Runx Tales #2
Good luck getting that cover out of your head any time soon. This has been on my kitchen table for the last week and I just had to review it today so those googly eyes would stop staring at me. This comic has 4 stories and an excellent illustrated introduction to the man, how he draws himself and his comics. First up is Wrestling With The Truth, in which Matt, as a young gay man (and seemingly closeted), signs up with the wrestling team for obvious reasons. After being dumped on his head he has a vision where “it all made sense”, something that he hasn’t been able to make a lot of sense of since. Next is Nora Stories and, while it’s never a good sign when an artist is bugging friends for personal stories in the second issue, it’s a pretty entertaining piece, all about his friend Nora (and her friends) trying to get away from a creep who follows them around town. She also has an excellent epilogue where she runs into him at a part a year later and he’s still playing the exact same games, although at least this time he nearly gets clobbered. The next story is simply called Ranch, and it’s sure to be a big hit. Why? Because it tells the history of ranch, and who doesn’t love ranch? Those adorable vegans, I suppose, but it’s their loss. It turns out that ranch was invented in 1953 and was not sent down directly from the heavens, and this story tells the tale of how it got off the ground, how other companies are able to use the name, and its evolution over the years. Finally there’s a tribute to Samantha Jane Dorsett, a friend of Matt’s who died recently. It’s a short piece packed with personal memories and also tells how they drifted apart over the years. He also throws in a bit about how sad it was that Michael Jackson died, and I confess to not understanding the whole “national tragedy” thing the country went through after that. Wasn’t he living outside the country because we (“we” being the media and concerned parents) essentially rode him out of town on a rail. Once he dropped dead all was forgiven. Baffling. Anyway, no googly eyes in the comics, just an excellent sense of comedic timing, some purty pictures and the untold history of ranch dressing. If nothing else you have to be curious about that, right? $3
