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Sun Bakery #1-4
Sun Bakery: Fresh Collection
Mecha-suit space documentarians, wish-fulfillment magic jackets, social-status swordplay -- just a taste of the stories featured in SUN BAKERY: FRESH COLLECTION. Collecting the completed stories "Dream Skills," "Arem," "Layered Jacket," as well as supplementary artwork and more from SUN BAKERY Comics Magazine.
Collects issues #1-4
Collects issues #1-4
200 pages, Paperback
First published August 29, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 22, 2018
You can tell these are a bunch of early zines the author did and put together for this collection. The stories are fragmented and unfinished. The art is terrible. I couldn't make out what was going on in a lot of it. It looks like some comics Corey Lewis made up in high school. This was awful.
January 16, 2024
I am really starting to question if I am some contrarian hipster. I pretty go into everything sight unseen, which, for someone who is an old sensitive baby who also happens to have rather severe C-PTSD that is easily triggered, is sometimes a really bad idea, but it definitely does lead to some surprising delights truly being magical. All that to say I knew nothing about this going in, I can't understand how scathing or meh so many of the reviews are, and I absolutely fucking adored this.
(The answer to all of the above is probably the Severe AuDHD)
Sun Bakery is a collection of Lewis' older comics, some originally published as zines, which is very apparent (complimentary). There is a fun, experimental, learning-and-doing-it-for-yourself vibe in full effect here and I could totally see some of these being among the cream of the itch.io crop.
There's a bunch of characters and settings here, from What if Samus was on the 'gram, dropkick Green Lantern jacket, epic skateboarding batperson, and lots of cool swords, mechs, and quirky, cool, gals with weapons and powers and stuff (but without the usual unfortunately expected ick). It's a veritable grab bag of sick ideas and coming up with a bit and sticking to it that makes me wish I had a thimble of this dedication and follow through.
This is what happens when you don't just let your cool ideas rot in your head or interred in the notebook, never to be exhumed, and it's rad as all fucking hell.
Looking at reviews after reading this and seeing complaints about the art that make me question if we're looking at the same thing and what these people think of highly stylised art, video games like Jet Set Radio, or if they understand the subjectivity of art means that not liking something doesn't make it bad (as my absolutely loving this doesn't make it anymore than good for me). Same with the complaints about the story being brief and disjointed... It's a collection and that's part of the whole thing of just actually starting to make your own cool stuff and doing random pages and shit. Not everything has a real clear narrative and joined up story.
Anyways, I fucking loved this and need to see more of Lewis' work. Truly magnificent stuff!
(The answer to all of the above is probably the Severe AuDHD)
Sun Bakery is a collection of Lewis' older comics, some originally published as zines, which is very apparent (complimentary). There is a fun, experimental, learning-and-doing-it-for-yourself vibe in full effect here and I could totally see some of these being among the cream of the itch.io crop.
There's a bunch of characters and settings here, from What if Samus was on the 'gram, dropkick Green Lantern jacket, epic skateboarding batperson, and lots of cool swords, mechs, and quirky, cool, gals with weapons and powers and stuff (but without the usual unfortunately expected ick). It's a veritable grab bag of sick ideas and coming up with a bit and sticking to it that makes me wish I had a thimble of this dedication and follow through.
This is what happens when you don't just let your cool ideas rot in your head or interred in the notebook, never to be exhumed, and it's rad as all fucking hell.
Looking at reviews after reading this and seeing complaints about the art that make me question if we're looking at the same thing and what these people think of highly stylised art, video games like Jet Set Radio, or if they understand the subjectivity of art means that not liking something doesn't make it bad (as my absolutely loving this doesn't make it anymore than good for me). Same with the complaints about the story being brief and disjointed... It's a collection and that's part of the whole thing of just actually starting to make your own cool stuff and doing random pages and shit. Not everything has a real clear narrative and joined up story.
Anyways, I fucking loved this and need to see more of Lewis' work. Truly magnificent stuff!
September 7, 2017
I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review
I basically picked this up because I liked the cover but, since the description of the 'plot' is pretty vague, I wasn't sure exactly what I was in for. Well the art is definitely the best part of this, it has a very cool early-anime feel without being a direct rip-off. I almost gave it 3 stars just because of the art, but the story lines are just so fragmented that I couldn't really justify a higher rating personally. From what I can tell this is basically a reprinting of a bunch of zines the author had previously done and it shows. Some of the stories are only a few pages long with no real resolution and all of them are basically just half-baked standard anime plot lines mixed together with no real care. I'm sure this book would still appeal to a certain group of people, but if you want coherent story lines I would stay clear.
I basically picked this up because I liked the cover but, since the description of the 'plot' is pretty vague, I wasn't sure exactly what I was in for. Well the art is definitely the best part of this, it has a very cool early-anime feel without being a direct rip-off. I almost gave it 3 stars just because of the art, but the story lines are just so fragmented that I couldn't really justify a higher rating personally. From what I can tell this is basically a reprinting of a bunch of zines the author had previously done and it shows. Some of the stories are only a few pages long with no real resolution and all of them are basically just half-baked standard anime plot lines mixed together with no real care. I'm sure this book would still appeal to a certain group of people, but if you want coherent story lines I would stay clear.
February 20, 2018
Sci Fi mix up mash up told mostly thru pictures combined of different elements such as funk, manga, street, and little psychedelia.
February 7, 2022
Uma intrigante mistura de influências estéticas, entre a banda desenhada independente, ficção científica, manga e anime, estéticas do digital e videojogos. O resultado é vibrante, cru, um comic cheio de eletricidade e dinamismo.
April 25, 2022
Contrary to many other reviews, I thought this collection of zines were fabulous! I was immediately drawn in by the art and saturation of colors, and while the stories are just fun and silly, I thoroughly enjoyed each character’s story.
September 2, 2017
OK. I like the intentionally rough artwork and bright colors, but the plots are pretty thin, and the narrative flow is just very "hey this is what's happening, lots talk about it exhaustively."
August 6, 2019
Love the art. Very tongue-in-cheek.
April 17, 2023
Dream Skills and Paisley should be it’s own thing.
Just sayin’.
Just sayin’.
August 31, 2017
I picked this book up because it looked visually cool, and it came recommended from a customer who who mainly purchases anthologies of up and coming artists with unusual art. He's a big fan of Brandon Graham and Emma Ríos's Island #1, which I also enjoy. Unfortunately, like a few of the stories that ran in Island, this book looked really interesting, but it just didn't hold my focus long enough for me to enjoy it.
Lewis's art falls into the Modern American Artists Heavily Influenced By Manga category, and like the most successful of those artists, he brings his own flair to it. It's cool that Image let him go through the stories he initially released as zines, and share them with a broader audience, but I wish they'd brought another colorist in. The vibrant and simple color schemes work really well on some pages, but on many of them it obscures his line work, which is a shame because his black and white pages and the more detailed colored pages at the end show that his linework sings when not muddled by the colors.
Story-wise, I just wasn't interested in it. I recommend it for people looking for manga influenced mech-suited action comics but want something visually different from the usual fare, and without a tight narrative structure.
Lewis's art falls into the Modern American Artists Heavily Influenced By Manga category, and like the most successful of those artists, he brings his own flair to it. It's cool that Image let him go through the stories he initially released as zines, and share them with a broader audience, but I wish they'd brought another colorist in. The vibrant and simple color schemes work really well on some pages, but on many of them it obscures his line work, which is a shame because his black and white pages and the more detailed colored pages at the end show that his linework sings when not muddled by the colors.
Story-wise, I just wasn't interested in it. I recommend it for people looking for manga influenced mech-suited action comics but want something visually different from the usual fare, and without a tight narrative structure.
September 29, 2017
I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway, and I fully support the idea of providing a platform for new artists to expose their work.
The first story may have been the least ambitious, but of the stories in this volume, it also felt the most complete. Commentary on the proliferation of social media sharing sites is not new, but it was well executed, and most important, it was fun. Revisiting the character and situation in a second story in the same collection unfortunately exposed a limitation.
Dead Naked was my second favorite, more ambitious, and attempting to estblish a world, but the dialogue and the connection from chapter to chapter were not as tight. The the sci-fi western is also not new, but given time and space to develop, the story has some potential.
I had trouble with the style and content of the other full length stories, or rather pieces of stories. They were full of energy and ideas, but they felt like the graphics in a college paper - and perhaps like those, they would be appreciated by a very specific audience.
I think it is interesting to see how an artist presents their own work, and to see those early sketches before they have been working for others and their style changes.
I will be passing my copy along so someone else can appreciate it.
The first story may have been the least ambitious, but of the stories in this volume, it also felt the most complete. Commentary on the proliferation of social media sharing sites is not new, but it was well executed, and most important, it was fun. Revisiting the character and situation in a second story in the same collection unfortunately exposed a limitation.
Dead Naked was my second favorite, more ambitious, and attempting to estblish a world, but the dialogue and the connection from chapter to chapter were not as tight. The the sci-fi western is also not new, but given time and space to develop, the story has some potential.
I had trouble with the style and content of the other full length stories, or rather pieces of stories. They were full of energy and ideas, but they felt like the graphics in a college paper - and perhaps like those, they would be appreciated by a very specific audience.
I think it is interesting to see how an artist presents their own work, and to see those early sketches before they have been working for others and their style changes.
I will be passing my copy along so someone else can appreciate it.
February 5, 2018
This is a great anthology of zines! First off all the main stories located in this anthology are very creative and full of thought provoking statements about today’s youth culture. As a teen librarian I’m so on the fence if this collection is appropriate for my high school readers but honestly this whole collection reflects them.
The rad art work is certainly one of the best I’ve seen in a long while and the neon page colors throughout make you feel like your taking a trip through the 80s and 90s. It’s also very anime influenced so it’s a great bridge for manga readers to move over to American writers.
This collection will absolutely sell in any library and absolutely could give youth who aspire to be comic book artists and writers a real boost of inspiration. The collection does contain drug use and nudity but that’s contained to one story. Some of the other stories are just violent and contain language but at the end of the day these aren’t concerns considering that’s every book in today’s YA culture.
All in all I love this series and I’ll be picking up more of it when it becomes available. I’ll be following this series on my own but I might hold off on adding it to my library shelf
The rad art work is certainly one of the best I’ve seen in a long while and the neon page colors throughout make you feel like your taking a trip through the 80s and 90s. It’s also very anime influenced so it’s a great bridge for manga readers to move over to American writers.
This collection will absolutely sell in any library and absolutely could give youth who aspire to be comic book artists and writers a real boost of inspiration. The collection does contain drug use and nudity but that’s contained to one story. Some of the other stories are just violent and contain language but at the end of the day these aren’t concerns considering that’s every book in today’s YA culture.
All in all I love this series and I’ll be picking up more of it when it becomes available. I’ll be following this series on my own but I might hold off on adding it to my library shelf
January 21, 2019
I really liked this.
I saw this guys name on a comic I liked maybe 10 years ago (has it been that long?) called Sharknife, which I think only ran for a handful of issues. It must have left quite an impression because I recognised the art style almost immediately across the room and bough this as soon as I recalled the name.
Its a rage of micro-comics and fragmentary short stories from a collection of zines done in Lewis's highly particular graffiti/videogame influenced art style. We got a bunch of offbeat hero stories and some cosmic absurd stories and funny stuff.
My favourite is the Bat Skater story, in the backmatter Lewis says he did this originally to be scanned down on a smartphone and then arranged the vertical columns in two for the comic.
The sharp black and white of the art and the (more) careful discipline of the story produces a sense of informational starkness and clarity I really like. I like Lewis dirty too, which is his usual self, but I do appreciate the very-slightly-more-icy framing and storytelling we get here.
There's smarter stuff I could probably say if I had the time. I will keep buying this guys stuff because I like his ways.
I saw this guys name on a comic I liked maybe 10 years ago (has it been that long?) called Sharknife, which I think only ran for a handful of issues. It must have left quite an impression because I recognised the art style almost immediately across the room and bough this as soon as I recalled the name.
Its a rage of micro-comics and fragmentary short stories from a collection of zines done in Lewis's highly particular graffiti/videogame influenced art style. We got a bunch of offbeat hero stories and some cosmic absurd stories and funny stuff.
My favourite is the Bat Skater story, in the backmatter Lewis says he did this originally to be scanned down on a smartphone and then arranged the vertical columns in two for the comic.
The sharp black and white of the art and the (more) careful discipline of the story produces a sense of informational starkness and clarity I really like. I like Lewis dirty too, which is his usual self, but I do appreciate the very-slightly-more-icy framing and storytelling we get here.
There's smarter stuff I could probably say if I had the time. I will keep buying this guys stuff because I like his ways.
April 7, 2020
Experimental color-splosion of anime-and video game inspired short stories.
As a cartoonist myself, I find this collection inspiring on every level; from the character design,
the social media/video game influences and fantastically diverse color layouts.
If you expect coherent and compelling stories, you'll be disappointed though.
Almost every story feels fragmented. Characters don't develop and themes and story arcs
seem absent.
Definitely get this for the lush visuals!
I'm a fan.
As a cartoonist myself, I find this collection inspiring on every level; from the character design,
the social media/video game influences and fantastically diverse color layouts.
If you expect coherent and compelling stories, you'll be disappointed though.
Almost every story feels fragmented. Characters don't develop and themes and story arcs
seem absent.
Definitely get this for the lush visuals!
I'm a fan.
Read
September 3, 2017A one-man anthology, each story with its own colour palette but all in the same stylistic arena - think somewhere between Paul Pope and Brandon Graham, except quicker. The stories are somewhere near Scott Pilgrim territory, especially 'Dream Skills', where greater control of auras has made guns obsolete, and swordfighting more cool than genuinely dangerous. None of it is terribly deep, but sometimes verve and charm are enough.
(Edelweiss ARC)
(Edelweiss ARC)
November 30, 2022
It was definitely an interesting ride.
The comic is a collection of stories ranging from one to about 40 osh pages. Some are more entertaining than others, as is to be expected.
The art style is very interesting and stilized. But it's also definitely a question of your preferences as a reader. Personally I quite enjoyed it and all the different color combinations from each comic, tho one or two were a bit difficult to follow.
The comic is a collection of stories ranging from one to about 40 osh pages. Some are more entertaining than others, as is to be expected.
The art style is very interesting and stilized. But it's also definitely a question of your preferences as a reader. Personally I quite enjoyed it and all the different color combinations from each comic, tho one or two were a bit difficult to follow.
August 13, 2024
As with any anthology, not everything can be a winner, and there's some stuff here that could have done with a bit more cooking. But Corey Lewis' energetic storytelling and bold design sense carry even the weaker stories, and there are good ideas everywhere.
My favourite is Dream Skills, which feels like the most thought out and developed, and spins out of a strong central concept. I'd happily read a lot more of that one.
My favourite is Dream Skills, which feels like the most thought out and developed, and spins out of a strong central concept. I'd happily read a lot more of that one.
August 15, 2025
Really lovely art with a clear voice and bold color story. Stories that feel familiar but unique at the same time. Several parts that made me cackle, including "we sorriez!" I think that low ratings for this simply come from people expecting something different going in. I love that it was a mishmash of different ideas and storyline that feel kind of slice of life like, not always over explained because that's not the point.
December 11, 2018
A lot of fragmented ideas and color palette experimentation. Some of the spaghetti stuck, but a lot of it slid down the wall. As light, thoughtless reading/viewing, Sun Bakery does just fine, but I'd be much more committed if the stories and action sequences were better thought out and executed. Good concepts though.
2.5/5
2.5/5
February 25, 2024
Just good fun. Silly, funny, read that also explores some interesting sci-fi worldbuilding ideas. Animated by an eager and playful spirit akin to Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series, this colorful collection reads almost like a celebration of its own inspirations. I think it's more fun if you share this creator's love for some of those stories and characters. Like, I would definitely read more episodic Pokemon Snap Samus Aran adventures.
Thoroughly enjoyable for what it is: a spunky collection of early zine comics. I have rated it as such. Leave your expectations for anything otherwise behind when you crack this one open and you should have a good time.
Thoroughly enjoyable for what it is: a spunky collection of early zine comics. I have rated it as such. Leave your expectations for anything otherwise behind when you crack this one open and you should have a good time.
June 14, 2018
Swords!
Colourful, frenetic, inventive and unrestrained, Sun Bakery's 'straight-outta-zineland' series of vignettes and whimsical notions is way too much fun. If you enjoy Bryan Lee O'Malley, Metroid, cool swords, cyberpunk, mecha, manga and zine fare, you ought to check it out.
Colourful, frenetic, inventive and unrestrained, Sun Bakery's 'straight-outta-zineland' series of vignettes and whimsical notions is way too much fun. If you enjoy Bryan Lee O'Malley, Metroid, cool swords, cyberpunk, mecha, manga and zine fare, you ought to check it out.
October 9, 2017
Stylish and entertaining; seems heavily inspired by Brandon Graham, perhaps, but that's no bad thing at all. The anthology format here was also fun.
August 5, 2019
Beautiful art and hilarious short stories. I love this book!
November 15, 2019
Well, that was weird. Kinda fun though.
December 29, 2019
Great art but the content is under developed and juvenile.
February 18, 2022
Imagine being an Instagram influencer by taking pics of snails having sex. Okay well if you're done imagining now I guess I'll just end my review or whatever.
July 21, 2018
Beautiful collection of fun and funky short zines by Corey Lewis, who I desperately need a skate deck from. I've bought a few of these zines before through cons and Oly Comics Fest and loved the vitality of their work. Fans of Jim Mahfood and Studio Trigger would have a good time with this book.
For those confused as to what zines actually are, it will be a hard sell, as it is by nature fragmented and loose. For those who have some idea of what this expectation means, they won't be expecting Alan Moore and will find a lot to enjoy on their porch some summer evening as I did.
For those confused as to what zines actually are, it will be a hard sell, as it is by nature fragmented and loose. For those who have some idea of what this expectation means, they won't be expecting Alan Moore and will find a lot to enjoy on their porch some summer evening as I did.
December 28, 2023
I got this from the new arrivals list from my library on a whim without knowing anything about it. I really liked the art style and the way all the lil runs of each comic had the same color schemes. Some of the plots were a little lost to me, but I didn't really mind. My favorite was Dream Skills but I also liked Arem, especially the concept.
*
and I loved the idea of a heavily armored badass traversing the galaxy, only to upload interesting pictures and videos to her friends, followers, and fans.
Much love to science and logic, though my comics are fairly neither.
*
and I loved the idea of a heavily armored badass traversing the galaxy, only to upload interesting pictures and videos to her friends, followers, and fans.
Much love to science and logic, though my comics are fairly neither.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews