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SHORE LEAVE SHOWCASE
by Max Clotfelter

(www.maxclotfelter.com)

Reviewed by Rick Bradford

This mini contains two features. The first is a collection of 12 daily-format strips starring a pair of dopey skinheads. (It's not completely clear, but the feature may be called "Oh, Those Skins!", which makes me chuckle.) It's a pretty funny idea, a three-panel gag strip set in the world of suburban white supremacy. One of the skins lives with his hippie dad, which is more amusing than it might seem. Silly stuff but nice to look at. The second piece is a wordless story of sorts about one gruesome creature's interaction with another. Lots of crusty surfaces and disturbing tongue action. And while the skins strips are drawn in a clear, cartoony style with a nice added gray wash, this one is in crisp black and white with great attention to detail.

I like Max's comics a lot and I'm surprised I don't hear more about him. I think his work compares favorably to Josh Simmons' but he's got his own style. If you prefer your comics on the seedy side, you should check this guy out.

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MIDNIGHT CREEP
by Fredo

($3.00 from Post Apocalyptic Funhouse / Frederick Noland / PO Box 12253 / Berkeley, CA / 94712-5253 USA. Web: www.altgeek.net)

Reviewed by Jeff LeVine

Midnight Creep by Frederick Noland reads so much like an adaptation of an old blues or folk song (of the sort you'd find collected on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music) that I'm still not sure if it isn't. Written in a believable, if slightly creepy, southern black dialect, once again it's the tried and true tale of the man who murders his wife when he finds her cheating on him with another man, then hits the rails, only to learn the past will always catch up with you. There are a few nicely drawn panels, for instance the one with our "hero" puking his guts out, but the majority of the art is merely functional. I felt like Noland leaned too heavily on the close-up, especially considering when he was actually drawing a body in motion the art came somewhat alive, when the bulk of the close-up shots are generally lifeless, and occasionally unintelligible (for instance when the main character is, I guess, beaned on the head with a frying pan). In fact, the best art in the small, slim, 24-page comic can be seen in the last pages when the devil makes his appearance – but unfortunately that's also when the art suddenly turns into an Al Columbia imitation. Taken as the equivalent of a throw-away 7" single, Midnight Creep isn't awful, but hardly seems worth the asking price of $3.00.

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ZINE WORLD #22
edited by Jerianne

($3.00 US / $4.00 CAN / $5.00 elsewhere postpaid from Jerianne / PO Box 330156 / Murfreesboro, TN / 37133-0156 USA. Web: www.undergroundpress.org)

Reviewed by Rick Bradford

With something like 30 pages devoted to reviews, Zine World is probably the best resource available for those interested in the full zine spectrum. Zines of every topic are covered here and, generally speaking, the writers do a good job of letting the reader know what to expect from the items reviewed.

However, the reviews – although there are a lot of them – only make up about half of this issue. There are also informative reports on free speech and censorship stories from around the nation and zinester reactions to the 2004 presidential election. If this issue's cover moves you at all then you'll want to read what's inside. We also get a few pages of reader letters, some news, event reports, classifieds (free for you and me) and other info. Oh, and drawings/cartoons by Sue Clancy, Mike Twohig and Duane Ballenger. Recommended.

[Note: There's also a supplement to this issue that's just been released. It's 10 pages of reviews and yours for a buck.]

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THE CHEERLEADER AND OTHER STORIES
BOXER #1
by Lonnie Allen

($1.00 and $2.99, respectively, from Lonnie Allen or Squid Works)

Reviewed by Mark Campos

These two minis, from 2003 and 2004 respectively, showcase Lonnie's abilities as a writer of powerful, emotional short stories. The first mini features a quiet, grim tale about the fallout from a teen pregnancy, and one about (I assume) the author's childhood brush with racism, and how it left him literally scarred for life. Boxer is less successful, teaming the dramatic title story with two woolly cosmic meditations – like Anteus, Lonnie is strongest when his feet are on the ground. Turn to dAdAgraphics.com to see what he's up to these days.

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PERVERSO!
by Rich Tommaso

($4.95, Alternative Comics. Mature Readers)

Reviewed by Mike Hunter

Rich Tommaso's Perverso! covers the troubles of Roy, a porn photographer. A beautifully cartooned character: slight of build, with receding hairline, slopingly chinless jaw. Oiled-down hair with pencil-thin mustache making him look very "period." (The book's apparently set in the late '40s or early '50s.) And who, for all his fondness for porn, troubled marriage, and the seaminess of his work, still comes across as a nice, sweet-tempered guy.

The same agreeable, even slightly melancholy quality extends to the book itself. There is XXX-plicit imagery within, yet Tommaso's focus on Roy's richly-realized personality and ambiguity about his work, and the plot itself, somehow - for this reader at least - removes any sense of exploitation from the book. The story concerns Roy's being asked to shoot a new model who, though she looks about ten years old, has the paperwork to prove she's 29. After photographing her, Roy narrates, "I left the studio feeling like a child pornographer..." and struggles mightly to resist becoming turned on by little girls. Even this "perverso" has a line he wishes not to cross...

Perverso! has one of Tommaso's characteristic strikingly original front covers, in this case reminiscent of one of those "adult toys" you won't find in the Previews catalog. His art is crisp, blacks well placed, visual storytelling fluid, panels deftly composed. The inside back cover and back feature full-page cartoons, enhanced with wash, in the style of those in old "girlie" magazines.

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JESSICA FARM
by Josh Simmons

($4.00 from Josh Simmons. Also available in the Poopsheet Shop)

Reviewed by Jeff LeVine

Jessica Farm by Josh Simmons is supposed to be the first part of a long, improvised comic drawn at the rate of one page a month. The story focuses on a teenage girl's surreal adventures on Christmas morning. Unfortunately these adventures aren't particularly interesting. She wanders around her house, talking to monkeys, little people living in the walls, showers, hears a concert, climbs to the roof, and climbs back down. The artwork is adequate for telling this tale, but never adds to it - and the comic could definitely use a little something more to pull a reader in. At times I felt like the drawings were overworked - too much ugly cross-hatching for my tastes, and the character design is a bit bland. Considering the fifty-three pages were drawn over a period of over four years, I was surprised by the consistency of the artwork. Usually this would be a good trait in a book, but in this case, I was hoping to see some improvement over the course of the years. That there is so little progress displayed leads me to question if Simmons will ever be capable of creating a comic that could rise above the middling quality displayed in Jessica Farm.

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TOTAL JAZZ
by Blutch

(Seuil. North Americans may want to try The Beguiling.)

Reviewed by Henry Chamberlain

Any discussion of sophisticated urbane comics would have to include the legendary French cartoonist, Blutch. Paul Pope calls him a major influence. As does Craig Thompson. As well as Jessica Abel, who has been inspired by his bold brush work and lead to pare down her work to great effect in La Perdida. For me, as I continue working on my own series, Alice in New York, I find great comfort in the master's latest work, Total Jazz. We both adore the city and are moved to proclaim our deepest love for it. And I feel a kinship with just how he proclaims his love. His style, you could say, is a Jules Feiffer on steroids. A sketchy quality that always delivers a punch – whether thick or thin. He lets me know I should be proud of my sketchy inclinations but I also need to always get it right. And Blutch definitely gets it right.

Total Jazz continues his love letter to the city just, this time around, the focus is on Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and all the other smooth operators who come to life after dark. His homage is as much to a way of life, a way of living, as it is to any particular musician. If you think of any Woody Allen movie, jazz is never just the soundtrack but embodies the soul of the city and all of its dwellers. So too with Blutch. He depicts those that live the jazz life: joyful, melancholic, world-weary, hardened by the city, with a New York edge and a Parisian charm. An edge and charm of a certain vintage – when jazz ruled some forty odd years ago.

Both fan and performer are treated equally by Blutch, almost interchangably, belonging to a special club. As its members age, their appreciation of jazz seems to ripen to perfection. And once reaching death, the jazz greats become jazz gods. It is no use to try to explain how great jazz is to a younger generation. Either they get it or they don't. In one story, Blutch depicts the agony a jazz fan goes through as his music is mocked by his own children. A tear rolls down his face. Jazz was meant for the true believers. In another story, however, an old couple sit down to listen to an old favorite album only to be jarred out of their nostalgic wits.

So, Total Jazz emerged just as I was starting on my second installment of Alice in New York and it has proven a great friend and guide as I write and draw and, in my own way, am influenced by Blutch. He is great because he transcends mere ambition and speaks from the heart. With heart-felt ease, he can make you hear a trumpet shout and a saxaphone cry.

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