‘Werewolf Jones and Sons’ #2 by Simon Hanselmann and Html Flowers
Hi, this is 'Werewolf Jones & Sons' issue two from Simon Hanselmann and Html Flowers. I'm gonna repeat a lot of what I've said in previous reviews of these guys' stuff but I think some of the finer points I always stress on apply even more when these two team up on a mini so fuck you I'm gonna repeat myself anyway. I'm not gonna go gushing here so much on their prowess as authors or artists insomuch to get a free drawing sent in the mail or a like on an instagram post so much as I want to convey to you, the reader, as I always have tried to convey, how much I believe these two are serious god damn old school joke and gag writers of a tradition going back to the days of Steve Allen. And where, individually and in their own projects, Hanselmann has been evolving his characters through a longer form mise´en scene of the culture of hanging out, the late 90s/early aughts, and the early days of social media wars and broken families in such a beautiful and mellow evolution of the tragicomedy and HTML Flowers weaves and casts his tales like incantations and spells in true shamanistic form to convey the crippling emotions and futility of chronic disease and the beauty and expanse of nature and emotion; it is so amazing that when the two of them, with their wholly unique and formed tangential visions, get together it feels like two guys in the office of Hanna Barbera working under deadline to crank out gags and make them good.
And thats what happens here, in two stories that perfectly encapsulate two different ways of telling a joke. In HTML flower's 'Herpes Creme' we get a steady and sharp snare drum like precision delivery of gag after gag in the Mel Brooks or Sid Cesar style as simple as any "guy walks into a doctors office" skit and just as every bit effective. To make every line a joke, every single line of dialogue a stab at the reader deeper and deeper into the funny bone, while still using it as effective dialogue to propel the story and never fall into exposition is comedy chops of the finest kind and thats what we get in the first little tale. The perfect skit tells one joke and it tells it over and over again without it ever getting boring or the reader noticing and damn if HTML flowers dont' pull it off here; he should be writing for SNL but theyre wimps over there and don't like comedy so we know that will never happen. And in the second, Hanselmann delivers on the slow build, as he has done before so gut bustingly right in pieces like his delightfully offensive "Owls Room". We go down a path that Hanselmann is becoming an expert at of taking us down that starts at mild comedy, paces itself evenly and steadily downward into glimpses of heart wrenchingly accurate portrayals of real tragedy, and then just as its got me questioning if this is gonna be a tale that just leaves me with the ol empathy sads by the finish he finally lands that punch to the face he's spent winding up this whole time, panel after panel without me noticing, and goes and nails the big joke that leaves jaw open and tears in the eyes. What we call that, friends, is the punchline.
I don't' think you can get this book, I'm pretty late in covering it as I always am in these reviews, but it seems there are a few charlatans on eBay trying to make a profit on reselling it if you really want to get it in your hands. Oh, and I should mention that I am quite proud that I did the absolute right thing one should do with a WWJ&S mini comic; I got drunk at the photo shoot and spilled cheap whiskey all over it. Now the paper is completely warped, wrinkled, and has that stale puke whiskey smell and that is exactly the condition it should be read in. #werewolfjones #simonhanselmann #htmlflowers #minicomic #comix
go to Hanselmanns bigcartel and look at all the stuff thats sold out that you cant buy: http://meggandmogg.bigcartel.com/
html flowers is the most important voice in underground comics and he has some minis available on his site so buy multiple copies right now: http://novisitors.bigcartel.com/
and support me on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/shfb














