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Ultimate Lost Kisses is Lost Kisses with better artwork & better storytelling.
Stories of the emotional traumas that shaped a woman's life.
we start with issue #11 because it spun off of Lost Kisses
story & words - Brian John Mitchell
artwork (issue #11) - Dave Sim
artwork (issue #12) - Jeremy Johnson
artwork (issue #13) - Jason Young
artwork (issue #14) - Nate McDonough
artwork (issue #15) - David Branstetter

read a PDF of Ultimate Lost Kisses #11 | read a CBZ of Ultimate Lost Kisses #11
read a PDF of Ultimate Lost Kisses #12 | read a CBZ of Ultimate Lost Kisses #12

order individual issues of Ultimate Lost Kisses for $1.50 ($2.50 intn'l) (includes shipping)
Ultimate Lost Kisses Issue 
Ultimate Lost Kisses Issue 
order Ultimate Lost Kisses #11-#15 for $6 ($10 international) (includes shipping)

Reviews:
 * ULK #11 *
The biggie in this set is ULTIMATE LOST KISSES #11. Why? Rather than Mitchell’s traditional stick figure art, Dave Sim! steps in to handle art chores. Mitchell also tackles a serious story here, which hasn’t been the case in earlier efforts. A woman in her mid-30s receives a letter from the child she gave up for adoption as a teenager and goes to visit him on death row, and what she discovers is a grand loss of life in more ways than one. Even without Sim on the art, this is easily the best work Mitchell has produced in these minis, and I was pretty pleased to see it. Without some growth, this series was going to get stale in a hurry. And if you’re a fan of the artist? This might be the most unusual collectible out there where you can find his stuff.

~ Marc Mason, Comics Waiting Room

WHA? Dave Sim?? Yeah, it’s true — the one and only Mr. Sim did the art for this issue, which is a huge departure from Brian’s usual stick figure drawings.
It’s a for better or worse scenario in the sense that this isn’t an issue of the Lost Kisses series I know and love. Instead, it comes from some sort of deranged alternate Lost Kisses universe where the past is both haunting and daunting (instead of overwhelming and mildly sad like it’s been in the first ten issues).
The art and words of this issue are both intense, leaving me emotionally fascinated but also drained. All said, this is a gripping story with good art (just a few too many re-used images).
~ Nick Marino, AudioShocker

The story itself is very engaging, a tale of loss and forgiveness. It leaves you feeling a bit queasy and angry. Pretty amazing for a comic that is almost as small as a quarter and has single panels and a line of text under it on every page. The micro-mini comic is only $1 from the above link.
~ Margaret Liss, Cerebus Fangirl

Mitchell took the “Lost Kisses” title in a totally new direction with the first issue of “Ultimate Lost Kisses.”  This issue features artwork by the legendary Dave Sim, and it focuses on someone else's life for a change.  The story involves a woman in her thirties who got a death row letter from the son she gave up when she was a teenager.  While the story is a huge shift for the series, the frank and personal nature of the issue is right in line with what the series has been about so far.
~ Brian LeTendre, Secret Identity Podcast

While previous issues of Mitchell's Lost Kisses have been humorous, issue eleven dubbed Ultimate Lost Kisses, takes a decidedly dark turn. This one's about a mother who gave her son up for adoption while she was in high school. Years later he's tracked her down. The letter she receives from him begins a journey of revelation that gets worse with every step.
Obviously the artwork by an accomplished storyteller like Dave Sim adds to the impact of the story. He adapted quickly to the micro-mini's one-panel-per-page pacing. Past editions have kept the reader at a distance as the characters deliver sarcastic quips and jabs. Here, it's all drama. Sim switches from long shots to close-ups—even extreme close-ups—to drive the story forward.
There's a terrific spread typical of Sim's contribution to the book, that shows only the hands of the son and his mother—the physical space between the pages separating them. The posture of each, in the context of the story, shows their raw emotions quite effectively.
This drama is a real departure for the series. It could've easily been published as a one-shot. Either way, it's a special issue, well worth the price of admission.
~ Midnight Fiction

The first and longest running series from Silber is Lost Kisses - which up until the tenth issue, featured a very happy looking stickman who offered stream-of-consciousness thoughts upon horrible events that occurred in his life. Frequent topics include morbid thoughts on death, life, love and having no direction - which in normal circumstances, would be typical Kinkos-indie fare. The difference this time, however, is the fact that while all of these terrible topics are being discovered, the main character greets (almost) every though with a big ol’ smile. Even the thought of his own death.
As I said, this series featured the narration (and art) of a stick figure. With the newest issue, that all changed. And not only that, Mitchell got a big time indie creator to draw his new story. With such a big shift, it appeared that a name change for the series was in order...
Ultimate Lost Kisses #11
With art by Dave Sim. And yes, it’s that Dave Sim.
The story in this one is completed by the end of the issue, and concerns the events of a mother who is seeing her son for the first time since she gave the boy up. He’s in jail. Now, I won’t go into the details of the story - much more detail than what I just gave would pretty much ruin the whole thing. It featured a word that I really, really don’t like in my comics (they’re supposed to be entertaining, right?), and that coloured my enjoyment of the book adversely. I should just say that despite this, the story is incredibly solid, with some fine art by Sim. Just be warned: things get pretty dark.
In the end, what I believe it succeeds in the most is being a sly commentary on the mainstream’s predication for the “big creative team relaunch” - just using indie comic book tropes, rather than superhero ones.
~ Brandon Schatz, Comixtreme

No, I don’t know if this is a continuation of the Lost Kisses series (what with the addition of “Ultimate” to the title), but as this is listed as #11 and the last issue with Lost Kisses in the title was #10, I’m going to assume that it is.  I’ll get to the comic in a minute, but Dave Sim?  I guess he has some free time these days, but kudos to Brian for getting him to illustrate a book of his.  I’m actually finishing up the Cerebus series this week, as all the unrelated text pieces killed it for me the first time around and, while I have my problems with various theories by Dave (and his sucking all the joy out of his book for the last 50 issues or so), I doubt that I’d even still be reading comics if it wasn’t for his influence.  I don’t know what his legacy is going to end up being, but I’d put the first 220 issues or so of Cerebus up there as one of the great achievements in the field.  Isn’t there a comic somewhere I’m supposed to be reviewing?  This issue changes the format of the previous Lost Kisses, as this is a fictional story (or at least I hope it is).  A young woman gets a letter from her son, 18 years after she’d given him up for adoption and practically forgotten his existence.  He’s on death row for killing a man and wants to meet her, but there’s nothing accusatory in his letter.  She informs her husband (who she met ten years after her son was born) about his existence, tells him of her plans to visit her son, and she sets off.  Brian is a master of taking the images given and expanding or shrinking them, using the images as a director would use a camera lens, and he does wonders with what he’s given here.  It’s a powerful story, and I hope this gets Dave back into comics, assuming he even wants to after 300 issues of Cerebus…
~ Kevin Bramer, Optical Slot

This is a serious story about a serious subject. A mother who had to give up her son when she was younger. Now he contacts her. He wants to meet.
She does what she knows is right even though it is hard on her. We follow her thoughts as she thinks about what might have been if she had kept her son.
The art showing this mother does bring out her emotions.
Her son was put in a bad situation and he did what he had to. He took care of a really bad man. A man that deserved what he got and a lot more.
This is a powerful story that will touch your heart.
~ Richard Vasseur, Jazma Online

 * ULK #12 *
Ahh, the joys of teenage pregnancy — mom is getting her scream on, the baby's father is clearly a douche, and our decisive heroine is positively overflowing with the legendary wisdom of sixteen-year-old girls. It is all so depressingly plausible, and plausibly depressing — up until the part about running away to the Midwest to have the baby. It's probably just my snobby East Coast roots talking, but who runs away to the Midwest?
I know people read comics for different reasons, but when I want a real downer of a story with a messy ending, I will just go read the paper. What I have seen in Ultimate Lost Kisses 12 did not fill me with the urge to read the rest of the series. Maybe it is not all as grim as this issue, but if this is representative, this is not the escapism I want from comics. Also, the mother's face scared me a little. If that was the artist's intention, and I think it was, I say, well done, sir!
In all fairness, not everyone reads comics for the same reasons. My strong aversion to this story attests to its basic realism, and no doubt there are readers who will love it for exactly the reasons I do not. At heart, this is a sympathetic look into a specific answer for the kind of existential questions most people have at some point — How did I get here? Where did life go off the rails? Folks who like their comics less fantastic and closer to home will probably really appreciate this one.
~ Holly von Winckel, Sequential Tart

I’d also recommend ULTIMATE LOST KISSES #12. Here, Mitchell and artist Jeremy Johnson tell a tragic story of a teenage girl who sees her life destroyed in the space of only a few moments, and give us clues as to what will happen to her afterward. This comic has a nice bit of emotional resonance to it and shows good depth in the writing.
~ Marc Mason, Comics Waiting Room

Damn, I was hoping for another issue illustrated by Dave Sim. No disrespect to Jeremy Johnson or anything, as he’s more than capable of illustrating this comic, it’s just that there’s still a Sim-shaped hole in my comics world. Sure, he’s doing Glamourpuss occasionally, but the issues of that that I’ve read all seem… ah, I don’t want to get into it. Reading lengthy stories about very old illustrations mixed with satirical fashion periods doesn’t do a thing for me, that’s all. Anyway, on to people who were actually involved in the making of this comic. This comic starts off with a 16 years old girl coming home from school and needing a nap. She doesn’t understand why she’s so tired all the time, so she sort of rhetorically asks her mother about it and is informed that she must be pregnant. Seems like there are gentler ways to convey that news, but the fact that the mother had her when she was very young (implied but never stated) makes that cruelty more than plausible. Anyway, the girl escapes her house and ends up going over to a friend’s, but sadly she could never think of dating him because he’s too dorky. Do girls still think this way? Eh, it’s probably a universal truth. Anyway, this is another solid comic with a damned good ending. To all of you comics types who can’t manage to do more than an issue a year, take not of Brian. Sure, he “only” writes the books, but wrangling all of these artists can’t be easy, and he still manages all that while putting these things out at a ridiculous pace. If you’re looking for a sample of his work you should probably start with a series like this, as the individual issues aren’t connected. $1
~ Kevin Bramer, Optical Sloth

It still bothers me a little that the ampersand is used here in place of “and,” because it just doesn’t flow well visually. This issue captures the sense of isolation a young girl in this particular predicament must experience, and her blind optimism in the face of that challenge. The thin emaciated lines seem to fit the harsh tone of the story. The panel to panel storytelling is a bit choppy since every page is a new panel, which brings with it a new scene or conversation. Grade B.
~ Justin Giampaoli, Poopsheet Foundation

A sixteen year old girl is always tired and has no idea why. Than she finds out and knows but what will she do? She is filled with stress and lots of it from her mother. She makes a decision that she will have to live with for the rest of her life.
This is a powerful emotional story about a real life situation.
~ Richard Vasseur, Jazma Online

 * ULK #13 *
A woman is supporting her boyfriend a wannabe musician. He seems more like a lazy good for nothing. He is pleasant enough. He just does not earn a living. He leaches off of her.
Here the woman does step up and she leaves him to start her life anew. She shows she has what it takes to move on.
The art does look good. It is simple but nice and plain to see the emotions of the two people involved here.
The woman is an inspiration to others. She stands up for herself and does what is best for her.
~ Richard Vasseur, Jazma Online

 * ULK #14 *
A daughter's mother is dying. They have never had a close relationship but the daughter still loves her mother.
When the daughter sees her mother the drawing shows off just how sick she really is. She looks awful.
The emotions are strong here. The story is sad in many ways. It is something that could happen and does happen. It will make you think and touch at your heart.
~ Richard Vasseur, Jazma Online

 * ULK #15 *
Did you ever have some completely happy news on your end torn apart by the person that you’re relaying the news to? That’s the subject of this comic in a big way, as the star of the story is a young married woman in her 20’s who calls her mother to tell her that she’s having a baby. This is almost universally a cause for celebration (at least to somebody in a stable relationship and living situation), but her mother immediately tells her to get rid of it, that it will destroy her life and her figure. It’s impossible to ignore the obvious implication: her mother feels like having her 20+ years ago ruined HER life. The rest of the comic is a tour through the childhood of the pregnant woman, her feelings about that and the reaction, and how she decides to go forward from there. It’s an intriguing story, and a good reminder that relaying news to loved ones can often uncover some unpleasant truths. $1 as usual, and as usual you should go nuts and get at least a handful of these comics when you’re ordering, as they are tiny.
~ Kevin Bramer, Optical Sloth

'Ultimate Lost Kisses Fifteen' is the story of a woman telling her mother that she is pregnant. The story takes an unexpected dark turn when the woman starts to react to her mother's response. This results in a realization of the damages parents do when they are resentful of their children. This story took me by surprise as I did not expect this kind of narrative in such a short comic book. The art work exploits the emotional context of the story to solicit more emotions from the reader in a clever way. Even though this is not my usual kind of story it still engaged me and entertained me.
~ Ryan Scicluna, Malta Comic Con
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