by Ariel Schrag Publisher: Slave Labor Graphics (1997)
Softcover, 79 pages
Once
again the back racks of some ancient comic book hole have coughed up
rare gem that I was otherwise unaware of. I found this one buried deep in the
back of discount graphic novels and for three bucks and thus I discovered an artist I have
never heard of before. Only 19 when she drew this collection of
stories, yet the author has a depth of skill unusual for her age.
A
collection of autobiographical stories from of the author’s awkward teenage
years. They are a fun frank group dealing with the author’s
sexuality, various creepy encounters in California, and the thrill of growing
up in the latter half of the nineties/early 2000s. It deals with early
seuxality and experimentation (both wonderful and terrible). Being a male, it’s
interesting to see the perspective of such things from a different gender.
The
black and white artistic style is one of exaggeration where the emotions of the
protagonist are portrayed in bombastic style. The innocent girls, not knowing
or unable to change the world, are shown as wide-eyed does threatened by an
assortment of ugly and scabby individuals looking to use and abuse them. A
little like Red Riding Hood the world is full of wolves wishing to devour their
goodies.
While
this is a fun story, I have been looking through the author’s other works and
see that all of them are simply collections of stories of her growing up,
indicating that the author is limited to just talking about themselves.
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