I’ve been saving up my packages of mini comix from Adam Yeater to do one giant dump of a dispatch about them. Having this many to read really gave me an understanding about what he’s up to.
Yeater’s concepts feel like video games. Everything is built around a thing such as the Blood Desert, and a character moves through a landscape eating rancid mushrooms and shooting up zombies. It’s a concept that just keeps flowing from his brain, and these mini comix exhibit the basic elements that the larger format books use to create the narrative.
So let’s get started on this journey through piles of comix going from smallest to largest:
Micro Mini Comix 2 1/8 x 2 7/8, 8 pages.
Adam follows in the Steve Willis vein of making it impossible for collectors to get all of his stuff because he just makes a ton of it, and you’ll have to open up stapled packs that ruin their supposed “value” if you want to read them … which of course I did. The 4 pack of micro mini Blood Deserts are cleverly numbered on the back thanks to the number of eyes each pig mutant head happens to have. This is how you’ll know their order. 1 is a story about gas mask vs. zombie. Zombie loses! 2 our man eats more fly infested mushrooms. 3 Crow man slays a pig mutant. I liked the hidden double page spread that I had to view by reverse-opening the book to see in full that also worked as split pages in different parts of the story. A clever book-art trick making use of a hidden narrative like that. 4: Our man procures a zombie eyeball with his permanently offensive middle finger.
Mini Comix 4 ¼ x 2 ¾, 8 pages.
There are 3 Blood Desert comix in this format with the rounded corners. The first opens with our man in Tunix Arizona putting his foot down near some fly infested mushrooms. He takes a bite and loses his shit. In the second, he’s fishing in blood river and catches … not a fish. In the third, he hitches a ride on a giant crow. The fourth comic is called “Trash,” and it reminds me of cereal boxes where you can find hidden items in the picture. That reminds me … the Blood Desert concept would make a great cereal with a drawing on the back of the box with tons of hidden items for you to find (as you crunch on your marshmallows shaped like pig heads, mushrooms, and dicks).
Mini Comix 3 ½ x 4, 8 pages (cardstock).
Blood Desert “Nerds!” – Hmm! This all happens about 300 years from now. Interesting. This is about a character that finds his way into the forbidden landscape of violence is a comix nerd. What will our man think of him?
Blood Desert #2 – In which our man is confronted by a zombie. How will he respond? Nyuk! Nyuk!
Mini Comix 4.25 x 5.5, 8 pages.
Blood Desert “Bong” – At the compound bar, our man tries some new brew with gas mask friend.
Blood Desert (metal) – In which our man finds an instrument and plays a tune for death.
Blood Desert “The Wasteland” – Our hero finds himself in a showdown with a zombie. You can guess who wins.
Blood Desert (riso) – Adam does runs of these types of mini comix that are his experiments with risograph. Here I have a pink print of Blood Desert characters.
(Seek and Find) – A green cardstock of characters all jammed together. The challenge is to find the characters Adam lists for you on the back cover.
Spy Eye – Pipes and wires connect panels that offer a glimpse into a voyeuristic world of security cameras. Who is looking, and who is being watched? An exchange of contraband is made. A bird watcher is watched. A death is recorded.
Space Ship – Is a more organic interconnective network of cybernetic and parasitic creatures inhabiting vessels as they travel through spaces.
Lands of Knonx – A sea green risograph comic has a smaller copper toned comic nestled inside. It’s as if the comic itself has a parasite living inside it! But this is a story about a parasite and his vessel in search of water. They have an encounter (the comic within the comic) that guides them to the source.
Singularity – This is probably one of my favorites. Adam skillfully shows the slow progress of a poison that consumes the consumer of whatever they are viewing on their phone (social media, perhaps?).
Berserk! – It’s time to take down the hoard, as if it was your one last day! ‘Nuf said.
8.5 x 5.5 (Digest)
One Last Day – A rendering of an illness that seems to be taking over many people in the U.S. – a mass shooting. This is not for the faint of heart or those who have experienced trauma of this sort. It’s an earlier work of Adam’s from 2015 re-printed in 2020.
Blood Desert – I sure wish I had a pop up book of Blood Desert … oh wait! Thank you, Adam Yeater.
You can check out his long-format versions of Blood Desert, World of Knonx, and One Last Day (as well as other titles) at his website: https://onelastday.storenvy.com/
