I do not remember the last time I read a comic book or graphic novel.  I wasn’t much of a comic geek back in the day, although I did enjoy my Garfield and Far Side collections in between classes in junior high, and occasionally read Archie just because my best friend did.  But when Ellen Lindner queried us with her graphic novel, Undertow, I jumped at the chance to read it because it was something different.

The description of the book on Lulu reads as follows: Undertow by Ellen Lindner gives us a close-up view through the back door of Brooklyn in the sixties—with all the delinquency, drugs, and trips to Coney Island that implies. Beautifully drawn in sinuous, sharp style, Lindner’s characters, and their fight to do more than survive, are unforgettable.

This description is also printed on the back of the book as a quote from Jessica Abel, author of La Perdida and Artbabe.  The quote is a good sell, but is correct in stating that much of these themes are only implied.  The delinquency and drugs portion are only briefly explored or mentioned, and were not issues that I drew out of the theme on my own.  The story follows a girl named Rhonda who seems a bit bored with the events life has recently handed her.  Her mother is an alcoholic, her best friend has just drowned, and her brother is not very sympathetic.

Like many comics, the storyline plays out as if you are overhearing a conversation from another room.  You are only treated to the important parts and must fill in the gaps in between for yourself.  The visual appeal of drawings definitely helps and entertains, but I felt some of the characters lacked introductions and overall substance.  For instance, there’s a social worker who wants to help Rhonda, but his storyline doesn’t seem very important to Rhonda’s conflict until the very end.  Also, Rhonda is present when her friend, Estelle, goes missing but does not seem too upset about it in the next chapter. Instead, she acts a bit like a zombie and is distracted with textbooks and choosing a career. Unfortunately, I didn’t really embrace Rhonda as a heroin in the story.

However, I did embrace Lindner’s vision of a 1950′s New York.  Coney Island is a magnificent setting for parts of the story, and my only regret is that I couldn’t see Lindner’s work in color.  The entire book is in black and white. The scenes on the beach when Estelle goes missing and later when Rhonda is hanging out with her friends and playing cards are quite beautiful and Lindner has done an excellent job of portraying emotion in her characters. Throughout the book Rhonda occupies herself by practicing the Cha Cha, and there is a nighclub scene full of vivid attention to detail.

It is obvious from reading Undertow and from looking at   Lindner’s website that she is a genious when it comes to her talent, and I definitely look forward to seeing and reading more from her. She is a brilliant illustrator and deserves much success.  If you can appreciate a good classic comic, then Undertow is definitely worth a look.

You can view a preview of Undertow at WebComics Nation.

Or leave a comment on this review if you’d like to win a copy of Undertow.  One lucky reader will be drawn at random.  The winner will be announced on August 8th. U.S. residents only.

I’ve always been a fan of the single panel cartoon ever since the days of Larson’s The Far Side.  As a child, along with reading the Sunday comics, the three single panel cartoons in the back of the Parade magazine were also required reading.  Nigel Sutherland, one of the UK’s top cartoonists, is a master at such humor and has collected over 200 of his cartoons in this book published this year through Lulu.

Most of Nigel’s cartoons focus on the baby-boomer generation of married couples….wives going to the beauty salon or out to a restaurant with their husbands.  There are quite a few involving marriage counselors or couples standing at the alter.  A wife and her best friend make sly comments while standing over the husband sleeping in his recliner.  Customers stand at the the complaint desk or in the grocery store making dumb comments…”Is it two for the price of one or buy one get one free?”

Nigel has captured quite a few of those “Duh!” moments that each of us has probably experienced or thought of at some point in our lives, like standing at the ATM machine only to have it laugh at us and say “You want how much?!” or “Don’t spend it all on beer this week!”

Even better, there are some of Nigel’s cartoons that don’t even require words to get the joke across…a clown with over sized shoes waiting in line for a shoe shine, astronauts in space watching mail being dropped in through the mail slot on the door, someone in a theatrical supply store picking up a container of “canned laughter,” an elevator packed full of people in a sardine packing company.

The book is printed in a 6 x 9 size with two panels on each page.  I would have like to have seen this book in more of a square size with only one panel per page.  While the two cartoons on each page don’t relate to one another, I can see where there might be some confusion among some.  Even printing the book side ways as a 6 x 9 with the pages having to be flipped up might add some unique style to the book as opposed to the traditional 6 x 9 format.  But no matter what, the physical book itself does not distract from Sutherland’s classic cartoon style and humor.

Sutherland’s humor is both clean and adult.  There’s quite a bit of “across the big pond” humor that you might find yourself Googling to get his point, but overall Loads of Cartoons is a nice collection of comics for adults who need a laugh. There’s a bit of everything here for everyone to enjoy passing around in the office or to just pass some time on a long trip.

Well done!

The stressful thing about a recession is this, you and I can’t do much about it. When crying and hand wringing have run their course, there is only one other option – laughter. Jungmin Joo’s second cartoon book on Lulu is called Need a Bailout and it reflects the world around us in wickedly clever cartoons.

You will find all the themes of the day here, the housing bubble, the bailout, job loss, corporate greed, and the relentless pursuit of the dollar. The cartoons rival those you’ve seen in the newspaper and it’s a given that one or two will end up tacked to the walls of your cubical.

Joo’s work has appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Sun, Women’s World and other prestigious publications. As I read through his book, I wondered what the next page would bring and found myself laughing on a number of occasions and thinking on many others. If you enjoy his book, you can also check out his website at to see some more samples. I especially liked the car salesman telling his client that the car was ‘packed chock-full with anti-accidents.’

The price of this collection can’t be beat, it’s especially cost effective as a download. I appreciate Joo’s approach to the recession and life. If you can’t ignore it and can’t fix it… laugh at it.