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Written by Byron Kerman Thursday, 10 September 2009 17:00

This exercise in comics minimalism proves to be minimally exceptional.

24 pgs. B&W; $3.50

(W / A: Agnes Anger, C. Che Salazar, Abel Jiminez)

          "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

          -David St. Hubbins, This Is Spinal Tap

I tried really hard to understand the high-concept jibes of the Minimalist Comics Collective.

Some of them, I appreciated, as in understood, but didn't appreciate, as in enjoy. For instance, a stick in the ground watches his shadow make a circle around him. His buddy says, "How's the sundial business, Bob?" He replies, "Same old, same old." You can practically hear the rim-shot after that one.

C. Che Salazar specializes in a sort of concrete poetry in which the words become the characters in the stories. It's an interesting concept, applied unsatisfactorily in a spate of attempts, though.

All these strips are in service to minimalism, nominally. The authors, according to a statement, are trying to break down the format on a quest for some deeper truth.

When Scott McCloud does that, it's illuminating. When Art Spiegelman plays with the form, it's a delight. This crew, not so much.

This collection reminded me of your typical college left- or right-wing newspaper's special one-shot, parody-of-the-news issue. It would be caustic, if it were original, or if the arrows landed somewhere near the targets. But it's not Tom Tomorrow or The National Lampoon, and despite its efforts, it doesn't bring back the cryptic humor of surrealism or the gallows humor of the comics from the alt-press of the ‘70s.

In truth, it doesn't really do anything, except make you glad you failed to attend the release party for the comic, where you might have had to meet people proud to have disgorged these sophomoric, bland, and inscrutable efforts. I guess maybe they're just kids, though.

Indeed, the related site, http://diy-jet.blogspot.com, describes this as a zine. And with zines, you plow through a mound of adolescent drivel before you find a keeper. So it goes.

As they say in the Special Olympics, "Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." One point for bravery, kids. | Byron Kerman