It’s no fun to do the weblogging thing when you’re sick, especially if you’ve got a full day of work ahead of you as well. Feh, sez I.
However, I do want to make a mention of today’s new Boom Studios release What Were They Thinking?! — a comic where Keith Giffen and Mike Leib basically take some old war comics drawn by Wally Wood and rewrite them with humorous, irreverent dialogue. I’m not entirely sure if I’d want to read something like this on a regular basis, but, hey, it’s good for a laugh or two. Some of the humor is pretty crass and tasteless, but I like crass and tasteless, so that’s fine with me.
If you’re just interested in seeing some vintage Wally Wood art, I should note that the reproduction isn’t bad, considering they shot from the printed pages (yellowing borders and all). I wish more straight reprint books would do this…I really like how it looks, seeing the pages as they originally appeared all those years ago.
Another comic I want to mention (since I’ve been owing these good folks a review for like three weeks now) is Sara Ryan and Steve Leiber’s Flytrap Episode One: Juggling Act, a short comics digest introducing us to Maddy and her busy, complicated life…the “juggling act” of the title. Her boyfriend’s trying to make it in a band, her mom is badgering her on the phone, her office work is overwhelming, her car gets towed…it’s just one thing on top of another, and Ryan and Leiber do an excellent job conveying Maddy’s frustration and the hectic confusion of her day. This is basically an introductory chapter to an ongoing story, as Maddy is thrust out of her normal busy life into a surprising new direction. It’s only fourteen pages long, but it’s a packed fourteen pages, and it feels like it delivers more content than any standard-sized four color comic. I want to see what happens next, so everyone order a copy (only $2.00 domestic, including shipping…they take the PayPal) and give them incentive to keep producing.