Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 16:24:23 -0500 From: [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FTP 542 ==== FIT TO PRINT by catherine yronwode for the week of October 21, 1995 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 542: A few reviews for a sunny day... Angst Funnies: Very Secret Monster Things: Selected Works by Robt. Schreiber is 40 page, offset printed 8 1/2 x 11 inch b&w collection of short comics and single-page pieces that is (no kidding!) FREE from Schreiber himself at Cheaper Than Therapy Press. The address given (30 Wiggin' Out Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540) looks like a joke, but it is possible that the man lives on Wiggin Street and has decided to be cute about it. No guarantees you can get the book, but if you get lucky, you will certainly have a good read. Included are a series of philosophical musings called "Fallin' Asleep" and a stark selection of portraits and short quotes from people with HIV called "Positivity." Schreiber is a "drawer's" artist (and an art teacher) who works in the scratchy-hatchy thin-line school of Pilot Razor Point (formerly Rapidograph) Realism. His work is open and spontaneous and his writing is too. He lets you into his mind, and it turns out to be a worthwhile place to rummage around, as Schreiber freely discloses his feelings about death, wild animals, sexual objectification, James Brown, and tattoo art. Reading this self-proclaimed "vanity" press publication is like receiving a long letter from a friend you didn't know you had. World Hardball League is a standard format b&w comic from Titus Press (13 Woodlake Square, Suite 252, Houston, Texas 77063), but the subject matter is anything but "standard." Can you imagine what it would be like if baseball players had limited super-powers that they could only use while playing the game? Well, that's the premise, folks, strange though it may seem. The action is confined to play-by-plays accounts of how these international macho men slug, hurl, and field their way to glory or defeat. Balls burn with real fire, batters invoke tornadoes, and outfielders brave man-eating sharks to bring down would-have-been-home-run hits. The art is a little bit on the crude side, but fake news articles on the teams and players help the fantasy along, and you've gotta give the creators credit for one thing: they really do love their favourite sport. Scattered (published by Scattered Comics, P. O. Box 2723, Antioch, California 94531) has been around for quite a while, but the first issue i ran across was #24. The lead story, an anime-influenced fantasy by Jason Dube, is okay, but what really appealed to me about this standard format b&w book was the longer back-up feature, "Comics to Bore and Confuse You" by Jason Hamm. The art is not terribly accomplished, and the lettering is annoyingly hard to read at times, but there are genuine glimpses of craft and heart in this tale. The story defies description because it is intended, literally to "bore and confuse" the reader, but it fails at the first mission, while only partially succeeding in the second. What starts out as a sarcastic stab at the way comics artists break the rules of "good storytelling" drifts into a desperately cynical look at the ethics (and hypocrisy) of commercial art, and from there vaults into a suicide attempt which transforms into an attempt to contact God, only to land squarely back on the "boring and confusing" plane of self-conscious art mockery whence it started. Hamm is conducting an interesting experiment, one worth checking out. Heartstopper (Millennium Publications, 105 Edgewater Road, Narrangasett, Rhode Island 02882) is a full-colour 4-part mini-series featuring the kind of posey, pin-uppy, swipe-filled artwork that i would not cross the street for, but, hey, someone must like this kind of stuff. The artist's excruciating failure to draw men in suits is matched only by his pathetic ability to trace the drawings of pretty women that artists before him have themselves traced from porn magazines and clothed in just enough costuming to make them seem like aerobics video starlets rather than hookers. Wicked, also from Millennium, is more of the same, but while the layouts are poverty-stricken (all "action" scenes are pin-ups and there is total disregard for backgrounds and establishing shots), the art - especially the inking by Jenni Gregory and Mark Lipka - is excellent. The only question i have is why this book was produced in b&w while the publisher gave Heartstopper, an inferior product, the lavish full-colour treatment. ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Back issues are available. FTP to cerebus.acusd.edu and look in the Comics/About Comics/Comics News/Fit to Print directory. FtP is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~91mithra AND http://www2.csn.net/~searls. Responses are welcome and should be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] Fit to Print is Copyright Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.