|
![]() |
||||||||||
| about | calendar | catalog | contact | downloads | faq | home | links | mp3s | news | press tools | |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
order physical copies of
individual issues for $1 ($2 intn'l)
|
||
| order physical copies of #1-#4 for $3.50 ($5 intn'l) |
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