Jin & Jam and Reich from Sparkplug Comic Books

Hopefully, you are familiar with Sparkplug Comic Books. They are a quality publisher of mini-comics, comics, and books, as well as a must visit table at finer comic conventions.

Months ago, I received a fat package of comics and books including a few comics that fit in well here at SIZE MATTERS. Dylan and the gang publish these in Portland, but they retain that oh so appealing mini-comic factor. At the same time, the materials and design feel kind of luxe and consistent giving off a "publishing house" vibe. The first issue of Jin & Jam by Hellen Jo is a barely contained riot over 36 black and white pages. Sure, Hellen tells a linear story, but her art has a manga-like (think Matsumoto’s Black & White or Blue Spring rather than something cuter like Sgt. Frog) energy that’s impossible to ignore. Movement is hyper and exaggerated at times and the volume of the text expands, threatening to burst out of the straining word balloons. Hellen is having a ton of fun and so is the reader.

The characters are over the top stock characters – the good girl who might not be so good, the bad girl, the sidekick – but Hellen also tosses in the rough and tumble conjoined twins, Ting & Terng to test the story’s protagonists. Roughly a third of the book is an extended fight scene, but even the fight has some lovely interludes. I’ve posted a few images from Jin & Jam to illustrate some quiet moments. Notice the carp floating in the black backgrounds in this first image. I love this page showing the Jin and Jam floating up into sky littered with SAT flash cards after Jin says, “I wanna get out of here! For more information, check out Hellen’s website or Sparkplug Comics. Jin & Jam is $5 plus shipping.

Issues four and five of Reich by Elijah Brubaker continue the story of the young psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich in 1920’s Vienna. Reich reminds me a bit of Chester Brown’s extensively footnoted Louis Riel. Elijah takes his subject seriously, but also isn’t afraid to bend history for a good yarn. Where he does depart from history, he makes sure to let the reader know how and why he diverges.

Reich is visually austere, which serves the storyline and subject very well. Walls are a stark black and the faces rarely smile. However issue four is a little lighter in appearance. Here you see the emotion and changing points of view that mark a reunion of Reich and a friend. Elijah softens the austerity with the shape of his characters; the heads are large and rounded and the noses are exaggerated. Children are more cartoonish and less well developed. On the page below, the young daughter almost looks like a cartoon character in an otherwise reality-based comic. This is a neat touch. Each 24-page issue of Reich is $4 plus shipping and handling. You can get yours through the Sparkplug Comic Books webstore. For more information on Elijah's work, check out his website.

Side note part one: On a visit to Powell's Books in Portland, Kate picked me up a mini-comic and it was a Sparkplug Comic Books mini called Super Crazy Cat Dance by Aron Nels Steinke. It's adorable and fun!

Side note part two: Sparkplug Comic Books will be at MoCCA this weekend. Here's a posting from their website on new books and events.

Folk Issue #2 by Tyler Stafford The second issue of Tyler Stafford's Folk is visually engaging and whimsical. Over 20 pages, Tyler tells two stories on pages of alternating colors. For some reason, the transitions from yellow to green colored pages are the most jarring. Of course it doesn't help that the thread of the story is something that reminds you a bit of a hallucinogenic trip. "The Hunt" is a hunter becomes the hunted story that channels some of Jim Woodring's Frank. Tyler packs these densely landscaped pages with imaginative and otherworldly flora and fauna. The setting in "The Crystal Ship" switches from woodsy and dense to lunar and angular. Tyler doesn't drop as many details in this story, but you still get something like this: Check out the little guy in the mid-to-upper right of the page that has the vacuum tube thingy. Have no idea what's going on there, but I like it.

Folk issue two is on sale at Tyler's Etsy shop for $2.50. You can also see some additional page scans. Also check Tyler's website for more information.

Hot Town and Getting There by Robyn Jordan In Hot Town and Getting There, Robyn Jordan displays two different art styles. Hot Town, subtitled "One More Summer in Sticky NYC," is looser and more quickly rendered than Getting There. Robyn's lines are thicker and darker; she uses very little shading or texturing and spends less time worrying about backgrounds. The stories are little vignettes of live in NYC - showing realtives around, puttering in her community garden, checking out nude beaches.
The 20-page Hot Town is wrapped in a saddle stitched, bright orange cover with the title screen-printed over an overheated, bikini-clad girl, clutching a yard glass full of something tropical.

Getting There features longer stories (two stories sandwiching a one-pager) and a much tighter style of art. Here, Robyn meticulously graces the panels with detailed shading and crosshatching. The backgrounds are more significant, lending depth to the pages. Story one details the characters you see commuing on the subway and story two depicts Robyn's jury duty experience.
Here's a bonus greeting card that Robyn sent in: The inside says, "Hey, thanks for everything."

Find more details at her website, including this page with many images. Looks like you can find Robyn's comics at Desert Island. Contact her at robyn@robynjordan.com.

The Would-Be Bridegrooms by Shawn Cheng Shawn Cheng, of Partyka, has combined the grace and simplicity of a fable with the energy and silliness of a shape-shifting duel. Two would-be bridegrooms approach a girl's house, slowly realizing that they both intend to ask for the hand of their beloved. Once they realize this, the battle is on - the two shape-shifters take turns trying to outmaneuver and overpower the other. Near the end, the two suitors find themselves in a very compromising position. Shawn's comic timing is impeccable during this sequence. The Would-Be Bridegrooms is a 48-page black and white mini-comic wrapped in a threaded spine cover. Get your own copy for $5 at the Partyka online store.

Mini-comics by Gwenaelle
Gwenaelle creates gorgeous penciled minis that both teach and delight. Gwenaelle’s Little Book of Recipes Illustrated Volumes I and II cover “Chicken Marinated in Beer” and “Mavis K. BBQ Steak Houston Style” respectively. Each 16-page issue features ingredient lists and step-by-step instructions accompanied by pencil drawings. “Chicken Marinated in Beer” adds two pages each for setting the table and beverage selections. These would be great for Gourmet or Food and Wine readers. Inventez Des Nouvelles Positions Sexuelles (Invent New Sexual Positions) is a 16-page exercise in capturing ideas about sex and ignoring "your inner cop or censure" when you consider the sexual act. This mini, like the others, is lovingly crafted inside and out. The inside cover folds out and looks like this:
Gwenaelle's mini-comic page has more pictures, like a lot more pictures, to give you an idea of how interesting these little books are. Just click on a title and away you go! She doesn't have any prices listed, but I'm sure if you email her at contact@gounie.com, you can get the scoop on prices. She does have an Etsy shop where you can purchase minis. If you re in the Los Angeles area, you can purchase the minis at Skylight Books, The Secret Headquarters, or Meltdown Comics.

SIZE MATTERS Update and Address Change

Folks, I apologize. I’ve neglected SIZE MATTERS over the last month and a half. The review copies are piling up and I’m feeling very guilty for not posting. Honestly, this has been a pattern for the last year or two – sporadic updates followed by a month or two of nothing. I know that has to be annoying to the few readers who still check in.

I know you just come here for mini-comics, so I won’t bore you with the details of what’s been happening to keep me away from blogging. Life is just like that sometimes.

Kate and I have finally moved to Manhattan and I have to say it’s fantastic to be back on the East Coast. The address for reviews has obviously changed (email me for the new address). Now that I feel like things have calmed down, I’d like to try something a little different to help me get through this box full of mini-comics that deserve your attention.

I will do more frequent reviews, but make the reviews more basic and informational. This will give potential readers what they need to make a decision. I will keep the cover and interior shots up, because I know those help me decide on buying minis, but I’ll talk less about what I like and how the mini works for me.

Posts will follow this format:

Title
Author
Materials and page number
Price
Quick overall thoughts
Where to buy
Pictures!

If I stick to this for most of the minis, I can get more posts on here and put more minis front and center where they belong. Trust me, this review pile is embarrassing…

Magic Everywhere by Eliza Frye Magic Everywhere, by Eliza Frye, is an eight page mini that deftly and silently mixes fantasy with reality. A young girl visiting a tar pits museum chases a snowflake and stumbles upon the skeleton of a mythical creature. Most of the eight pages feature two stacked panels, though page five, which serves as the "chase scene," is a full page panel.

Eliza's art is simple and unadorned. She uses a nice balance of white space and black ink, and only draws what's necessary for the reader to get a sense of what is happening on the page. The cover, however, is a nicely detailed silk screened affair, done in blue and dotted with snowflakes. You can check out more of Eliza's work at her website. You can grab your own copy of Magic Everywhere at Eliza's online shop for $3 including shipping.

Phlegm by Dan Issue eight of Phlegm by Phlegm, or aka Dan no last name, is a dark, densely shaded attack on modern advertising similar to, but much more disturbing than, the subversive and colorful Wacky Packages. To begin with, Dan’s subject matter is more grown up and his characters more purely disquieting.

As I’m flipping through this issue, I stop on the last page featuring “Unicorn Porn.” Apparently, but I haven’t actually checked, at http://www.uniporn.com you can find unicorn porn and other specialist pornography. In the fake advert, a unicornish creature cries, “Hold on to my pink sequin fur and ride my horn to magic land.” Yeah, you never found stuff like that in a package of Wacky Packages. The faces of Dan’s characters are simplistic and eerie. The rounded heads, slitted and tilted eyes, missing nose, and often-misplaced mouth make the characters seem barely human. He strips the ads and the scenes down to the bare, disgusting untruths of advertising. If at times the slogans seem hackish or trite, they reflect the obviousness of the adverts he lampoons.

Dan’s art is very well suited for this messy and dismal subject. He uses heavy swaths of ink and shifting fonts to frame his humanoid characters. The fonts swell, loop, and stretch in each panel as they slink towards the bad pun or hateful finish.
Dan sums up this issue of Phlegm on his website:

“The comic contains my pen and ink illustrations, cartoons, and street art. The work is intense, often surreal and thought provoking, but most of the time it looks like a mad person has been locked in a room for years with no company but a bottle of Indian ink and a scratchy nib….because that's precisely what it is.”

Issue eight of Phlegm is 36 pages with a handsome screen printed (on both sides) cover. You can grab a copy at Dan’s online shop. For more information on his work and some damn nice artwork, check out the Phlegm Blog.

This is What Concerns Me by Susie Cagle In This is What Concerns Me and This is What Concerns Me Presents Remainders, Susie Cagle catalogues the things that bug, perplex, or annoy her. Shopping for vegan safe food, used condoms on the sidewalk, security cameras on the rooftops of her neighborhoods - everything is fair game under Susie’s pen. Over 13 black and white pages, she uses whatever space is necessary to get it out, even devoting 6 pages to the two-part “Security.”

The cover to This is What Concerns Me is my favorite part of this issue. Her body language suggests a real weight, which is also shown by the letters that form the word “me,” and the backpack Susie clutches. Her head is down as well, lending her the picture a seriousness of purpose. Inside, however, it’s fun and games. She pokes fun at herself as much as she pokes fun at others. Susie’s art is light, expressive and perfectly nuanced with shadow and crosshatch. She hits a nice balance of white space and shading in these pages. The 16-page This is What Concerns Me Presents Remainders is a bit more polished. Her line seems more assured and the wide horizontal page gives the words and pictures more breathing room. Three episodes of “Smashing in the Kitchen” give recipes that range from oiled and baked veggies with Susie to killing, gutting, and skinning a moose with Sarah Palin. Her page layout is at its most inventive over these pages.

Also included in this issue is some quick and easy ways to spot an FBI agent at a potluck, drawings of actual foods from a school kitchen in Harrodsburg, VA, and a nice two page spread on how pervasive corn is in our diet (read The Omnivore’s Dilemma to really get freaked out!). Both of these minis are available from Susie’s website for $2 each plus shipping.

Trio of Comics from Secret School Press The horizontally oriented mini One Time, by Adam Beeby, tells a cute story of Adam making a birdhouse, installing it in his backyard, and then quickly deciding to modify his original design. One Time is drawn simply with very little embellishment. Adam draws himself as a gingerbread-like figure with rounded limbs and three holes for his eyes and mouth. This mini is a good example of the quick gag format used so effectively by a lot of artists. Adam doesn’t try to hard. He picks a short memory or story and gives it a simple, but effective design. He uses the last page for the gag and delivers a solid $1 mini-comic.

The Confession of a Most Intimate Memory by W. Roger Stroud is an eight page meditation on a terminally broken relationship. The narrator shares a secret of how he cruelly tested a woman he may or may not have loved. He deliberately lied to the woman to test her honesty. He was looking for the moment when she called “Bullshit,” but instead found nothing but destruction. Over drawings of landscapes or empty rooms, the prose of The Confession floats neatly in carefully lined text boxes. A separate set of single words, strung together to form the central theme of the comic, nests within each of the first several pages. The lines of the images are photo-realistic and stiff, creating an inflexible air to the words that pile up to create this gloomy memory.

Rule of One-Way, also by W. Roger Stroud, is an eight page mini-comic, slightly larger in format than The Confession. In Confession, neatly lined backgrounds filled the pages; in Rule of One-Way the carefully constructed backgrounds are replaced instead by figures of people in a train station. The characters are drawn almost as rigidly as the backgrounds; they seem frozen in time rather than fluid. The story itself is quick, brutal, and marked by tragedy. There isn’t much room for things to develop, but it works very well in an eight page format.

Contact Adam, the founding member of Secret School Press, to see about purchasing SSP minis. One Time and The Confession of a Most Intimate Memory are each $1 and Rule of One-Way is $2.