Reich #1 Price: $3 Creator: Elijah Brubaker Format: 24 pages, Black and White, size: 9x6. This is the start of a non fiction biography of Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. For those that don't know about him, he lived between 1897 and 1957. To escape the Nazi's he left Europe for the United States. He then threw away his credibility with some wonky ideas about an energy called "orgone" and contraptions designed to capture it and use it to cure people's health problems. The US Government put him in prison and burned much of his books. I like the writing of the book, both the flow of the story and dialogue is just fine. The creator does take some liberties with the facts but he mentions which ones in the back of the book. Also in the back he says he's inspired by Chester Brown's Louis Riel and that influence is pretty obvious. The ending of the issue is weird as it ends on a cliff hanger but you get the feel this is a full fledge graphic novel that just got chopped into an issue at this point. If your an independent reader this artwork should fit with your tastes. It's unique as the creator draws everybody with over sized heads. A variety of perspectives are used to liven up the story and they work. I should say quite a few pages there are little to no backgrounds. Some of the shading, identifying a light source is a little wonky on a page here and there. When this is put together into a graphic novel I'm sure it will sell to some of those that enjoyed Louis Riel. As it is, I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.   Reporter #6 Price: $4.00 Creator: Dylan Williams Format: 36 pages, Black and White, Size: 9x6 This story is set 1956 and it's about a newly hired reporter going to a company party at his bosses house. He goes with a wife and they go around talking to other staff members about a variety of topics of the day like the Korean War, working in the comic industry and religion. Sprinkled along the way is how got his job and the tale of 3 blind men describing an Elephant. The Elephant tale is pretty well known and I'm a bit surprised told the story rather than just reference it. I found myself liking the lead character Adam, and the general story of him wandering around in a party talking to different people. It had a fun and intelligent feel to it. The story is a nice done in one that had a decent ending too. My main quibble with the writing is that I feel it's the same "voice" in all the characters, despite the best intention of the author. The art was very simplistic though. There was virtually no close ups of the characters. There is a lot of people standing, stiffly I might add and from a distance. The one close up of hands shaking was particularly bad (note to artist, fingers bend around the underside of the hand and squeeze). Some of the details in the peoples clothes didn't come through on numerous panels. Many panels have little to no backgrounds. There are a few pages where he goes all out in background detail, but it doesn't make up for the rest of the book. In all, I give it a 3 for writing and a 2 for art. Overall rating is 2.5 out of 5. I think Dylan has good potential as a writer and I hope he keeps getting better at it.   Watching Days Become Years #4 Price: $5 Creator: Jeff LeVine Format: 36 pages, Black and White, Size: 9 3/4 by 6 3/4. The title is apt for this book. In it are a bunch of random bits of thoughts about a variety of subject. Cities, Politics, Weather, Trees, Video Games, etc.. it has the feel of a bored, lonely, writer blocked cartoonist who spends a lot of time sitting in his room making a comic out of whatever he see's around him. There is a lot of still life art which appear to be taken from photographs or arraigning stuff in his house/apartment. When human beings are drawn they are very simplistic with usually no backgrounds. The comic is probably best for folks with very fast paced lives that want to kick back and relax with something very slow and mellow like. But even then, there are better comics for that sort of thing. I give the book a 1.5 out of 5 and that's for some of the detail and effort into drawing every leaf on a tree in some of the pages. Regards, Jamie Coville http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com News and discussion on a free, Delphi like forum.

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