hi, let me start this engine up that's hosted by Neocities.

THE COOL BEAN REVIEW ARCHIVE

kid you not.

salvaged these from using the Wayback Machine and copy-pasting my almost decade old writing in txt format. thank some russian pr0n spam bots for booting me off my own webpage.

there's still some comics i still cherish, ones i completely forgot existed, out of print, never made it past issue 0/1, and some that are irrevocably terrible. some of these creators did go on to be big two regulars, some are out of contact, others have bowed out of comics, one has since passed, and another has scuttled away after they were outed in a hashtag me too incident.

i was a huge cheerleader for one particular book back in the day, but i wasn't invited to do guest art on a Kickstarter funded Christmas special. (did i insult you in some way, stephen? D: ) that's not the only listed instance where i've been iced out or ever working with my favourite comics, of course.

the only review i omitted was my own april fool's review of finn and fish, it is unfunny and probably screwed my cred with the book. thank god i have kitteenies now.

why did i stop doing reviews of irish comics? anxiety, depression and (redacted)al ideations finally dropkicked me in late 2014. not a great time when your meds stop you from eating for two weeks and being the only graduate to turn up for their awards in class that year too.

i did lean towards having a preference to give glowing reviews of my friends' works, as the only other review website at the time merely did reviews like a press release, without actually divulging the quality of the content. these works unsurprisingly were made by large, unchallenged comaderies of men (irish comics heroes!) who were lauded for just bringing comics out, not necessarily good comics. some went on to have deliious, envious careers at the Big Two and The Almost as Big Dozen and remembered to securely pull the ladder up behind them.

i thought the list would be much bigger, but here's the whole tally. small content warning for swearing, homophobia, and terrible tropes within the reviews. enjoy.

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