SIZE MATTERS: The Mini-Comics Blog

Tune In and Sandpaper #1 from ThinkTankRx


I’m always excited to get my hands on an issue of World War 3 Illustrated, now published by Top Shelf. WW3 has gutsy political comics and still has a bit of the energy of Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper.

These two Thinktank RX comics sort of remind me of WW3, but they’re frankly too flawed to enjoy fully. The grammar is occasionally error-riddled to the point where you start to question if it was on purpose. For instance JTW uses “they’re” when it should be “their.” This happens seven times in one story. You’ll find other typos and problems as well; “was was” and “beleive” the most bothersome. It gets a little problematic the more times you notice, and the errors start to get in the way of any story.

Most of the pieces are political in nature. If you’re fed up with the current administration and the direction our country is headed, you won’t find much to disagree with here. If you subscribe to the Rush Limbaugh newsletter though, you might want to give Thinktank a pass. A few of the pieces were sound, and I enjoyed some of the one pagers - anyone that blows Wolverine’s head off gets a high five from me. Additionally, I liked the messages most of the time. When JTW worked on longer stories, however, they ultimately fell flat.

The art in both of these “mini-comic magazines” is very unpolished, which isn’t necessarily a problem itself. But, like the grammar, it presents a problem for me as a reader. It’s rough and unfinished, and a few pin-ups are just poorly drawn. Maybe JTW is just goofing on these pin-ups, but they resemble other character sketches that you’ll encounter in other stories.

Thinktank RX has a website where you can check out the “comixzines” and some online comics. It will probably give you a better idea of how the art strikes you. I give JTW props for speaking his mind and tackling some of these important topics, but I wish he would have taken some more care in the execution.

Tune In and Sandpaper #1 are both 48 black and white pages under shiny color covers. They'll each run you $2.75. JTW has previews of both on the website.