Fictions

    (Brass Ring, 2002)
™ and © Brass Ring Comics

Writer Johnny Lowe has teamed up with a variety of artists to present Fictions, a collection of three unrelated and very different tales. While they certainly play to different tastes, making one reader’s favorite different from his friend’s, none of them is bad.

The lead story, the silent “Occupational Hazards” is possibly the weakest entry. This tale pits alien invaders against man’s best friend. Seaward Tuthill does an admirable job bringing expression to the faces of alien “grays,” but the story’s resolution is a little weak. “A Blot of Mustard, a Crumb of Cheese” is the story of a slacker whose bad day causes him to clash with a variety of comic book stereotypes. Gun–toting grim–and–gritty types, gravity–defiant bad girls and shojo–style sailor girls all cross paths with our hapless hero, who just wants $7 for donating plasma. It’s a fun story and the different types of characters are rendered in a variety of appropriate styles by Richard Garcia. Finally, “When Father’s Day Comes” is a crime story with a little horror thrown in as a trio of fugitives holds a family hostage. It’s Natural Born Killers meets Poltergeist. The art, by Tony Brecini and Tuthill, is the strongest in the issue. The weakest feature of the stories are the titles, whose meaning is not always self–evident and could be improved upon, even after the reader “gets” it. Finally, the price is quite nice.

— Jack Abramowitz
Jump to issue:
  NotesWriterArtist