Blindspot #1
It’s a question at the back of my mind whenever I read a small press comic: just how cynical is this creator in understanding how likely he/she is in making any kind of a living at this? Most of them seem to know that they’re making comics for themselves and a small group of loyal and inquisitive people and will probably never make a living off of it, but then again most of them seem to be (admirably) hoping for the best, that they can eventually make a living off of their art. This question comes up in Joseph’s introduction to this comic, a brilliant little scene that has him standing in front of a fancypants backdrop, explaining to his audience that he is going to be taking them on a journey. Then his roommate pops in with reality, that the backdrop is a sham and that nobody buys individual comics any more and by the time he gets his serialized graphic novel put together, that craze will probably be over too. Ok, maybe that or a variation of that has been done before, but I thought it was a great way to get things started. From there we have his eventual serialized graphic novel called Ace Goddard Livin’ Legend, which is all about a glam rock icon from back in the day who’s been trying to put out a new album for years. As he is now a joke, nobody was interested in such a thing, and the panels the record executive and his assistant spend explaining to Ace that his only chance now is to do a “greatest hits” album and accept the fact that he’s seen as a joke to the world at large. This has all kinds of potential, and I can only hope that he was exaggerating about how long it would take him to put that story together. I checked his website and he’s going to spend the next 6 months or so completing a graphic novel he was working on with Harvey Pekar, so it may be awhile. There’s also only 7 pages of this story in this issue, so it might be a REALLY long time. Other stories in here include a tale about a woman who has been on a string of awful blind dates, a conversation in a record store about whether there is an objective truth in musical taste or if it’s all in the ear of the beholder, a man happily walking into work on a Monday morning getting gradually smashed to bits, a rich asshole at an art show who tries to impress a pretty woman, and Joseph’s tale of trying to break through the wall of comics in the online world and make an impression. There’s also a funny strip on the back cover, but I’m leaving some mystery for you people who want to buy the book. As for the look of the book, there’s not a hint of amateurishness about it. Joseph has clearly been doing this for a long time, or maybe he’s just supernaturally gifted, but there’s some damned fine artwork going on here. Some of the early pages have some unerased pencil lines for the lettering, a pet peeve of mine, but it’s faint enough that I probably wouldn’t even notice it if I wasn’t such a dick about it. It’s worth a look, that’s what I’m trying to say here. $4.50
