Ever wonder how to fit 48 hours into the same day? It’s easy, just remember the joys of the International Date Line. That’s right, for the low cost of a plane ticket across the Pacific you can enjoy what no one else does and arrive before your plane took off. Just remember it can be even more fun if you find that one flight that everyone else is on and make sure to economy because nothing else says patience like having fat guys to either side and precocious 5 year olds behind you discovering folding trays for the first time. If you’re going to submit yourself to such torture you better be sure to bring something worth reading along with you. Below we have the perfect answers to make hell seem like a vacation from the boredom that is life.
Quitting Time – The story of retail worker Nate who spends his life going from one job to the next. If you think your life is bad try living his. Single dad with a six year old and a friend who’s moved in with him. Reading through the archives you’ll find all the anecdotes that confirm why no one likes working retail. Perhaps the best material are the single panels that describe the interesting customers you get to meet and the products that never made it the shelves. Michael Moss has released the first year in a 32 page black and white print.
Silly Daddy – I know this isn’t a new print but Joe Chiappetta is celebrating 16 years as a cartoonist this year I though what better gift then to tell you about the strip and his book. This strip loosely centered around family and pop culture was started in 1991 as an autobiographical series in the same year that Joe’s first daughter was born. Silly Daddy comics has been available in mini-comics to comic books to graphic novels and into its current format, webcomics. The art style is a nice change from the computer rendered of most webcomics with a painted look inspired by Van Gogh. It’s single panel and definitely silly in presentation.
Taking the Bi-pass – It’s been a long time since I’ve seen news of this Hyena comic. This comic by David Buist centers around the lives and random adventures of a small group of friends. It is easy to trace where influences are thanks to David mentioning Theater Hopper in the first strip. I would tell you more but getting through 4 years of archives is more a task for the podcast then a post. The book is a collection from the first 3 years of the comic with much of the original artwork being re-created and/or edited.
Wapsi Square – I still remember the fun I had reading this strip. I’ll even go as far to admit that when trying to draw this is one of the two webcomics that are basis for my ‘style’. The release of the “Wapsi Square: The Demons In My Back Pocket” by cartoonist Paul Taylor is the second book in the this strip’s history. Assembling strips from February 2005 to February 2007, it reflects the darker side of the “Wapsi Square” series, premiering Shelly’s nightmare world and delving deeper into Monica’s personal demons. Longtime fans of the strip will see all of their spicy favorites including Tina, Phix and the alluring Golem Girls. With a foreword and afterword by Lea Hernandez and a special note from Jess
Hickman, this book showcases some of the very best of Taylor’s seductive line work and engaging writing. The book is 8.5″ x 11″ / 160 pages, with perfect binding and black-and-white interior ink.
