Too many comics and review books to simply end it with the week and I have lots more reviews to post this week. I hope to have reviews up every day this week, but I will keep on reviewing until nothing remains however long that takes. I thank Top Shelf Comix and NOW Comics for the product reviewed herein.
3 TPBs and Original Graphic Novels for your consideration
Vinny is an exterminator who works with his Uncle. But the bug blaster he ordered from a mail order outfit does not work correctly and instead shrinks Vinny. He is now the size of a bug. Instead of him destroying bugs, he must now negotiate his way through the bug kingdom, which is far more organized than he’d ever imagined, and it is now the bugs who chase him. This title is illustrated using computer generated animation styled art. Fans of VEGGIE TALES or other similar franchises will find the images similar. And honestly, this work is worth showing to a kid, and letting adults in on it as well. The writing is clever, and the art cute. The story is well done, and if the readers wish to do so, a CD rom for PCs is included in the back for them to delve further into story, and to have fun in VINNY THE BUGMAN’s world. I cannot report how good the CD is... I have Mac. Sigh.
From Top Shelf American Elf
James Kochalka
$29.95, 520 pages!
Five years of Kochalka's daily diary strips, collected, without pause. Now, he deals with all sorts of subjects but primarily love of life, love of wife and pitfalls of being a person who makes their living, or most of it, through the creative arts. It is an intelligent work as a whole, being a sort of visual diary. The overt intent, of course being as this title is considered to be a humor book by most reviewers, is to make you laugh or find humor in the writing or visuals. If I say I found this humorous I would mostly be lying. I saw it more as an interesting thoughtful account of a life different than mine, by a skilled artist who works as a cartoonist in an industry I love. I mostly found myself curious and interested by his sketches and pictures, but I do not really remember laughing. However, I think humor is definitely in the eye of the beholder, and people I know who laughed a lot at this title mostly told me that to them a book I laughed a lot at, WEIRD MELVIN, was not funny. So since humor is so subjective I hope you will understand me when I say that whatever the purpose, overt or covert, I felt that the time spent reading it was worthwhile and well worth the price of this book. I think people who are fans of PEANUT BUTTER and JEREMY will enjoy this title, but it is a great deal more mature.
BIGHEAD
By Jeffrey Brown
$12.95
This title is a spoof of heroes, drawn and written in a style of a 14 year old male mind. I do not think that it is poorly drawn, or simply written, but intentionally presented in a fashion meant to evoke a world of heroes and action such as that a 14 year old could believe in. Beyond that the parody of heroes goes into realms that are more interesting, such as the meaning of hero, the human response to the absurd (think about it, similarly costumed super heroes in our reality would be laughed at, chastised and sent to mental hospitals...). We watch as BIGHEAD saves people from big and small crisis’ and we might snicker at the insights into our own mindset and the prevalence of more refined but nonetheless outrageous stories we find to dominate the comics industry. I think that most comic fans would not think deeply enough to get this, they being more interested in testosterone filled fantasies. But for anyone wishing to think a bit differently about our comics, and chuckle too, I think this would seriously rock. I liked it.
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