This is a fairly amazing comic, but like CheebCheeb, I could barely read it. Some pages are almost all typed text, written in a crazy imitation of Victorian-novel speak. Still, I've spent hours looking at it. It's naïvely drawn, I suppose, but the amount of energy and detail that Jaime put into this thing is really thrilling to look at. It's a bizarre comic: Some things are in perspective, somethings aren't, and there's insane crosshatching everywhere, but this is still amazing drawing. And it's not just the manic/scribbly (über-scribbly at times) nature of it: Jaime makes beautiful drawings and loves to draw the details of things. He likes to draw hands picking things up, and people opening and closing doors. A cynic might say, "Yes, he does this well in spite of himself," but they'd be wrong. Jaime is a true artist and this is such an amazing first project (I assume it's his first big comic). It's not just amazing for its ambition; it's amazing because Jaime makes art like no one else. He's coming completely out of left field. I can't wait to see what he does next. I'm worried he'll get a little too refined too quickly, but I think he's smart and strange enough not to.

Visit www.cantaloupecounty.com.

After hearing so much about Eamon Epsey lately, I was left a little cold when looking over someone else's shoulder and reading one of his books. But now, after finally sitting down on my own with his work, I'm just as much a fan as anyone else. Epsey's lines are heavy and blocky like Leif Goldberg's, but way more cartoony. Goldberg seems to draw a geometric universe, but Epsey's is a geometric universe with a lot of finesse. There is the thrill of looking at something weird and blocky and alien, but with the added appeal of the finesse to draw you into the story.

Epsey is a true storyteller. He lets his expressive style overpower your eye, but his work isn't Fort-Thunder style mark-making. Yes, he makes marks, but he's found a way to really make big, expressive marks and not let the discussion end there. You get as much feeling from Epsey as you do from Brinkman, but your eye knows exactly what to read with Epsey. (That's not a knock against Brinkman; I think the fact that Brinkman's comics are labor-intensive to read is part of their appeal).

The stories in this mini are perfect little cartoon stories, very entertaining and very funny. Epsey has a bunch of little minis floating around, but this is as good a place as any to start. Believe what you hear about this guy, because he really is that good.

Go to www.usscatastrophe.com to buy his comics, or contact him at eamonespey@hotmail.com.

Todd Webb is doing diary comics, and he can draw pretty good. I think the knock on a lot of these new Kochalka-era diary strips is that they're dashed off (read: Joey Manley). Webb can draw as good as Kochalka, sometimes. However, he revels in the mundane. I don't want to fight the war of "can mundane be art?" Of course it can. But Webb is not presenting the mundane as art. He's presenting the mundane as mundane: lots of "I listened to a record. And it was cool." That's fine and sort of pleasing, but not enough for a good artist like Webb. Since Vanessa Davis published Spaniel Rage, the ante for this kind of stuff has been raised. Spaniel Rage is about the mundane, I suppose, but you forget that because Davis is so good at writing about her day and the emotions she went through. It's fine to be a casual poet, Todd, but the emotions you're having everyday are not this casual (I assume).

Still, Webb's a talented guy and he's working hard. He can draw and will get better.

Visit www.toddbot.com.

I think Holden is at his best when he's drawing landscapes. The curves of his trees are especially nice. There's one panel (or page... this comic consists of full pages shrunk down and collaged onto a black background) where a very nicely rendered tree juts up against a red brick wall. It's a strong, skillful image and a nice one to look at, but there's a figure in the drawing that looks like it was drawn by someone else. Holden's human figures are skillfully drawn, but more animation-style then his backgrounds. Holden's backgrounds are poetic, while his figures are slick-cartoony. There is something interesting about seeing them side-by-side, but ultimately they seem to dillute each others' respective power. Holden understands weight and composition, and he knows how to draw figures; it's just a question of merging everything to make things click. There are already some moments in The Potion that click wonderfully.

Visit www.saltyweepings.com.

GoGo
Kristopher Kjolberg

The big story at SPX this year was Dongery, a group of Norwegian cartoonists. What's amazing about Dongery is that every comic they had for sale was really, amazingly good -- and they had a lot of comics for sale. If any of these books were the latest offering of an established art-comics star, people would be taking about the wonderful and exciting new direction this artist had taken. These guys can draw as good as anyone around, and their comics work as comics. Not just pretty drawings or funny dialogue... whole, complete, functioning cartooning. The desire is to compare their work to Gary Panter (or whomever), but its so much closer to old-time newspaper strips in terms of pacing that you don't want to compare it to anything at all. It's just really great and worth your time.

I think every should go to www.dongery.no and order everything they have. My personal favorites were two comics by Kris Kjolberg (one drawn with Bendik Kaltenborn). If you only get two Dongery books, get these. Gogo is a straightforward, "the character moves on a straight line" story, but Kjolberg comes up with an almost perfect drawing for each step the character takes. If Ray Johnson made comics, this would be the one he would make... hopefully.

Visit www.dongery.no.

Austin English is a cartoonist living in New York. His new book, Space, can be found at better comics shops.