Smoke Signal

(www.desertislandbrooklyn.com) This Brooklyn-based broadsheet can make a good case for being the best comix compilation in the Universe. Combining large doses of syndicated underground strips like Kaz's Underground and Tony Millionaire's Maakies with long and short absurd adventures from the ink pens of Michael DeForge, Sam Henderson, Jim Rugg, Michael Kupperman,Gary Lieb, John Porcelinno, Brian Ralph, and others, as well as gems from the archives of Bill Griffith, the late, great John Severin, and Alejandro Jodorowsky (!). What's most diggable about this righteous rag is that all the contributors manage to be underground, subversive, and avant-garde without sacrificing the "funny" in the funny pages. These are really enjoyable narratives and pseudo-narratives that may be all over the art map but all tap the joy vein dutifully.