runs across a young lady at the local bar. She's new, and she is playing air hockey. She's so good that she crushes everyone who challenges her. Even though his fiancee is hassling him about it, our hero can't resist the tug and takes up practicing with this new girl in preparation for the upcoming championships. The art here is pretty minimalist. It is black and white, and the character designs are pretty sparse. Still, each character has a distinct look, and he gets good expressions and good body language out of them. The main reason I like this book is because the story is just great. It has kind of a "Karate Kid" or "Rocky" feel to it, and the author even uses the song "Eye of the Tiger" in one scene. Fun stuff. The use of air hockey as the sport gives it a unique spin, and it is humorous in its own right just to see people get all worked up over air hockey, of all things. If you ever find this book, definitely give it a shot. |
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Racetrack Road: Somewhere a Little Less Ordinary, by Derek Gebler, 2003, Atomic Productions Press I only got this book because it was $1. Heck, I'll try pretty much anything for that little money. The book is a collection of strips from the Racetrack Road comic strip that runs in the Badger Herald newspaper at the University of Wisconsin. Because of this, you would expect it to contain a lot of college humor. It does contain some, but most of the humor revolves around the concept of a house being rented by a bunch of guys, most of whom are slobs or losers (or both). I get a lot of the jokes, as when I was in college I lived with some guys in an apartment for a couple years. However, I am well past that time in my life, so I didn't find the comic that humorous. OK, some strips were pretty funny, but the majority of the strips only got a wry grin at best. If you want to give this comic a try, head to the website and try out some of the past strips. It's free, so the only thing you stand to lose is some time. |
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Jazz Age Comics, by Ted Slampyak, 2003, Modern Tales Unlike most everything else I cover on this site, Jazz Age isn't a print comic. It is a webcomic (found at www.jazzagecomics.com), and the main story gets a new panel every week. The strips themselves are done in a Sunday, newspaper print-style, very much like Prince Valiant. The basic jist of things revolves around two characters in 1920s Boston, Massachusetts. First there is "Ace" Mifflin, a rather incompetent private eye. Second is Professor Jennings, an "Indiana Jones"-styled Harvard professor who gets involved in all sorts of world-hopping adventures. What impresses me about the comic is the attention to detail and the obvious research that went into the story. The buildings, clothes, and language used seems (to me, at least) to be proper for a 1920s setting, and on the website you can see some of the research photos Mr. Slampyak used to build his drawings of downtown Boston. The creator is a very cool person, too. He was on a panel for historic comics at SPX and I was very impressed by what he had to say. He is also very good at marketing. The picture to the left is one of the "trading cards" he was handing out at the convention to get people to visit his site. The first storyline at the site had a significant supernatural edge to it, as it involved a long-lost evil spirit imprisoned in a mystic artifact. I would have preferred something a little more "mundane" for an initial story, but it was pulled off so well that I can't really complain. As of this writing another story is just starting, so this is a great time to visit the site and check out some sample strips and decide if you like what you see. |
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Fractured Kisses issues 1 and 2, edited by Gina Biggs, 2001 & 2002, Moonation Comics One of my more interesting finds at SPX were these books. What we have here are romance comics done by Americans, but in a manga style. In fact, all of the people are Japanese and all the action takes place in Japan, so the influence is undeniable. Now, the publisher was not a completely unknown entity to me, as I had ran across the website about a year ago and looked at some of Gina Bigg's work. The "Red String" comic serialized on the site was pretty good (if horribly girly), so I figured I would give these anthologies a try. The first issue contains two stories: "Pasokon" by Gina Biggs and "Shopping for a Kiss" by Robin Sobolewski. I found "Pasokon" to be very touching and sad, and it ended about the only way it could. It isn't a "happy" ending, but I found it very well done and was impressed by the story. The art was serviceable, but not at the same quality level. "Shopping" was also pretty good, though this story was more in the traditional "boy meets girl, they fall in love, the end" mode. The art here is pretty good for an amateur work, though it could stand some improvement. Overall, the first issue was a good starting point for the series. The second issue, which includes four stories for the same price, is actually a pretty good deal. Or, I should say, it is a good deal if you like the stories. Ms. Biggs and Ms. Sobolewski have stories in this issue, but the first two stories are by newcomers. "Junction4" is, I must admit, total crap. The art is under-developed (perspective is often way off), and the "man" in this story is the most effeminate thing I have ever seen in my life. Gah! I couldn't handle it. "Seek," by Grace Ho, is a surprisingly touching story that is hampered by a short page count; it felt rushed, and Ms. Ho could definitely stand to learn how to letter her own work, but the underlying skills of a good storyteller are evident, so hopefully she will improve with practice. "If the Jacket Fits" continues the story from "Shopping" in the first issue, and this story is really cute. It was a lot of fun to read. At the end we get "Deck the Halls," a Christmas story from Gina Biggs using characters from a previous work of hers. This story is also pretty cute, though I imagine that if I knew the characters it would be more enjoyable. The art here is the best in the series so far, so combine that with a good story and you've got a winner. I think these books come out about once a year, and you can get the first three issues from the publisher. If you have an interest in this kind of thing, check it out. |
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Fade From Blue volume 1, by Myatt Murphy and Scott Dalrymple, 2003, Second 2 Some Studios This is the first book I purchased at the expo. The book had a very professional feel to it, and the art is really very good, so it didn't take too much selling by the author for me to grab a copy. The story is pretty intriguing, too. We have four women here, all of whom have the same father, but different mothers. Something bad has happened, and they have all banded together for protection into a somewhat-functional family. The personalities of the characters are developed well, and none of them seem like cardboard cutouts or generic archetypes. You would think I would like this book. Unfortunately, I can't say that I do. My main problem with it is that it just doesn't really go anywhere. Iya and She-sa have man problems, Christa has different kind of man problems, and Marit has ice in her veins. So, everyone goes about their lives, doing whatever it is they do (have job problems, write articles, go to a clinic, work on muder cases, whatever), and then the book ends. No closure of any kind, no payoff, nothing. Yes, some of the back story about the father develops, but I can't say that it developed enough to make me want to read any more in this series. Overall, this book was pretty disappointing. |
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The Norm The Twelve Steps to Marriage, by Michael Jantze, TheNorm.com The Norm is a syndicated comic strip that runs in some newspapers across the country and also at the creator's website, which is how I found it. When I was at the Expo I got to meet Michael Jantze, the strip's creator. At the time he was getting ready to start some bi-monthly collections of his works (as of this writing two issues have been released), and he created this book, The Twelve Steps to Marriage, as sort of a lead-in to the concept. However, this book is a little different, because rather than a collection of daily strips, everything in this book (I think...) is original, and it all revolves around what happened between when the strip's namesake Norm got engaged, and when he woke up the day after the wedding. Yeah, it didn't make any sense to me either, but according to Mr. Jantze he had skipped all that stuff in the daily strip, so this was an attempt to create some continuity and give the fans something new. This book was not my first introduction to the strip, but I had only seen a couple dozen or so of the daily strips on the website.As far as the actual book itself, it is basically Norm's "observations" about how his life is changing as the wedding approaches. As someone who has never been married, nor engaged, I can't really say whether any of it really makes sense or not. It has some "face validity," but that's the only real insight that I can give you. Sorry! The art is black & white inked drawings, just like you would find in a newspaper strip, though the more free-form nature of this book gives the author more space to work with, which results in some larger drawings, which becomes more common during the actual wedding sequence. I find the art to be very good. It is definitely "cartoony," but the guy draws a newspaper strip, so that's fine. Overall I liked the book, but I can relate to some of the author's other works better. |