Quick Top Shelf Reviews

Quick reviews of three floppy/pamphlet comics from the latest box of Top shelf review copies:

Please Release
by Nate Powell
Top Shelf, $5.00

A collection of four short autobiographical stories. The two that are most interesting concern Powell's day job working with developmentally disabled adults. Powell is a talented artist and his sense of design and layout is strong enough to make these potentially navel-gazing and text-heavy stories into works that are visually interesting to look at.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



Feeble Attempts
by Jeffrey Brown
Top Shelf, $5.00

Speaking of navel-gazing, here's a collection of short comics by one of comics' prime practitioners. Unfortunately Brown's chosen style for his autobiographical stories isn't all that interesting, and if you've read one Jeffrey Brown story about how he can't relate to his girlfriend(s) you've pretty much read them all. On the occasions when Brown breaks out of his usual mode and provides us with a super-hero parody or religious commentary the stories become interesting, but they're too few and far-between in this collection.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Superf*ckers Issue 279
by James Kochalka
Top Shelf, $5.00

I know that there are Kochalka fans out there who love this comic, but I really don't get it. A bunch of vignettes about twenty-something super-heroes with foul mouthes making potty and sex jokes. It's kind of like ''The Boys'' without a plot, humor, good art, or anything else worthwhile. Which maybe is the point of the comic, but it's a point I can do without.

Rating: 1.5 (of 5)



Review copies of the above comics were provided by the publisher.

Review: Lone Racer

Lone Racer
by Nicolas Mahler
Top Shelf, $12.95

The titular Lone Racer in Austian cartoonist Nicolas Mahler's graphic novella is on the verge of being washed up. Facing the prospect of never winning annother race, he hangs out at the local watering hole with his best friend rubber and visits his chronically ill wife in the hospital. In the first chapter LR considers joining his mechanic on a bank heist. In chapter two he considers an affair with a damaged though recovering divorcee. And in the third and final chapter he attempts a comeback.

At first glace Mahler's artwork appears crude, as though drawn by a third-grader. But it's deceptively so; the pacing, structure and layouts are impeccable, and the childlike simplicity of the overt style belies the adult concerns of the narrative.

At just under 100 pages Lone Racer is a quick read, but a satisfying one that will stay with the reader.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

A review copy of Lone Racer was provided by the publisher.

New This Week: April 11, 2007

Based on the NCRL, here are some comics you may want to look at picking up at your friendly local comic shop tomorrow:


The Pick of the Week is Morrison & Quitely's All Star Superman #7, the best Superman comic in many years, even if it only shows up quarterly-ish. And if by some chance you've neglected to read the first six issues, you can pick up a handsome hardcover collection at the same time.


In other comics:


Antarctic have the final issue of Pirates vs. Ninjas (#4).

Boom! premiere both Mr. Stuffins and Two Guns.

Dark Horse have the second issue of BPRD: Garden of Souls.

DC have a collection of Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre (Cliff Chiang art!) and a fifth volume of Sandman Mystery Theatre; plus new issues of 52 (week 49), Fables (#60), and Stormwatch PHD (#6).

Don't Eat Any Bugs have the second volume of Ray Friesen's Lookit, Yarg and Other Stories. It has penguins. And pirates. (preview here)

Drawn & Quarterly have a new issue of Optic Nerve (#11).

Fantagraphcs have the 1963–1964 volume of The Complete Peanuts.

First Second have the Garage Band GN, the third volume of Sardine in Outer Space, and a hardcover of The Professor's Daughter.

Image have new issues of Fell (#8) and The Nightly News (#5); and a collection of Ferro City.

Marvel have new issues of Blade (#8), newuniversal (#5), and She-Hulk 2 (#17).

Renaisance Press have a new issue of Amelia Rules (#17).

TokyoPop have many volumes, including the debut of Dark Goodbye and the 16th volume of Fruits Basket.

Viz have even more volumes, including the 19th and final volume of Banana Fish and new volumes of Dr. Slump (vol. 12), Death Note (vol. 11) and Inu Yasha (vol. 29).



Between Amelia Rules, Optic Nerve and All Star Superman coming out this week, it's like a portent or something. Can this mean that Ultimates 2 or All-Star Batman and Robin aren't far behind?

New Library Comics: Week of April 2, 2007

Here's a list of the comics we added to our library collection last week:


24 Hour Comics Day highlights 2005. /Thousand Oaks, Calif. : About Comics, c2005

Baumann, Suzanne. You, only you /Hamtramck, MI : Suzanne Baumann, c2002.

Chippendale, Brian Ninja. /Corte Madera, CA : Gingko Press, 2007.

Grand hotel. /Milano : Edizioni Del Duca vol. 60 no. 40

Heatley, David. Deadpan. /[S.l.] : David Heatley, c2002- no. 1

Honey talks : comics inspired by painted beehive panels. /Slovenia : Forum Ljubljana, c2006.

Marina (Rome, Italy) Marina. /Roma : Lancio vol. 3 no. 19

Mineshaft. /Brattleboro, VT : Mineshaft, c1999- no. 16

Neal, Nate. The sanctuary. /Grand Rapids, MI : OM Comics, c2006- nos. 1-2

Twisted sisters comics. /Northampton, MA : Kitchen Sink Press, c1994- no. 1

Watasin, Elizabeth. Charm school. /San Jose, CA : SLG Publishing, c2002- vol. 1

Wheatley, Mark. Radical dreamer. /London, Great Britain : Blackball Comics, c1994- no. 0

Unofficial Top Shelf Week

This will be an unofficial Top Shelf Week here at YACB. Because:

A) On Friday I received a large package of review copies from Top Shelf. I reviewed one (Tales from the Farm) earlier today, and hopefully will get to at least a couple of the other books before the week is out.

B) This is Top Shelf's Tenth Anniversary, which you can read about over at CBR.

C) In conjunction with their 10th anniversary, Top Shelf is having a rather sizable sale, with many cool books at just $3 or $1, and discounts on many of their other books as well. I can highly recommend 2 Sisters ($10), and recommend Big Clay Pot ($3) and The King ($3) if you're pondering what to buy, and there's plenty of other good books at cheap prices as well.

Review: Tales from the Farm

Essex County, vol. 1: Tales from the Farm
by Jeff Lemire
Top Shelf, $9.95

Tales from the Farm, the first volume in Jeff Lemire's proposed Essex County Trilogy, is an impressive, heartbreaking work.

Ten-year-old Lester, recently orphaned, has been sent to live on his uncle's farm in Southwestern Ontario. Lester is one of those sensitive boys who doesn't really fit in anywhere. He likes to read comics and dress up in a mask and cape. Uncle Ken doesn't know what to do with Lester--he only took the boy in because of a deathbed promise to his sister.

Lester strikes up an unusual friendship with Jimmy, the cashier at the gas station convenience store where Lester buys his comics. Jimmy was once a player in the NHL, but a vicious check ended his career and left him not quite right in the head.

Tales from the Farm has a timeless quality about it. The feeling in the story is of one that happened some time ago (the only hint we have is that Lester remarks that comics cost more than a dollar), but it really could be any time.

Lemire's art fits the mood and style of the story perfectly. It reminds me of characters by Ted McKeever living in a landscape drawn by Danijel Zezelj. It's all heavy on inks and appropriate dreary, though the flashback scenes are done in a watered style and there's a five-page section in the middle meant to be a comic that Lester has drawn, taken from a comic that Lemire actually did when he was nine-years-old.

Toss in a strange and ambiguous ending and you get a very satisfying comic experience. I won't be surprised to find Tales from the Farm on several lists of the year's best (including my own).

Rating: 4 (of 5).

A review copy of Tales from the Farm was provided by the publisher.

Video Review: Fall of Cthulhu #0-1

Trying something new here on YACB: a video review! Using the iSight camera on my iMac and the direct to YouTube video capture. So now you can hear and see how big of a dork I am:



That's Fall of Cthulhu #0-1 by Michael Alan Nelson & Jean Dzialowski, published by Boom! Studios at $3.99 ea.

Don't know if I'll do this again; the YouTube quality for showing off the images of the comics doesn't work too well. But it was an interesting experiment.