We received an early Christmas present here at the clubhouse the other day, a fat stack of indie comics from our friends over at Milk Shadow Books! You might remember them as the publisher of the always gross, always awesome YUCK! Anthology or as the ones responsible for bringing David Degrand’s SWEAT SODA to fruition. So, in the spirit of sharing I figured we’d highlight a few choice favorites:
Lesson Master: Master of Lessons
Writer/Artist: Ben Hutchings
Pages: 44
First up, Ben Hutchings’ LESSON MASTER is a hysterical collection of comic strips that center around the self-appointed “Master of Lessons,” a pint-sized pundit of grammatical correctness and politeness, who uses his superpowers(?) to bring his unique brand of order to the world. That’s not to say he’s “saving” the world by any means. In fact, the Master can be a big douchebag when he wants to be. Is a villain? A hero? I guess that depends on how close you follow his rules.
Strip Show
Writer/Artist: Bruce Mutard
Pages: 142
Another anthology, of sorts, STRIP SHOW collects the work of artist Bruce Mutard. Ranging from high fidelity character studies to straight up sexual parody, Mutard’s art style is just as diverse, recalling underground cartoonists like Clay Wilson and Gilbert Shelton. In perhaps the funniest inclusion, Shit, an apparently (desperately) hungry man drops his Mars bar in the toilet only to fish it out and take a nice, big bite… guess what he really bites into. It’s not chocolate!
It Shines and Shakes and Laughs
Writer/Artist: Tim Molloy
Pages: 110
It Shines and Shakes and Laughs strays from the path of comedy in favor of an entirely different and admittedly addictive experience: silent comics. Like a dusty, Lovecraftian relic you’d find tucked away in some dusty book store crevice (NOT Barnes & Noble), this collection of Tim Molloy’s silent comics opens a series of doorways to unfamiliar dimensions. The only writing in the book are a series of symbols (even the fake ads and annotations are indecipherable!), so Molloy relies heavily on the strength of his art to carry the stories forward… and it works. Helping to keep things entertaining is Impy, some sort of monster whose mischievous mini-comics provides a nice break from the main narrative.
