Literary/i Want My Dvds
Book/Movie Reviews - The Comics Issue

DAYDREAMS AND NIGHTMARES
Winsor McCay
This compilation of some guy from the early 1900s is profound, intelligent, incredibly well done, painstakingly detailed, and a fucking snooooooozefest. If you do comics for a living and carefully examine each nib before dipping it into the ink, pick this up. The other 99.9999999 percent of you can move on. This shit deserves to be in the past.
ROBERT L HUDSON

AMERICAN VIRGIN #1
Vertigo
There are two kinds of comics in the world: Good ones (deemed “alternative” in the press) and bad ones (deemed “superhero comics” by the good ones). Somehow Europe has managed to do realist drawings without being cursed by the “superhero” brush. Americans like DC Comics try to do the same yet always fail. Though this comic appears to have a neato Euro cover, it is the same old DC shit. Sorry, Vertigo, you are not one of us.
MOEBIOS MILO MANARA

THE SKULLZ PRESS COMPENDIUM
Mike “Giant” LeSage
Upper Playground /
Fifty 24SF Gallery
This is a compilation of basically everything Giant’s ever done. Him and Scott Campbell from Saved are the best sources for tattoo ideas in the whole world. There, I said it.
KATIA KARMANICHA

PRISONER OF X20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine
Allan MacDonell
Feral House
This 300-page graphic novel is a rollicking comic-book journey by Dan Clowes that captures every aspect of Hustler’s history in exquisitely hilarious detail. Just kidding! Clowes only did the cover. It’s some autobio novel about a guy that worked at a porn mag. Too bad.
BOBATHAN FAIRDEXTLER

THE ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY RUSTY BROWN
Chris Ware
Fantagraphics
Chris Ware is perfect, but maybe he’s too perfect. Can this nigga loosen up a bit and increase production please? How about a laugh or two, Chris? Somebody get this guy a blowjob. He needs to unwind.
NORVIS CRACKTADDLER

NIGHT FISHER
Kikuo Johnson
Fantagraphics
Fantagraphics finally seems to get the Drawn & Quarterly thing where drawing talent, narration, story line, consistency, and all that magical stuff come together to make a book so gripping you think you’re watching a movie. Night Fisher is about drug abuse in Hawaii but it’s drawn so beautifully by a Mensa nerd, you’d think it was about the history of romantic botany.
NAGATCHA HAKAMONI

MEOW BABY
Jason
Fantagraphics
Sorry, Europe, but you’re too clever for us sometimes. Comic nerds will enjoy Jason’s ability to make word-free gags that are morbid and funny at the same time, but big whup. If you really valued our time you’d give us a story we could hang our hat on.
BOB GOBBLER

MOME
Various Artists
Fantagraphics
This compilation features all the top names in the genre today. We recommended a bunch of them to guest editor Johnny Ryan for this issue and he said, “Fuck those people. They are all BORING!”
I guess Jonathan Bennett, Anders Nilsen, and Gabrielle Bell aren’t exactly great for one-page gags but for a sunny Sunday in the sunroom they’re pretty much ideal. Sorry to sound so gay but I’m a girl and I like compilations like this.
VERONICA CATCHEW

EL BORBAH
Charles Burns
Fantagraphics
Remember seeing Heavy Metal Comics when you were a kid? It was too weird right? Now that you’re old you can reread all the Charles Burns shit and really crap your pants. This is what grown-up comics are all about.
GORBY VANDOOBLER

MY MOST SECRET DESIRE (reprint)
Julie Doucet
Drawn & Quarterly
Don’t get me wrong. Julie Doucet is the Queen. You can’t fuck with her minute detail and gut-wrenching honesty, but Jesus, can we get some new material please? Doucet is rapidly becoming the Sarah Silverman of the comics world. We love your shit but it’s time for a new bowel movement.
LANI CORBINGER

SPANIEL RAGE
Vanessa Davis
Buenaventura Press
No panels. Done in pencil without ink. Sketchbook autobio-rant style. Lame, right? WRONG. This is the funnest comic of the year. What a fucking gem! If you don’t like this you don’t like women or girls or hanging out or humble honesty. In fact, if you don’t like this, you don’t like anything good.
VICE STAFF (ALL OF US)

APOCALYPSE NERD
Peter Bagge
Fantagraphics
Bagge’s version of a postapocalyptic world is really scary because it’s kind of plausible.
BOB GOBBLER

SURVIVE STYLE 5
Manga Entertainments
Heyo, it’s a nutty hyperactive live-action Manga type film thing starring Vinnie Jones (of X-Men: The Last Stand and other mindblowing movies) and some highkicking Japanese dudes that’s super-snazzy and colourful and techno and isn’t in the least bit annoying at all when it tries to squeeze about 15 stories into one sketchy narrative. It’s like spending an hour inside a 12-year-old boy’s head.
JELLYBEAN MCQUEEN
Winsor McCay
This compilation of some guy from the early 1900s is profound, intelligent, incredibly well done, painstakingly detailed, and a fucking snooooooozefest. If you do comics for a living and carefully examine each nib before dipping it into the ink, pick this up. The other 99.9999999 percent of you can move on. This shit deserves to be in the past.
ROBERT L HUDSON

AMERICAN VIRGIN #1
Vertigo
There are two kinds of comics in the world: Good ones (deemed “alternative” in the press) and bad ones (deemed “superhero comics” by the good ones). Somehow Europe has managed to do realist drawings without being cursed by the “superhero” brush. Americans like DC Comics try to do the same yet always fail. Though this comic appears to have a neato Euro cover, it is the same old DC shit. Sorry, Vertigo, you are not one of us.
MOEBIOS MILO MANARA

THE SKULLZ PRESS COMPENDIUM
Mike “Giant” LeSage
Upper Playground /
Fifty 24SF Gallery
This is a compilation of basically everything Giant’s ever done. Him and Scott Campbell from Saved are the best sources for tattoo ideas in the whole world. There, I said it.
KATIA KARMANICHA

PRISONER OF X20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine
Allan MacDonell
Feral House
This 300-page graphic novel is a rollicking comic-book journey by Dan Clowes that captures every aspect of Hustler’s history in exquisitely hilarious detail. Just kidding! Clowes only did the cover. It’s some autobio novel about a guy that worked at a porn mag. Too bad.
BOBATHAN FAIRDEXTLER

THE ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY RUSTY BROWN
Chris Ware
Fantagraphics
Chris Ware is perfect, but maybe he’s too perfect. Can this nigga loosen up a bit and increase production please? How about a laugh or two, Chris? Somebody get this guy a blowjob. He needs to unwind.
NORVIS CRACKTADDLER

NIGHT FISHER
Kikuo Johnson
Fantagraphics
Fantagraphics finally seems to get the Drawn & Quarterly thing where drawing talent, narration, story line, consistency, and all that magical stuff come together to make a book so gripping you think you’re watching a movie. Night Fisher is about drug abuse in Hawaii but it’s drawn so beautifully by a Mensa nerd, you’d think it was about the history of romantic botany.
NAGATCHA HAKAMONI

MEOW BABY
Jason
Fantagraphics
Sorry, Europe, but you’re too clever for us sometimes. Comic nerds will enjoy Jason’s ability to make word-free gags that are morbid and funny at the same time, but big whup. If you really valued our time you’d give us a story we could hang our hat on.
BOB GOBBLER

MOME
Various Artists
Fantagraphics
This compilation features all the top names in the genre today. We recommended a bunch of them to guest editor Johnny Ryan for this issue and he said, “Fuck those people. They are all BORING!”
I guess Jonathan Bennett, Anders Nilsen, and Gabrielle Bell aren’t exactly great for one-page gags but for a sunny Sunday in the sunroom they’re pretty much ideal. Sorry to sound so gay but I’m a girl and I like compilations like this.
VERONICA CATCHEW

EL BORBAH
Charles Burns
Fantagraphics
Remember seeing Heavy Metal Comics when you were a kid? It was too weird right? Now that you’re old you can reread all the Charles Burns shit and really crap your pants. This is what grown-up comics are all about.
GORBY VANDOOBLER

MY MOST SECRET DESIRE (reprint)
Julie Doucet
Drawn & Quarterly
Don’t get me wrong. Julie Doucet is the Queen. You can’t fuck with her minute detail and gut-wrenching honesty, but Jesus, can we get some new material please? Doucet is rapidly becoming the Sarah Silverman of the comics world. We love your shit but it’s time for a new bowel movement.
LANI CORBINGER

SPANIEL RAGE
Vanessa Davis
Buenaventura Press
No panels. Done in pencil without ink. Sketchbook autobio-rant style. Lame, right? WRONG. This is the funnest comic of the year. What a fucking gem! If you don’t like this you don’t like women or girls or hanging out or humble honesty. In fact, if you don’t like this, you don’t like anything good.
VICE STAFF (ALL OF US)

APOCALYPSE NERD
Peter Bagge
Fantagraphics
Bagge’s version of a postapocalyptic world is really scary because it’s kind of plausible.
BOB GOBBLER

SURVIVE STYLE 5
Manga Entertainments
Heyo, it’s a nutty hyperactive live-action Manga type film thing starring Vinnie Jones (of X-Men: The Last Stand and other mindblowing movies) and some highkicking Japanese dudes that’s super-snazzy and colourful and techno and isn’t in the least bit annoying at all when it tries to squeeze about 15 stories into one sketchy narrative. It’s like spending an hour inside a 12-year-old boy’s head.
JELLYBEAN MCQUEEN
Noisey
Duck Fight Goose
Motherboard
How to Beat SOPA: Build a New Internet in Space
The Creators Project
Casio Turns 2D Photos Into Weird 3D Sculptures
Motherboard
Google Maps Is Twisted
The Creators Project
Jellyfish Film Shot on iPhone at the Aquarium
Noisey
Lucas Abela Plays Broken Glass with His Face
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