Week of 6/9/2025

Bob takes the bus on The Shapes, I announce more events, and on Sammy the Critic, I review the Midwestern comics anthology The Rust Belt Review Volume 6.

The Shapes

Bob’s 1st Day of Work 3-4

News

Event Announcements

June Art Market

Tonight from 5-9 PM, I’ll be vending outside the Historic Kenwood-located Daydream Shop in St. Pete!

Dharma Art Market

Can’t go to St Pete. today? No issue because you can catch me in Largo vending at Dharma Kava Lounge’s monthly art market on Tuesday from 7-11 PM!

Hey Market

Next Saturday from 7-11 PM, I’ll be at Hey! Market at Cafe Hey. There’ll be a stamp rally where, if you collect enough stamps from participating vendors (minimum $5 purchase required), you’ll earn a free prize!

Sammy the Critic

The Rust Belt Review Volume 7 Review

Sean Knickerbocker’s anthology The Rust Belt Review is back with a seventh issue, containing 132 pages of comics from mainly Midwestern-based or bred cartoonists. After a rather impressive sixth volume last year, does this installment live up to the same standards?

For Your Amusement — Ignatz-nominated cartoonist M.S. Harkness (Time Under Tension) hits the jackpot with an absolute banger of a memoir comic recounting her sexual escapade with a fellow she meets at a pinball bar, who turns out to have a criminal past that’ll take you aback. Elegantly employing a pinball layout throughout with metaphorical imagery, you’d think this narrative choice would be confusing, but due to how consistently it’s used, it is impressively easy to follow. Dividing the comic into two parts in the same issue made for an even more entralling read!

Sights My Own — The Audra Show creator Audra Stang contributes with a poignant story in the Star Valley universe about single mother Vicki Lane, who is forced to be the bearer of bad news when her daughter Adelaide’s friend, also her boss Ted’s son, dies. Stang has adeptly demonstrated her grounded writing skills in her memoir comics and previous Star Valley-set material, but this one unlocks a layer of emotional depth and nuance unseen before.

Most of the Star Valley comics are written from the kids’ point of view, so seeing the adult characters’ feelings take the focus is a welcome shift. If the rest of the book continues with this caliber of quality, I may have to consider it for my eventual end-of-the-year rankings.

Best of Three by Sean Knickerbocker — This is not the best of three. Like I’ve said in the previous Rust Belt issue review, this ongoing heist comic is being serialized across multiple issues. While things are clearly escalating, I didn’t have enough context to really care about any of the hijinks on-page.

Happiness is the Warm Puppy — In a similar vein to The Angriest Dog in the World, Elias Gonzalez depicts a sequence of four-panel strips starring the puppy Shluppy, who’s neglected in the yard, overhearing his owners’ conversations. Gonzalez nailed it in subtly presenting this poor guy’s gradual descent to madness, culminating in a scene of bloody carnage galore!

How to Walk — Valerie Light continues with her ballet memoir comics in #7. Unfortunately, this installment didn’t interest me as much. It could have benefited from having more of a central focus to zero in on, like #6 did with its exploration of dance and gender etiquette.

OkCryptid 2 — Matt MacFarland delves once more into the dating world of cryptids in this follow-up comic, this time turning to attention to Yvonne, a young working woman looking for love in LA. While it didn’t draw me in as much as its predecessor, this was a decently enjoyable comic. I like the overall concept of exploring a different cryptid in each installment.

The Diamond Highway by Drew B. Hall — Dr. Marboro is sent on a mission to the titular wormhole for research purposes. This wormhole leads to a cosmic dimension where she bumps into a sentient root who goes off on her for not initially recognizing their sentience. The root’s meandering ranting reminded me of those improvised bits in Rick and Morty. Amusing stuff.

Playboy Dan Pt. 2 by David G. Caldwell — I have conflicting opinions about this follow-up comic. Part of what made the first one so entertaining to read was the mystery of Dan’s eccentricity, which allowed the reader to theorize alongside the other characters about him. Showcasing his personal life thus defeats that appeal. That said, if you are going to open the Pandora’s Box to a Noodle Incident, a wholesome twist beats an edgy one competing with the inherently morbid human imagination.

Welcome to Hell by Abby Kacen — Speaking of an inherently morbid human imagination, Hell squarely fits that criteria for me! I love how Kacen envisions it as an individualized experience reflective of one’s personal distastes.

There were also one-page comics by Alex Nall in between each story, which served as nice little transitional segments.

Comics Ranked (best to worst):

1. Sights My Own

2. For Your Amusement

3. Happiness is a Warm Puppy

4. Welcome to Hell

5. The Diamond Highway

6. OkCryptid 2

7. Playboy Dan Pt. 2

8. How to Walk

9. Best of Three

The top three comics are easily the best short comics to come out this year so far, blowing everything else out of the water. “Welcome to Hell” and “The Diamond Highway” were pretty good, while “OkCryptid 2” and “Playboy Dan Pt. 2” were decent, and finally, the bottom-ranked comics were disappointing.

While not as consistently strong as Volume 6, The Rust Belt Volume 7 is still better than a lot of anthologies out there, so I’ll still be looking forward to what they put out next.

You can buy the book on Sean Knickerbocker’s website.

Thank you, Sean Knickerbocker, for this free copy in exchange for an honest review.