Walking Man Comics Presents Special #61, Music Comics #7, #56 and

Posted: Tuesday, March 21, 2006
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Walking Man Comics Presents Special #61, Music Comics #7, #56 and Creator(s): Matt Levin
Publishers: Walking Man Comics (Self Published)
From: USA
Price: 4 for $3, $1 each(US)

These three mini comics are so cheerful and positive that the initial reading can be a little disarming. They are quite content to celebrate life and change and love in an innocent and deliberately naïve way. They appear to be almost childlike in perspective but in reality they are nothing more than a happy person expressing a near unbounded joy at the beauty of life’s simple pleasures.

The presentation perfectly captures this naïve innocence. A handful of pages that combine words that are more poetic than narrative [two of the comics are in fact visual representations of original songs] with pictures made up of rubber stamp images presented in frames or bubbles.
Each sets out to capture a single feeling and present it for what it is, a treasure.

Visually they don’t scale any heights but what the heck reading them sure made me feel better for the rest of the day.

Music Comics #7: You Know Who, is the pick of the bunch. A song of unconditional love to his sweetheart on her birthday. Yes romance is alive and well and Matt just wants to let everyone know that, but more importantly he wants to let his love know exactly how he feels. Celebratory and thankful it reminds us of how simple life can be. I get a strong picture of Romeo before everything went pear shaped in Verona.

Music Comics #56: In Disguise, continues with this poetic rubber stamp approach but is a little more ambiguous in nature. It almost hints at a darker side but in a quiet, happy and undemonstrative way.

Special #61: Revelutions returns to the celebratory as Matt welcomes in the New Year and the associated sense of the start of something new about to happen. The title combines revelations with revolutions and resolutions and aptly captures the inherent mood of ‘potential about to be realised’ that is developed here. In true holiday spirit Walking Man toasts the first day of the New Year [the main stamp utilised is a partying penguin] and uses bubble shaped ‘champagne’ frames throughout to maintain the mood.

There is a gentle calm in the poetry in these three comics and that more than makes up for the often rudimentary presentation.

I’ll just go and hug my family now, and the dog, and the goldfish and probably a few trees as well.

In a Word: Merry.



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