I love the idea of melding music and comics into a 'graphic mixtape'. The concept of being able to have a diverse and varied sampling of different artists, writers, and cartoonists is a strong one, although there are some places where the mixtape analogy is also what causes my complaints about this ambitious project.
Just like a real mixtape, this has some stuff in it that doesn't really fit. There are a few stories that are clearly meant for children, yet other parts of the book contain curses and sexual material (without nudity). It makes me wonder who the intended audience for this book really is.
My other complaint is that many of the stories are too short - just getting my interest before they are over.
On the other hand, this book contains some brilliant comics. I especially liked Jonathan Hickman's short appearance, as well as Mark Sable and Rob Guillory's strange midget Jonah Hex tale. Tim Seely and Jeremy Dale contribute an excellent zombie love story, and Erik Larsen's Cheeseburger Head might be the best thing I've ever seen him do. Joe Flood's story is nice, as is Chris Moreno's Ninja Platypus. Marcus White and Ed Tadem's ghost story is good, as is Richard Starking and Phil Yeh's historical examination of Genghis Khan. Robert Love and David Walker contribute 'The Blind Monkey Style', an Afro-Samurai/Ghost Dog kind of Daredevil story, which should be a regular series.
The two stories that really seem to take the 'mixtape' aspect seriously are Moritat's excellent tale of a struggling jazz musician, and Jim Mahfood's story of unrequited love.
Parts of this book are brilliant, some are merely average, and only a few stories were distasteful. I would like to see more from some of these artists, and look forward to getting ahold of volumes 2 and 3.
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