Weird Muse Mini Comix #1

Posted: Wednesday, July 26, 2006
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Weird Muse Mini Comix #1 Creator(s): Dan W. Taylor
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: $1(US)

Size isn't everything; that's usually not a topic many people want to hear brought up but those of us who have an unhealthy interest in mini-comics live by those very words. We know that colour covers and the US comic size doesn't guarantee a quality read, and photocopiers beat commercial printing presses every time.

Dan goes all out to fill this little zine/comic with a grab bag of stories, montages and text pieces providing readers with, at the very least, jolly good value for money.

Humour fills the first few pages in the form of an amusing cartoon about worming and some others based on those small but curious human interest new stories you see filling an inch or two in your newspaper. You know the type; Chihuahuas attack police, toy soldiers held hostage. These make for an amusing read, a fitting tribute we learn to Clay Geerdes, small press creator behind Babyfat mini comics who passed away in 1997.

The book contains a centre fold taking the form on a thought provoking montage dealing with making sense of life in modern times and global politics. Filled with meaning or depressingly futile.

The final half of the comic is an de to the gradual loss of personal freedom in the USA: Security checks don't stop terrorists at ball games, they just keep people from taking their own food and drinks into NFL games, and how dare the government tell people to wear seatbelts. Living as I do in a slowly crumbing welfare state where we expected the government to work for the people Dan take on things struck me as reactionary, but Dan has an opinion and he presents it well.

The artwork that Dan provides is amusing. The pages are appealing to the eye and tell the stories efficiently, though I found the characters in his work quite static. They didn't seem at ease in the spaces they were in.

Every page is used to entertain and provoke the readers to think, a worthy aim which none can fault.

In a Word: Buffet.



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