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Popgun
Vol. 1 -- A Graphic Mixtape
I grew
up around cassette tapes. I remember fiddling with tape recorders
to get that cool song off the radio, inevitably also catching
a piece of the DJ's yammering as they always talked over the
best songs. I remember sweating over my state of the art double
cassette player/radio, trying to get my favorite songs all
recorded on one mixtape. Mixtapes were also a subtle form
of courtship. People exchanged mixtapes with those they wanted
to impress and sweep off their feet.
Popgun
Vol. 1 is billed as a 'graphic mixtape.' And it evokes that
same feel -- the sense that each writer and artist worked
hard on their entry to impress the object of their affections,
the reader. As I am constantly choking on prose written
to please advertisers and publishers, this is a refreshing
change.
Published
by Image, Popgun is the latest offering in the
recent trend of comics anthologies such as Project Superior
and Four Letter Worlds.
You
probably won't like everything in this book -- I didn't--
but with 450 pages of full-color comics goodness to choose
from, you will like something, and more importantly, you'll
find something that resonates with you.
For
me it was Jim Mahfood's 'She's Out of Reach.' There are
none of the crime-fighing zombies, gun-toting drug dealers,
or breakdancing dogs that characterize Mahfood’s other
work. This is the story of a guy hanging out with a girl,
working up the nerve to ask her out. It’s a tale of
reality and life truths. And it’s a story that I’m
willing to bet every single person reading the anthology
will recognize in one form or another, on a very deep level.
I won’t tell you how it ends, because I don’t
have to. You already know.
The
rest of the book is peppered with gems like new adventures
of the Amazing Joy Buzzards, the hilarious postapocalyptic
magical girl spoof “Gamma Rae”, the visually
striking and poignant “Ellie Saves The World,”
luchadores talking smack in “Mexican Wrestler Funnies,”
and a story about a poor guy who just wants to pick up his
special-order album.
And
if you read through the entire anthology and still don’t
like anything, well, you’ll soon have another shot
-- the second volume of Popgun hits stores in July.
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