One of the best things about being an animation voice actor and cartoonist is the swag. I’ve received toys from manufacturers and fans for ever character I’ve voiced 10 fold. I’ve been given music CDs, DVDs, Pocky and video games. Oh, and comics. Lord, how I loves me some comics. The latest is one of the greatest. It’s a collection from the webcomic “Goats” by Jonathan Rosenberg called “Infinite Typewriters.”
This is funny stuff. It is stream of consciousness writing at its best. Jon Rosenberg may meticulously plan these strips out but they don’t read that way. It’s more like some twisted episode of “Who’s Line is it Anyway?” that started with one subject and never ended. It just mutated and grew into this grand, dream-like monster of a skit.
The inside back cover states that Rosenberg taught himself how to draw comics and it shows but only in the best possible sense. Like many of my favorite self taught cartoonists (Wendy Pini, Dave Sim, Peter Bagge…to name a few) it is the very fact that no one told them how to do it that they were able to make so many wonderful artistic discoveries and Jon is no exception. Distinct from so many works that look like what has come before, Goats looks like Goats.
Word of advice, if you’re going to the Goats site for the first time, start at the beginning otherwise you will get lost. I made that mistake the first time I went there, didn’t understand and just decided it wasn’t for me. Thank God Jon gave me this copy of Infinite Typewriters to read because unlike gag a day strips, there’s a soap opera (or Dragonball Z) quality to Goats. In other words you need to know who these guys are to “get it” but you will love meeting them.
Please visit Jon’s site and buy his book (or just read it for free online, ya cheap bastards).
