Fictions

Posted: Tuesday, October 29, 2002
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Fictions Creator(s): Johnny Lowe
Publishers: Brass Ring Comics
From: USA
Price: $2:50 (US)

Three short stories written by Johnny and illustrated by a variety of artists.

Occupational Hazards
Artist - Seaward Tuthill

Some aliens wander around a post-apocalyptic town being disrespectful to public monuments and cruel to dogs. Soon things gets nastier for the Aliens as a strange and unexpected foe starts to fight back. This short piece effectively creates a spooky ambience with some detailed illustrations by Seaward.

A Blot of Mustard, a crumb of Cheese
Artist - Richard Garcia

The hero of this piece is a slacker who is late to work one time too many. Jobless, he is forced to do the rounds of blood banks, selling the red stuff to raise some cash. Things take a violent turn when some bad comic vigilantes decide to make a withdrawl. The resulting battle draws in an almost naked bad girl and some insufferably cute Manga school girls.

Story wise this is a mess really, with comic in-jokes trying to masquerade as original ideas. Richard manages to show off a large range of art styles in the space of a few pages but nothing really fits together in this hodgepodge of only slightly funny ideas.

When Fathers Day Comes
Artists - Tony Brescini and Seaward Tuthill

Well, the pictures sure look nice, but there are too many characters and too much dialogue in this tale of a family held hostage that is resolved in a mysterious fashion. As expected the hostage takers are nasty and the hostages are sweet and lovely.

This comic anthology is a feast for the eyes, but doesn't quite jell in the plotting stakes. The basic plot ideas are entertaining but Johnny might want to reflect on the observation that when he trusted his artist to do the job of telling the story in pictures, they worked together to provide the most successful narrative.

In a Word: Verbose.



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