Reviews:
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 Sloth