Satisfactory Comics #8

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Satisfactory Comics
Issue: #8
Publisher: Satisfactory Comics
Writer: Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe
Artist: Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe

Satisfactory Comics can always be counted on for some stretching of the boundaries of what constitutes a comic. This issue is particularly interesting: The format is a bundle of ten postcards that function as the pages of the comic story.

The story itself is a fantasy tale of a wizard's apprentice who is sent to get a map drawn by a blind mapmaker who lurks in the town's market.

The story has a bunch of twists and turns, and an impressive amount of worldbuilding crammed into a relative tiny space.

The artwork on each postcard is made with a set of constraints provided by an artist/blogger credited on the back of the card.

The creators are clearly having a lot of fun with this, and I had a lot of fun reading it too. My only suggestion would be that numbering of the postcards would have been helpful in case they got out of order.

Rating: 8/10

Satisfactory Comics #7

Title: Satisfactory Comics
Issue: #7
Date: May 2007
Publisher: Satisfactory Comics
Writer: Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe
Artist: Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe

Seventeen stories make up this 32-page minicomic, and most of them were created in a 30-hour span (with a break for an Elvis Costello concert!). They are also mostly based on "seed" sentences submitted to the creators.

There are a lot of quirky stories here with twist endings, and some pretty funny humor pieces, as well as some comics that truly qualify as experimental.

Among my favorites were "Commuted Sentences", which illustrated altered versions of famous opening lines from literature, and "The Graveyard of Forking Paths", which featured 40 panels in an 8X5 grid with diverging pathways of stories that arrived at multiple endings.

Also in this volume, you'll find a charming tale of the friendship between a girl and a garden ghost, the story of a minor protocol demon, a genetically-engineered kelp harvester seeking inner peace, and a story about necrotizing fasciitis in rhyming verse.

Let me repeat that: This comic has a story about necrotizing fasciitis in rhyming verse. That alone is worth the cover price!

I was also really impressed by one of the more serious pieces here, a mountain climbing parable called The Ascent.

Some of the stories do end a bit abruptly, as might be expected given the constraints the creators put on their work, but this book still delivers a very satisfying collection of quirky vignettes that will definitely make the reader think.

Rating: 8/10

Satisfactory Comics #4

Title: Satisfactory Comics
Issue: #4
Date: 2003
Publisher: Satisfactory Comics
Writer: Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe
Penciler: Mike Wenthe
Inker: Isaac Cates
Letterer: Isaac Cates

After being scolded for stinking up the house with various smelly concoctions, Sam decides to run away from home and seek out some friends who might share his interest in stinky pranks.

He soon meets up with a talking possum and skunk (the skunk is especially verbose) who share a meal, but when they part ways, Sam stumbles upon an invasion force of ogres.

It's up to his animal friends to take Sam to the only group that has a chance of stopping the ogres: The Parliament of Owls!

This is a really enjoyable folktale-epic with some great detail work in the art. The two-page center spread panel is just awesome.

It was also put together using nouns and noun phrases suggested by readers. The suggestions are listed and illustrated on the back cover. Bonus feature on the inside front cover is a cute Twinkie advertisement parody.

The dialogue is wordy (intentionally so), and the small size isn't always perfect for reproducing the level of detail of the artwork, but this is a great story with plenty of laughs and some good serious moments too.

Rating: 8/10

Make Me A Bat

Title: Make Me A Bat
Date: 2010
Publisher: Satisfactory Comics
Writer: Isaac Cates
Artist: Isaac Cates

This is a Halloween micro-mini (1/8 size) that was part of a package of comics that Isaac Cates of Satisfactory Comics sent me for review.

A young boy has a seemingly simple request for his Halloween costume, but the unseen parent can't seem to get it right. This has a nice children's picture book rhythm to it and the illustrations are amusing. There's also a great little geeky in-joke on the back cover.

Very cute and fun book.

Rating: 7/10

A Treatise Upon The Jam...

Title: A Treatise Upon The Jam; Being A Dialogue in the Socratic Style Between the Authors of an Unnam'd Interlocutor; Concerning Collaborative Approaches To Art, In Pictorial Narrative & Otherwise
Date: 2004
Publisher:Isaac Cates (isaac.cates@aya.yale.edu) & Mike Wenthe (michael.wenthe@yale.edu)
Writer: Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe
Artist: Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe

Yes, that really is the title.

This is a dialogue, in comic form, about the nature of collaboration in comic book creation. They also discuss the difference between true collaboration and the "assembly-line" process used in the "bullpens" of major comic book publishers. The conversation touches on the concept of comic jams and the serialization of comic stories. There are comparisons to theater and poetry, and finally an examination of the nature of art itself. Quite a bit of territory for a tiny minicomic.

The art is charming. As the three characters have their discussions, the artists have provided a constantly shifting series of backgrounds that thematically reflect the topics of conversation.

This is a quick read, but it's a good quality discussion, and one that I'd recommend to anyone who does collaborative work on any kind of creative process.

Rating: 8/10

This is the fifth review of a small stack of indy comics I picked up on Saturday at Million Year Picnic in Cambridge MA.