Blab! #5

Blab! #5

by Monte Beauchamp (Editor)

Inside Blab! #6's super-hip cover by Richard Sala, you'll find a showcase for cutting-edge cartoonists. Skip Williamson introduces us to his drunken cartoon libertine "Necropolis Keester." Doug Allen's lovable character Steven makes another Blab! appearance in "Steven--in the Showdown." Frank Stack and Joe Coleman have illustrated character "portrait" prose pieces. Party-girl Mary Fleener has a two-page strip on the inside-front and inside-back covers called "As American as Mom, Apple Pie and Martinis." In his skewed style Richard Sala presents his comics story "Where Is Christine Brooder?," featuring a washed-up detective, a mysterious "pillow killer," and a reference to Gogol's Bird Museum. And finally, balancing out the humor of Gary Lieb's "Pets That Drink" and Justin Green's "Great Moments in Alcoholism," is a sobering look at real-life alcoholic cartoonists (a profile by Monte Beauchamp, John Petrie, and Dan Clowes).

Genres: Comics, Art

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Blab machine is running pretty smoothly by this point. We’ve got comics from Richard Sala, Joe Coleman, Skip Williamson, Lloyd Dangle, Doug Allen, Daniel Clowes, Drew Friedman, Spain Rodriguez …

Ray Zone contributes an article on crime comics, and James Russell Clowes contributes a short story, “Murder Ain’t A Crime,” that takes on some unexpected resonance here in the early part of 2021.

Joe Coleman is the star of this volume for me. Not only did he do the cover, but he's also the subject of an extensive interview conducted by Monte Beauchamp. And we also get his story, “Carl Panzram, #31614,” which is one of my favorite pieces that he's ever done.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some notable contents:
Drew Friedman - Wacky World
Richard Sala - The Big Dark Zero
Spain - Wilcoxson and Nussbaum
Dan Clowes - One for the Father

Not much in this issue that hooked me.