You Ruined Everything
Reviewed by Richard Krauss
By Greg Means
Tugboat Press, 2008
28 b&w pages, including the self-cover
Letter-size digest, saddle-stitch binding
Tugboat Press: http://www.tugboatpress.com/
LiveJournal: http://tugboatcity.livejournal.com/
Here's a fun mini comic based on the popular 100 Theme online art challenge you can find in a couple of different places on the web. It's simply a list of 100 prompts to provide a starting point for artists to take off from. For example, the first few are: Introduction, Love, Light, Dark, Seeking Solace, and it goes on from there. Means even lists them all inside the front cover of this zine.
He chooses to use them to generate gag cartoons featuring the same man and woman throughout his work. Means is the editor of the outstanding Papercutter comic anthology which recently won the Ignatz award for its seventh issue.
His cartoons are loose and sketchy, and absolutely engaging. It sometimes amazes me how he can get so much character and motion out of just a few lines. The gags are very funny with a few that are hilarious. They originally appeared on the Tugboat Press LiveJournal blog, which is a good place to read more of his cartoons.
I bought this from Means at the last Zine Symposium in Portland. I don't see it listed on the Tugboat Press website, but I'm sure if you send him an email, you can still get a copy.
Rating the Issue
Story: Overall 9 Art: Overall 10 |
Storytelling: 10 Importance: Overall 8 |
Taking A Look Inside
Reviewer Bio
R. Krauss reviews small press and mini comics for Comic Related, Midnight Fiction [http://www.midnightfiction.com] and Poopsheet Foundation [http://www.poopsheetfoundation.com].
Name: Richard Krauss
email: arkay@midnightfiction.com
Been reading comics: since I started reading Marvel comics in Junior High School.
Review Bio: After several years I discovered titles like Zap and Bijou at a headshop and was seduced by the freedom and variety they offered. When the new-wave comix era sprouted from the seeds of the undergrounds, I quickly joined the ranks of other struggling cartoonists with phenomenally low print runs. After almost a decade of small press comix, I retired and made a solemn vow never to return. Several years later the Internet happened and over time many of my favorite new-wave cartoonists got online. The bug bit again and I started exploring the new crop of small press cartoonists. Today's explosion of small press comics is more exciting than any time I've ever seen.
Favorites: Papercutter, Not My Small Diary, Slam Bang, Comic Eye, stuff from Main Enterprises and Weird Muse, to name a few.
Website: MidnightFiction.com
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