(Continuing my look at the minis I’ve been reading from this summer’s comics events. Earlier installment(s): Part I, Part II, part III)

Too Far – Anthology

Daily Catch – Anthology

I make a point at every SPX to pick up a few anthologies from Center for Cartoon Studies folks and this year the two I wound up with were Too Far and Daily Catch. Daily Catch is a nautical/water-themed anthology featuring four cartoonists. I was already familiar with the work of Jon Chad and Colleen Frakes, the first two cartoonists in the book. The later two, though, were new to me: Katherine Roy and Laura Terry. Roy’s strip (sample below) is a whimsical story in which to animals (early mammals I guess, given the title of the strip: “Eocene”) discuss whether they believe in evolution. Laura Terry’s strip, the last in the book, shows an accomplished crisp cartooning style and features a fantastic final panel of a “shark with other smaller shark for teeth.” Nice.

Too Far seems to be focused folks from the first few classes from CSS rather than current students/recent grads. As such, I knew most of these folks already.  You can’t go wrong with this lineup, though: James Hindle, Alexis Frederick-Frost, JP Coovert, José Luis Olivares, Dane Martin, Joseph Lambert, and Alex Kim. James Hindle’s beautifully-drawn lead strip is an immediate standout. Also really noteworthy is Alexis Frederick-Frost’s hilarious story about a (supposed) trend among female courtesans for wearing live birds in their hair. Alexis has totally switched up his style here and appears to be working totally in dip pen now rather than brush. The final story by Alex Kim, whose work I didn’t know until now, was another of my favorites (sample below) .

Too Far can be purchased here.

As far as I can tell, Daily Catch was only available at SPX.

Bikeman – Jon Chad

The Bad-ventures of Bobo Backslap – Jon Chad

You’d think I’d have known of Jon Chad’s work before now–we both went to SCAD, we’ve both had some association with The Center for Cartoon studies–but, alas, these two books are my first exposure to his work. If you’re bothered by the sight of someone throwing up over and over again, then I unfortunately cannot recommend Chad’s Bobo Backslap to you. If this year’s Eisner judges choose to add a Comic With The Most Barf award, this one is a surefire winner. Poor Bobo consumes a 5 gallon container of alphabet soup and then spends the rest of the comic yacking up unfortunate dialog “written” in the regurgitated alphabet pasta. It’s pretty funny and beautifully (?) drawn.

Bikeman‘s a fantasy story with an odd premise: in its world, bikes are living things that are “herded” like animals.  The main characters here need a new bike are on a quest to find Bikeman, who is known to have the finest herd of bikes around.  I have to admit, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around this one mainly, I think, because bicycles are so inorganic in appearance that it was difficult for me to buy the premise here just on visual grounds. There’s no doubt, though, that the cartooning here is gorgeous:

Both Bikeman and BoBo Backslap can be purchased here.

Mermin #1 – Joey Weiser

Joey was also at SCAD when I was there, but I’ve gotten to know him mainly through his work after we’d both left school. His early minis were always whimsical; some of my favorites are his superhero parodies and his mini that’s just a categorical listing of facial hair types. With his post-Flight output though,  he seems to be moving pretty squarely into the all-ages arena and Mermin is his most recent venture in that direction.  So far, it’s a fun story about a kid who finds a little fish creature/boy who winds up moving in him, going to school with him. Joey’s got great storytelling chops and some nice, lush line-work.

Issues of Mermin are available here.

Untitled (Dinosaur) – Joe Lambert

I’d meant to include this a few posts back with the other Joe Lambert comics, but I guess it got lost in the shuffle. Untitled (Dinosaur) is a great-looking book. It’s full-color throughout and big: 8 x 10 in. The story is one that appeared a few years back in the Wide Awake Press FCBD book, Piltdown. You can read Joe’s story (and a lot of others as well) online at that link.

Untitled (Dinosaur) is available here.

I’m really bad at caricatures, but I do them anyway. That’s how you get better, right? (In theory, anyway..) This is an odd subject, but it was the only thing I found interesting leafing through the most recent TIME magazine recently: author/inventor/futurist Ray Kurzweil. Here’s the drawing (with some sloppy Photoshop color) and a picture of the subject: