Falafel Fall-out

Posted: Tuesday, November 23, 2004
By: Darren Schroeder

Creator: Gavin Spielman
Publisher: City Comix (Self Published)
Address: 129 1st Ave #2A, New York, New York , 10003, USA.
Price: $3.50 + 1p&p(US)

Back in collage Gavin was in band that used to practice at his fiend's place. One of the people who lived there borrowed Gavin's car one day, has an accident and doesn't seem to have been too interested in sorting things out.

There is humour and horror to be had reading Gavin's recollections of what appears to have been an interesting period of this life. I was sitting yelling at him don't give him the car keys!!! but of course it was far too late. Having been in houses with some really lame house-mates in my own past I could identify with the events unfolding here. Gavin's story rings true and grabs the readers attention with amusing illustrations of a wild cast of characters, cleverly conversational dialogue and the matter of fact narration.

The book creates the atmosphere of untidy flats, dodgy car and smelly hippies very well, with very loose line illustrations that make the locations and characters seemed lived in. Gavin also makes good use of contrasting crosshatching to give texture to the pages, with some especially interesting full page panels.

Gavin presents the tale as a reflection on life and how some people treated him back then. He also poses some question for the reader: do people just not care about others, or do they set out to rip others off? These are important ethical questions, far more weighty that What would you do if you had superpowers. These questions are real, and you get the feeling Gavin is looking for answers. Nice to get asked to think about things without being force-fed the answers.

In a Word: Searching

---

Got a comment or question about Small Press?
Leave at message at the Independent/Small Press Forum.

---