This most welcome burst of creativity from Obscuro un-legend Steve Willis comes almost two decades after his last full-length comic. Warning: reading this many Steve Willis comics in a row may tend to make your grip on reality waver.
13. CRANIUM FRENZY #11 (Steve Willis)
This is a wild ride. Willis tells his story backwards and forwards at the same time. Morty the Dog returns in a hilarious role.
14. CRANIUM FRENZY #12
Here Morty narrates a fantasy where all the jerks in the world stop being jerks.
15. CRANIUM FRENZY #13
This changes format with many short strips that play with form. A longer strip with an unusual depiction of the devil is a highlight (see cover above).
16. CRANIUM FRENZY #14
The main story here is a nightmare world of tiny men and a cyborg monkey head appendage.
17. CRANIUM FRENZY #15
The cover feature is a short about "Milton Teagle" (Google him) and a mysterious headband. I love the longer, convoluted Morty the Dog story in this one.
18. CRANIUM FRENZY #16
The best part of this new run of comix from Steve Willis is the sheer variety from issue to issue, a half dozen stories in this one ranging from a penguin beak salad to collapsing into one's own cranium.
19. CRANIUM FRENZY #17
A weirdo camping trip starring all of Willis’s characters from the above cover. Secrets of Morty the Dog revealed, maybe.
20. CRANIUM FRENZY #18
Some wonderful visual experiments this issue, so much fun to see Steve Willis still playing with the formal language of comics after more than five decades
21. CRANIUM FRENZY #19
A booklength surreal quest by Morty the Dog culminating in a turn as a stand-up comedian and a meta conclusion with creator Steve Willis (creator and created have an eternally adversarial relationship)
22. CRANIUM FRENZY #20
I guess all of Steve Willis’s comix are autobiographical in the sense his subconscious is spilling directly onto the page. However, I really enjoyed this look back at some of his memories of the unusual personalities of the Pacific Northwest.
23. CRANIUM FRENZY #21
Despite the chronic cranial elbowitis on the cover, the final grim story is my favorite. It's this dark undercurrent running near the surface of a lot of Willis’s stories that perfectly complements the dream-like nature of his comix.
24. CRANIUM FRENZY #22
The middle story has multiple narratives happening at the same time, the thread with Morty arguing with a pretentious crowd observing the main narrative is hilarious.
25. CRANIUM FRENZY #23
I don't even have words for this improvisational insanity, not for Willis newcomers as your virgin brain may implode.
26. CRANIUM FRENZY #24
The epic Mini-comics Crossword Puzzle is the highlight here. Historian and Historical Figure Bruce Chrislip was later announced as the only one to solve the puzzle.
27. CRANIUM FRENZY #25
A collection of one-page strips. I particularly like the grotesque creatures on page 12.
28. CRANIUM FRENZY #26
A booklength tribute to the history and tribulations of left-handed people. Highly recommended.
29. CRANIUM FRENZY #27
"The Rupture" combining a talking chihuahua and people who wear their bike helmets inside with a post-apocalyptic culling of various other annoying groups of people. (A bit of a sequel to #12, in essence)
Enjoy this regular dose of McCleary Madness while it lasts.
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