The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 9 November 1998
by Shannon Wheeler
This is the first collection of comics reviewed in this collection of micro-reviews. Shannon Wheeler is enormously talented with an existential comic irony that he applies in these stories that vary from several page tales from previous publications to one-page newspaper comics. Too Much Coffee Man, for the uninitiated, is a "super" hero with an addiction to coffee and cigarettes, his most notable feature being an enormous coffee mug on his head. TMCM's compatriots are equally bizarre (i.e. Too Much German White Chocolate Woman with Almonds), but the frequent visual gags are not usually the core of the humor. Wheeler has a sharp wit that swings from topics as obvious as coffee, to death and politics. One line gags are rare, and the occasional quote from Balzac may be expected. Wheeler's drawing harks back to the alternative comics of the 1960s, and is equally sharp and unique. This reader first discovered TMCM in a San Diego coffee-house newspaper, and has been a fan ever since.
Also by Wheeler: [Too Much Coffee Man's Parade of Tirade]