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Stinz
Stinz : Wartime and Weddingbells
This collects the Wartime stories of Frau Barr's Stinz. This collection includes Stinz 1 - 5, along with Critters #27, along with some orignal material.
- GenresComics
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 29, 2021
#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. (Collect them all!)
From the March 1998 edition with a theme of "Sui Generis":
INTRODUCTION
A German centaur who fought in World War I. An Eskimo shaman who talks like a 1940's detective. An inscrutable wanderer caught up in a domestic squabble on a bizarre planet that blurs the line between fantasy and science fiction. An easy-going Greek philosopher who tutors a young Alexander the Great and who finds himself caught up in the affairs of the gods.
It's readily apparent: these aren't your father's comic books. No superheroes. No tights. No precedents. The comics I'll be looking at this month are truly sui generis. Latin for "of its own kind," sui generis means unique or individual. ("The American Heritage Dictionary: Second Collegiate Edition," Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1985, p. 1216.) Cover shots of any of the following books could easily serve as the illustration for that dictionary entry.
HORSING AROUND WITH HISTORY
STINZ Volume 1 #1-5 (Fantagraphics Books & Brave New Words)
STINZ Volume 2 #1-3 (Brave New Words)
STINZ: THE BOBWAR (Mu Press)
STINZ: BUM STEER (Mu Press)
STINZ: FAMILY VALUES (Mu Press)
STINZ: HORSEBRUSH AND OTHER TALES TP (Eclipse Books)
STINZ: OLD MAN OUT (Mu Press)
STINZ: A STRANGER TO OUR KIND (Mu Press)
STINZ: WARTIME AND WEDDING BELLS TP (Brave New Words)
STINZ is a biography-in-progress. It tracks the life of Steinheld "Stinz" Lowhard from his youth as a dumb young stud courting all the pretty village fillies, through his traumatic formative years as a soldier in World War I, to his adulthood as a husband, father, gentleman farmer, and town mayor. That Stinz is a German living near the turn of the century would make this series unique in the world of comics. That Stinz is a centaur makes this series a true, one-of-a-kind gem.
Stinz comes from a small, isolated region in Germany called Geisel Valley, where the majority of the occupants are half-horses. Surrounded by a world of "two-leggers," Geisel Valley is by necessity a close-knit community. Indeed, this rural, agrarian society of centaurs plays as large a role in most STINZ stories as Stinz himself. But Stinz manages to stand out thanks to his fiery temper, his pigheadedness, his legendary physical prowess, and his natural leadership skills. Much of the humor and drama of STINZ, though, comes not from Stinz' accomplishments, but from his interactions with the people he loves and the people he must live with in Geisel Valley.
STINZ gives writer/artist Donna Barr tremendous leeway as a storyteller. Stinz' early appearances in DREAMERY (Eclipse Comics, collected as STINZ: HORSEBRUSH AND OTHER TALES) are all over the board, though always infused with gentle humor. Some stories are romances, focusing on Stinz' courting. Some are warm and fuzzy family dramas focusing on Stinz and his son. Others are outright comedies focusing on the various colorful inhabitants of Geisel Valley. In one wild episode, Barr went totally overboard and arbitrarily transformed Stinz into a Japanese ninja. STINZ Volume 1 #1-5 (collected in trade paperback as STINZ: WARTIME & WEDDING BELLS) contain a military boot camp training farce. Barr has fun showing the complications associated with Stinz being the first four-legged soldier to be drafted into a two-legged army. STINZ Volume 2 #1-3, deal more seriously with Stinz' war experiences and find him getting involved in politics after returning to Geisel Valley. In the MU Press STINZ one-shots, the politics are more complicated with the increased presence of a two-legged nobleman; fatherhood is more complicated as Stinz' daughter reaches dating age; and life is more difficult as Stinz realizes he's getting old.
To create something wholly original, it helps to have an original personality. To quote from the creator's web page, "Donna Barr is a Seattle-area writer, artist and Teutonophile who combines unique artistic talent with a wicked wit, a sharp nose for human foibles and a passion for Germany's history and language." In addition to the Germanic world of STINZ, Barr explores her Germanic interests in her other regular series, THE DESERT PEACH, which recounts the World War II German Army adventures of Rommel's gay brother. (See my 1997 review and my assessment of Barr's art. Grade: A.) Where DESERT PEACH is an awesome over-the-top situational comedy, STINZ is a wonderfully amusing family drama. That the same woman could create both books demonstrates how truly talented Barr is.
I've been enjoying STINZ for over a decade, and now you have a chance to mount up. As STINZ moves to its fifth (!) publisher, Barr continues to record his biography in biannual complete-unto-themselves one-shots. Buy STINZ: MARVELOUS RESISTANCE to sample the world of Stinz, and I'll bet --like me -- you'll be unable to rein in your enthusiasm.
Grade: A
From the March 1998 edition with a theme of "Sui Generis":
INTRODUCTION
A German centaur who fought in World War I. An Eskimo shaman who talks like a 1940's detective. An inscrutable wanderer caught up in a domestic squabble on a bizarre planet that blurs the line between fantasy and science fiction. An easy-going Greek philosopher who tutors a young Alexander the Great and who finds himself caught up in the affairs of the gods.
It's readily apparent: these aren't your father's comic books. No superheroes. No tights. No precedents. The comics I'll be looking at this month are truly sui generis. Latin for "of its own kind," sui generis means unique or individual. ("The American Heritage Dictionary: Second Collegiate Edition," Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1985, p. 1216.) Cover shots of any of the following books could easily serve as the illustration for that dictionary entry.
HORSING AROUND WITH HISTORY
STINZ Volume 1 #1-5 (Fantagraphics Books & Brave New Words)
STINZ Volume 2 #1-3 (Brave New Words)
STINZ: THE BOBWAR (Mu Press)
STINZ: BUM STEER (Mu Press)
STINZ: FAMILY VALUES (Mu Press)
STINZ: HORSEBRUSH AND OTHER TALES TP (Eclipse Books)
STINZ: OLD MAN OUT (Mu Press)
STINZ: A STRANGER TO OUR KIND (Mu Press)
STINZ: WARTIME AND WEDDING BELLS TP (Brave New Words)
STINZ is a biography-in-progress. It tracks the life of Steinheld "Stinz" Lowhard from his youth as a dumb young stud courting all the pretty village fillies, through his traumatic formative years as a soldier in World War I, to his adulthood as a husband, father, gentleman farmer, and town mayor. That Stinz is a German living near the turn of the century would make this series unique in the world of comics. That Stinz is a centaur makes this series a true, one-of-a-kind gem.
Stinz comes from a small, isolated region in Germany called Geisel Valley, where the majority of the occupants are half-horses. Surrounded by a world of "two-leggers," Geisel Valley is by necessity a close-knit community. Indeed, this rural, agrarian society of centaurs plays as large a role in most STINZ stories as Stinz himself. But Stinz manages to stand out thanks to his fiery temper, his pigheadedness, his legendary physical prowess, and his natural leadership skills. Much of the humor and drama of STINZ, though, comes not from Stinz' accomplishments, but from his interactions with the people he loves and the people he must live with in Geisel Valley.
STINZ gives writer/artist Donna Barr tremendous leeway as a storyteller. Stinz' early appearances in DREAMERY (Eclipse Comics, collected as STINZ: HORSEBRUSH AND OTHER TALES) are all over the board, though always infused with gentle humor. Some stories are romances, focusing on Stinz' courting. Some are warm and fuzzy family dramas focusing on Stinz and his son. Others are outright comedies focusing on the various colorful inhabitants of Geisel Valley. In one wild episode, Barr went totally overboard and arbitrarily transformed Stinz into a Japanese ninja. STINZ Volume 1 #1-5 (collected in trade paperback as STINZ: WARTIME & WEDDING BELLS) contain a military boot camp training farce. Barr has fun showing the complications associated with Stinz being the first four-legged soldier to be drafted into a two-legged army. STINZ Volume 2 #1-3, deal more seriously with Stinz' war experiences and find him getting involved in politics after returning to Geisel Valley. In the MU Press STINZ one-shots, the politics are more complicated with the increased presence of a two-legged nobleman; fatherhood is more complicated as Stinz' daughter reaches dating age; and life is more difficult as Stinz realizes he's getting old.
To create something wholly original, it helps to have an original personality. To quote from the creator's web page, "Donna Barr is a Seattle-area writer, artist and Teutonophile who combines unique artistic talent with a wicked wit, a sharp nose for human foibles and a passion for Germany's history and language." In addition to the Germanic world of STINZ, Barr explores her Germanic interests in her other regular series, THE DESERT PEACH, which recounts the World War II German Army adventures of Rommel's gay brother. (See my 1997 review and my assessment of Barr's art. Grade: A.) Where DESERT PEACH is an awesome over-the-top situational comedy, STINZ is a wonderfully amusing family drama. That the same woman could create both books demonstrates how truly talented Barr is.
I've been enjoying STINZ for over a decade, and now you have a chance to mount up. As STINZ moves to its fifth (!) publisher, Barr continues to record his biography in biannual complete-unto-themselves one-shots. Buy STINZ: MARVELOUS RESISTANCE to sample the world of Stinz, and I'll bet --like me -- you'll be unable to rein in your enthusiasm.
Grade: A
October 24, 2020
All of Donna Barr’s books are unique, not only in topic but in execution. She has a style all her own in character interaction. Each of her characters has a natural warmth and a caring attitude, which they might be forced to suppress. Eventually that decent attitude comes through, allowing even antagonists to interact without the plot running into stereotypes or clichés. Each story is characteristic of the author, and I think I can honestly say that no one could write this story in exactly the same way as she does.
The protagonist is Steinheld Löwhard, or "Stinz"---a centaur - who lives in an isolated Centaur community in pre-WWI Germany.. The Gieselthal centaurs call themselves halbpferd ("halfhorses") and look down on the nomadic "gypsy centaurs" who come through their valley at intervals. While relations between centaurs and "two-leggers" are usually cordial, there is normally some distance---centaurs see "two-leggers" as weak ad generally avoid them.
While the whole of the story takes Stinz from his early youth, up to near-death. This particular chapter covers the centaur's draft into the German military. On the eve of his announcing his engagement, the recruiters turn up to take Stinz away. What follows is a fish-out-of-water story in the military and his superiors attempting to figure out how exactly to train him, as most of the physical training for humans are either inefficient or impossible for training a half-horse.
The protagonist is Steinheld Löwhard, or "Stinz"---a centaur - who lives in an isolated Centaur community in pre-WWI Germany.. The Gieselthal centaurs call themselves halbpferd ("halfhorses") and look down on the nomadic "gypsy centaurs" who come through their valley at intervals. While relations between centaurs and "two-leggers" are usually cordial, there is normally some distance---centaurs see "two-leggers" as weak ad generally avoid them.
While the whole of the story takes Stinz from his early youth, up to near-death. This particular chapter covers the centaur's draft into the German military. On the eve of his announcing his engagement, the recruiters turn up to take Stinz away. What follows is a fish-out-of-water story in the military and his superiors attempting to figure out how exactly to train him, as most of the physical training for humans are either inefficient or impossible for training a half-horse.
May 10, 2011
I had never read Donna Barr’s Stinz before. I don’t imagine I would have been interested at the time of its publication. The story of a centaur joining the army in an alternate reality, in and of itself, may have had some appeal, but the stories would have left me reaching for something else.
Having read Wartime And Wedding Bells, I find the best part of this series is the characters. It’s a pretty funny book, especially the foibles of main character, Stinz, a centaur, as he tries to fit in with humans in basic training. Well written with a cool illustration style, Stinz is a happy discovery.
Having read Wartime And Wedding Bells, I find the best part of this series is the characters. It’s a pretty funny book, especially the foibles of main character, Stinz, a centaur, as he tries to fit in with humans in basic training. Well written with a cool illustration style, Stinz is a happy discovery.
July 27, 2012
it's a whole world of centaurs (the half-horsed) suddenly meeting with the human world (the two-legged), with practical and cultural consequences. so far so good. it's also a bit curiously set in a pre-WW1 pocket within Germany. is there a bit of a discrimination subtext? maybe (but shouldn't i know?). but it's surprisingly sexist too - okay, stallions and mares, i get that, but still...). and slightly creepy if you take it politcal. i want to like it, especially because female creators are still much rarer in comics than they ought to be, and it's indie besides. it does have a sprightly faux-naive narrative. but on the whole it makes me a bit uneasy in the corners.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews