As advertised, 8 Bit Groan Zone is pretty, well, groan-worthy. The jokes are every bit as awful/clever as what you'd find printed on Dixie cups or Bazooka Joe wrappers. The art, though, elevates the book from a throwaway zine to an actual conversation piece. Main's art is suggestive, sweaty, and grotesque in the way that lots of old Zap Comix were. The longer you look at it, the filthier it seems. I didn't notice Dig Dug's nutsack until the second time I thumbed through the book, but there it was. Dig Dug. With a nutsack. Talking to a lady. Nostalgia!
Meanwhile, over in classier climates, the Sequential Art Gallery is showcasing Benjamin Dewey's brilliant and hilarious Tragedy Series. If you haven't scrolled through all of the Tragedy Series yet, then do yourself a favor and kill a few hours laughing at the sadness of people, objects, and animals that are not you. Single panel cartoons a la The Far Side are something of a lost art at the moment, but Dewey is a sterling example of the genre. In my correct and unhumble opinion his drawings and captions of strange situations are consistently better than Larson's drawing and captions of strange situations, and you should look at them, both in Internet and on-a-gallery-wall form.
Lastly, Floating World is hosting the release party for Delusional, a collection of work by Farel Dalrymple. "Otherworldly" is definitely the best word for Dalrymple's work, and his illustration and cartoons tend to be dense, strange, and suggestive of alien dimensions. The guy's stuff looks like how classic science fiction feels, if that makes any sense.
There you have it: Three entirely worthy comics events within mere blocks of each other. Get out there, ambulate, and sip other people's wine, comics nerds. You have no excuse to stay inside and argue with your cat.
