You Ain’t No Dancer, volume 2, came out a year ago this month, October 2006, only shortly after I purchased the previous volume. Like the previous volume, it’s packed with indie talent, in a fairly unconventional package that forces the use of a widescreen format. While that’s fairly standard for a certain kind of strip (Webcomic creator Mitch Clem is undoubtedly right at home) it’s not something you see in the mainstream, or even indie mainstream very often, and it gives these books a distinctive look. The strips themselves are also fairly short - 23 stories in 95 pages, and only one or two get past the 6 page mark. To New Reliable’s credit, they’re really crammed a lot into this.

Jeffrey Brown’s story in YAND Vol. 2 is entitled “Chimney Preference” and revisits the familiar setting of the “Young Jeff” autobiographical comics that I’ve previously discussed in the review of Minisulk. It’s a 2-page comedy piece that makes the most of Brown’s style, though I have to admit if you’re buying this collection just for the Jeffrey Brown in it, you might not be fully satisfied by 2 pages and one joke. It’s less of a snack, more a morsel. That said, I have to admit, in these kind of strips half the humour, for me, comes from the expression on Young Jeff’s face, which is inherently hilarious for reasons I can’t begin to articulate.

If 2 pages isn’t enough brown for you, well, then, good news, because he’s also painted the cover! A wraparound cover, no less, depicting Young Jeff and his brother in the playground at autumn, a rare example of coloured work from Brown.

Now, 2 pages is a bit small for a full review, so let’s quickly look elsewhere in the anthology. My favourites of the remainder were The Eve Of, by Blaise Laramee, and Phil McAndrew’s Sharp Young Minds, both stories united by a theme of childhood exploration and cameraderie, the former going with a confessional psychological tone, and the latter with a more humourous turn.

Overall, volume 2 feels more disjointed than the original, and contains fewer “name” creators to put you on familiar ground for the fairly steep price point. With generally less conventional material, even fans of the first volume might find this challenging, but as ever it remains a brilliant way to expose yourself to new creators and stories. As with the previous volume, the quality of both is consistently high, but the quantity of work means that it’s impossible for everything to click - given the range of work available, don’t expect to come into this and love everything, just consider that what you do enjoy is going to be worth the price, and the rest of it is bonus material.

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Buy You Ain’t No Dancer from New Reliable (US & Int.)
You Ain’t No Dancer v2 Preview Page (Jeff Brown)
You Ain’t No Dancer v2 Preview Page (Blaise Larmee)
You Ain’t No Dancer v2 Preview Page (Phil McAndrew)