Too Much Coffee Man: The Magazine

    (Adhesive, 2001-2005)
™ and © 2005 Adhesive Comics

The debut of the magazine stemming from the Too Much Coffee Man comic book (note the #11 designation) is confusing. Creator and publisher Shannon Wheeler writes that the comic-book format limited the audience he wants to reach (because many people don’t like comics), but the whole magazine is so slanted to the left (the vegetarian and PETA agenda, developing countries exploitation, etc.) that it will immediately alienate a large number of potential readers.

One truth the magazine painfully shows is that not many comics writers can successfully make the leap to non-comics writing. Jed Alexander reviews coffee-flavored ice creams and assigns a bovine disease to each one to “enlighten the viewer to the often excruciating infirmities that our fine bovines must suffer ...” Alexander is a fine artist with a unique style (check out his website at www.jedsite.itgo.com), but the article is simply not funny. It takes more than descriptions of bacterial diseases to make humor. Comics writer Dennis Eichhorn writes that the prison system “is a cruel gulag that enslaves and disenfranchises a sizable chunk of our citizenry” and makes valid points (though without any evidence) but conveniently fails to mention the other side, such as that most inmates have committed 20 to 30 crimes by the time they are sent to prison. Lowest Comic Denominator artist and publisher Kieron Dwyer hits a bullseye recounting a lawsuit against him by Starbucks. Jonah Peretti’s attempt to get Nike to personalize his shoes with the word “sweatshop” is also funny.

Where the magazine really shines is Wheeler’s specialty: comics. The Too Much Coffee Man character deals with such issues as eating meat but at the same time pokes fun at the people who worry so much about it. Wheeler’s editorial eye for comics is good, too, from the sick humor of Sam Isabell’s “Oh, Those Kids,” showing why chickens are funnier than dogs, to Peter Conrad’s “Ape 2001,” with the solution to editors who can’t be satisfied. Too bad there’s not a comics-only version of Too Much. Oh. That’s right — there was.

— Todd Haefer
Jump to issue:
  NotesWriterArtist
#12

September, 2001
Cover Price: $4.95
2 copies available from $7.00 		Shannon WheelerShannon Wheeler
#14


Cover Price: $4.95
1 copy available for $9.99 		Shannon WheelerShannon Wheeler
#20

April, 2004
Cover Price: $4.95
1 copy available for $4.25 		Shannon WheelerShannon Wheeler