Title The Stinz Collection Volume 1 Author Donna Barr Illustrated By Donna Barr Publisher A Fine Line Press - 2015 First Printing ---
	Title The Stinz Collection Volume 2 Author Donna Barr Illustrated By Donna Barr Publisher A Fine Line Press - 2015 First Printing ---
	Category Comics Warnings None Main Characters Stinz, Brüna, Andri, Gift, Kilan Main Elements Centaurs Website ---

Volume 1

• The Last Horselaugh
• A Breathing Spill
• Animal Attraction
• Geiselics
• The Proving Ground
• Smoked Out
• Pack Ice
• Prior Engagements
• Draft Horse
• Breaking to Harness
• Breaking In
• Sorting Things Out
• Fashion Victims
• Wedding Hell
• On a Pale Horse
• Pipe Dream
• Bad Memories
• Nothing Like Gone
• Freed Elections
• Andri's Christmas
• The Carp of Easter
• Chicken
• Not My Problem
• Oprunghack Hans
• Hit or Miss
• Blooming Affections
• Indian Giver
• Old Man Out
• The Fast One
• Hooves of Death

• The Bobwar
• Geiselics Relativity
• Bum Steer
• Horsebrush
• A Stranger to Our Kind
• A Dog's Life
• A Marvelous Resistance
• Out of Step
• Playthings
• Eating Crow
• Freaks Like Us
• Patrons
• Many Happy Returns
• Soup to Nuts
• Hairy
• Tribals
• Facing Off
• Andri's Christmas Shoes (original)
• Triangle Solid Gold

I first discovered Stinz around the time I first got on the internet, back in the days when I would search and collect images unicorns and other magical creatures. There was about three squares or so, of Stinz carrying his son and I was immediately in love. The centaur form was so realistic, their movements so natural, dynamic and powerful. You really felt such a creature could exist.

It was many many years later I discovered I could actually purchase the collected works and I didn't hesitate. I didn't know more than a handful of pictures but somehow I knew this was the kind of comic for me. And I wasn't wrong. Barr created a wonderful world in a small secluded valley in Germany. First, yes, it doesn't take place in England or the US or any of the other places so common in English literature, it all takes place in Germany, with the language and the customs and all. Then Barr thought about how these creatures would function, like how do you sleep? What could they eat? What would their courtship be like? After all these people are half equine so that's going to influence their behaviour, their reaction, their instincts, let alone the physical aspect of their daily lives, like they wear shirts but don't feel the need to cover their "hair end".

And of course Barr is skilled at weaving all kinds of emotions into tales. As a comic strip it is generally funny to see the antics that Stinz and his friends get into. But there are also strips that take place during the First World War where Stinz is enlisted, it never gets particularly graphic but people are wounded and die (particularly when they had to put down all the horses for fear of an anthrax epidemic).

And through it all, though the art style varies over the years, the artwork is amazing. The very thing that caught my eye all those years ago during my first forays into the World Wide Web and stuck with me, was to be found in great abundance here. But keep in mind, this is not for little kids. There's sexual inuendo (what do you expect, they don't wear pants), there's war, it's not in your face but it's not Garfield either.

Oh, and you MUST, you simply MUST read the Stinz as Ninja tale. I don't think I stopped laughing for a moment. I'm debating whether to jump into the second volume right away or save it for later since I don't want to run out yet!

In December, I picked up the second volume. It could not have been more different! While the first one merged the presence of a half-horse in the German army as realistically as possible, this went a little more weird in the rest of the stories. See, at the end of the war, the German scientists (and the enemy...Americans?) both developped a metaphysical weapon, but they both fired at the same time, and in the rain, and it had, well, unintended consequences. Like people developing claws and fangs if they were lucky. If they were not they got dog tails, goat horse, snake scales, changed gender, or would even merge more than one person/animal together and end up with a horse that has a human face and a dog's mentality. It also wiped out all other kinds of technology, so no more guns or engines or machines. And...well it wasn't a one time thing either. See if you just talked about what happened, a ligthning bolt would come from the sky and perform even more weird and bizarre mutations. So took a while to figure out what was going on since none of the characters could talk about it.

Not for the faint of heart, there were moments it was downright Lovecraftian creepy and weird, and yet it was oddly entrancing, Barr knows how to draw (especially horses!) and is pretty darn good at those freaky transformation scenes. I didn't have nightmares but it came cloase. And yet, it would, as in the first collection, also be incredibly funny. The transformations could be scary but you just had to laugh a little at the poor soldier guy that got turned into a she-goat with a human face and had to be regularly milked...

I definitely recommend the first collection, the second one would be more of an acquired taste, but even if you don't read the text, just look at the art, gorgeous gorgeous equines abound, with believable equine influenced cultures but also half human (odd though that they refuse to use stairs but they climb ladders in their barns...yes, interesting to see how the equine form could be used to climb one of those if you also have a pair of hands to help out). It's all fantasy and yet completely believable, well the first book, the second one is to be read if you want to read something your imagination just could never have come up with on it's own!