Undiscovered Gems 2 Day 3

Two more entries in the Undiscovered Gems 2 Contest:

The Dane writes to tell us:

Clan Apis is a wonderful book for two reasons. In the first place it fulfills all the typical demands of storytelling. It's funny, exciting, interesting, and emotive. You'll laugh. You'll cry. Et cetera. In the second place, Clan Apis does something amazing. It actually comes off as a work of non-fiction, explicating and illustrating the secret lives of bees. And doesn't bore the reader into giving up partway through. I had read the back cover on several visits to my local seller and put the book back on the shelf several times. It just didn't sound interesting. At last and after a great many months later, I decided to purchase it as I had already gone through most of the books my seller stocked. After that, it sat on my to-read pile for another month or two. Then I finally read it and was...surprised. I was engrossed. Jay Hosler had created something amazing and no one had told me. I've since read it multiple times and given it to my wife's students to enjoy as well. Good stuff!

And Joe Szilvagyi writes:

My recommendation for the undiscovered gems list is The Surrogates written by Rob Venditti with art by Brett Weldele published by Top Shelf. The writing paints an incredibly credible view of the future where people choose to experience life through surrogate androids that transmit all sensory information to the user. It manages to run through a crime story that explores the benefits and drawbacks of this technology without coming across as preachy or too technical. Best of all, the art is quite solid with well thought out colour schemes and dynamic compositions.

Thanks to Joe and The Dane for their recommendations; they've been entered into the drawing for The Best American Comics 2006, which will be awarded next Wednesday. There's still time for you to enter!

Undiscovered Gems 2 Day 2

I received one further entry in the Undiscovered Gems 2 Contest:

Bill Burns writes:

Hey Mister, by Pete Sickman-Garner

A series of bizarre comedies focusing around a family unit of three unrelated characters: the dissipated loser Mister, the weird-looking child Young Tim, and Aunt Mary, the toughest woman in comics. Sickman-Garner (the best-named writer in comics) intersperses an occasional tale of his own creative process, one of which features Chris Staros demanding "I want wall to wall women and I want them greased up, strapped on, spread out and going down or you've drawn your last comic for Top Shelf." Hey Mister's humor is surrealistic and outrageous, but Sickman-Garner's affection for his characters makes them more than caricatures. The comics have been collected in three volumes from Top Shelf: Afterschool Special, Celebrity Roast, and The Fall Collection.

Thanks to Bill for his recommendation; he's been entered into the drawing for The Best American Comics 2006, which will be awarded next Wednesday. There's still time for you to enter!

Quick Top Shelf Reviews

Quick reviews of three floppy/pamphlet comics from the latest box of Top shelf review copies:

Please Release
by Nate Powell
Top Shelf, $5.00

A collection of four short autobiographical stories. The two that are most interesting concern Powell's day job working with developmentally disabled adults. Powell is a talented artist and his sense of design and layout is strong enough to make these potentially navel-gazing and text-heavy stories into works that are visually interesting to look at.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



Feeble Attempts
by Jeffrey Brown
Top Shelf, $5.00

Speaking of navel-gazing, here's a collection of short comics by one of comics' prime practitioners. Unfortunately Brown's chosen style for his autobiographical stories isn't all that interesting, and if you've read one Jeffrey Brown story about how he can't relate to his girlfriend(s) you've pretty much read them all. On the occasions when Brown breaks out of his usual mode and provides us with a super-hero parody or religious commentary the stories become interesting, but they're too few and far-between in this collection.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Superf*ckers Issue 279
by James Kochalka
Top Shelf, $5.00

I know that there are Kochalka fans out there who love this comic, but I really don't get it. A bunch of vignettes about twenty-something super-heroes with foul mouthes making potty and sex jokes. It's kind of like ''The Boys'' without a plot, humor, good art, or anything else worthwhile. Which maybe is the point of the comic, but it's a point I can do without.

Rating: 1.5 (of 5)



Review copies of the above comics were provided by the publisher.

Review: Lone Racer

Lone Racer
by Nicolas Mahler
Top Shelf, $12.95

The titular Lone Racer in Austian cartoonist Nicolas Mahler's graphic novella is on the verge of being washed up. Facing the prospect of never winning annother race, he hangs out at the local watering hole with his best friend rubber and visits his chronically ill wife in the hospital. In the first chapter LR considers joining his mechanic on a bank heist. In chapter two he considers an affair with a damaged though recovering divorcee. And in the third and final chapter he attempts a comeback.

At first glace Mahler's artwork appears crude, as though drawn by a third-grader. But it's deceptively so; the pacing, structure and layouts are impeccable, and the childlike simplicity of the overt style belies the adult concerns of the narrative.

At just under 100 pages Lone Racer is a quick read, but a satisfying one that will stay with the reader.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

A review copy of Lone Racer was provided by the publisher.

Unofficial Top Shelf Week

This will be an unofficial Top Shelf Week here at YACB. Because:

A) On Friday I received a large package of review copies from Top Shelf. I reviewed one (Tales from the Farm) earlier today, and hopefully will get to at least a couple of the other books before the week is out.

B) This is Top Shelf's Tenth Anniversary, which you can read about over at CBR.

C) In conjunction with their 10th anniversary, Top Shelf is having a rather sizable sale, with many cool books at just $3 or $1, and discounts on many of their other books as well. I can highly recommend 2 Sisters ($10), and recommend Big Clay Pot ($3) and The King ($3) if you're pondering what to buy, and there's plenty of other good books at cheap prices as well.

Review: Tales from the Farm

Essex County, vol. 1: Tales from the Farm
by Jeff Lemire
Top Shelf, $9.95

Tales from the Farm, the first volume in Jeff Lemire's proposed Essex County Trilogy, is an impressive, heartbreaking work.

Ten-year-old Lester, recently orphaned, has been sent to live on his uncle's farm in Southwestern Ontario. Lester is one of those sensitive boys who doesn't really fit in anywhere. He likes to read comics and dress up in a mask and cape. Uncle Ken doesn't know what to do with Lester--he only took the boy in because of a deathbed promise to his sister.

Lester strikes up an unusual friendship with Jimmy, the cashier at the gas station convenience store where Lester buys his comics. Jimmy was once a player in the NHL, but a vicious check ended his career and left him not quite right in the head.

Tales from the Farm has a timeless quality about it. The feeling in the story is of one that happened some time ago (the only hint we have is that Lester remarks that comics cost more than a dollar), but it really could be any time.

Lemire's art fits the mood and style of the story perfectly. It reminds me of characters by Ted McKeever living in a landscape drawn by Danijel Zezelj. It's all heavy on inks and appropriate dreary, though the flashback scenes are done in a watered style and there's a five-page section in the middle meant to be a comic that Lester has drawn, taken from a comic that Lemire actually did when he was nine-years-old.

Toss in a strange and ambiguous ending and you get a very satisfying comic experience. I won't be surprised to find Tales from the Farm on several lists of the year's best (including my own).

Rating: 4 (of 5).

A review copy of Tales from the Farm was provided by the publisher.