< comics/x >
THE CLICHE SQUAD STRIKES BACK
($3.50 from Dale Martin / Smeary Soapbox Press / PO Box 442612 / Lawrence, KS / 66044 USA. Web:
http://home.swbell.net/grizmart)
Review by Sean Bieri
The one-panel cartoons in this collection are only a couple of years old but feel oddly dated, owing probably to their topicality. Martin's "connect-the-dots" diagram on who's benefiting from the Iraq war is still relevant, but his strip sniping at Bush sounds as dated as last year's pop songs or slang. The trouble with the Cliché Squad strips that make up the bulk of the book is that superhero parodies have become clichés themselves, and these strips seem aimed at Image-style comics nobody reads anymore anyway (in fact, Martin admits first having the idea for the Squad seven years ago). George Bush and superheroes are no less idiotic today than they were in 2002, but Martin's attacks on them sound too familiar to be fresh. Martin's art is appealing as always, and his funniest strips here are the less topical ones about lost dogs, office drones and soap operas. Some material endures anthologizing better than others.
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