Let's Be Happy

By Sassy Spinster
sassyspinstercomics.blogspot.com

Dawn recently posted an epic series of comments on my blog when I asked people to think about what role reviews and criticism played in the zine scene. I'm tempted just to say "Dawn is awesome" and leave it at that, but then I wouldn't really be holding up my end of the reviewer bargain would I?

Let's Be Happy features alternating short comics and full page illustrations. The illustrations are pretty neat. Each one of them features two people staring straight ahead. Most of them are dressed up in weird costumes (cops, clows, etc.) and we can only see half of each of their faces. It looks pretty cool, though I'm not sure how they pictures were originally created as the repro is kind of grey and washed out, which is too bad. I also wish the faces matched up a little better when two half faces meet at the intersection of a two page spread, though that's a minor issue.

The reproduction on the comics is much better, with blacks being much stronger and more visible. The comics themselves range from the surreal (fingers on a hand talking to each other, a super panda's poop turning into a monster and attacking a kid) to Wing's real life account of drinking waaaay too much alcohol.

I enjoyed the super robot panda comic, though more for the WTFness of it than anything else, while Wing's account of drinking too much is both kind of insane (I have some horrifying drunk stories, but I've never ended up in hospital) and cute (all she wants to do when she wakes up is eat dim sum!).

Wing's art work varies from piece to piece, and even page to page. At times Wings cartooning is pretty good, and even reminds me a little of a less confident Julia Wertz (am I just making this up? That's what sprung to mind for some reason). Other times (the first page of the drinking comic, though is the art supposed to represent drunk vision?) the art looks a lot less accomplished. I do really like the image below though, super cute.