Big Diamond
Zine, Liam Ira Christian,
28 pgs, Pioneers Press, pioneerspress.com, $4.50
A lumpy Jabba the Hut greets readers on Big Diamond’s cover, scowling amid a cartoonish BANG! Controlled chaos ensues for 28 pages as BD‘s creator Liam Ira Christian cuts and pastes his way to confusion. The central themes are (a) Star Wars and (b) little kids. Pieced together, it sorta seems like BD outlines a toddler’s first person account of discovering Star Wars for the first time, plus a few other regions of reality. But then (spoiler alert!) you learn late in the zine that its creator Liam is an actual toddler. What a twist! Accordingly, you can forgive the production being lop-sized and what’s more, this revelation provides an open invitation to re-read and review BD from the eyes of a child. Truthfully, this zine is quite a bit more coherent than much of what I’ve reviewed during my 10 years with Broken Pencil. So park any age bias and pick this up. This is a strong first effort from Liam and one that may serve him well if he makes future zines or chooses to attend Comic-Con in the years to come. (Cam Gordon)