I knew nothing of this smaller-format collection of short strips when I pre-ordered it a couple of months back, but the two names associated with the project were more than enough to get me on board. I only recently became aware of Phil Elliott's work through a Dark Horse graphic novel reprint, but I liked what I'd seen. And Paul Grist's striking and simple style makes him one of the most unique voices in the industry. Together, they offer up some entertaining slice-of-life stories, as well as a couple of more introspective, deeper pieces. It comes off as strong, underground, mini-comic fare, even though it's the result of higher-end printing and binding. Absent Friends isn't exactly must-read fare, but readers won't go away disappointed either.
Subject matter here ranges from madmen acquaintances to the trials and tribulations of dealing with the flu bug while single. Most of the stories seem to delve into the notion that each protagonist is a victim of some sort... duped by friends' tall tales, victimized by colleagues or struck down by disease. Ultimately, that recurring theme is also tempered by a sense that the main characters are victims almost by choice, that the truth and better choices were before them all along.
Grist's artwork here -- dating back as far as the 1980s -- is still easily identified as being rendered in his style, but I'm struck by certain influences. Frank Miller's style of the '80s comes shining through here as well. One page elicited an immediate comparison to the work of Steve (Preacher) Dillon in my mind, and other moments made me think of the styles of Mark (Fables) Buckingham and Fred Hembeck. But then, Grist's work almost always reminds me of Hembeck's cartooning, albeit with a more mature, realistic bent.
There's a universal tone to the storytelling here. Just about every story boasts elements that the reader will recognize from his or her life. The creators offer a nice variety of work here, and a nice variety of characters and subject matter. Some pieces are a little more challenging than others. The two strips attributed to Grist as writer are definitely lighter fare, clearly meant more to tickle the brain. "Fight Night," Grist's tribute to influenza, is one of the highlights of the book.
There's a growing trend in the industry to bring more and more obscure work back into circulation in a more accessible form. Absent Friends is an example. So are a number of unusual European and Japanese reprints from Dark Horse Comics and the trade paperback collections offered up by Richard Starkings's Active Images. I think it's great that some of the more interesting, new comics fare I've been fortunate enough to read over the past year or so is actually not new at all, just practically unknown material that been dusted off for a North American audience that wasn't lucky enough to get a look the first time around.
