Musea Art Review #70 No Hope #4 (cartoon zine)
musea/Tom Hendricks
Title: No Hope #4
What is it? : Cartoon zine with the subtitle "Crude,
offensive, puerile, unfunny, unoriginal, piece of crap."
Technical Quality: Very high. This black and white comic
is nicely made. The drawings, all byJason Dean, are
professional level good, with that underground comic
look.
Innovative Quality: As it says in the intro, "you can
expect the same kind of sick jokes and smutty humour
as before." But he does do crude with an innovative flare.
Also note, "All rights unreserved. This comic or parts thereof
may be reproduced in ANY form you want by ANY means
you want with or WITHOUT the permission of Jason Dean
or Dead Dog Press."
Review:
No Hope is a big cartoon zine (12" by 8") professionally
done with 48 pages. It is mostly cartoons by Jason Dean,
but this issue also includes a 10 page film article by Nathan Keen
on "The Horrific Filmography of Freddy Valentine" a "B" actor and
familiar face to drive-in movie buffs. The article summarizes
his film career. The best part was the drawings
of the film posters that Valentine appeared in such as
"The Toes of Lust", and "Plague of the Penguins".
The rest of the zine is 2 large comic stories and assorted
one page 'gross outs' on something either coming out of
one end or the other. Example - "The Curious Dream of
Norman Lovelace" where Norman dreams about an
astral ass, or "Nasal Laughs" or his boardgame page,
"The Mr. Penis Game". These were all ok - and
all the art work here is top notch - but
I was more embarrased than amused after reading them.
And some of the small pieces were disturbingly violent,
even for cartoons! Reader beware. In spite of the cover blurb
that states, "Suitable for children of all ages",
this is material for adults only.
The 2 large comic stories are very good though, and
deserve a closer look.
"The Man In a Box", is a fun quirky story about
a man living in a cardboard box. It opens and we
see eyes and hands. The Man in the Box is suddenly
aware of women, "When suddenly without warning I
began thinking about... Ladies!" Nothing pans out
for Mr. Box until he meets a woman in a box!
First rate box romance! I'd like to read more adventures
of Mr. Box.
"I Hate Daniel Butler". About how jealous the author
is of the most popular kid in school, Daniel Butler."
Also note the one pager titled"The Psychotic Third
Arm of Lester Lemsip" where his third arm has
a mind of its own and constantly gets him into trouble.
All in all, most of this will just gross you out with
excessive cartoon penises everywhere. But in
the longer stories (and illustration for the film article)
you'll find not only a very talented professional comic
artist, but a good storyteller too.
Contact Info:
Jason Dean
5 St. Dials Road
Old Cumbran
Cumbran
Gwent NP44 3AN
UK
deanja...@aol.com
Overall Grade: 5.0
(With a higher grade for the two larger cartoon pieces
if reviewed by themselves.)
Grading system: 9-10 Highest grade - Life's work of
a master (ex. Collected plays of Shakespeare, collected
symphonies of Beethoven) 8-9 Single best work of a
celebrated master's career. 7-8. Best work of an era or
genre or decade. 6-7 Best work of the year. 5-6 Very
good. 4-5 More good than bad. 3-4 Average amount
of good = amount of bad. 2-3 Mostly bad with some
redeeming parts. 1-2 Nothing redeemable. 0-1 So bad
it is offensively bad and outrages the reviewere for
taking up that time in his life - just awful.
Musea guarantees a review for all art work in any
conceivable field IF you follow the rules posted on
alt.zines or see our website or e-mail me.
Tom Hendricks tomhend...@cs.com
http://musea.us