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TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN MAGAZINE #21
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Adhesive Press
Writers/Artists: Shannon Wheeler & various
Editor: Patrick Keller
Price: $4.95 US/$6.75 CAN |
The gag of this issue of Too Much Coffee Man magazine is that it's the "Best Of" issue. This is a gag, you see, because it is, as far as I can tell, just another issue of the magazine with "Best Of" plastered across each feature. Of course, it is a really, really good issue of Too Much Coffee Man at any rate, and while "Best Of" might be stretching it, it's certainly not quite the contrast that it should be to be really funny. Instead, it's just a mildly amusing goof on the need of so many publications to validate themselves by printing the awards they've won on their cover. Fortunately, while the ironic cover gag and loose theme are only mildly amusing, most of what is to be found inside the covers is much funnier, from Patrick Keller's bizarre letter column answers all the way to the snarky reviews of Drew Winchester, or at the very least insightful and entertaining, such as the latest installment of Mark Russell's "Superman Stories" or the disturbingly honest reminiscences of Jed Alexander. Like all anthology format productions, it's a hit or miss affair depending on your taste, but Too Much Coffee Man magazine hits far more often than it misses.
My previous review of Too Much Coffee Man was one of surprise. I didn't really know what to expect, and so I was delighted and surprised with what I found. This time out, I'm more just delighted. Two of the features that I really enjoyed come out just as strong in this issue as they did in the last: "The Superman Stories" and "Winchester's Sights" were both great. I found "Superman Stories" to be particularly interesting, because when I read Mark Russell's other piece, reviewing the Seinfeld/Superman American Express ads, I realized that our takes on the character are completely different, and I feel like he doesn't really get Superman. Surprising there, since his insight into a more workaday Superman in "The Superman Stories" is more dead-on than most of the writers of Superman's comic-book adventures have managed. "Winchester's Sights," meanwhile, is an interesting look at a different review style. Drew Winchester's themed reviews (this time out it's "remakes") gives him an excuse to praise but more often pan different movies, and in these short capsules he launches the same kind of hilarious barbs that I had come to expect from Dalton Ross's "What to Watch" at Entertainment Weekly. Brief, caustic and usually exceptionally funny, even when I don't agree with Winchester's opinions, I often want to, because his views are presented in such an entertaining manner.
Actually, I find the criticism in the pages of Too Much Coffee Man to be some of the most endearing features of the magazine. Whether it's thanks to editor Patrick Keller's idiosyncratic tastes or just to the idiosyncratic reviewers, these are not your average "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" type of things. A writer toying around with Superman examines a series of Superman-related commercials. Matthew Speer compares a spinoff from religious fervor-inducing Passion of the Christ to the Art of Metal Gear Solid 2, reviews the Left Behind books from the point-of-view of an atheist and takes on a variety of relatively obscure comics, and it's all good reading. I don't agree with some of his tastes (someone who has to be "tricked" into enjoying superheroes is clearly deranged in my view), I don't always agree with his analyses, but damned if they aren't well-written and, yes, entertaining and often funny too. Meanwhile, Mark Pedersen serves up some of the most bizarre "Best Of" categories I've ever seen, such as "Best Blaxploitation Actor Dressed As A Large Lizard," pointers for those looking for B-grade cinema. Again, not my cup of tea, but I read the whole article anyway.
This is another aspect of Too Much Coffee Man magazine that bears mentioning: The articles are short. Not children's book short, for the simple-minded, but rather direct and to the point. They get in, they make their point, they get out, usually in one or two pages. The result is a greater variety of material and a magazine that is easy to read in smaller chunks. (OK, on the can. You happy now?)
Oh, and Too Much Coffee Man also features some cartoons. More seriously, it's a cornucopia of indy talent, from Shannon Wheeler's strange and subdued titular strip (odd that a caffeine-fueled character is so mellow, huh?) to the charms of "Chomsky and Mailer," which grew on me this issue, to the shorter one-page or smaller strips. Actually, some of my favorites are these short strips. Jeffrey Brown's "Cuticle" has a great punchline, Damian Wilcox has a stupid play on words that had me chuckling out loud, Keith Knight's blend of George Lucas and George Bush is twisted genius and Neil Swaab's "Shake, Baby, Shake" is just plain twisted. Truthfully, while the deliberately tasteless comic gave me a mixture of grins and grimaces, it was the rambling "legal disclaimer" that just cracked me up over and over again. To make a long story short (too late!), the cartoons in TMCM are good to great, with few misfires in the bunch. 8/10
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