Mini-comics, art zines, fanzines and other self-published items of curiosity.

Below is an entry from Dale Lee Coovert's impressive Michael Roden Catalog, an ongoing project in which the life's work of the artist is being documented for future reference.

If you're interested in seeing more work by either Michael Roden or Jeff Gaither, there's lots of both between Poopsheet Shop I and Poopsheet Shop II.

MONSTERS AND MUTANTS Number 4

8-page mini-comix on lime green linen stock
Published by Dark Horse Comix
By: Jeff Gaither and Michael Roden
Art copyright © 1985 by Jeff Gaither and Michael Roden
Ltd. Ed. of 100

This is the fourth in a wonderfully weird and wacky series of mini-comix published by the talented Jeff Gaither (monster artist extraordinaire) in the mid-1980s. This issue consists of a series of collaborative drawings, all of which are by both artists. The central figures in these drawings were done by Jeff Gaither and then mailed to Michael Roden who created some exceptionally detailed backgrounds. This is a very cool mini-comix.

You can see from Jeff’s work with mine that he’s making great strides with line quality and character complexities and designs. I think he’s the best new artist since Basil Wolverton.
[Michael Roden: undated letter to DLC, 1986]

Resource Notes:
Thanks to Jeff Gaither for providing a copy of this cool mini-comix.
Publication information per Dark Horse Comix Catalog Number 1 (1986).

History:
This page originally published in The Dale Lee Planet Michael Roden Catalog: Volume 1, Mini-Comix Version 1.0 (page 22) on 3-31-01.
Page revised and posted to the online Michael Roden Catalog 10-26-03.

Copyright © 2006 by Dale Lee Coovert

Recent releases from Alternative Comics:



The startling new comic-tragic book from the artist The Comics Journal describes as “the scarily young and skillful Dash Shaw.” In a pre-Katrina New Orleans, a woman starts dating a younger man who reminds her of her deceased ex-boyfriend. They begin re-enacting scenes from her previous relationship as a psychodrama to correct her haunting past. Replete with Pac-Man ghost spirits, Michael Jackson, children’s drawings and deathtrap sandboxes, “The Mother’s Mouth” is a smarter, unsentimental Blankets that is THE weirdo romance book of 2006. Not to be missed.

More Dash Shaw comics at Poopsheet Shop II.

Publishers Weekly calls Sam Henderson "truly one of the world's funniest cartoonists." His Magic Whistle series has been nominated every single year since 1999 for the Harvey Award for "Special Award for Humor," and Sam was nominated for an Emmy for his writing for SpongeBob SquarePants.

Henderson’s drawing is intentionally crude, but it has the same kind of energy you see in the work of today's best gag cartoonists. Extremely low-brow humor that almost parodies low-brow humor – it is enjoyable on either level.

Out-of-print comics and mini-comics by Sam Henderson at Poopsheet Shop II.



Jon Lewis, creator of the long-running, Ignatz Award-nominated True Swamp, now unveils the paranormal, superhuman and straight-up bizarre world of The 6. From their unassuming old house on Pine Street, this rarely-seen, little-understood group carries on a bold exploration of the very limits of human experience and the cosmos. The 6 comprise some of the most extraordinary people alive—and naive young Jerry Weiss wants to join them. So he simply shows up uninvited at their front door, suitcase and all! Then, to make a good first impression, he accidentally opens a portal to interdimensional evil, gets his head swallowed by a flaming starfish, and nearly kills his hosts with a black sword.
Is Jerry extraordinary enough to run with the 6? Are YOU extraordinary enough to read about it?

Out-of-print mini-comics by Jon Lewis at Poopsheet Shop II.

Xeric Award-winning cartoonist Josh Neufeld returns with The Vagabonds #2: Of Two Minds, featuring an array of Neufeld's comics collaborations. Collaboration has always been part of Neufeld's comix repertoire — with Dean Haspiel in Keyhole and R. Walker in Titans of Finance, Duplex Planet Illustrated's David Greenberger, and with American Splendor's Harvey Pekar (still ongoing). And in The Vagabonds #2, that tradition continues – with some strange twists and turns. Contributors include Pekar, Greenberger, Walker, artist Martha Rosler, award-winning poet/memoirist Nick Flynn, literary cult figure Eileen Myles, and the New York downtown theater company The Civilians – as well such offbeat collaborators as The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," a 1980 issue of Superman, and Neufeld's own mirror reflection!

More comics by Josh Neufeld at Poopsheet Shop II.

Other recent releases include the eight volume of the Meathaus anthology, Tomer Hanuka's The Placebo Man and Pizzeria Kamikaze by Etgar Keret and Asaf Hanuka.

Learn more at the Alternative Comics website.

J. Chris Campbell - He makes a lot of mini-comics
by Shawn Hoke

Last year at SPX, J. Chris Campbell handed me what he calls his "Fat Pack." No, the term "Fat Pack" is not a euphemism for something dirty, it's a plain brown envelope stuffed with mini-comics - a lot of mini-comics. It's kind of a daunting package, really, but I sat down with it last night and picked out a few minis of his that stood out. The first thing that strikes you about Campbell's minis, is that they all have nice color covers. Most of them are quarter paper sized, cut in half on the vertical line so they are wider than they are tall. A couple of them are quarter page sized, and one is an eighth of a page size. Once you open them, another thing jumps out at you. Campbell focuses on the figures and their speech; there's very little background and almost no shading. It's comic making stripped down to lines, shapes, and word balloons. His comics are short, sweet, and usually absurd.

In Save Me a man is stranded on the top of a tall rock in the middle of the ocean. A pirate ship pulls up and offers to rescue him, but the man has no money. The conversation is very dry and polite between the two parties, but the pirate ship begins to pull away saying, "Good day then," once it's apparent the man has no way to pay for his passage. As the ship pulls away, the desperate man screams, "I'll give you 5,000 for safe passage to Alderaan." Well, everyone knows that Alderaan is no more. But then again, this is a tale about pirates, maybe they mean a different Alderaan. No, it's the same Alderaan, and the pirate politely explains that Alderaan is no more, "I'm afraid I have bad news…"

So is a wordless mini that has a different feel to it. Much of Campbell's work is done with the aid of a computer, but this one is totally freehand. The lines have a bit more life to them, although maybe it's the story that involves a ladybug, an aphid, a rabbit, a bird, a lizard, an alien, and a top. The bunny is watching the ladybug as it struggles on its back. The top has landed on a see saw and knocked the ladybug off. All the characters get involved in this drama, but the bird is upset that the alien disturbed its newly hatched chicks.

I liked Mail Stop the best out of all the mini-comics in the "Fat Pack." It matches Campbell's subtle sense of humor in his comics, which often takes several pages to be revealed. A guy is standing at a mailbox, we assume it's his own mailbox, opening and reading the mail. He laughs at a funny card, and then whines about TV Guide's take on the upcoming fall season. But it's not his mailbox. It's not his mail. It's his ex-wife's, or ex-girlfriend's, mailbox and she discovers him reading through her mail. I read this at Barnes & Noble last night and almost spit coffee out of my nose.

Another thing I enjoy about Campbell's mini-comics is the little notes in the indices. After the copyright statement and all the legal yap, he sometimes puts in a little message; maybe it's about where to get the best sweet tea or a problem he's having with his back. In Mail Stop it's a little message about our hero Lewis and what happens to him after he's busted going through someone else's mail. You can get a copy of Mail Stop at the Wide Awake Press website for $2. You should go do that now, it's 40 pages of fun.

Check out more of Andy Nukes' artwork here.

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Technorati Profile

Excerpted from Wikipedia:

Krazy Kat is a comic strip created by George Herriman that appeared in U.S. newspapers between 1913 and 1944. It was first published in William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal. Set in a dreamlike portrayal of Herriman's vacation home of Coconino County, Arizona, Krazy Kat's mixture of surrealism, innocent playfulness, and poetic language have made it a favorite of comics aficionados and art critics for more than eighty years.

The strip focuses on the relationship triangle between its title character, a carefree and innocent cat of indeterminate gender (referred to as both male and female), her antagonist Ignatz Mouse, and the protective police dog, Officer Bull Pupp. Krazy nurses an unrequited love for the mouse, but Ignatz despises her and constantly schemes to throw a brick at her head; for unknown reasons, Krazy takes this as a sign of affection. Officer Pupp, as Coconino County's administrator of law and order, makes it his unwavering mission to interfere with Ignatz's brick-tossing plans and lock the mouse in the county jail.

Despite the slapstick simplicity of the general premise, it was the detailed characterization, combined with Herriman's visual and verbal creativity, that made Krazy Kat one of the first comics to be widely praised by intellectuals and treated as serious art.  Gilbert Seldes, a noted art critic of the time, wrote a lengthy panegyric to the strip in 1924, calling it "the most amusing and fantastic and satisfactory work of art produced in America today." Famed poet E. E. Cummings, as another Herriman admirer, wrote the introduction to the first collection of the strip in book form. In more recent years, many modern cartoonists have cited Krazy Kat as a major influence.

Public reaction at the time was mixed; many were puzzled by its iconoclastic refusal to conform to comic strip conventions and simple gags. But publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst loved Krazy Kat, and it continued to appear in his papers throughout its run, sometimes only by his direct order.

All of the Sunday strips from 1916 to 1924 were reprinted by Eclipse Comics in cooperation with Turtle Island Press. The intent was to eventually reprint every Sunday Krazy Kat, but this planned series was aborted when Eclipse ceased business in 1992. Beginning in 2002, Fantagraphics has resumed reprinting Sunday Krazy Kats where Eclipse left off. Fantagraphics has released seven installments to date, designed by Chris Ware.

Krazy and Ignatz: The Komplete Kat Komics Vol. 1, 1916 hardcover at eBay

Like to read reviews of new and recent mini-comics?
Then are you reading Shawn Hoke's "Size Matters" blog?
Well, why not?

Click on the logo below to check it out!

Sad news, I'm afraid. It seems famed "ugly" artist R.K. Sloane has passed away, apparently on October 20th.

Below is just one example of the artist's work ("Finkenstein"). Check out more at the website.

Here's a sneak peek at some full-color artwork by David Tosh (Hey!, Dinner With Crumb) that will be appearing in the upcoming Heritage Comics auction catalog #822. The artwork was done to head up a special section in the catalog devoted to Underground Comix.

Heritage Comics