Never Grow Up! (Grow Up! #2)

And... Done! This is the last of the package of zines that I picked up as a crowdfunding reward from Boston Zine Fest. Our friend Sian, who's been seeing to our mail back in the US, send these over with one of our packages of mostly-dull paperwork, and it's been a lot of fun having some zines to read here in Vietnam.

Title: Grow Up!
Issue: 2 (Never Grow Up!)
Publisher: Sara Bear
Date: August, 2014
Writer: Sara Bear
Artist: Sara Bear

Half-sized zine/minicomic hybrid. Thirty-six pages of autobiographical comics and essays on the theme of adulthood, and particularly on how adulthood is defined for the Millennial generation (a term the author/artist grudgingly uses, so I will use it as well, also grudgingly).

There are two cute time-travel stories here, complete with some amusing nods to Doctor Who fandom. There are also a couple of essays on the struggles of Millennials and the nature of the concept of adulthood. Plus reflections on Green Day's music, a cute series of "adult tips", and plenty of punks and cats.

Sara Bear has a great voice, a fun art style, and a witty sense of humor. And geeky autobiography is always a genre that interest me. There's a lot to like here.

Rating: 8/10

God Damn It!

Down to the last couple of zines/minicomics from my package from Boston Zine Fest.

Title: God Damn It!
Publisher: Respectable Street Comics
Writer: Sara Bear
Artist: Sare Bear

This folded micro-minicomic is served up in duo-tone, with all instances of cat vomit printed in bright green. And there is plenty of cat vomit in this comic.

In fact, the entire premise is cat vomit. And the question of why don't the cats ever vomit up anything useful. Like the rent money for this month, for example.

This is a pretty simple premise, but the minimalist approach fits the format perfectly.

Quick, but fun.

Rating: 7/10

Keeping Buoyant

Another item that falls squarely in the zine category. This is from the package I got from Boston Zine Fest.

Title: Keeping Buoyant
Publisher: Brittany (brittany@papercutzinelibrary.org)
Writer: Brittany
Artist: Brittany

This 20-page half-sized zine is almost entirely text, aside from the nice cover illustration. Inside is a collection of three essays: one on the author's experiences with depression and recovery, one on the author's experiences with substance use and abuse, and an advice piece for friends of people suffering from depression.

Brittany's writing style is vivid and engaging. Whether using metaphor to describe her struggles with depression or recounting stories from her days spent partying in the Florida drug scene, her descriptions bring the story to life in a powerful way.

The essays each have their own distinct tone. The first one is introspective and deeply personal. The second one is personal as well, but it's more of a telling of stories, and it's full of interesting little details. The last part was mostly advice that I knew, but it raised enough points to get me thinking. As someone who has friends who deal with depression and other mental illness, the words here were good and important for me to hear.

While Britanny's story here contains a great deal of sorrow and pain, it is ultimately hopeful, and it did a great job of holding my interest.

Rating: 8/10

Food Service Proverbs

Another zine from my Boston Zine Fest crowdfunding rewards.

Title: Food Service Proverbs
Publisher: Space Cadette (freetorock603@gmail.com)
Date: 2014
Writer: Space Cadette
Artist: Space Cadette

The title describes this pretty well. It's bits of wisdom from a food service worker, collaged with photos of food and a few other bits. It's all presented in a quarter-sized 8-page b/w zine with the warning "Don't let your boss read it!" on the cover.

This is a fun concept and I liked the layout and design. The proverbs themselves were fairly standard, although certainly authentic gripes. No, the customer is not always right.

Good idea. Could have used more material.

Rating: 6/10

High-Five Magazine #34

The next in my series of reviews from the zine grab-bag I picked up as a crowdfunding reward from Boston Zine Fest. Technically does not count as a comic, but I'm never one to stand on technicalities.

Title: High-Five Magazine
Issue: 34
Publisher: High5!
Date: October, 2011

I'd describe this as a traditional zine, complete with pasted-on text, photocopied, and stapled half-sized. It's 20 pages of Boston-based weirdness with a bit of a Halloween flavor to it.

There's an events calendar that got me a bit homesick for Boston, followed by a guide to the locations of all the venues.

Also in this issue: An essay on composer John Cage and his famous non-music composition 4'33", an amusing "Horror-Scopes" segment, an illustrated guide to budget costumes for Halloween, a recipe for pumpkin waffles, and a feature called "How Long Is That?", which tells, well, how long various things are.

I especially liked the ending segment, a description of the Curse of the Haunted High-Five, complete with (adorable!) instructions on how to break said curse.

This was fun, and contained some good information on some interesting community events at the time of publication. It definitely brought a smile to my face as it referenced familiar locations around Boston.

Rating: 7/10

Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey

Taking a break from the zines to review a graphic novel I just finished.

Title: Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey
Publisher: Villard Books (Random House)
Date: 2011
Writer: GB Tran
Artist: GB Tran

I actually bought this a couple of years ago and had put it aside. It got pulled back out when and packed with books I was bringing on the move to Vietnam (I pretty much grabbed up all of the Vietnam-related books I had in the massive to-be-read pile, which amounted to, well, several).

I'm glad that I read it now, because I always feel more connected to a book when I have some firsthand knowledge of the book's geography, and I've had the good fortune to visit Vung Tau, which much of this graphic novel is set.

This is an ambitious project. It's a multigenerational biography spanning the Vietnam War, from the conflict with the French through the US involvement, and the flight of refugees to America. It touches on immigration and the ways that different generations adapt to changing life circumstances, the loyalty of friends and family, and the idea of the journey back to the past.

As Gia-Bao visits family in Vung Tau, Vietnam, the long journey of his family to America (and back) is pieced together through the stories of his grandparents, his parents, and their friends and siblings. The story is a personal one and a family one. The politics of the war come into play as they affect people's lives and shape the course of the family history. "Individuals pick sides. Families don't." is a recurring theme in one of the early chapters. We learn the varied stories of different family members, many of them affected tragically as they choose their own paths against the background of war and upheaval.

This was a very powerful, personal story with some beautifully detailed artwork. I especially liked some of the scenes that captured the chaos of Saigon in more recent times.

Rating: 9.5/10

Halfling Zine #3

My second review from the rewards package I got for backing Boston Zine Fair. As mentioned in my previous post, I'll be covering some items that are more in the realm of zines than comics in some of these reviews.

Title: Halfling Zine
Publisher: Halfling Zine
Issue: #3
Date: 2014
Editor: Sylvia Kim
Photography: Whitten Sabbatini, Pat Reynolds, Maria Fernanda Molins, Christopher Gill, Juan Miguel Remirez-Suassi, Paige Mazurek
Cover: Juan Miguel Remirez-Suassi

Halfling Zine is a full-color photography zine, curated and published annually by Sylvia Kim. The 28 pages of photos range from what I (in my strictly amateur-level knowledge of photography) would describe as street photography to artistic still-life pieces. The photos stand on their own without captions. Credits are given to the photographers in the table of contents page.

This was a very enjoyable addition to the rewards package from Boston Zine Fair. Not many zinesters that I've seen work in full color, and there were some intriguing and vivid images withing the pages of this volume.

Halfling Zine maintains a Tumblr page for those interested in checking out some of the photos online.

Rating: 7.5/10

Angus

It's 2015, and that makes it New Years Resolution time. Usually this is the time of the year when I resolve that this blog really is going to be a DAILY comic review.

Not so, this year. I've only got a small stack of comics that I brought with me to Vietnam, so I'll be reading them slowly until June when I head back to the States. I plan to bring a bigger stack back with me at the end of that trip, so the pace of the reviews may pick up during the summer.

For now, though, I have the small stack of books I brought over here, including a couple of graphic novels, and opportunities to buy additional comics have been limited. I picked up one graphic novel in English at a used book sale, and I've bought several volumes of Vietnamese-language manga. However, reviews for those will be slow in coming, because it's going to be a slow process working through the language barrier.

I did visit the Saigon Comic Con, but in spite of there being a couple of dealers there selling some Marvel and DC comics imported from the US, I ended up just getting a few more items in Vietnamese. If you're interested in seeing what a con looks like over here, your can find my pics here.

I did get one recent influx of new reading material. I backed a crowdfunding project for the Boston Zine Fair last fall, and I just got my reward forwarded to me: A random grab bag of zines and minicomics!

I'll be reviewing all of these here, even the zines that are not technically comics, over the next few weeks.

Let's start with this one!

Title: Angus
Publisher: Sarah Ruggiero
Writer: Sarah Ruggiero
Artist: Sarah Ruggiero

The subtitle is "A Pocket Guide to Chinchilladom". This is, in fact, pocket-sized. It's an eight-page folded format micro-mini, with some hand-colored highlights on the cover. It features anthropomorphic portraits of the title chinchilla in various motifs, including "grumpy Yoda" and "Pikachin". The center spread shows the chinchilla in action, along with the writer/artist.

This was adorable in the way that a lot of cat minicomics are, and it features a chinchilla, so it has fewer rival comics to compete with. The drawings were fun and quirky and conveyed a lot of personality.

Rating: 6.5/10

Graphic Library: Lessons In Science Safety With Max Axiom Super Scientist

I have found Vietnamese manga! Technically, it's Japanese and Korean manga translated into Vietnamese, but my understanding is that it's mostly imported manga that have been popular here. These books are very inexpensive here: less than one US dollar each. I plan to add them to the review queue, but I'll be going through them translating with a dictionary, so it may be a while before my first review of a Vietnamese book occurs.

In the meantime, there is the stack of comics I brought from the US. This is another educational book that I picked up at the NSTA convention this past spring.

Title: Lessons In Science Safety With Max Axiom, Super Scientist

Publisher: <a href="http://www.capstonepress.com">Capstone Press</a>

Date: 2007

Writer: Donald B. Lemke, Thomas K. Adamson

Artist: Tod Smith, Bill Anderson

This is part of a series that features science superhero Max Axiom teaching a wide range of science concepts. This particular issue covers safety in the lab, which provides for a bit of irony, since Max is all about preventing accidents in this book, but his origin mentions that he acquired all his awesome superpowers in (wait for it...) a freak accident.

There isn't really a plot. Just Max showing a group of students around the lab, pointing out safety issues, and bringing in holographic guest-scientists to show how the same principles apply in the school science lab as in industrial and research labs.

While it's not much in the story department, and some of the attempts at humor fall flat, the book does do an excellent job of clearly and smoothly communicating the information that it needs to cover, Definitely a worthwhile classroom tool, although it's no substitute for having a specific and comprehensive lesson on safety for the particular lab. 

The artwork was quite good, and all of the equipment shown was accurately drawn.

This book accomplishes its purpose quite well.

Rating: 6/10

Justice League of America #80

First review in a while, and there have been big changes in my life since the last time I posted here. I'm typing this from our new apartment in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where we are currently settling in. I start my new day job here in a few days.

We were pretty limited in the amount of stuff we were able to bring over, and the packing was something of a whirlwind process. As a result, only a small stack of comics from the seemingly-endless backlog made the trip. I've got a baker's dozen comics with me...

... Plus about five graphic novels. After that, I'll have to find them locally.

In the meantime, let's start with a classic American issue: A Justice League comic from 1970.

Title: Justice League of America

Issue: 80

Date: May, 1970

Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Denny O'Neil

Artist: Dick Dillin, Joe Giella

Thanagaran bad guy Norch Lor is stealing souls with something he calls a Ghenna box, and the JLA mostly stumble around trying to stop him. Lor's motivations are a bit fuzzy here, but basically he is out to preserve souls due to some impending universal apocalypse.

He is one of those pesky villains that gives the League more trouble than he has any right to. And unfortunately, the plot is loaded with little inconsistencies, down to the effects of his Ghenna thingee. It puts some victims into a coma while it leaves others in a kind of zombie-like condition.

I did like the fact that it is Canary who finally gets the upper hand on the bad guy (with a sleeper-hold, no less!), but the plot holes here were just a bit too frequent and too large. There was also a rather tired "an unprotected person can survive for 10 seconds in space" bit, which I have seen done in at least two other comics from this general time period. And the story hinted on the cover bears little resemblance to what actually occurs.

I did like to science facts backup features which took up a couple of pages of the book.

But a bad villain and a bad weak plot don't make for much entertainment value.

Rating: 4.5/10