3 out of 5

Hey, more anthologies of which I have no awareness until stumbling across them used and then must waste all of my precious, precious dollars on Collecting ‘Em All.  JERKS.  WHY DID WE LET PEOPLE WRITE SO MUCH STUFF.  I’m trying to support the economy on my own here, people, but it’s at the expense of… my expenses.  You could help by, like, doing my job for me and giving me the earnings.  It’s for the greater good.  (Jerks.)  (JERKS)

Banyhoo, ‘Snarf’ is legit.  It’s from that era of indie where this stuff rang true, so even several pages of autobiographical whining by Joe Matt is fun to read.  The ‘ADULTS ONLY’ tag on the front is mostly, for this issue, just for show – only one strip really goes there, and that’s opener ‘Latex’ by Rand Holmes.  Printing quality is good – although some of the smaller, squiggly penciled stuff (as in simple pencils and inks, not much shading) got lost in the copy, it’s just a couple very minor spots in the issue, nothing that majorly effects any give short or story.  I like the consistency of presentation, with copyrights and author names along the side of the first page of any strip, making it easy to figure out who did what.  As usual with collections, some gags fall flat – Mark Landman’s computer stuff is weird, and maybe P.S. Mueller is classic (?) but his sloppy style is just too out there to work for me.  But again, it’s early, so the efforts feel honest and aren’t a snore to read.  Great non-Stickboy Worden strip (why I bought the issue) and Holmes’ contributions are both great, from the raunchy opener to the silly one-page closer.  Also a nice editorial from Denis Kitchen explaining the term ‘Snarf,’ womp.