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MONSTER ENGINE!
($6.00,
Little Engine Studios)
Review by Mark Campos
Comics are transitioning away from the pamphlet format: the small squarebound book is the next big thing. And here is
Monster Engine!, just such a thing, an anthology with full-color covers and nice paper and an ISDN number and all, featuring art by up-and-comers either located in or exiled from Texas. Since anthologies are always a crapshoot, the question is, is this worth your six dollars?
By the numbers: both "Dragon vs. Pumpkin" (Pedro Boyd) and "Art Is Dead" (Brian Canny, Toby Craig) are nicely written, but the art struggles to keep up. The reliable Peter S. Conrad's "Oh, That Dead Guy!" is an existential instant classic. Jim Rugg's adaptation of the book of Jonah is tidily done, contains some striking images, and wraps up neatly in four pages. "Inner Demon" by Dalton Webb shows his stylish, er, style, which in two years will be everywhere at once, I predict. "Bed Bugs" by Todd Webb (no relation) is Kochalka-ish, but it is unclear to me what happens at the end. And Tom Williams' "Goth Karaoke" is a rambling bar anecdote, not as interesting as the other stories but drawn in a more realistic style.
Worth it? Hex yeah.
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