4 out of 5

What it says, which is, in and of itself, refreshing: a nigh full issue of mostly one-page comics by plenty of cool indie guys and gals you’ll recognize.  While things err on the side of risque, that’s not to say there isn’t something to appeal to every flavor of ‘alternative’ comic fan, from silly to confessional to gross out, meaning that you’ll probably walk away with at least one new artist to check out.

Some of this stuff has definitely appeared elsewhere, but I can’t speak to everything.  Regardless, having this stuff compressed into a single package is fun, and there’s a few pages where we check out stuff on certain artists’ desks, like Johnny Ryan and Dave Cooper, so that’s certainly unique to the mag.

There’s still a few remnant Vice pages in here – Dos and Donts, letters, reviews – which means you have to deal with the obnoxiously self-aware too-cool-for-school Vice vibe.  I’m also knocking a star off because of the fucking ignorance of some of the comments and language in the non-comic stuff, which I know is stupid to criticize when you have some genre-pushing artists in here, but Vice hovers in that range of being irresponsible with their irresponsibility, and it grates even after a couple pages of it.

But whatever.  I read Vice when we stocked it at Tower, grating or not, so hypocrite am I.  And I’m totes glad I snagged this issue at the time.