One Step After Another

    (AdHouse, 2004)
™ and © AdHouse

A rather existentialist, though ultimately upbeat, short story about a disturbed young woman living by the seat of her pants and the skin of her teeth. With no details and few generalities, writer/artist Fermin Solis still confers a number of ideas to the reader: primarily, that the main character, Olga, is just one among several thousand disenchanted youths drifting around Europe with no prospects, no future, and no fury. Luckily, Olga happens into a drug dealer–cum–model named Lucia who looks after her with the care of a fellow migrant in similar circumstances. One gets the idea that Olga survives largely on the charity of such people, though never beyond the extent of her stay in a featureless hostel. The subdued ending, in light of what might be a rather large resolution in another book, is fitting to Olga’s hazy roving, which in the larger sense of the story, doesn’t seem so random after all.

— Brendan McGinley
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#1

September, 2004
Cover Price: $5.00
4 copies available from $3.50
Fermin Solis, Andi Watson (introduction)Fermin Solis