
Here's some exciting comic news:
-Alvin Buenaventura Is back in the publishing game-Dan Clowes' Wilson is being turned into a movie. Also his new book Mr. Wonderful is being published.
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Four Color Fear
Greg Sadowski
FantagraphicsandThe Horror The Horror
Jim Trombetta
Abrams ComicartsWhat an age we live in. Once upon a time if you wanted to read old obscure horror comics you had to know that they existed and then go haggle with some jerk over a bunch of decaying, crumbling 60-year-old comics and then you might get it home and realize that it was missing a page or something. Now the best of the best are collected into affordable books with good paper, great color, and explanations of how the comics studios worked and who made all those uncredited comics and shit. God bless you, comics. Both Abrams and Fantagraphics released two great books that are about the same size and about the same thing at about the same time. It thus made sense to review them together.

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Achewood: A Home For Scared People
Chris Onstad
Dark Horse
Achewood is the only web comic there is. It's about a bunch of anthropomorphic cats, stuffed animals, a handful of robots, and a squirrel who is like the squirrel equivalent of GG Allin living in a house together. The nature of their reality has changed and shifted throughout the years to best serve whatever storyline or idea is happening. Although it initially seemed that the characters were all creatures that lived in the house of Chris Onstad, the cartoonist who makes Achewood, they have since been shown as living independent of him in a subterranean SoCal dreamworld. There will be a series of one off strips that will be funny, followed by a massive arching storyline that will explore an entirely different world of possibility. The cast allow Onstad to comment on life from different viewpoints and he doesn't treat any of his characters as if they're stupid for being who they are, except for one who seems to be the culmination of every self-righteous asshole you've ever met. Achewood is one of the greatest comics of all time. It's hard for me not to ramble about it at length. It will make you a nerd for it. Casually quoting Achewood has become as natural for me and my friends over the last ten years as referencing the Simpsons has over the course of my life.
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Sin City: The Hard Goodbye and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
Frank Miller
Dark Horse
My brain tells me that Sin City's corny but all I have to do is pick up any one of the books and I'm instantly sucked in. The stories seem fairly repetitive but move forward and keep me reading. The exciting part is watching Frank Miller's style change and the visual innovations he comes up with. I spread the pages wide and stare into the stark black&white panels. The first volume, which was originally meant to go on for 48 pages ended up organically growing into the 200-plus-page volume it became and serving as the first entry into the world of Sin City.
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These Air JordansAdults (I hope, but don't really care)
Nike
I got Vice to get Nike to send me these totally awesome Air Jordans to review. Boy, let me tell you when I was in punktimes, I thoroughly believed that Nike was evil and Converse were totally punk. At some point I realized that all sneakers were made by evil corporations, especially "Nosweats." I remember some big-headed girl bragging about her sneakers being sweatshop-free and then giving my roommate a fucking pamphlet about how much better than him her shoes were. Later we googled them and discovered they were liars.Nikes are so comfortable. Gary Panter once commented that you never hear men complaining about their barking dogs because their shoes are so comfortable. After switching from Vans, Converse, and Docs to Nike my soles never hurt, even after walking many miles every day. They are like little SUVs that you put on your feet. I put 'em on and think "Today was a good day. Didn't have to use my AK, went on a road trip with my girfriend's kids or something. Traded in my AK for a fishing rod but I still rap about stuff like I'm an angry racist criminal."---

The Acme Novelty Library Number 20
Chris Ware
Drawn & Quarterly
Chris Ware's overrated as a cartoonist, but he's a good illustrator, a great graphic designer and his sketchbooks are tops. The map-style of visual storytelling that he did was a big contribution to comics. I buy, read and enjoy everything he does, I just don't think that he does characters that measure up to those created by his peers. Bagge, Clowes, Crumb, Dave Cooper, Jim Woodring, and the Hernandez Brothers can all form characters that you can either like or dislike pretty readily. Most of Ware's characters leave me feeling nothing except mild irritation.
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Wowee Zonk 3
Wowee Zonk
Koyama Press
Hey all right, new Wowee Zonk! Wowee Zonk is a comics anthology/collective from Canada with the core members being Patrick Kyle, Ginette Lapalme, and Chris Kuzma. Superstar, Michael Deforge is also in there. This one has a great cover by Patrick Kyle, four amazing Michael Deforge pages, some sketchbook pages by Andrei Georgesxu who is drawing way different than he used to, a comic by Zach Worton about killing his boss, a comic by Ginette Lapalme that ends with dolphins 69ing, a totally amazing comic by Chris Kuzma about duck children detectives who are deformed, and a Patrick Kyle comic about weird wizards. These guys are so good. So good.--

Boys Club 4
Matt Furie
Pigeon Press
These are always a fun time and Matt Furie is always boss, with his wacky stoner roommate monster characters who don't seem to have jobs. All they do is eat gross food, smoke a lot of pot, and do the kind of weird stuff you do when you get too comfortable with the people you're living with. Half the comics in here originally ran on this site. I liked them then and I liked them now. There's one comic in here where a character transforms into a snake and eats a pizza face-first. That whole thing happened because I said to Matt, "Can you do me one with a transformation in it?" I deserve all the credit. My name should be on the cover! THIS IS BULLSHIT!
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The Jerk Practice Presents: The B-Squad Superhero Shorts
Hans Freiwald, Casey Van Heel, Jes Liberty
Every now and again someone will come up with the idea to do a comic about superheroes, but y'know, they're like normal guys. Someone will ask them,"So you're a superhero, what do you do?" And they look into the non-camera and roll their eyes or something like that. This was big in the 90s but it mostly died off. Nick Bertozzi did a comic like it called Incredible Drinking Buddies. The Tick almost falls into this category except that the Tick ruled. Too Much Coffee Man was a pretty successful version of this idea. B-Squad didn't do the idea well or 20 years ago. Also it has flyers and drink tickets for a comedy event in the middle which seems desperate and sleazy.--

The Wednesday Conspiracy
Sergio Bleda
Dark Horse/SAF This comic is about a totally badass lady with an eyepatch who smokes cigars even though squares tell her not to. Oh, and she has a jar full of demons that she opens when she is attacked by other demons and they fight the demons that attack her. Also, she has a group of friends who all think they are crazy at first but they are the only ones who know what's really going on. I think the guy who made it was really into Sandman and Books of Magic but was way less able to come up with okay ideas than Neil Gaiman was.--

Harshmallow
Matt Haveron
It's a bunch of lame gag comics.That's all for now. See You In Two Weeks!
