Booty #21

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Booty
Issue: #21
Publisher: My Monster Hat
Distributor: Trees & Hills, Microcosm Publishing
Writer:Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Anne Thalheimer

Anne Thalheimer's autobiographical minicomic. This issue covers April 2007 to June 2008, including three different jobs, some interesting side hustles and a "bizarre boy year". Plus a move to a now house, some discussion of motherhood, plenty of Radiohead lyrics, and an excellent overview of the basics of roller derby. The book ends with a "100 random facts" page that was impressive, although I definitely needed the reading glasses for it.

Anne's work is always heartfelt and introspective, and quirky enough to keep it fun.

Rating: 7/10

Midnight Snack

Title: Midnight Snack
Date: 2012
Publisher: Trees And Hills
Writer: Colin Tedford
Artist: Colin Tedford

When a kid brings home an unusual Halloween treat from the "creepy house up the street", it's up to Mom to fight a midnight battle against an evil snack food.

Clever and funny. This micro-minicomic is a great example of telling a good story in a minimum of space and page count.

Rating: 8/10

Booty #26

Picked this up from Trees & Hills at MICE this past fall. Read it on the Red Line train into Arisia tonight.

Title: Booty
Issue: #26
Publisher: My Monster Hat
Distributor: Trees & Hills, Microcosm Publishing
Writer:Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Anne Thalheimer

Anne Thalheimer can always be counted on for some really fun geeky autobiographical comics, a subgenre which is a personal favorite of mine.

The latest issue of her Booty series focuses on the loss of her 9-5 job, and her subsequent decision to devote her time to her monster hat making business, and to substitute teaching, tutoring, and a summer teaching opportunity at Yale to help with the bills.

There is a lot of emotion poured into these pages, and a lot of humor and fun as well. The scene featuring the Internal Monster Council of Doubt was particularly good.

This was a welcome addition to an excellent series.

Rating: 8/10

Trees And Hills Anthology #10: Woods

Another comic I picked up at the Spring Zine Thing last Sunday in Somerville. I am currently going through a bunch of comics from recent shows (Spring Zine Thing, South Attleboro Collectibles Show, and Anime Boston). More show finds ahead too, and I'll be at four more shows in the coming weeks (Boston Comic Con, South Coast Comic And Toy Show, Rochester NH Free Comic Book Day Festival, and Maine Comic Arts Festival).

Title: Trees And Hills Anthology #10: Woods
Date: 2012
Publisher: Trees And Hills
Writer: Colin Tedford, Marlene O'Connor, Rio Aubrey Taylor, Bill Tulp, Sarah Margaret Frye, Elizabeth Neronski, Colleen Frakes, Matt Levin, Liam Gyori, Madsahara, Carl Mefferd, Glynnis Fawkes, Jay Goldspinner, Marek Bennett, Mike Lynch, Daniel Barlow, Randall Drew, Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Colin Tedford, Marlene O'Connor, Rio Aubrey Taylor, Bill Tulp, Sarah Margaret Frye, Elizabeth Neronski, Colleen Frakes, Matt Levin, Liam Gyori, Madsahara, Carl Mefferd, Glynnis Fawkes, Jay Goldspinner, Marek Bennett, Mike Lynch, Daniel Barlow, Randall Drew, Anne Thalheimer
Editor: Colin Tedford, Daniel Barlow
Cover: Colin Tedford

Hefty 68-page digest-sized minicomic that features seventeen stories around the theme of "woods".

This is a nice mix of autobiographical and environmentalist stories, almost all of them set in Trees & Hills' home territory of western New England. Everything here is good. Some standouts include Marlene O'Connor's story of about a young man's escape into the woods from an abusive home and his meeting with the Native American spirit Nukumi, Bill Tulp's history of the Green Man, and Marek Bennett's account of a hike gone wrong and told in an incredible linear series of tiny drawings.

Nice variety of art styles and lots of good stories and images.

Rating: 8/10

Booty #24

This was a Free Comic Book Day find, although it's not a freebie.I picked it up at the Trees & Hills table.

Title: Booty
Issue: #24
Publisher: Anne Thalheimer
Distributor: Trees & Hills, Microcosm Publishing
Writer:Anne Thalheimer
Artist: Anne Thalheimer

Booty is Anne Thalheimer's autobiographical minicomic series, and it's can always be counted on to be geeky and fun. Anne is a roller derby referee (!), and this issue has a good section on the mechanics of roller derby from an officiating standpoint, complete with a detailed set of diagrams. Also covered are road trips, life drawing at a Dr. Sketchy event, Halloween costumes, the ongoing battle against bad moods, and a detailed diagram of the contents of Anne's gear bag.

Anne's style loads every page with doodles, notes, and little fragments of thoughts. It's engaging and fun.

Rating: 7.5/10

Pro Tips For Tabling At Comics Conventions

Reviewing the first of today's haul from Free Comic Book Day.

Title: Pro Tips For Tabling At Comics Conventions
Date: 2011
Publisher: Trees And Hills
Writer: Colin Tedford
Artist: Colin Tedford

Short comic strips describing the "do's" (but illustrating the "don'ts" of selling your comics at a convention). There was some very funny material here, most of it dealing with situations familiar to nearly every comic book creator.

The individual jokes in this eight-page quarter-sized minicomic freebie range from one panel to eight. The longest ("Close the deal") is the one I found most amusing, but they were all pretty funny.

Rating: 7.5/10