< comics/x >
MUSICOMICS #36 & 54
WALKING MAN COMICS PRESENTS SPECIAL #53
by Matt Levin
($1.00 each or 4 for $3.00 or send a 37¢ stamp for a sampler to Matt Levin / Walking Man Comics / 123 Elm Street / Hatfield MA / 01038 USA.
E-mail)
Review by Mark Campos
When you've been in the mini-comics whirlwind for as long as I have, it's always a kick to run again into a creator who you'd lost track of, and finding that years down the road they're still putting out vital work. Matt Levin's MO is resolutely old school, unchanged since the days of
Comics F/X and
Giant-Sized Mini-Comics: he layers rubber stamp impressions (including the eponymous Walking Man) into illustrations of poems and songs.
Musicomics #36 (April 2004) features an original song, with the music on the back if you wish to sing or play it.
Musicomics #54 (May 2004 – I don't understand the numbering either, Ricko) is "Morning Edition", a paean to the NPR news program sung to the tune of "Morning Has Broken". Whether or not you think Bob Edwards got a raw deal from NPR, it's a clever idea.
Special #53 (June 2004 – I just don't understand), produced for the hundredth issue of the Small Press Syndicate's APA
Rap Sheet, could be read as Matt's comment on his own longevity: ".. takes persistance, determination .. takes a willingness to bet on oneself alone: one hundred times, and again."
True, true. And if you like a particular stamped image he's used, Matt helpfully lists his sources at the back of every book. There is nothing else like Walking Man Comics, and I'm glad there are still new ones on what seems to be a monthly basis.
[ Link to this review ]
