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SLOW NEWS DAY #4 (Best of the Week!)
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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Slave Labor Graphics
Writer/Artist: Andi Watson
Price: $3.50 US |
One day this week, we ran a big feature story in the paper. It was about a woman who's a trained horse masseuse. That's right... she massages horses (and not for underground videos or anything either). It's a weird story. It's a goofy story. It's far from any definition of the term "news." But damn, people want to read about it. Some readers will laugh. Some will smile. Some will even read with interest.
The point is that these stories get read. This human (or equine, I suppose) interest pieces always prove to be popular. They're not the kind of stories I like to write as a reporter, but they have their place, especially in smaller newspaper markets. Andi Watson is well aware of this, of how newspapers work. He knows of the battles between editorial and advertising, and of the relationships and friendships that form within the office walls. He just knows. Trust me on this.
Katharine and Owen scramble to meet their latest deadline, but it's a special one: editorial's been awarded the cover over a paying advertising client. It's a banner week all around: Owen moves in with his girlfriend Nicole, and Katharine's boyfriend Brett has sold her TV-show concept to a network. Unfortunately, that means she has to fly back to California from England immediately, and she struggles with her obligations to her new friends.
It's amazing how much Watson can say with such a simple visual style. A few scant lines takes the shape of a facial expression we recognize in ourselves or a friend. Some plain shapes combine to be the mess of boxes in one's kitchen right after a move. His simple approach to the art brings a universality to the characters and the setting. And the collage of imagery on the cover really grabs the eye.
The initial attraction of comics -- thanks in no small part to the dominance of the super-hero genre -- is escapism. On this point, there can be no doubt. So how can someone like myself so taken with an escapist form of art and literature be so taken with a far more grounded sample of storytelling? Because I see myself, my life in the story. I feel a sense of belonging and brotherhood, and maybe not so alone in the choices I make or actions I take.
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