Customer Reviews

Stickleback

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The book follows the antics of an artist who makes figures out of toilet paper. We see his dull life, staring at vague figures of toilet paper, a few inches big, and then tweaking them. We meet his cat who inevitably screws up the figures. And we meet one of his benefactors, a kid with a weird physical ailment.

I loved Graham Annable's "Book of Grickle" and thought this would be as much fun. While his drawing style is simple, his humour and storytelling pace more than make up for it and his work is usually good to read. This short comic book though is a bit dull. The main character never becomes endearing nor does his paranoid behaviour make him interesting, while the incidents in a café (the main event of the book) seem a bit strained in humour rather than the more polished style I saw in "Book of Grickle".

Not his best work, probably more for the fans, I'd direct new readers to "The Book of Grickle" a recently well put together hardback put out by Dark Horse for a much better read and introduction to the underrated and excellent Graham Annable.

Nearly 20 years ago I produced a fanzine highlighting small press comics. These were not comics you could buy in a comic store, but rather they were mini or digest-sized comics put out by some very talented--and some not so talented-artists and writers who were doing it for the pure love of creating comics. Unfortunately for them, there were not companies around like Alternative Comics or Top Shelf to give these talents an outlet of distribution for their work.

"Stickleback" reminds me so much of those small press days. The art style is raw, maybe even a bit crude, yet oddly appropriate for the subject matter. George Stickleback is obsessed with his art. His art happens to be making figures out of toilet paper and as the book opens he's struggling to get the creative juices flowing to get his figures done for a show. George stares intently at his little figures. You can hear the wheels grinding in his head as he agonizes over the minutest details. To make matters worse are the interruptions. First his cat Patty tears some of his figures up then the phone rings as George's pay Yanni begs him to pickup the phone. Gritting his teeth, George answers. He can't spare the time but when Yanni pleads with him, he agrees to take the bus across town to meet him at a café for a glass of lemonade. At the café George is accosted by a group of rowdy, beatnik-looking types before sitting down with his friend. From there we meet Yanni with his out of control fingernail and George is soon involved in a war of words with the beatniks that culminates literally into a pissing match.

Stickleback had me laughing out loud at several points. We all know an obsessive compulsive person like George who worries about mundane details. Graham Annable captures the spirit of small press with a story that took shape out of life's everyday experiences. Check out the backgrounds in his panels. His little toilet paper figures crowd his apartment, almost coming to life as they are posed in various positions, one reaching down from a counter to help pull his comrade up. What the people at Publisher's weekly may see as "padding" I see as further examples and details of Stickleback's personality. It's this obsession that drives him and I found it to be an engrossing read.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

I really don't agree with the Publisher's Weekly review. This book is certainly not as good as most of Alternative's output, but it is a solid read. I have a review up at www.brokenfrontier.com for further explanation.