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print media - comics | Just A Man | Lost Kisses | QRD | xo | Zombie Kisses

worms is our sci-fi/horror mini-comic.  It is an adventure story with dream like qualities in the style of Lovecraft & Kafka.

story & words - Brian John Mitchell
artwork - Kimberlee Traub
view a digital video version of the first issue here or on YouTube or on IFC's MediaLab

These minuscule mini-comics are adorably sized. The cute factor ends there, however. Inside it’s sci-fi dread and hard-core issues of hate, guilt, and anger.
I love that each mini is barely larger than a postage stamp. And it’s also nice that they come in snug, clear plastic sleeves. Brian gets an A for packaging. Inside things don’t go so well. The two issues of Lost Kisses deal with a stick figure character’s feelings about an ex-girlfriend. Over two disturbing issues, the guy finds that he may or may not have indirectly led to his ex’s house being broken into, which leads to her being beaten into a coma.
Over 40-single panel pages, the main character talks to the reader in word balloons; underneath Brian types captions that usually telegraph the action above, but sometimes lead you in a different direction. It’s a bit disconcerting at times. For instance, at some point in issue 8 the ex goes from being in a coma to actually being dead. After rereading, I couldn’t figure out where it happened, where she went from coma to dead, but it did happen. I think. Brian’s art in Lost Kisses is stick figure drawings with minimal props and no background. It’s serviceable to the story, but unfortunately as flat and lifeless as the computer font in the captions.
Worms, with artwork by Kimberlee Traub, is physically similar to Lost Kisses. The panels are one per page and the mini-comic is tiny. The art is livelier, but still very basic. Her line is thicker and her drawings are more varied. Worms is the third part of a tense story where a girl wakes up in an ICU with an IV bag full of worms. The captions totally mimic the action drawn above, which gets tedious, but the story does grab you and move along quite nicely. You can check out more on Brian's minis at his SilberMedia website. Issues one through four are just $1 each, not sure about these two issues, but give Brian a shout on his website and he can give you the scoop.
~ Shawn Hoke, Size Matters

Brian John Mitchell sent in three more matchbook sized minis from Silber Media.
worms #3 "inside me" continues a Lynchian thriller. The writing is in a stream of consciousness style and it is unclear what is real, metaphor or illusion. This issue includes and IV full of snake headed worms. The images are minimal but stylish. You can see the tattoo art influence in Traub's drawing. At this short length it is hard to tell if the story is going anywhere. It feels like episodic television and would probably process better if each issue could be read within a week or so of the last.
The Lost Kisses minis continue Mitchell's series of one panel gag comics. The gags are linked together by a typed statement at the bottom of each gag. These statements reinforce the gag but more importantly link the gags together into a loose narrative. Maybe a little too loose in #7. The book was a bit confusing and felt like the pages might have been out of order. #8 is a lot tighter and sticks to a consistent theme throughout. Most all of the gags in both books are funny but I think #7 might work better without the typed statements. What I like most about Mitchell's comics is that he is able to make light of mundane relationship moments without being to cute or too bitter.
~ Shannon Smith, file under other

Out there in the world, right this moment, there are countless independent comic book writers and artists trying to make their mark in the comic world. Silber Media is one of those folks, but instead of sticking on the regular path or taking the new road of digital comics, these guys and gals took an alternative path rarely traveled: mini-comics!
Mini comics aren’t comic books, and they’re not comic strips. They’re kind of a hybrid of the two. Each is about the size of a matchbook, with one panel, one picture, and one or two lines of dialogue on each page, but in the page-turning book format. Basically, you throw a handful of them in your pocket and go wherever you need to go. At a low point in your day, grab a mini-comic and go to town.
Currently, Silber has multiple mini-comic series going on, including Lost Kisses — which follows a lowly stick figure on his bitter, loathing quest for vengeance on a hated ex girlfriend; as well as Worms — a nightmare of a story that sees a girl waking up in a mysterious hospital, tied to her bed and attached to an IV with worms in it that slowly work their way into her system.
What’s truly amazing about these books is that the creators are able to tell a complete story with art in such a small format. These mini-comics go beyond small, they are teeny tiny and, thankfully, quite affordable.
You can head over to Silber Media’s website to see all they have to offer, or you can head straight to the Lost Kisses page, or the Worms page to check them out. At the pages you can watch videos of the comics, or you can pay the really, really low amounts to get the aforementioned physical mini-comics sent to you.
~ The Movie God, Geeks of Doom

This is a review of both issue #7 and #8 — I put them together because they are mini-comics, literally (they are smaller than a business card). #7 is about a guy who deals with lost keys, lots of phone calls (including with an ex he doesn't want to see), and a lost store code. All a bit random, but it gets tied together as it goes. #8 is his feeling guilt when the aforementioned ex gets killed in a break-in that happened because he left keys in her door.
I kind of like the tiny format, with one panel per page with one line underneath it. However, unlike Worms (same format), this has dialogue in the panel as well as first person narrative below — which is sometimes confusing. I found myself more than once, having to flip back and forth and re-read things because I couldn't follow what was going on. The dialogue and narrative didn't seem to be in sync all the time — especially in #7. The art is stick figure art. The dialogue blurbs are hand written, but the narrative is typed. It's all readable, and I think this format works for a series of stick figure stories. For me though, if my interest is to be kept with stick figures I need much more humor (preferably violent); serious stick figure stories just don't have enough substance to hold them up for much reading at all. For my time, less dialogue vs narrative and more humor and/or violence would be better. As it is, I can't find enough in these to recommend reading them.
~ Sheena McNeil, Sequential Tart

This little comic is not even two inches square in size. It's a bite-sized story in a bite-sized format. The story is about a girl who is slowly losing her safe, everyday life. This volume has her waking up in a strange place with an IV hooked to her arm. The IV though is pumping worms with sharp-pointy teeth into her. Can she get away?
Each page has a single panel on it, with a single line below the panel done in first-person narrative. The art is not stellar or even that great, but it is more than stick people, and those worms are pretty darn creepy! I enjoyed reading the story, and am actually curious as to how she got here and what will happen to her next! If the other volumes are filled with the same vicious worms, this comic would be worth the read just for the creep-you-out effect. It's a quick read, and the tiny size is neat and different — the overall concept is very nice.
~ Sheena McNeil, Sequential Tart

Writer Brian John Mitchell (along with artist Kimberlee Traub) delivers three more of his mega-minicomics with LOST KISSES 7&8 and WORMS #3 (Silber Media). Mitchell’s minis are printed at about the size of a matchbook, giving them an unusual quality not only in look, but also in storytelling: single panels per page propel the plot forward. KISSES finds a man ruminating on the foibles of an ex-girlfriend and deciding to confront his feelings head-on, with ugly results. WORMS continues the story of a young woman trapped in a scary hospital with no way of escape, as freaky works are sent via IV into her bloodstream. It’s wonderfully disturbing, and it kept me intrigued. KISSES fell flat with me in skipping an important action that we really needed to see… twice.
~ Marc Mason, Comics Waiting Room

Brian John Mitchell sent me over some very small comic books to review and the design fetishist in me immediately liked the form factor. As a package, each issue measures two inches by two inches and provides a surprisingly dense read, especially for the price point.
The body horror in Worms #3 is muted in a few places by some pretty dodgy art from Kimberlee Straub, but Mitchell’s strong first-person narrative compensates nicely; it’s deceptively simple and displays a keen ability to use the text space on each of the tiny pages to great effect, building suspense very nicely. Despite actually quite enjoying this, I immediately wanted to see how the writer would make use of a larger format, where this form factor’s limitations are removed and his scripting would get more room to breathe.
Unfortunately, I was a bit underwhelmed by Mitchell’s autobiographical Lost Kisses comics I was given (issue 7 and 8.) I think a good deal of this is because I’m just past the whole stick figure thing at this point, especially as Matt Feazell and Randall Munroe make almost every other comic using the technique moot. Points for exposing some nasty truths about himself and his toxic relationships, but haven’t we crossed the event horizon for comics of that ilk?
~ Kevin Church, beaucoupkevin

Now for something different, albeit not in a good way...
I received review copies of three mini-comics from Silber Media and they are so “mini” that I’m not even sure they will be visible on the scan I’m including with today’s column. They measure about two inches high and about an inch and three-quarters wide and my first reaction to them was “why?” But I’ll discuss their format after I consider their content.
LOST KISSES #7 and #8 ($1 each) by Brian John Mitchell are stick-figure comics apparently autobiographical in nature. The 44-panel comics comprise a two-issue tale of the narrator’s mixed feelings about an ex-lover. The writing itself is pretty good. For what it is, so is the stick-figure art.
WORMS #3 ($1) by Mitchell and artist Kimberlee Traub is a boringly “arty” coming-of-age tale about a girl facing changes in her life. Traub’s art does not serve the story well.
LOST KISSES suffers from its format. It’s difficult to hold these too-mini mini-comics in one’s hands...and I have very tiny hands. Trying to appreciate Mitchell’s stick-figure art in this size can cause eyestrain. Under normal circumstances - such as presenting the story in a sane format - I would be giving LOST KISSES a higher score than the one out of five Tonys it receives here.
WORMS #3 receives no Tonys whatsoever.
~ Tony Isabella, Comic Buyer's Guide Extra

Mini Comics are something that I know very little about. Ask me about Marvel Comics from 1963 until the mid-90's and there's a good chance I know the answer. Ask me about mini-comics and you'll get a blank stare. I do know that many indie creators started out creating mini-comics. Long before the internet, mini's were a great way to gain experience creating comics and get your material out to a larger audience. These days, webcomics have all but replaced mini's.
Brian John Mitchell decided to go old school and make comics. He printed up some mini's and sent them for us to review. Each mini is 2"x 2"and 26 pages long. Standard to mini's, there is one panel per page.
Worms #3, (w) Brian John Mitchell (a) Kimberlee Traub
Worms is a fairly straight forward horror story. Our heroine wakes up in an institution where bizarre medical experiments are being conducted. Now, she is one of the experiments.
Of the three books Brian sent, this was the weakest. It's a fairly straight forward horror story with some bizarre moments. The art is typical of what I expect in mini-comics. By that, I mean it is very raw, and the artist needs to develop anatomy & proportion. In addition, the single panel format really forces the artist to make the most of the little composition space. Sometimes, Traub succeeded, sometimes she didn't. There's nothing particularly wrong with this, but neither was there anything to particularly draw me in.
Lost Kisses #7, "Keys, Phones, & Barcodes"
Written by Brian John Mitchell, this is what I always imagined mini comics would be. A small rant against the world told in single panel format. In this issue, Brian rants about an ex-girlfriend who is still acting like his girlfriend, and his inability to confront her.
What you see on the cover, and below, if what you get. This is stick-figure theatre at it's best. The stick person is there to provide something to look at other than words, and little else.
What makes this so much fun is the internal monologue Mr. Stick goes through. Brian has a stream of consciousness discussion for 26 fun filled pages. I liked this particular story because I could relate to it. As someone who has trouble dealing with confrontation, there was many a smile to be had.
Here are some pages from the inside -
Lost Kisses #8, "Confessions of a Passive Aggressive Killer"
This issue presented contained another internal monologue about the ex-girlfriend. It's entertaining and much like issue #7.
Overall, these weren't groundbreaking but they were fun in a fun format. If you're looking for something different, then this could be for you. And, if you've ever wondered how to easily self publish, this is a good way to do it.
The comics cost $1 and get be gotten at the Lost Kisses website here
AND, and, Brian is affiliated with an independent record label here.
~ Lee Dunchak, Comics And...Other Imaginary Tales

When comic writer Brian John Mitchell describes his series of comics as minis the size of a matchbook, he’s not kidding. Individually wrapped in little plastic baggies and bound by two teeny staples in their spines, they’re two inches in height and width. And you don’t need a magnifying glass to read them, which makes them instantly awesome. If that doesn’t sell you, how ’bout the fact that each series is the brainchild of a musician, comic illustrator and tattoo artist? The first series, Lost Kisses, is written and drawn by Mitchell. Issue #6 is unique as it’s a split: the front half addresses the pros of staying in a toxic relationship, while the back half addresses the cons. Despite its simplicity in design and illustration (stick figures), the comic tackles the emotionally troubling issues that many couples face. XO is the second comic series and is a collaboration between Mitchell and comic artist Melissa Gardner. This one has the most elaborate artwork of the various series and I love it because it plays on the same kind of humour as TV’s Dexter. It’s about an ex-hitman who’s trying to reintegrate into normal society. But wherever he goes, he finds himself in a situation that ends in him murdering someone. Worms, the third series, is written by Mitchell and drawn by tattoo artist Kimberlee Traub. Based on the classic escape-the-corrupt-hospital theme, issue #2 is written in the vain of Poe, Kafka or Lovecraft, with references to the latter two if you’re dorky enough to catch them (sorry, no Cthulhu cameos). It’s all very surreal, really, and I sure as heck wouldn’t want to wind up there.
~ Amy Greenwood, Broken Pencil

Silber Media sent me three little matchbook sized minis from Brian John Mitchell and friends.  Each mini is about the size of a matchbook.   I like mini-minicomics a lot.  They are just cool to look at and hold and they fit in your shirt pocket.  They are great to pass around to friends.  Everyone should have more of them and cartoonists should make more of them.  They are not the easiest minis to make though.  When you work at that size it is really hard to cut the paper correctly.  If you are off by just the least little bit then you have ruined at least one copy.  Maybe more.  They are also hard to write and draw for.  You have to take into account the lettering size, page transitions and the composition.  Mitchell seems to have all the logistics figured out.   Each of these comics work at one panel per page which is perfect for the size and works really well with the pacing because each page turn is a story transition.
Lost Kisses is a collection of one page thoughts on the writer's relationship with women drawn with stick figures.  The first half of the book is from a positive point of view and then you flip the book and start over and you get it from the negative point of view.  It is both cute and disturbing.
worms is a dreamlike horror/thriller with art by Kimberlee Traub.  The art is minimal but iconic and expressive for such small panels.  The story moves a natural yet dreamlike pace assisted by the one panel per page format.
XO features more ambitious art by Melissa Spence Gardner.  The writing is a lot deeper as well.  The main character performs some very violent acts as if they were any other mundane tasks.  It's American Splendor meets American Psycho.
Each of these three minis came in it's own neat little plastic pouch and simply put they are just freaking cool looking.  Sliber Media is primarily a music label.  You can check out there impressive catalog here.
~ Shannon Smith, file under other

Brian John Mitchell gives “drawing thumbnails” a new meaning with his itsy-bitsy thumbnail-size comics. He’s publishing three series of 2?x2? comics: Lost Kisses, Worms, and xo.
~ Kirk Chritton, Comics Career

One of the things I find perennially fascinating about comics is the way constraints can spur artists on to new heights of creativity. Sometimes the constraints are aesthetic and sometimes they are purely physical; sometimes they're self-imposed and sometimes they're imposed from outside. Often there's no way to tell which is which as you read; only the artist knows whether the decision to, for example, use only black ink came from economics or aesthetics. Sometimes it's in the overlap between economics and aesthetics that the most fertile ground is to be found.
One extremely obvious physical constraint that gets overlooked precisely because it's so obvious is size. Most comics tend to be within a relatively small range of sizes; there's a lot more variation on the market now than there was 20 years ago, but for practical reasons, comics much bigger or much smaller than the standard US floppy format tend to be niche productions. So it is with Brian John Mitchell's minicomics, which are so small they should really be called microcomics. Smaller than a box of matches, they are; so small that you could lose one between the sofa cushions without even creasing the pages. Even smaller than the 8-page Greenbelt comics I blogged about three years ago, which were made on one side of a sheet of A4 card. The fact that he's managed to create coherent and interesting stories in such a tiny space is enough to raise eyebrows.
The stories themselves are relatively conventional. XO (art by Melissa Spence Gardner) is a straight-up power fantasy of the "protagonist gets to kill unpleasant people without consequences" type; it's competent but unremarkable. Lost Kisses (art by Mitchell) is a stick-figure comedy series about bad relationships which may or may not be autobiographical. I found it very funny and occasionally infuriating; the main character is self-absorbed and sometimes a little self-righteous with it -- a dangerous combination. I waver between thinking that the humour I find in the series is entirely unintentional (and feeling very uncomfortable) and thinking it's entirely intentional (and laughing like a hyena). The truth is probably somewhere in between; certainly Mitchell sometimes seems to be laughing at his protagonist, but some of the most off-putting statements seem to be the ones where he is most sincere, and that makes me wonder.
Probably the best of the three is Worms (art by Kimberlee Traub), a sci-fi thriller about a girl embroiled in a bizarre conspiracy involving people being injected with apparently extra-terrestrial worms. The storytelling is straightforward enough, but Traub's stark, expressionist art does an impressive job of conveying the main character's bleak situation and her nightmarish mental state.
It's obvious that Mitchell is only starting out with these comics; he may want to use them as a springboard for something on a (literally and figuratively) larger canvas. I'd be intrigued to see what a more experienced creator could do with a set of teeny-tiny pamphlets like these. But as an experiment, these microcomics are so pared-down that it's hard to avoid the conclusion that this is a bit of a dead end from an artistic point of view -- the ne plus ultra of minimalism. There's never more than one panel per page, which limits what can be done in the way of visual or narrative effects, and while, as I said, limits and constraints can encourage creativity, too extreme a set of limits can be stifling. These microcomics are interesting, but not likely to start a trend.
~ Purity Brown

For Worms Brian John Mitchell is joined by Kimberly Traub.
Kimberly does the illustrations which have the feel of itty-bitty linoleum prints, the storylines here are obviously fictional. It’s a darkly hallucinatory creepshow like a lost X-Files episode or something. This feels far more intriguing and enjoyable than his other stuff, and is lifted up considerably by someone with slightly more advanced graphic skills.
~ George Parsons, Dream Magazine

Traub's art is more angular in this ish. She and writer Mitchell continue this tale of a girl who's trapped in some sort of strange medical institute, strapped to a bed at one moment, trying to escape again in the next. What is it with the "worms" she seems to "see"? I'm intrigued.
~ Wade Busby, Dimestore Comics

With a suspense comic it’s best to leave the specifics alone for as long as possible, as that generally ratchets up the suspense, and Brian does an excellent job of that here.  We do learn in this issue why the title of the series is “Worms” (at least a little bit), but as for everything else… who knows?  Our heroine from the last issue wakes up strapped to a bed, hooked up to an IV.  She quickly sees that this IV has worms swimming in the liquid, then she sees that one of the creatures is swimming through the tube to her arm.  Things get even more disgusting from there, believe it or not, and we’re left to wait until the next issue (if then) to get some idea of where exactly she’s being held and why.  It didn’t take me long to get hooked on these tiny comics, but they’re like minuscule bundles of comic crack.  You get a little tiny taste each time of what sure feels like a master plan, unless of course he’s making it up as he goes and has me completely fooled.  Worth checking out either way.
~ Kevin Bramer, Optical Sloth

Worms is a stream of consciousness story narrated from the point of view of a character that seems to be a woman about the aggression of her father by men in black and her response. It is a mini comics that fits in a wallet, where each page is a single illustration with captions.
As a stream of consciousness story the narrative progression of the story is loose and detours are taken before the narrator returns to the core of its message.  That core are a bunch of pink eels that she refers to as worms that seem to play some role and be the object of desire of her father and the men in black. Worms is an innovative mini comics with a second level message that I guess I should pick up on, but I fail to at this point. Perhaps more will make sense in the next “issue.” For one thing, I like the experiment even if it’s not a real story and it’s supposed to be random. It plays with the medium.
I think a lot more could be done with the pocket size format visually. Remember those little booklet we got as kids where each page was an animated panel and when you flip them they would create this instantaneous animation? Well, I expect visual games like that and such experiments from artists working is such a format.
~ Hervé St-Louis, Comic Book Bin

Traub's art is simple and yet the layout of each panel is well designed. She and writer Mitchell take us inside the head of a girl who witnessed her father's murder and now attempts to escape from a dream-like hospital after the cops take her there. Either it's all what she actually sees or her perception is skewed. Good stuff.
~ Wade Busby, Dimestore Comics

More matchbook-size madness from Silber Media as the ultra-tiny comics continue with humor and mayhem.
Writer Brian John Mitchell crafts three different stories with three different distinct voices in each of his three matchbook style comics – an impressive accomplishment for an indie writer. XO is written from the point of view of a cold-hearted assassin trying to change his life… with a distinct lack of success, while Lost Kisses chronicles the everyday adventures of a guy drifting through life and coming to realize things profound, mundane, and sometimes stupid. Worms, on the other hand, is an adventure in a surreal dreamscape… or is it all a dream?
In this installment of XO our nameless hitman finds his nice neighbor lady outside the apartment complex having an argument with her abusive boyfriend. Of course, our protagonist tries to do the nice thing…
In Lost Kisses the nameless lead takes a look at his current girlfriend and tries to decide if her good qualities outweigh her bad or vice-versa. Of course, what he considers good and bad qualities varies considerably.
Finally, with Worms the unnamed female protagonist wakes up from her nightmare… or does she? The surrealism continues – is this all just one extended dream? Is she insane and this is part of her delusion? Or could there be more than meets the eye going on here?
Mitchell switches voice from comic to comic with ease and each one feels true to character and to genre. With XO, while the story may be pretty simple and easily straightforward, that is because it is really more of a form to hang this peculiar brand of black humor on. That kind of black humor that comes from awkward, sudden, and brutal violence and a person so far outside of society they cannot see the strangeness of it all. It is a little in the vein of the movie Grosse Point Blank. Lost Kisses, on the other hand, is weirder and funnier. Based (a tiny bit) on Mitchell’s own life, the first person narrator seems stereotypically young and a little off-kilter. Trying to make sense of life and of love, the voice bounces from the ridiculous to the sublime and the reader can sometimes see a bit of themselves here – both the times when we are unaccountably brilliant and the times when we are shamefully shallow and superficial. Worms is an interesting experiment but, as an ongoing, it has been a little hampered by the long delay between issues. I have to confess that I didn’t clearly remember the story from the previous issue and, being the size of a book of matches means there isn’t room for a recap page. Still, Mitchell does manage to capture the twisted surrealism and landscape architecture of dreams and bend them into a story.
Mitchell puts on his artist’s cap for Lost Kisses and handles the simple, stick-figure art. There are no backgrounds to speak of but his simple, deliberately kindergarten style adds to the humor, whimsy, and oddness of the piece. Melissa Spence Gardner handles the artist duties on XO, however, and she proves that she is growing more and more comfortable with the space constraints and actually using them to her advantage. The matchbook size makes extreme close-ups even more intense and she sprinkles these throughout the story. Backgrounds, however, are still mostly non-existent as she instead focuses on the characters. Kimberlee Traub takes on the art for Worms. As with the others, the small scale of the medium keeps her artwork limited… perhaps a bit too limited. She has a nice, spare style and she obviously understands the unrealism of the story but her single panels look a bit disjointed when viewed as a whole.
These three mini-comics are each an interesting experiment in storytelling in more ways than one. At $1.00 each they are an affordable way to test out a unique series of independent comics and with a size smaller than the palm of your hand they can be read anywhere at any time.
~ Tonya Crawford, Broken Frontier

Lost Kisses, Brian talks about women in general.  It appears the information is brought on from the experiences found in his life.  The woman in focus in this story has a history of mental abuse and other type of abuses.  She is a pathological liar.  She has been in terrible relationships. The boy in this story is somewhat shallow and remarks on the aberrations he finds on her body.  She appears to be a gold digger, her intimacy seems faked.  You get two sides of this picture.  In a second story, it seems like a dream come true and the other story is horror around every corner.  Some of these stories remind me of my Starbucks coffee dates.  There are personality conflicts, they don't look like their picture, they live beyond their means, they are shallow and egotistical.  To find the perfect woman is as hard as capturing a Bigfoot.  In Worms, you have a woman that has a gun battle with a policeman, she finds herself tied up on a gurney and taken to a hospital where they are intravenously giving their patients a solution that has tiny worms in it...yep, we have a big mystery and it will continue....   In XO, a guy is a good Samaritan and saves a girl from a brutal attack by some ruffian guy.  The good Samaritan breaks the ruffian's finger, punches him in the face and accidently kills him.  He now has to clean up this accidental murder.  He should have minded his own business.  Silbermedia has extreme entertainment in small packages.  I am headed for Aruba and Argentina, I can carry these comics in my shirt pocket and read them on my layovers, it can't get any better than that!
~ Paul Dale Roberts, JazmaOnline

In this edition of Breaking Ground, we are taking a look at three mini-comics produced by Silber Media: xo, Worms, and Lost Kisses.
We pick up the xo story with issue #4, "Neighbors" where our empathetic sociopath is drawn into interfering with his neighbor's argument. While our retired hired gun's interference is well intentioned, he only knows one way to solve problems. He stuffs the drunken, abusive, passed out boyfriend into a car, drives down the road, and...you have to pick up this mini-comic! The art packs a TKO punch and the storyline is darkly funny (along the lines of Chuck Pahaniuk's novels). The artwork is by Melissa Spence Gardner and the story and words are by Brian John Mitchell.
The Worms mini-comic is only two issues in, and the first issue tells the story of how a young girl witnesses the murder of her father. Taking a look at issue #2, "Capture" has our girl waking up, still clinging to the gun she stole from the murderers. She tries to elude her captors in hospital halls that never end, rooms that are reminiscent of WWII infirmaries, and witnesses malevolent medical treatments. The art conveys the confusion, fear, and entrapment mirrored by our heroin's plight. For those of you who love H.P. Lovecraft and Franz Kafka, you'll appreciate the references. The artwork is by Kimberlee Traub and the story and words are by Brian John Mitchell.
Lost Kisses #6, "She's at least as Good as She is Evil," is a collection of standalone laughs rather than a continuation of the story. This comic is a veritable yin and yang with its "Reasons to Run and Hide" on the front and the "Reasons to Stay by Her Side" on the back (or would that be front?). As for "Reasons to Run and Hide," if you are bitter from a recent break up, you will identify your ex-psycho on this side and have a hearty (and relieved) laugh. Take solace, it was the right decision. And for "Reasons to Stay by Her Side," this side will give the self-aware co-dependent a good chuckle. As for me, I certainly see a former boyfriend-turned-stalker depicted on this side. The draw-dropping stick-figure art, as well as the story, is by Brian John Mitchell.
For comics that are only as big as a Goliath's thumb, I'm giving these two thumbs up!
~ Katie Riley, Comic Related

In many ways, minicomics are the purest form of comicbook expression. Written and drawn in an artistic form of guerilla theatre, they are photocopied and stapled by people who genuinely love the artform and see it as a way to present their thoughts and ideas and not just as a way to make their name. Whenever I hit a major con, I always put aside a piece of my budget to find and buy new minis. But occasionally, I also receive some in the mail for review, and that was the case with these three minis from Brian John Mitchell. And Mitchell has taken the minicomic to an even more literal place; rather than the usual 8.5 by 5.5 inch mini, these are two inches by two inches, about the size of a matchbook.
XO #4 is the best of the three, a surprising and darkly finny piece of work. A man arrives home from the grocery store to find his female neighbor arguing with her lout of a boyfriend and intervenes against his better nature. What happens from there goes south in a hurry, and the ultimate resolution has a wonderfully black heart in the center of its chest. Melissa Spence Gardner does a terrific job of using the tiny amount of space on the page to its fullest effect, employing her inks diligently to maximize the panels’ ability to move the story forward. One recommendation- I didn’t read the PR about the story ahead of time, and I was glad because it contained a spoiler that would have taken some of the edge off the story. Should you choose to buy one of these, avoid any descriptive text.
Right behind XO in my preference would be WORMS #2. This story, which focuses on a young woman waking to find herself in a nightmarish hospital, fills its pages with tension and dread, and again finds a way to use the small format to positive effect. Artist Kimberlee Traub goes with a more minimalist look, allowing the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks as the girl tries to free herself from what appears to be a horrible fate on the horizon. Mitchell’s script is mining a rich vein of traditional sci-fi horror tropes here, but it doesn’t feel warmed over.
Lastly is LOST KISSES #6, Mitchell’s meditation on whether or not the woman in your life is right for you. It’s a flipbook, presenting the good things on one side and the bad on the other, and while I understood what Mitchell was trying to do (be funny and work out some issues he’s gone through in his past) it just never took hold for me. I felt that way in large part because nothing here felt surprising or revelatory; instead, it felt like old hat- like a supplement to “He’s Just Not That Into You.” Put up against his work in the other two minis, this is definitely the weak sauce in the Mitchell oeuvre.
~ Marc Mason, Comics Waiting Room

This trio of tiny, self-published minis are so fat Mitchell forces each one into its own little plastic bag to hold it shut. In truth, I had to cut one of them open to get it out. At only about 2 x 2 inches I can't even imagine how challenging it is to collate, align, and staple them. But of course the size gives them instant charm.
The format really only allows one panel per page and for two of these books—the ones with stories—it works especially well. Unlike a traditional comic page made up of multiple panels, here, whenever the story turns in an unexpected direction it's a bigger surprise because you can't glance ahead.
Lost Kisses #6 (48 pages) is uncredited, but I think it was written and drawn by Mitchell. Initially, the charm of the book's size, its title, and its first person narrative style made me think it was an autobiographical comic about the love of the author's life. But on closer reading, I learned it's only inspired by real life and individual entries may be entirely fiction. Each page is a gag cartoon that riffs on the thought expressed in the caption below. That's another unique aspect of the layout—start at the bottom and read up. Maybe this issue is a double-issue. Whatever the reason, it's set up like an Ace Double. Read the first half, flip it over and read the second half. The front cover is the same on both sides. Every gag is about relationships and they range from amusing to very funny.
Worms #2 (52 pages) was written by Mitchell and drawn by Kimberlee Traub. It's a fast-paced horrific thriller with humanoids, worms, and espionage. Thankfully, Mitchell includes a one-page recap of the action from issue #1. The story takes full advantage of the format and unfurls at a frantic pace with a creepy cliffhanger ending. More Worms please!
XO #4 (44 pages) was written by Mitchell and drawn by Melissa Spence Gardner. The most common use of XO I've seen is shorthand for hugs and kisses, but a lesser known use means "Oh No". And that one certainly seem to fit the story in this issue called Neighbors. Let's just say it was not a wonderful day in the neighborhood when this brutally funny story took place.
You get the feeling Mitchell and crew have a lot of fun putting these super mini comics together and they're a lot of fun to read too. For $1 each, you can't go wrong. Check out the Silber Media website for lots of free downloads. Scroll to the bottom of the home page for links to Mitchell's comic series.
~ Richard Krauss, Poopsheet Foundation

I've always been a big fan of mini-comics. Spending time in the early 90s in Boston meant that every record shop, comic shop, penthouse and outhouse in a 5 mile radius carried tons of them, usually for a price so low you wouldn't blink to pay it, and get tons of reading value out of them. More to the point, with these comics you really could "see the brushstrokes" and get some real kicks out of seeing the work in progress, and know that someone out there had your own brand of odd humor. However, I never imagined that I'd see mini-comics as small as this output from Silber media.
Looking to be about the size of a large business card, and fitting exactly one panel to a page, these 22-page beauties fit just about anywhere, and are a blast to read. All three were written by Brian John Mitchell, with Mitchell, doing the art on Lost Kisses, Gardner the work on XO and Traub on Worms. That's the cover to Worms #1 on the top left.
The books cover different genres, even in only 22-26 panels. Worms is a horror/thriller, about a girl whose home is invaded by people she really doesn't expect, XO is about a guy who can't stop killing people, and an opportunity gets served up to him, and Lost Kisses is a sad kind of love story. Lost kisses alone is worth the price of the package, as it's this alternately bitter, sometimes biting, sometimes regretful look at a guy who has a lost love die at an early age. They've both moved on, and years have passed, but he hasn't figured out who to blame/hate for her death. He goes through lots of stages in a pretty short time.
~ Bart Gerardi, Paperback Reader

XO has strong human interactions and incredible drama.  Lost Kisses #4 is a lot of philosophical insight of the world around us.  Worms #1 contains a lot of mystery.  It entices you to keep flipping the pages to see what is actually going on with the story.  These cute little books are enjoyable to carry around in your back pocket and when boredom sits in, pull one out and ENJOY!
~ Paul Dale Roberts, Jazma Online

A young man struggles with the vagaries of life in Lost Kisses, a sociopathic assassin tries to change his life in XO, and a young woman experiences a dream world in Worms.
Independent writer Brian John Mitchell crafts three very off-beat mini-comics – each one only about the size of a book of matches. The results are surprisingly deep and fascinating stories told in a minimum amount of prose and space.
In Lost Kisses a 20-something, directionless young man learns that a former girlfriend died of cancer two years ago. The story follows his reactions as he deals with guilt, the randomness of life, his own self-centeredness, and the future. XO moves in a totally opposite direction as a sociopathic hitman tries to retire from his life of death and develop a heart and conscience. In this outing he does so by agreeing to stay with his elderly grandmother while his parents go on vacation. An unexpected event, however, could set his plans for redemption back. Finally, in the last mini-comic, Worms, a young woman finds herself wrapped up in a nightmare involving strange things, shadowy conspiracies, and a fight for her life.
Mitchell proves to be an able and capable writer, perfectly capturing voices and spirits with just a few words. His protagonist in Lost Kisses is someone readers have either known or been ourselves – a young person trying to make sense of an insane world that seems to ask much of us and ask nothing of us by turns. The ruminations are silly, funny, sad and serious – just like life itself. With Worms, Mitchell’s writing style changes drastically and here he perfectly captures the voice and logic of the dream world. Things happen, things that make no logical sense but, as with any dream or nightmare, the sleeping mind simply accepts it. The reader travels along with the unnamed protagonist, wrapped up in a story that, while the details are different, feels like a place many sleepers have been in their own dreams. The third of these mini-comics is also in many ways the weakest of the three. While XO strives for black humor and dark satire it still feels a bit hollow. The unnamed protagonist remains distant throughout the story and so takes some of the bite out of both the irony and satire.
The art is as diverse as the titles themselves. Lost Kisses is penciled and inked by Mitchell himself and consists of a series of stick figures. Despite the limitation one might think this would impose, Mitchell manages to make the simple figures quite expressive and subversively fun. XO features the work of Melissa Spence Gardner and is, perhaps, more what most readers are used to. Her work has a cartoonish quality with a bit of an amateurish gloss still to it but it works for the feel of these home-grown comics. Besides that, Gardner manages to create effective figures that move well within the story. The final artist is Kimberlee Traub for Worms. Kimberlee’s style is very abstract – some pages put one in mind of a Picasso print. While, to a certain extent, this is perfect for the nightmare world of the comic, the panels do, occasionally, get a little too abstract, making it difficult to understand what is supposed to be going on in the panel.
For a flavor of something a little different, any of these three comics would be worth the purchase price. Be forewarned, the little books can easily slip out of your hands but on the other hand they are immensely portable and can go anywhere with you.
~ Tonya Crawford, Broken Frontier

While we’re on the subject of people who were nice enough to send me comics, I really ought to mention Brian John Mitchell, who contacted me a while back about sending me a few of his mini-comics.
I’m not really what you’d consider a mini-comics guy–unless of course said mini-comics involve the One-Man Army Corps–but I’m always interested in seeing new stuff, so I asked for a few and he sent them over.
And the first thing I noticed, of course, was how tiny they are.
About 2 postage stamps, I'd say.
I imagine that’s the first thing everyone notices when they see them, since Mitchell’s putting the mini back in mini-comics with his work, and it’s a novel format that I found utterly charming when I sat down to read them. Each of the three he sent me (one issue each of XO, Worms, and Lost Kisses), is around 44 pages, with each page as a single panel, and while they’re not really my thing, they’re pretty enjoyable.
Pictured above is Lost Kisses, which, coincidenally enough, probably best fits my stereotypical definition of “mini-comic,” seeing as it’s an autobiographical tale done in the fine art of stick figures, where Mitchell deals with finding out an ex-girlfriend of his recently died of cancer. And it’s the best by far, mostly because of jokes like this:
"Stick with me & you won't get cancer!" "I think I'd prefer the cancer."
[If I had a nickel for every time this happened to me...]
In another novel concept, all of Mitchell’s comics can all be viewed as videos or purchased as physical copies on the website, so if you’re curious, check it out.
~ Chris Sims, Invincible Super Blog

Links:
Kimberlee Traub - website
Brian John Mitchell - xo mini-comic
Brian John Mitchell - Lost Kisses mini-comic
Brian John Mitchell - QRD interview zine
Brian John Mitchell - band Remora