The Ape Report

Here it is, extra late this year. I've been busy. No excuse, since I barely picked up anything this year.

Black Sundays by, uh, Black Sundays? This is a weird mish-mash collage of a DVD. It was really hard to make sense of it, and at first I felt like I was being hammered with something painfully obvious. I felt insulted. And then, I kind of started to like it. And now I am wondering if I should watch it again. It's curiously strange. Maybe it's high art.
Dater's Dozen by Melaina It seemed like Melaina herself was more interested in certain parts of the story than others, but it was a very enjoyable read.
Funny Misshapen Body by Jeffrey Brown How I hate you, Jeffrey Brown, with your super great comics. I always buy a Jeffrey Brown book, whenever I go to APE or Zine Fest. And he always draws another one, so there's always one for me to buy. It is not fair. How do you have the energy?
Knock! Knock! by Jason Shiga This is as close as a book gets to a videogame. It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book gone all 4th dimensional and so forth. And it's tremendously challenging. And it's a gigantic book that clearly resulted from a monumental effort. Get this damn book, is what I am saying, and then prepare for frustration.
Meanwhile by Jason Shiga I am pretty sure I saw Shiga showing the concept for this to Scott McCloud about five years ago. Anyway, it's a conceptual, branching storyline reproduced in lovely color on thick, slippery paper. The thing rules. And it's not even available yet, so I feel pretty good about having... let's just say "acquired" a copy.
My Year of Celibacy by Melaina The stories are very interesting. It was sometimes a little hard to follow the pacing, and it seemed as though Melaina was in a hurry to get through the art and get to the next part of the story. A "be here now" approach will make Melaina's work quite compelling.
Sensational George by Luke Stangel This collection of strips has some hilarious high points. The artwork reminds me a little of Joey Sayers' work, but only a little.
Shuteye #2 by Sarah Becan This comic has a Twilight Zone edge to it. It grapples with an almost noir sensibility, and in the end the surprise twist is a little confusing—or was, to me, but I'm not very smart after all. So, overall a good book.
Squid Row: I Want a Do-Over by Bridget Spicer This is a collection of gag strips. There are some great moments, but I have two pet peeves: the computer lettering and the way the eyes are drawn. When I see computer lettering, I think the artist doesn't enjoy drawing enough to learn lettering. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's what I think. And the eyes seem copied from another style somehow. Still, it's hard to do a long-running gag strip, and there's a lot here.
Tasha's Mini-Comic by Tasha This is funny and the art is good. It's hard to tell where it falls on the line between auto-bio and gag. I enjoyed reading it.
The San Lukas Arboretum by Julien Shields This is a really interesting, stunningly well-drawn work that I just can't seem to keep my eyes on. I think maybe it's suffering too much from the ashcan format. Maybe if the art were reproduced much larger, it wouldn't seem so dense. But every time I try to read it, it sure does look like it's probably really worthwhile to read.
Ten Thousand Things to Do by Jesse Reklaw It's interesting to see Jesse's approach to a diary comic. Jesse, if you are reading this, your year of daily comics made me like you even more. You pulled no punches in this work. It did seem like each comic tried to capture the whole day—and therefore came off as more of a list than a moment—but still, what a document.

23:08:37 (link)
Luke Stangel, if you have a web page, let me know and I'll add a link to it. You're the only person for whom I could not find a link.

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