Kramers Ergot #3

Posted: Tuesday, July 2, 2002
By: Darren Schroeder

Creator(s): Lots
Publishers: Avodah Books
From: USA
Price: $8.95 (US)

This is small press grown big, with 128 pages of quirky, strange and funny work by 15 different creators. As such, it's a rather mixed bag, with strips that make no sense at all to short and funny one page gag cartoons. The common theme? Experimentation.

Some of the contributors made a larger impression on me than others; Neil Fitzpatrick's Neil Jam has a very simple but bold art style, and follows a character as tries to extract himself from a boring conversation with his wife/girlfriend and has to deal with the aggressive behaviour of the local bully. It's funny and surreal.

Hans Rickheit contributes a very strange series of strips that follow a dog man's wandering through a strange city environment, interacting with strange deformed creatures and experiencing harrowing halucinations...or are they? Regular visitors to this site will know Mat Tait's work, and in this collection we get to see Some of my life So Far, in all its autobiographical awkwardness and well crafted artwork.

I must also make mention of Anders Nilson's Birds cartoons, which are some seriously drolll humour and physical comedy well worth checking out. Some hits here and some that went right over my head, but it's nice to see such substantial collection of material get a quality presentation.

In a Word: Bulky.



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