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NICK GAZIN'S COMICS LOVE-IN 17

A couple weeks back Gabe Fowler hosted a totally awesome comic convention in Brooklyn. It was free and kind of like MoCCA but with no shitty people peddling their depressing mini-comics. The only bad thing was that the panel discussions were inaudible. I met a lot of rad dudes and lady-dudes who gave me their comics for free to review. It was great meeting people, seeing what was happening and taking photos.

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Also I saw this:

The only thing better than getting all the comics delivered to my house for free is knowing that it pisses other people off. I surpassed the "living the dream" phase of my life like three years ago. I am currently experiencing levels of satisfaction that I never imagined could exist.

Send comics or anything else for me to review to Nick Gazin C/O this magazine.

Love,
Nicholas Gazin

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#1
Untitled Comic
Lizz Hickey
self published
Lizz Hickey is a prime example of what is really happening in the world of art right now. Her prints are giant fucking universes full of detail and her comics are bizarre and hilarious. Every new art movement is typically giving the finger to the people from the last generation but I don't know if Lizz is even aware of the last generation. She draws her comics with pencil and no ink and then publishes it all without putting a title or her name on them. I don't think any of this was a self-conscious, look-how-mysterious-I-can-be decision on her part either, it seems like the idea never even occurred to her.

Lizz has put out a bunch of smaller mini comics before but this is the one to the beat the band because it is SIXTY PAGES LONG. It is like one of those Archie Digests. Lizz's comics don't have titles but they are all about Danny, a creepy Korean with magic powers who is in love with Jeremy, a boring guy who is usually depicted as being annoyed or shocked by Danny, and Carol who Lizz describes as filler. At first the comics focused on the relationship between Danny and Jeremy, wherein Danny would turn into a lightbulb or sunglasses or do other obnoxious things to be near Jeremy. This volume is a move forward and is mostly about Carol and her relationship with a floating head that's identical to her own but smaller and also named Carol. I guess it's supposed to be her conscience.

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One other awesome thing is that Lizz has made a Facebook page for her made-up character, Carol, and will often chastise Carol for doing bad things. Some of Carol's best recent status updates were "i stretched my gloots 2 much this morning" and "i shit myselfand ate too many swedish fish now i need liposuckmudick."

Lizz's unique dialogue, timing, and awesome self-loathing make her comics totally amazing and unlike anything else you have ever seen. She is so great. Also she let me take these foxy photos of her at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphix Festazoola. She is a hot new talent.

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#2
Black Mass #4
Patrick Kyle
Mother Books Toronto
Patrick Kyle is one of the Wowee Zonk guys and he rules it. He doesn't use panels, instead every scene just flows into the next. Which is visually pleasant but makes explaining them make YOU sound like an idiot. This comic starts off with Dingball coming home in a fugue state wearing nothing but boots. Then his roommate Turdswallo goes into a trance and discorporates from his body. Without his mind encumbering his body, Turdswallo becomes rich and powerful. See what I'm saying? All this stuff is hilarious, but you probably just think I'm a spaz.

Anyways, the comic then continues with a story about a young Turdswallo who is a nerd but wants to win the punk-off at the big punk house. He lets two fairies inhabit his body and then punk him up and the comic ends with him heading off to the punkoff. Then there are some funny made up ads for role-playing modules. Patrick Kyle is the hottest new talent in all of Canada. I love him. Also Ginette LaPalme, his girlfriend and co-artist made these boss buttons and shirts.

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#3
What Had Happened Was II
Domitille Collardey
Weeping Willow
I ran into Domitille's husband before I saw her and he warned me that her new comic was dark. Which it is, but like cute-dark. The left page will show her and some people riding the subway and the next page will show them again but the train's flooded with water and they're all drowing. She drew a cemetery full of her friends with unkind comments engraved on the tombstones. There are also some memories of growing up Roman Catholic.

Domitille's last comic was a very mature first effort and this one's even more so. She seemed apologetic for this great comic as she handed it to me but her drawing skills are wayyyyyyyyyy above most of the people in comics right now. As soon she learns how to tell a full story she's going to be a fucking star.

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#4
Spotting Deer
Michael Deforge
Koyama
Michael Deforge is fucking awesome and he draws all his stuff with a Wacom. Did you know that? There is no original art for any of his work because it's all completely digital. It doesn't look like it, but it is. Spotting Deer is a weird comic about slimy, oily creatures that look like deer but are weird and monstrous. It's also about a guy who is writing about them (a separate character I mean, not Michael Deforge--or is it?). One thing about this comic is that you don't really see any eyes in it. It feels like you're constantly at a distance from the subject, kind of like a Chris Ware comic but I think this is on purpose.

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5#
Closed Caption Comics #9
Closed Caption Comics
E.T. Press
Closed Caption are a collective of hot new talents from Baltimore and I usually give them pretty good reviews. This time is no exception. This anthology is mostly good but also some of the comics are so bad that I think it is some kind of joke that I don't get. The first comic in this nice perfect-bound little monster is completely terrible and seems to be a parody of the comics that stupid kids make in art school and then during the class critique everyone stands around and stares at their feet because they don't have the heart to call out the class tard. It was either made by that tard or making fun of those tards. Either way, not so hot. The next comic is a totally rad sci-fi comic that looks like it would have been in a 70s underground comic.

The third comic is called "Mind Your Business, Nutty Butty." It's about an autistic kid named Nutty Butty who stabs his wife's boyfriend in the arm. It's pretty good but the art's real unpleasant. Noel Freibert is one of my favorite guys in this group of guys and he did a nightmarish comic about a family where the dad is planning to feed one of the kids to the other kid. Then there's Chris Day who also rules. He's not really a cartoonist but he is a great ink drawer with strong compositions and ideas. The rest of the comics are either good or bad. It's good or bad.

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#6
Silly Stickers
Keith Jones
Koyama Press
Man, Koyama is synonymous with quality. Three cheers for the newest good publisher. This good thing is two sheets of silkscreened stickers by Keith Jones showing off drawings of pompous-looking animals wearing human clothes. Johnny Ryan made some hand silkscreened stickers a year ago and it really bothered me. Silkscreened things are made to be loved and cared for but stickers are made to be stuck on stuff. So no matter what you do with these things you feel bad about it.

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These drawings of pompous animals are fucking awesome though.

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#7
You're Not On The List And Other Cartoons You Could Have Drawn
Sam Henderson
Self Published
Sam Henderson used a quote from one of my reviews on the back of this, his new mini-comic. He also asked that I tell everyone that they can buy them from him by e-mailing him at mwhistle@aol.com

This mini is full of goofy gag comics in which inanimate objects have thoughts and opinions and are sometimes excluding others. You either love Sam Henderson or you're an asshole. There is no third option when discussing this man.

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#8
Crooked Teeth Presents Filler: Sketchbook Pieces March 2008 December 2010
Nate Doyle
Self Published
Nate is a hot new talent who's been working on learning to draw for quite a while. His noses, lineweights, and shading have always been lacking but he's been improving a lot. There are some sharp brushy drawings of the Ramones where he's really embracing the strengths of the tool and not trying to force style on it. Now let's see if he can do a comic with a story. Good luck, Nate. I am rooting for you.

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#9
Secret Prison Issue #3
Various Artists
Secret Prison
Oh man how I thought this would be good. It wasn't. Zach Hazard's been doing some really crummy work lately. What the fuck Zach? Your comics used to make sense. Now they all look like crustcore grindpunk backpatches. No one can figure out what is going on in those damn backpatches! Needs improvement!

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#10
Rom!
Josh Bayer
self published
I enjoyed this hot new talent's last comic but found this one unreadable. Like physically unreadable. Every time I tried to look at it my eyes would cross-focus like when you're doing a Magic Eye, only instead of a shark in a straw hat and shades jumping into my face from the page it was the page itself, bonking me back awake.