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Guy Peelaert and Pierre Bartier
FantagraphicsThe Adventures of Jodelle is a 60s pop art comic about a sexy lady spy. It's set in both the Roman Empire in the year 14 and Las Vegas in the 60s.


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Richard Short
Breakdown PressIt's often hard to describe why something is good; a good thing is usually good because it's unique. Klaus isn't like other comics. It's a new mini-comic by Richard Short, and it's fucking great. The comic features a bunch of talking animals saying deep things about existentialism, and Richard draws pretty pictures with elegant lines—unlike most other comics in this field, Klaus is both well made and interesting. At times, the philosophic shit gets a little thick, but there's a decent amount of humor to cut through the deep themes.


Anders Nilsen (With Cheryl Weaver)
Drawn & QuarterlyI don't know how anyone can discuss this book like it's just another book without becoming sad and uncomfortable. This is the true documentation of how Anders's fiance got sick and died. I bought it's earlier, more limited printing and found it hard to read, because I think Anders is very nice, and it was hard for me to deal with him losing his partner. I can't talk about this book.


Last Gasp
Ted RichardsLast Gasp sent me a huge stack of old hippy comics, many of which I didn't know about. Astral House is one of those.

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Alex Schubert
Space FaceAlex Schubert made another full color mini-comic with a cardstock cover, color art, and minimal story. I really love Alex Schubert's sensibilities, but it's hard to call this a comic. Most of the popular work in the alt comics world doesn't technically qualify as comics. Lisa Hanawalt's work is great, but she mosty writes funny lists and then draws pretty pictures—I'm not saying that they're not great. They're just not comics. It's strange to me that Understanding Comics exists, yet people don't get that a drawing with some text near it isn't a comic.


Jason
FantagraphicsIn this comic available on Fantagraphics's site, a lonely private detective sees a poster for a lost cat. He finds the cat and then goes to return the cat to it's owner, which is when the detective and the cat's owner seem to fall in love. The detective tries to meet her again, but she's gone and nobody knows where she is. In retrospect, the story reminds me of Lost Highway.
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Edited by Michel Choquette
AbramsWay back in the 70s, Michel Choquette asked all these great artists and cartoonists to make comics about what the 60s were like for them; he got a giant roster of legends, including Frank Zappa, Tom Wolfe, Jack Kirby, Moebius, Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, and pretty much every other big name alive at the time.The book was recently released for the first time, and it seems like it was bungled. The biggest problem is that Michel thinks that people want this book, because they want to know about him—for some reason thare are crude drawings of him dropped into the comics. Another problem is that the art appears to have been colored digitally and was printed on super glossy paper which conflicts with the 70s drawing styles.



Gabriel Corrbera
Space FaceThis is so much like a Yuichi Yokoyama parody, it's hard to take it seriously. I don't know what Gabriel Corrbera actually draws like, but I don't see how Gabriel and Yuichi both came to drawing comics in such a similarly far-out style. You can buy it at Space Face Books.
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Compiled by Mitch Clem
Silver Sprocket Bicycle ClubThis is an anthology of amateurish comics about shows at punk houses. Some of the comics are corny tales about drama with drunk jerks. Some are over-idealized tales about finding yourself in the punk community—I guess two major elements of punk are people inventing drama and feeling at home. But the anthology doesn't spend enough time addressing how badly punk houses smell. Anyways, this is a definite thing to get if you're friends with any of the punks who contributed or if you live in a punk house. Otherwise you will probably not like this very much.

