Top Shelf: Under the Big Top

Rating:
Summary: great anthology! must read!
Review: once in 5 years you bump into such a great collection. circus is my beloved subject and I enjoyed many stories and most of the drawings.

Rating:
Summary: Another Solid Effort
Review: Top Shelf: Under the Big Top mostly ignores the circus theme, which is good news for me since I'm scared of clowns. Weighing in at 176 pages, this is the biggest issue yet, and probably the best, featuring stories by Jeff Levine, Dylan Horrocks, Dean Haspiel, Garret Izumi, Josh Simmons, Matt Madden, Jeff Johnson, K. Thor Jensen, Jeff Roysdon and many others. I especially enjoyed the 20 full color pages by the Actus Tragicus gang (particularly Yirmi Pinkus' freaky "Louise" ), Carrie Golus' wry "Persuasive Essay" and Mack White's "Operation Blue Beam". Borrowing a bit from its "big brother", Fantagraphics legendary anthology Blab, Big Top features several text pieces as well, including a primer on French language comics and an update on the unappreciated Pander Bros. My only complaint is the decision to include a strip by Mike Diana, who keeps getting work in major anthologies despite having nothing to say.