While "researching" a recent Nexus Graphica, I had reason to look through my collection of Comics Of Unusual Size. This set of the big and small and odd of comicdom offers many gems. Deciding that I really should share some of these largely forgotten and sometime rare pieces, I’m taking you through a tour of the more interesting selections.
Click on images for full sized versions.
Beginning sometime in the late 90s, filmmaker Tim Harrison under the thinly veiled nom-de-plume Harrison! began publishing his mini-comic Monkey’s Paw. Issue #2 was a 17" x 11" sheet printed on both sides and folded into fourths. The mini offered, among four other strips, a two page story which while not using names ridicules a well know Austinite who produces a very famous and influential geek site.
"The Comic They Didn’t Want Me to Do!" p. 1
"The Comic They Didn’t Want Me to Do!" p. 2
As was trendy in the 90s, Harrison included an essay blasting the mainstream for disrepecting comics. He also admonishes the comic creators themselves suggesting that "the majority of comics put out in the last one hundred years is CRAP." His solution? Concentrate more on story and less on guys beating each other up.
"Johnny Tourette" from Monkey’s Paw #2
Harrison’s Aw, Shaddup! ran for several years in the Austin American Statesman.