The Polish comics anthology Soap Zine is back with a third issue of 36 pages printed in 125 copies. The contents of this comic-book, focused on “crazy animals” and made entirely by Polish cartoonists, are often extemporaneous, in fact several contributions consist of only one page, but the reading is pleasant and some pieces are noteworthy, as for example the pages by Piotr Wymyslowski, at the beginning and at the end of the anthology, where a deliberately childish graphic style joins a brilliant text. I liked also the single page by Anna Kaczmarczyk on sex between hamsters, the small animals portrayed by Rybb while arguing about who is the best Beatle, or Renata Gąsiorowska, guest star of the zine with eight pages, in which she draws the strange inhabitants of her Crazy Zoo Shop, as the infinite dog and the fractal turtle.
Space Cats: The Beginning is a 16-page black and white comic-book, the solo project of Jakub Grochola, Soap Zine’s editor along with Szymon Szelc. The mood is always ironic, the drawings in cartoon-style, while the story tells of a group of cats able to transform themselves into two-legged creatures thanks to a miraculous machine, leaving for the outer space in search of the Kabo stone, an acronym for Kill All Bad Dogs. The appendix Space Cats on Mars confirms Grochola’s taste for zany gags but shows also a more elaborate style. The second issue of the saga is due soon, as the fourth Soap Zine, which will host international artists for the first time. The submissions are open until the 28th of July: here you can find all the infos.
In the meantime, you can purchase these two books at Soap Zine on line store, at a cost of $ 5 each.
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