Flavour Country
Comic, Issue 1, Scott Marshall, issue 1, [email protected], $1
One of my favourite stories in this zine centers on something I can really relate to: becoming a fan of a band when they become big and famous, but realizing later that they were playing small gigs right under your nose in their early days.
But even beyond that, this short, presumably autobiographical and breezy collection of comics speak to typical the Canadian experience such as college jobs and lousy public transit. The black and white illustrations are rendered in a fairly clean and not overly detailed style. There is a slightly off-putting characteristic to the ink where it looks like it’s been spit out of a computer. This pixelly grain makes the words hard to read at times. The stories don’t stick around long enough to really get a chance to go anywhere, but there are some wonderfully rendered pop personalities ranging from Alannah Myles, The Hip, David Bowie, and Iggy Pop (aka Raisin Man). What else can I say? I would buy this for the one dollar cover price and for a first issue this is not a bad start. (Chris Landry)