Last Slice
It’s going to be a long time before we all figure out just how devastating the loss of Harvey Pekar was to the small press comics community. Sure, there was his own incredible work, and the world is poorer for the fact that there will be no new stuff (unless there are unfinished bits and pieces out there, but it’s still a damned finite resource). But the greatest thing about Harvey in my mind was the fact that he was a relentless champion of the medium and did all he could to help out artists that he liked. I’m bringing all this up here because Jaime mentions in one of his strips that he had actually stopped drawing entirely for five years before Harvey tracked him down and talked him back into it. I’ve been a fan of Jaime’s work for years and to think that all that talent was hanging on that thread is disturbing. Here’s hoping that other respected comics elders take up the slack, as I frankly don’t think people like reviewers have the standing to pull it off. So how about the actual comic? Yes, I do remember that that is the point of a review. These are the best of the “Slice O’ Life” strips (as chosen by Jaime, obviously), but he mentions that he had to cut some of them down from six to four panels, which immediately makes me wonder what that changed. He also mentions that these strips lack the detail that he uses on his other comics, as the strip was being printed in color and all that detail didn’t come out anyway, but there’s still more detail in each strip than I see in plenty of entire mini comics. Anyway, these are all four panel strips about a variety of different topics, with 40 of them in all. Topics include a dangerous stretch of river current, creepy religion, a crappy day, entertainment on the bus, the circuitous logic of a running man, assholes telling their most intimate details while talking on their cell phones, a dedicated drunk/druggie from high school, the meaning behind empty vanilla extract bottles that you might see lying around, the best surfer in the world, how risky activities have changed from when he was a kid to now, Santa in the hood, how the “razors in the apples” Halloween rumor ruined the free local caramel apples, the things that a dog brings home, and George Hamilton. That’s just the first half, you can discover the second half of strips for yourself. In case that wasn’t perfectly clear, you should buy this comic, and anything else he does (although I will mention it if he does a terrible comic, it’s just that I haven’t seen one yet). Don’t let this man drift away from comics again… $4 (?)
