Secret Prison #1
Ah, the wonders of the newspaper style anthology comic. It’s impossible for me to scan, but luckily I was able to um, “borrow for all time” (sounds so much nicer than stealing, and I’ll be happy to take them down and have this instead posted with no images if necessary) a couple of images, so you don’t have to go into this blind. One problem with this springs instantly to mind: I’m not sure how people are supposed to get a copy of it outside of being at one of the cons where this and the upcoming issue #2 will be presented. I say “presented” instead of “sold”, as this one is listed as free right there on the cover. At the moment Pat is trying to pull together the funds for the second issue. By donating to the cause you can get the first and second issues in the mail, so that’s at least one way to see them, and you have the added benefit of helping out a worthy endeavor. As usual with anthologies, this one is a bit of a mixed bag. More good than bad though, including strips by Art Baxter (dealing with a reluctance to go forward and “living” with the consequences of working up the courage), Box Brown (in which a Googling quest to find news on Audie Murphy turns into self-reflection and slumber), Cyn Why on the high price of becoming Queen on the Internet (at least I think it’s her, if that list of the contributors at the start of the book is the order in which they appear), Kelly Phillips showing the life of a grumpy mountain, Steve Teare with a brutal beating, and Jason Clarke with a problem solver. Actually, looking through the pieces I didn’t mention it’s not like there’s a ton of badness there either. There’s Pat Aulisio’s strip, sampled below, and his art keeps getting tighter all the time. Bob Pistilli’s Skortch seems to be the start of something bigger and at least has the decency to show us lots of naked ladies while we wait for the story to develop. Ian Harker has the quiet, sad life of a super villain (?) on an almost inconceivable world. Beth Heinly has the simplest piece of the comic that I can’t talk about even a little without giving away. Tommy Rudmose has a man literally confined to the panel walls. Andrea Grigoropl & Dan Fitz have a piece of a man, after being hit by a bus, making his own decision about going on with life. That’s everything, and there’s not much bad there at all. Some things need to be fleshed out a bit more, which will have a chance to happen if they can afford to make the next issue, but most everything in there works as a single page story. I’ll update this page if I get a clear idea of where exactly you could get a copy of this and future issues, but in the meantime keep an eye out at cons.
