Random Short Stories by a Future Bestseller #2
It’s one of my favorite types of comics: a collection of short pieces that mostly originally appeared in anthologies! Yes, you cynical bastards, I’m actually being sincere here. Those types of stories are generally lost to history otherwise, as most anthologies drop out of print quickly (assuming they had much of a print run to begin with), and these short pieces are an excellent opportunity for artists to challenge themselves. And for this one, even if you have been following every last bit of Brian’s work over the years, he was nice enough to put a brand new story in here too. This one has several long pieces and a few single page strips (one graciously included below by your friendly reviewer). First up is a fairly complex piece called Silk Stockings that, in 6 pages, manages to capture the feelings of being in an awkward vacation spot, discovering that your parents aren’t as well off as you’d like to think, and accidentally giving your budding sexuality a kick start by hiding in the wrong place for a game of hide and seek. Next up is a piece about the grim reality of going off to live in the woods after quitting your job, followed by a short strip (where Brian really flexes those artistic muscles), then a longer piece about a sad sack who goes out with the wrong girl (“wrong” in this instance meaning “is a spy under surveillance”). But wait, there’s more! Next up is a longer piece about a battle with a necromancer with soul stealing eyes (I admired his commitment to realism with this one, or at least the level of realism that comes with the concept of trying to attack a being that could kill you with a look), followed by a Tom and Jerry type of strip that takes a really dark turn, then a couple of single page strips that I’ll leave it to you to discover. That final punchline though, it did indeed get a solid guffaw out of me. Not a laugh, you see, but a legit guffaw. Those are hard to come by, so kudos to Brian for that. Look, if Brian ever puts out a real stinker of a comic, I’ll tell you about it, but this is another solid collection of stories from the man, and you should check it out, whether you’re already a fan or a new reader. $8
