Stickleback (Paperback)

~ Graham Annable (Author, Artist) "Patty!..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

George Stickleback lives in his apartment with a cat named Patty and creates tiny figures out of toilet paper. When his friend Yanni interrupts his artistic process with a crisis, George takes the crosstown bus to a diner for a sit-down with his buddy. Obnoxious drunks, a bathroom with negligible privacy, urination as self-defense, unintentional harm to his friend, a trip to the hospital, an abnormally long fingernail and unexpected creative inspiration make up the rest of this thin graphic novel that is significantly lacking in serious action. Annable (Grickle) expends page after page on the barely varying, tensely drawn images of George sitting on his haunches in contemplation of his little toilet paper men, or boarding the bus and looking for a seat. This overattention to visual minutiae may be intended to approximate a cinematic approach, but such repetition comes off as padding and offers readers what amounts to a 10-page story stretched out to an unnecessary 48. Annable captures a little piece of the creative process (as wasted as it may be on toilet paper men), and he certainly evokes the mundaneness of everyday life in spades, but without enough humor to make it entertaining.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Stickleback is kin to Annable's stories of young artists and wastrels in Grickle (2001) and Further Grickle (2003). George, an artist preparing a show, has momentarily run dry of relevant ideas. Yanni, a friend, calls him in a panic, begging that he meet him at a cafe. Reluctantly, he agrees, buses there, is verbally harassed by three beatniks on his way into the place, scopes out Yanni's problem, is accosted again by the beatniks through the window of the cafe's men's room, and winds up having to rush Yanni to the ER. Meanwhile, inspiration has struck. He ditches Yanni and whisks home. Drawing his usual rounded-triangle-with-tube-appendages figures, Annable artfully expands the slight scenario with establishing panels and sequences for several scenes and plenty of wordless development and reaction panels. The whole thing is intensely satisfying.

Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Alternative Comics (February 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891867806
• ISBN-13: 978-1891867804
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,365,225 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, January 22, 2005

By	K. Johnson "E" (Decatur, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A SMALL PRESS GEM!, June 30, 2005

By	Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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