Just Read - Baltic Comic Magazine #12 (š! #12) by Kuš!

I had originally ordered š! #12 because if featured a cover (and interiors) by Michael DeForge. When I received this little treasure in the mail I was shocked. Baltic Comic Magazine #12 (š! #12) is published by Kuš! Komikss and is 180 pages of comics magic. When I said I was shocked earlier, I meant it. I guess I didn’t read the book’s format information right and was shocked to find that it was so small (4” x 6”). Originally, I have to say that I felt a little ripped off, but after flipping through the book, it's size grew on me and I actually was amazed that all these pages of colored comics only cost me $13. Plus shipping (from over seas) was included (I have had America publishers charge up to $10 for shipping within the states.)

I wish I could say that I loved every page of š! #12 but most of the foreign strips were a little hard for me to understand, even though they were in English (I probably just need to read more of them.) However the drawings were beautiful from page 1 to 180. Some of my favorite strips were: Jane Mai’s (USA) Fortune Telling, about to girls and their adventures in a garbage dump. Chris Kuzma’s (Canada) Life Drawing, where the class appear to be drawing a large nude lady that has a little problem (don’t wanna spoil the ending). Michael DeForge’s (Canada) Leather Space Friend, about a girl and her leather space friend. Dustin Harbin's (USA) Future Medicine, a sneak peek at what a doctor’s visit might look like in the future. And John Martz’ (Canada) Ok? Y/N, about robots and their after life. As you can see they are all from North American.

I really enjoyed the book from cover to cover and found my wanting to see more (maybe ever larger versions) of many of the foreign creator’s works. Irkus M. Zeberio (Basque Country), AnjaWicki (Switzerland) and Oskars Pavlovskis (Latvia) are some of the ones that I found most appealing from an art stand point.

Baltic Comic Magazine #12 (š! #12) is published by Kuš! Komikss in Latvia and is a fine looking publication. If you enjoy alternative comics that are expressive and avant-garde than this book is for you. I plan on checking out more of Kuš! Komikss’ publications in the future. 

PS. All the links are so that I can go back and check out some of this great art, when I have more time. Hoping to educate and familiarize myself with their storytelling styles.

-Denny Riccelli creates comics under the pen name ‘dennmann’ he currently publishes the webcomic Cousin Harold and some mini-comics now and then, including Jenny Spookawski Ghost Girl. He lives in Peoria, Arizona with his wife and 2 kids.

Just Read - Get Into Comix by Brad Dwyer

Full Disclosure - I have known Brad Dwyer since coming back to creating comics in 2008. We met at a parking lot underground zine fest, where I had bogarted half of my pal Eric Mengel’s table to give out free copies of my Get That Chicken mini-comic. Brad came over and was nice enough to trade his way more polished and professional looking Epic Tales of the Mundane mini for a copy of mine. Since then we have been good friends within the awesome Arizona comic community. Now on with the review.

Following Brad Dwyer on Twitter and Facebook this year, I watched as he tweeted and posted about the upcoming release of his 74-page digest sized Get Into Comix book. I have been a big fan of Dwyer’s work since meeting him several years ago and always look forward to reading new books by him. However I was a little more excited about this book than others. I mean he kept talking about how huge it was going to be a sharing sneak peeks of pages and panels he was working on. I could not wait until I had the finished product in my grubby little hands. 

Get Into Comix is about Brad Dwyer’s journey from a kid to comic creator and all the bumps in between. The story follows Dwyer through the low points of his life (adolescents to early 20’s) and the self destructive behavior’s that began to eat away at his life until he finds comics, more precisely mini-comics. While the story wallows in the frustrations of growing up, it does not feel hopeless. Although knowing Dwyer now, it is hard to imagine some of these things actually happening to him, but they did. He swears that it’s all true.

Brad Dwyer’s comics are reminiscent of the golden age of the underground. His art style is rough but refined and he seems to be able to draw anything and everything,  He writes autobiographical comics that are easy to read and very accessible. His storytelling flows smoothly from one panel to another. It’s as if Dwyer was made to make autobiographical comics and his life story seems to agree.

Earlier I mentioned how excited I was about this book prior to it's release and I can now say after having read it, I was not let down. Dwyer's work is like a special treat to me. 

If you are a fan of autobiographical comics, then Get Into Comix is for you. Also pop on over to his Epic Tales of the Mundane site and read a huge sampling of Brad Dwyer’s other works, you will not regret it.

Update: Just found out that Brad Dwyer is currently doing a new comic, check out Ape-Men of the Apocalypse.

-Denny Riccelli creates comics under the pen name ‘dennmann’ he currently publishes the webcomic Cousin Harold and some mini-comics now and then, including Jenny Spookawski Ghost Girl. He lives in Peoria, Arizona with his wife and 2 kids.

Just Read - Savage Dragon #190 by Erik Larsen

This week I would like to talk a little about Erik Larsen and his series Savage Dragon published by Image Comics. Some might only think of Larsen as the guy who jumped ship from Marvel Comics (with six other creators) in the early 90’s to form Image Comics. But I gotta tell you, there is much more to Erik Larsen than meets the eye. I have been following Larsen on Twitter for a year plus now and daily this man talks about comics in the way that we all dream comics are, fun & exciting, full of beautiful art & fantastic storytelling. Erik Larsen loves comics and it shows.

Recently Larsen published Savage Dragon #190. What makes this issue so special, well Larsen not only published it in the standard comic sized edit, but he also published it in a digest sized version. And the digest size does not just contain the same pages shrunk down to an almost unreadable size, but Larsen took the time and care to design each page in the standard edition so that the panels could be reproduced at the same size in the digest sized edition, just in a slightly different arrangement (see an example below). Oh and by the way, Savage Dragon #190 is also a great read, with some really cool art.

normal book page

digest book version of same page

This is not the first time that Larsen has done experiments with the format of his books or story. In Savage Dragon #144 he designed a 121 panel story where each panel symbolizes a day in the life of the main character. In issue #187 he did some experimenting with color. Instead of doing the current realistic coloring style he used a more traditional flat color style. He also told the story from the bad guys point of view. And if that was not enough he used a traditional 6 panel grid to challenge his story telling abilities. There are many other issues that Larsen has set other restrictions on his storytelling. This guy is always up to challenge himself to improve, or just try something fun in his comics.

Erik Larsen had become one of my idols in recent years. His thoughts about comics, read through his Twitter feed, are a daily joy for me. His experiments with the comic format, both in storytelling and production is inspiring. But most of all you can tell that this guy is having a great time creating comics and could not be happier working on his own character Savage Dragon, which he has for the last 20 plus years and over 190 issues. If you haven’t checked in on Savage Dragon lately, issue 190 would be a great place to step in and see what is happening.

-Denny Riccelli creates comics under the pen name ‘dennmann’ he currently publishes the webcomic Cousin Harold and some mini-comics now and then, including Jenny Spookawski Ghost Girl. He lives in Peoria, Arizona with his wife and 2 kids.