Demo3

(Argh, unfortunately this image isn't the best quality. My camera was basically dead and I had a hard time even getting this before it shut off.)

By Johanna Skoog

Hurray! An actual Swedish comic, how exciting! Okay, so the scene on the cover doesn't happen in here, nor does anything even close to that happen. Instead we're presented with something that's sort of like a cross between Gon (that manga about the tiny dinosaur) and Bone (though mostly cause Demo kind of looks like a bone creature).

There's a number of comics in here of various lengths, but throughout them all Demo wordlessly (the only dialogue is in pictograms, so everybody can understand) wanders around having various adventures. The first long one is kind of strange as he encounters a bunch of goblin creatures while walking through a forest and is saved by some elves who take him home and nurse him back to health. Okay, it's not that weird (for a comic), what is is the contrast in styles between Demo (drawn very simply and cartoony) and the other characters (lots of detail and the elves have big anime style eyes). It's kind of strange and really succeeds in making Demo to look utterly alien in his surroundings.

The other long comic is rather strange, and seems to be about Demo's childhood. (I'll note here that I have no idea if the character is called Demo, but I'll call him that anyway.) Demo's parents clearly love him a lot, but Death (yes with a capital, it's the skeleton guy) is always lurking somewhere nearby. Demo's parents decide they're going to go into the sea, and swim around eating fish. They want to bring Demo with them, but he cries a lot, so they leave him on shore while they disappear into the ocean. After being abandoned a depressed Demo starts wandering the earth and has some adventures including fighting a really well drawn giant squid thing. Hurray!

I really like the cartooning on display in this comic. Skoog has kept the design of Demo very simple, but there are quite a lot of details in the backgrounds and other characters and items he interacts with. There's also a really good page with drawings of thirty different animals. That must have taken ages!

The end of one of the stories is very "to be continued"; who is that character and why do they look so much like a Pokemon? I hope that means there's more of this to read somewhere out there in the world.

Ouija Interview No. 3: Naomi

By Sarah Becan
www.jakze.com

Okay, you're probably wondering why I keep reviewing these, since they're basically all the same, but there are two reasons.

1. I think they're really good.
2. I only have so much time in this Swedish library (I'm in Malmo!), and don't really want to read some of the really long comics, or the ones that don't immediately grab my attention.

This issue manages to combine the styles of the two previous stories: it's both fun, and a little depressing. Naomi misses her friend, but doesn't know how to find him. Awww, adorable. Of course there's the not very nice reason why Naomi is dead in the first place, but you kind of have to accept that in stories about ghosts.

The art continues to be the right combination of cute and ghoulish, and I really like the haircut on the ghost in this one. Plus the little squiggly bits at the bottom of the ghost...torso. I don't know how to describe ghost body parts.

One thing I didn't mention with the others in this seriesis that I really like the lettering. The font used for the ghosts looks blocky and kind of old fashioned, and presumably is similar to the type found on ouija boards. At first I thought it was done with some sort of inkstamp letterblock thing, but comparing words that are the same it looks like it unfortunately wasn't. Still, I guess that would have taken forever, and it does still look quite good.

Tips on Applying for Welfare

By Bill Volk

Well, this comic is what it says on the cover. While the disclaimer inside says that the advice was written specifically for residents of New Hampshire, most of it can be used by anyone as its all pretty general.

Volk talks about how applying for welfare can be pretty scary, and that the welfare officers will just question your motives and sometimes outright lie to you so that you won't apply (and probably make more work for them).

The crucial things are "don't let them stop you applying", even if you think you're not eligible let whoever makes that decision decide, not you or the person at the desk, and you have a right to that decision in writing. I guess that's possibly the only bit of advice that might not apply everywhere, but it's been true in my experience.

The art features a giant, cartoonsihly ugly welfare officer, and an applicant that is just a vague outline of a human with eyes that makes them seem oddly anonymous, which probably isn't the best message you want to be giving to people who are on/applying for welfare who possibly already feel anonymous and ignored by society. But perhaps I just put too much thought into this type of thing.

Why We Call Them Robots

By Sarah Becan
www.jakze.com

If you've read this site for more than five minutes you know that I Love (capital intentional) monsters. However it may just be possible that you were unaware I also Love robots, it's just that there seem to be more monsters in the zines and minicomics I seem to review than there are robots.

This comic is all about robots! Hurray

Becan tells about the origin of the word "robot" and how it came to mean what it does today. She tells of Karel Capek, a writer from Eastern Europe who wrote the now-famous play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), how he created the new meaning of the word, a description of the plot of the play (I really need to get around to reading it at some point), and information about Capek's life and death (he was "vehemently anti-Nazi", hurray!).

The art is mostly photos that have had their contrast increased so there is only black and white visible. It works for a comic such as this which is basically just short bio about a specific person, though I've found photo comics to be annoying sometimes when used to tell narratives. Also, I'm not totally enamored with the design of Unit 09011-2, but it's still better than all those fleshy meat bags.

Whims of a Marquis

By Casey Bohn

Okay, I really have no idea what's going on here. In four pages we are told that the king needs a man to guide him (specifically a marquis), a marquis mysteriously appears, demands an elixter made by a monk, drinks it, gets super powers, and then it ends. What?

I think it might have been created to use as many M words as possible, but even then it doesn't succeed that well as Bohn could have used loads of other words to make it more magnificent (or whatever).

The art is nice enough, I really like the marquis' hair, and the bottomless black pits for eyes the king has, but I'm just kind of confused by the existence of the whole thing.

10 Things To Do With a Fake Moustache

By Leah Riley and Will Woods

www.willrad.com

You can probably see on the cover (if I managed to actually get the image online) this zine originally came with a fake moustache on the cover, a genius marketing move if I've ever seen one. Unfortunately the problem with libraries is that you can't really lend out a fake moustache to everyone, and even if you could I wouldn't want it...

Inside this zine are the titular ten things you can do with a fake moustache, none of which is actually wearing it as a moustache. The things range from the sort of sensible ("Accentuate your eyebrows"), to the absurd (I'm not sure how well a moustache would stick to an octopus). Each of the suggestions is accompanied by a drawing, which is usually self explanatory, but at times needs the text to explain it. I honestly would never have guessed those things on the robot were moustaches if that wasn't the name of the zine.

So if you are seeking out things to do with your fake moustache you should get this zine.

Ouija Interview No. 4: Mack, Agatha, and Samantha

By Sarah Becan
www.jakze.com

More ghost stories! This one is pretty brutal and sad, and if you liked how fun and lighthearted the previous one I reviewed was then this one might not be for you.

A tale of murder, depression, and incest is brought to life through the three ghost characters introduced here. It's pretty brutal stuff and made me kind of sad to read it, because I know that things like this happen in real life and there's not really anything I can do about them. Boo.

The writing here is kind of strange and considerably less linear than the straight question and answer style of the previous issue I read. The ghosts respond with answers that don't really answer anything, repeat the same word over and over again, and I guess act more like what a spooky ouija board encounter is supposed to be like.

As for the art, Becan continues to draw really rad ghosts and gets a lot of expression and feeling out of their limited features. Plus this time she has three different ghosts to draw, and is able to have them interacting with each other a little.

Open It

By Jason Week

The third of these weird comics that clearly have some connection, but what it is I cannot figure out. (Are they all by people who went to the Centre for Cartoon Studies? That's probably it.)

This one is about the Schrodinger's cat experiment, and a group of kids, including one who has bat wings, and at least one (and probably several) who is a super genius, actually performing the experiment.

Most of the comic is them arguing over whether they should open the box or not, what the experiment means, and stuff about probability. I sort of feel as though all the kids in this comic have clearly defined personalities that I'm just not aware of. I mean there are seven of them, and you clearly don't need that many to tell this story. So I think this would probably work better in a collection of stories about these characters instead of taken in isolation.

The art is fairly cartoony and I thought it was pretty good over all, though the fate of one of the cats at the end was initially lost on me.

I guess the "big idea" here is the multiple endings that exist, creating both possibilities of the experiment. While it is an awesome idea I found the execution a little lacking. Week has chosen to cut the last few pages in half and you are able to turn just the top or bottom of the page to see what happens. The problem I had with it is that the first page that is split already features both possible options: one has the cat living, the other dead. I think an additional page was needed, perhaps giving the reader the choice of whether they wanted the cat to live or die, or even just something that isn't a panel of a comic, as turning the top page and then ignoring the bottom is kind of awkward.

Still, I love physical experiments like this in zines. Hurray!

Read It

By Josh Rosen

tasteslikeevil.livejournal.com

This appears to be part of a series or something with the comic I reviewed yesterday (in that they all have similar covers, and are mounted on a weird cardboard square). However this one I don't have the proper name for, as it's covered up on the back by a barcode. I'm sure someone will be along to correct me soon enough.

This one is quite different from yesterday's in that it is actually about "Rex Manface (and his plucky sidekick Sally)" journeying through a pyramid in search of its secrets! Adventure! Exploration! Monsters!

Of course we can't have the traditional adventuring man and useless female represented in fiction any more (or at least we shouldn't, I definitely don't want to read that shit any more). So here we have Sally dragged along on an adventure she didn't want to do, but constantly being more competent than Rex, saving his life from traps, sword-fighting skeletons, and certain death multiple times before they finally get to the treasure.

Of course it's not that simple. The evil, lisping mummy guardian of the treasure tells them that they must inexplicably spin the dreidel of death (did ancient Egyptians even have dreidels?) to see if they get the treasure or not.

I really liked this. I love adventure fiction with all its ghost fighting, treasure finding action, but to be honest the "traditional" stuff is kind of boring and horrible. (Oh my goodness some of those old pulp sci-fi things I've read have been so racist and misogynistic, eek.) Here the characters are portrayed in ways that are cliched (ie. guy is stupid but lucky, girl is smart and competent), but at least they are modern cliches that aren't really demeaning.

The art is a bit lacking in detail, but the small panels used for most of the comic don't really allow for that much detail to be included. Overall it's quite good and the action flows well throughout. I will admit that the design for the lisping mummy didn't really click with me, and when viewed front on, in its full lisping glory, I kind of wondered what exactly I was looking at.

But overall its good stuff, and I hope that Rosen has written some more of the adventures of Sally as I'd like to read them.

Pair It

By Jen Vaughn
www.mermaidhostel.com

While the cover may feature a bunch of sperm, the actual contents are less about the sperm themselves, and more about what they can cause.

Cari is your typical bitchy, only cares about money and her career type person. Her grandmother dies, and after missing the funeral (typical) it is discovered that her will stipulates that any babies Cari or her sister have during the next two years will be compared and the most beautiful will get millions of dollars.

Cari is determined to win, and sets about gathering lots of different genetic material so she can figure out the best possible match with her DNA and create the best possible baby through (dubious pseudo-) science!

Of course it all goes horribly wrong, and her sister finds true love (through Piers Anthony novels, really Vaughn aren't those supposed to be pretty misogynistic?), and you probably knows what happens next. Still I enjoyed Cari's ruthlessness and utter distaste for other people (she can't even remember her boyfriend's name), I just dislike ever meeting people like that in real life.

Vaughn's art is pretty good, and you can get a sense of what types of people Cari and her sister are just from the way they stand. I also really liked some of the transitions between panels and pages, and the use of a hospital curtain as a panel divider. Clever!

Ouija Interview No 2: Chip

By Sarah Becan
www.jakze.com

Okay, I know I've been alternating between comic and noncomic reviews on the site, but now that I have a big stack of minicomics to read that's what you'll be getting for the next little while. Thankfully, this one is pretty awesome.

I know I've seen some of these before, but I'm not totally sure where, and for whatever reason I didn't buy them (unless they are secretly hiding in my "to read" pile, but that is hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers away).

I don't know if these are really the result of using a ouija board or not, but they sound fairly authentic as far as that thing goes (as in completely made up, but in the right format). Each page has a narration box on top that poses a question, then a single panel below that features a picture of a ghost responding to the question. I really dig the way Becan draws the ghost (who's name is Chip), with creepy eyes, and a stitched up looking mouth. Creepy! And yet still smilling and looking really happy.

There's not that much for Chip to do in each panel, but Becan makes the most of it. Chip flails around, changes expressions, and Becan somehow uses his limited facial features to imply that the person asking the questions is a total moron. Awesome!

So what questions are asked? Chip tells how he died, what the afterlife is like, what he the point of life is (getting laid), and tells a disgusting, but still funny, joke. He seems like a pretty rad guy.

The Tortoise Enters Tough Races

By Bill Volk

I was worried I was going to run out of things to review on this blog, and then on a day trip to Malmo I discovered the awesome library there and all the zines (well, mostly minicomics) that they had. The site was saved! Hopefully

(Note, I actually have images for this and a bunch of the following ones, but have no way of getting them online yet. Hopefully soon!)

Anyway, you know what I totally love in zines? Fold outs! And this one totally delivers.

But first there's the comic, which is a retelling of the fable about the Tortoise and the Hare. You already know the story, and you can probably guess that there's going to be a twist of some sort, and there is. However I thought it was a good twist, and I enjoyed the mean spiritedness of it all, especially coming from the really cute animals that Volk has drawn here.

And then there's the fold out, which is really awesome if whoever has read the comic before you has refolded it correctly (less awesome if you have to refold it properly yourself first). Each unfolding (is that a word?) reveals a larger space for an image and dialogue to show up on. Hurray! The only problem with it is that it reminded me of those immortal jellyfish things, which in turn reminded me of one of my greatest fears: flying jellyfish. They (thankfully) don't exist, but eeeek they are horrifying, with their tendrils floating through the air and stinging things that get to close to them. I shudder just to think about them.