10.19.2007

SPX Gems: I'm Gonna Rip Yer Face Off

If there was any sort of theme to the books I found and purchased at SPX '07, it was absurdist comic strips. I found a few brilliant dramatic books as well, but I picked up some of the best laugh-out-loud books I've ever come across.

One of those sets of books was by writer/artist Joe Sayers. Among the many books Joe was selling were two that I picked up, "I'm Gonna Rip Yer Face Off" #1 and #2. Both books are full of single-page strips depicting silly, absurd, and occassionally clever gags that Joe challenges himself to whip out within 5 minutes. Consequently, the figures are often of the stick figure variety but I never had any trouble interpretting the scene or understanding who was who. The characters were quite expressive.

The books are about 28 pages of b&w art with a color cover. He was selling them for $2 and $3. If the cost is related to the amount of laughs I got, it was a good deal. Some of the jokes skew towards "blue" language so it's not all-ages appropriate, but it also does not wallow in vulgarities. Rather, it tends to use honest, real-life language with most of the characters.

Strongly recommended.