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Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Mini-comic Review
Oh hey, remember when I talked about comics.
A few weeks ago I bought a bunch of comics cheap from David King off of the Comics Marketplace part of The Comics Journal Message Board. Along with the full run of Walt Simonson's Orion King threw in his comic Horse & Rider #1 from Summer 2003. Nothing wrong with a free comic, so decided to take a look.
The first thing to notice in this comic is King's 50's styled artwork. The characters look like little sprites one would find pimping cocktails at some semi-swinging restaurant. Here's page 1:
That's the main character, who isn't really given a name so I'll just call him sardonically Our Hero. It seems Our Hero has a bit of fetish. That fetish is stealing pies that are cooling off window sills and stuffing them in his trusty sack he call his Piebag. Indulging in this activity gives Our Hero a sense of real happiness, unfortunately that happiness wanes when he finds his pie fetish shames his parents. His elderly mother is beside herself in sorrow when her boy brings home some piping hot pies, bless her heart. Soon enough our hero is a pariah about town as townspeople jeer at him and call him names such as "Pie Fag." Coming home to his wife only to find her in bed with another man just tops off an already crushing day.
Our Hero comes to a realization, this Piebag of his is his only friend. A new day starts and Our Hero decides to walk through life unashamed. He'll be out and proud with his love of stealing delicious pies off of window sills like some sexually liberated Yogi Bear. The fact is, people will just have to live with it. He starts by confronting his old man. I won't ruin the ending for you, but Our Hero and his Piebag do find that everything's going to be alright.
Rick Bradford at Poopsheet likens Horse & Rider to the humor found in Mr. Show. I felt that way too, particular the humor of Mr. Show cast member and writer Paul F. Tompkins (screw that Best Week Ever crap, Tompkins is a great stand-up). King treats the bizarreness of his creation in just the right way for comic effect, he takes it very seriously. There's never a wink at the audience we just get a very well done story of a man who steals pies and stuffs them in his Piebag. I say it's about time.
David King's comics and art can be found at http://www.sweaterthieves.com/
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