Hotwire Comix and Capers Vol. 1

Hotwire Comix #1

by Glenn Head

by Various
Hotwire Comix is a full-throttle, kick-ass, jolt to the nervous system return to the glory days of underground/alternative comics before we all started to drown in 200-page graphic novels. Kicked off and edited by cartoonist Glenn Head (of the Snake Eyes anthologies)!

Genres: Comics, Comix

136 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2006

About the author

Glenn Head is an American cartoonist and comic book editor, based in New York City.
Head was born in 1958 in Morristown, New Jersey and began drawing comics when fourteen. A student of Art Spiegelman at the School of Visual Arts in the early ‘80s, Head's style was significantly influenced by the underground comix of the 60's.
Much of his work has appeared in anthologies. In the early 90's Head co-created with cartoonist Kaz the comix anthology series Snake Eyes, for Fantagraphics Books. From 2005 to 2010 he edited and contributed to another anthology by Fantagraphics, called Hotwire Comix.
In recent years Glenn Head has moved towards longer form comics, releasing the graphic novels Chicago (2015) and Chartwell Manor (2021).
Other works and illustrations by him have appeared on a number of newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, Screw, the New York Times, Playboy, New Republic, Entertainment Weekly, Nickelodeon Magazine and more.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 2006 collection that stays true to the nature and history of alternative comix. Pretty funny, crossing all sorts of lines, and if you are offended, well, these are short, punchy, so you don't have to suffer too long. I liked Tony (Maakies) Millionaire's "Little Nemo in Wonderland," a piece by Matt Madden, Carol Swain's "Family Circus," a piece by Al Columbia, one by Sam Henderson. R. Sikoryak does one of his literary parodies, "Mephistofield", which is pretty good. It's a collection, obviously, so it's uneven, but alt comix are sort of not supposed to appeal to everyone.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really great underground comix. I have seen a few of these in other collections, so I don't know if they are all original to this collection. My favorites are the short strips by Johnny Ryan, the serious stuff by Tim Lane and anything I can find by Danny Hellman. Also enjoyed a couple of shorts by artists I had never heard of: Mike Wartella and Onsmith. Do not read this if you are easily offended or do not understand underground comix.

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice grab-bag of talent from the usual suspects of the era. Like a lot of Glenn Head projects, I like his work the least.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some standout stories in this that are truly excellent. It starts with a Max Andersson Car Boy piece, which is always good stuff, and there are a few other quality pieces as well, but I was perplexed by how mediocre most of the featured color strips were. Editor Glenn Head put a lot of his own work throughout this book, and while his pieces look nice, the narratives seem jumbled and pointless.

[Printable Tire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of really stupid, nasty shit, I enjoyed reading it in its entirety at the library, although I was pissed off some artfag kid had cut out half a page (suspiciously in a comic detailing the "true" story of Lee Harvey Oswald(s)). Reading the introduction before delving into this collection of advanced fart jokes definitely helped.