Review: The Vault of Michael Allred #1

The Vault of Michael Allred Number One

By Michael Allred & Laura Allred

Published by AAA Pop Comics. $6.99

I'm a great admirer of Mike Allred's work, and yet my first reaction to this was a negative one. As Allred admits at the beginning, it's the most self-indulgent project he's ever done. It's a scrapbook of his early years as a cartoonist, with running commentary by Allred, for seven bucks an issue. I guess I bought it more for the promise of some rare artwork, and there's plenty of it--recolored by Laura in many cases--but it's also more than a little obsessive in its compiling of every bit of press about Dead Air, Grafik Muzik and the early days of Madman, to the point of printing every little article it can jam in, newspaper and magazine formats crammed in so as to be almost unreadable.

Though it's still a bit pricey, it's saved by Allred's charming commentary and the wealth of images, and even his earliest art here is usually pretty good. It's absolutely for fans only, but I'm a fan, so there you go.