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DWARF ATTACK Volume 6
by Greg Stump
Contact/harass
Mr. Stump for information on how to order and what might be available in the first place; #6 is the latest)
Review by Tom Spurgeon
When cartoonist Greg Stump used to be news editor of the venerable, spiteful industry news and reviews magazine
The Comics Journal, his best pieces were often one or two lines. After suffering an avalanche of public relations pressure from comics and regular press circles over forthcoming nuptials for the Man of Steel, Stump summed it up succinctly with an entire news story that read, “Apparently, Superman is getting married.” A sense of humor is a rare thing, particularly one with a taste for the absurd, and it’s therefore essential that more people read Mr. Stump’s weekly alt-paper comic strip, "Dwarf Attack". Running in Seattle’s
The Stranger (when they used to do regular comics) and in the
Portland Mercury (whom I believe still do), "Dwarf Attack" comes on strong and weird and smart. Stump’s most frequent plan of attack is to take a lame high-concept idea – an oversized dog, teeth in search of a mouth, a house that’s a person – and play it totally straight-faced and stiff until the essential stupidity of what he’s engaging wilts under the high-pressure seriousness and yields unexpected comic depth. In tone "Dwarf Attack" is probably closest to Michael Kupperman’s work as P. Revess in "Up All Night", only toned down slightly without the same degree of blunt humor being kneaded out of the concept up front. When it really cooks, "Dwarf Attack" comes closer to being the kind of strip that might be drawn by one of Kupperman’s characters rather than by Kupperman himself, and at those times it gives off the curious energy of an angry, sunburned man in bad pants. In other words: comedy gold. More people should see this work, either on-line through one of the Joey Manley sites or from the cartoonist directly in glorious mini-comic form.
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