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OLD FASHIONED REVIEWS THE WAY YOU LIKE EM.

SLAM BANG #3 Volume III March, 2008
202 pages not counting covers. Color covers. BW insides.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

Great printing. I print lots of books. And I have to say the paper and reproduction on this issue is SO GOOD. Looks like is cost a small fortune to print. Gorgeous book. Hats off to Allen the publisher for printing some sweet books.
A Michael Wurl painting/illustration of an Alien Alligator man sneaking up on Abe Lincoln adorns this issues cover. It makes you laugh to look at it. Nice job.

Mightyguy. Tim Corrigan's strip in this issue is a hoot. Tremendous old style physical comedy in a comic book. Too good. This strip has grown on me. Tim's ability to draw funny cartoons has never been better. Great stuff. 10 stars! 5 hearts and clover for a super strip.

Paul Swain delivers an action comic called "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished." Loved the art. Very original and fun to read. I wish I could draw action comes like this one. Cool strip.

Another action strip jumped out at me. "American Patriot". A Chad Lambert. Luis Ivan Flores production. A very well done superhero story. Reads like a movie. Good stuff. In color this work would be (the same work) even better. The splash page (of a bomb exploding) begged for color. I would like to see a complete comic book from this team of creators. Well done.

Page 90. An untitled strip that reads like a Twilight Zone story. I loved this one. The art, the creepy surprise ending. Page 91 shows the aliens blasting away on the city. As a huge fan of aliens attacking helpless humans, I was totally blown away by this strip. Original style of art, but still sequentially easy to read. Very well done art and story.

I love comics. But I am often afraid that I am very narrow in my tastes. That is why a book like Slam Bang is much fun. It's like taking a trip blindfolded. You just never know where you will end up.

Often I read an issue like this and one or two strips stand out. Then over a week I reread the book, slowly, during my free time, and the stories start to GROW on me. Try this yourself. You begin to find things in the stories you missed the first time.

It takes time and energy to produce a comic book story. It takes experience to make a good one. It takes time for all of these things to come together. It's thrilling to see so many artists and writers, all with unique stories to tell, all in one place.

A great issue. Should have been called the action issue. There are tons of great action stories in this one.

SLAM BANG #2 Vol III Spring 2007
208 pages not counting cover. Color cover. BW insides.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

Superb printing. Great reproduction. Looks all digital and it rocks.

Michael Wurl's hilarious introduction. Just like the old EC books. So good. Love it.

"Another TV" by Freeman and Chuck Haspel. Great old style EC comics story. This one is TOO cool. Old school comics. This is a gem.

Another classic. Another EC spooky story like tale. Creep you out! Loved it. This is what it's all about. "Believe" by Saul J Haberfield. Super cool stuff. Great story Saul. Keep it going.

Interview with Tim Corrigan. Tim's picture looks like Jefferson from the $20 bill? Someone else check this out. Cool interview.

This is a great issue. Nothing else like it folks. Independent cartoonists should contribute heavily to this fantastic book. See your work in print. Loved this issue.

SLAM BANG #1 Volume III March 2006
200 pages not counting cover. Color wrap cover. BW insides.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

This is a superb issue. The reproduction is excellent. Let's start with both covers. Charlene Chua's cover is beautiful. I love this style of art. The back cover is awesome. Christina Wald wonderful alien salon.

An action story called "Sleepbringer: Angryone." By Buck Weiss and Ben Ferrari. Cool story.

"Zombie Party" from Steve Mannion. Wonderful artwork.

"Blame It On The Keilbasa Nova." What a hoot! Slick art.

"A Science Fiction Situation" by Anton Bogaty. WOW. This rocks. The art to the story is amazing. A true comic book genius on his prime. Keep making stories Anton. Your time will come. It's already here. I loved the wonderful art and panel to panel storytelling here. WOW.

I have always loved Daryl Hutchinson's hilarious cartoons. You can see allot of his funny work in 1980's Slam Bang. Here he presents some original full page art and some gorgeous tarot card looking illustrations.

Who would have thunk it? Tim Corrigan has turned into a Jack Cole physical cartoonist. His site gags are great. Special appearance by the bulk. I think Corrigan is now drawing and writing at the TOP of his game. How old is he? He seems to be in his cartoon prime.

The Plethoric Man. It's all over the place..but it's beautiful and cool to look at. The splash page by Elisu Gouvevia is incredible. Loved this one. All the artwork in this piece is cool. Elisu Gouvevia is terrific.

There is more great stuff jam packed into this issue. Well worth getting.

SLAM BANG #7 Vol II April 2005
34 pages not counting cover. Color cover. BW insides.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

Gorgeous cover by Sygnin.

The issue features strong artwork all the way trough. "Today" by Thiago Carvalho. The art is so original. It's good to see someone doing stories like this. Very good artwork.

Edward Pun's cartoon "UFO". Very well drawn again.

A full length strip by Anton Bogaty called "Justin's Big Chance". The artist storyteller delivers an ironic tale of second chances.

Page 32. Fake ad about "Slam Bang" waiting room. Great art. Looks like Tom Bunk drew it. Loved this one. Who drew it? Who knows? It's great.

Jeff Gaither's back inside cover. This guy draws like Big Daddy Rat and Basil Wolverton. Exceptional detailed haunting work. A true talent. Jeff could do a creepy strip that would rock.

Another great issue from the house of cool independent comics. Fanatic Press.

SLAM BANG #6 Vol II Feb 2005
38 pages not counting cover. Color cover. BW insides. The Advertising Issue.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

The cover is very well done. I like the devil selling lard.

"Deconstruction" by Ryan Estrada. A send of the hamburger icon Big Boy. Well drawn and good idea.

Page 13 "Doctor Fnutts" by Roger Landgridge. Very funny one page toon.

Erik Weems "Trophy Wives" movie poster. Great stuff. Erik and his mad paint brush return.

"Personal Time Machine" on page 15. Very funny. I think Allen draws these crazy ads. Hilarious stuff.

Classic Marvel comic covers spoofed in the center spread. Great stuff. Loved this one by Russ Maheras. Perfect dupes Russ.

This is an excellent issue.

SLAM BANG #5 Volume II 2004
60 pages not counting cover. Color wrap cover. BW insides. Color center spread. The all robot issue.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

Inside covers by Kieran and Damon Oats. Great art on this one.

Dean LaCrone's cartoon, "Tales From The Script" is a slice of comic heaven. Funny to read and look at. Great and funny strip. The Tin man drawing (panel 6) so good. Please Dean no more of these wild strips. These are classics.

Anton Bogaty's strip The Short Biography of An Unknown Artist. Great artwork. So beautiful to look at and well written. Reminded me an old EC classic. Sigh..if only I could draw like this guy. Good stuff.

Erik Weem's "You Robot". I love Erik's work. This word balloons are so well done. He does them by hand from the looks of it.

Some very cool ads in the back that we can order from. All is all a good issue.

SLAM BANG #1 Volume II 2003
20 pages not counting cover. Color cover. BW insides.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:

Cover by Anton Bogaty. Very nice illustration.

Back cover. Fake ad for artist school. Brilliant and very well done. Funny.

Inside cover. Hilarious ad for brain surgery.

COMIC STRIP: "Unscary Monsters" by Anton Bogaty

Harvey Kurtzman was real genius. He was the creative force behind the early MAD magazines, PANIC and LITTLE ANNIE FANNIE cartoon works.

Harvey was a very talented guy. His layouts are so cool to look at (even today). He would layout all his stories/books and artists like Jack Davis and Wally Wood would finish his layouts. Essentially redrawing his layouts.

These original layouts of Harveys are so brilliant it's breath taking to view them. And they have a "look". There is an energy and panel to panel style, a rhythm of panel to panel style,( that is all but GONE in modern comics) that is unique to Harvey Kurztman. Very unique. Only Jack Kirby and a handful of others have this amazing "panel to panel" style of story drawing and layout. A guy working in Slam Bang today has this kind of wonderful ability to tell stories. His name is Anton Bogaty.

In Slam Bang #1 we are treated to Anton Bogaty's "Unscary Monsters." comic strip. Drawn beautifully it looks like Harvey Kurtzman channeling through this artist/writer, Anton Bogaty. Genius work. This artist writer has come into their own. The art and the black wash work on the art is great. The pacing, the page layouts, the lyrical style, the visual style..it's comic books at it's very best. WOW. This one blew me away. This artist writer is a fine talent and at the top of their game. LOVED IT.

It sounds like a cliche but this artist is the heir apparent to MAD magazines Harvey Kurztman. Hats off to this artist. The panel to panel layouts and the page to page layouts taken as a whole story are fantastic.

This black and white wash style is the great. Much different than Anton's art from days past. Love this new look. And the writing is funny. I am amazed by this strip as you can tell.

WRAP UP: This issue contains some nice work by Anton Bogaty, Brad Foster, Chistina Wald, John Lustig and others. A small issue, but it rocks.

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