News Bulletins

I brought a pile of comics back from Cyber Caption. I haven't read them all yet. These are just some of them.

I don't know who Jim McGee is, but I was attracted to his two fluorescent covered (and cheap) comic books on the Caption comic sales table. It's true - cheapness is a good selling point. And so are brightly coloured covers. From my point of view. And then I spotted an anthology he edits. With a glossy multi-coloured cover. I bet Jim thinks colours are neato.

Bad Attitude Boy (and other losers)
Creator: Jim McGee, 2002

Straight away, the cover suggests that the contents are likely to be rude and offensive - a great attention getting device. Sure enough, the first page of panels follows up with mindless violence and plenty of swearing. Additional characters, associated with the main man Bad Attitude Boy, are called things like Turd Boy and Bad-Ass Smokin' Rhino. The strips are a bit like what some kid with misdirected talents might draw in the margins of a school exercise book in a boring class. Um. I kind of liked it.

RSI
Creator: Jim McGee, 2003

RSI is actually lots better that Bad Attitude Boy. I think Jim McGee is paying a little more attention to what his reader might like here. I like the various boggled and stunned and puzzled looking eyes. His use of characters such as Hyper Comic Rabbit and Determined Dog show a perceptive insight into human mood and emotion. I'm sure at times we've all felt a little like either Hyper Comic Rabbit or Determined Dog. In a later strip a downtrodden youth, oppressed by market forces, is rescued from a dire fate by superhero Johnny Peely. Tragedy strikes close friends Bar Fly, Pattern Face and Skippy De Acorn when Pattern Face accepts a cigarette. This comic really made me think.

Squared Eyed Stories #15
Editor: Jim McGee, August 2002

Squared Eyed Stories contains work by Jim, Laura, Dave and Arthur. They each produce their own comics independently and can be reached through their collective website.

First up is yet more Bad Attitude Boy, but much nicer to look at in terms of the production now. I liked the chequerboard panel arrangement in the first strip. I develop an appreciation for the potential of the character of Bad-Ass Smokin' Rhino, who takes on the role of narrator.

Next are a couple of strips by Arthur Goodman . The first one featuring guys in baggy tops and trousers and chicks in ultra tight t-shirts and jeans simultaneously addressing a furniture shortage and saving the planet. The second one, called My Japanese Girlfriend, I found fabulously funny and I liked the drawing style too. Classily iconic.

Next comes some furry stuff which, unfortunately, I'm allergic to. But it certainly seems to look well implemented.

My favourite bits, aside from groovy Japanese Girlfriend (where can I get one?), would have to be Annual Eating Stupid Things Contest - classic juvenile laughs for the terminally childish by someone called John Bishop who wasn't mentioned previously, and Giddy the Goat Boy - more ridiculousness from Jim M. Got to love that ridiculousness.

In a Word: Various.

If you have a comment or question about Small Press then feel free to contact me