I Must Find a Telephone to Call Moscow!
So this is one of those comics with a twist so big that I couldn’t possibly mention it, and in fact me even mentioning that it HAS a twist has me feeling a little guilty. So let’s forget I said anything and move on with the review, shall we? Things start off with a young woman who has clearly been exiled to a small farm that we quickly discover is run by her grandparents. They try their best to get her invested in farm life, but she clearly has no interest and seems increasingly withdrawn. An innocent comment gets her thinking about how she can connect with the outside world again, but all her grandparents can see is that she finally seems to be coming around. Meanwhile she’s making plans to call her secret love (who we learn about through a couple of eloquent and insightful letters), but things take a terrible turn when her horse suffers an injury a few days before she’ll need it to make her phone call. Can she make it to the phone at the appointed time? I can say no more! Fran calls this the end of his cycle of zines, and it sounds like a publisher in Buenos Aires was interested in collecting these into a book (hint hint, Fantagraphics). I might have to find all of his previous comics (they’re around here somewhere) and read them again to see how they hold up as a book, but as individual comics they’re fantastic, and this one is another excellent addition to his catalog. $5 (or $20 for a bundle of all five comics, which I’d thoroughly recommend)
