Tear Stained Make-up #3

Posted: Tuesday, October 4, 2005
By: Steve Saville

Creator: Marcos Perez
Publisher: Cliffface Comics (Self Published)
Address: 247 Montgomery St. Apt 4, Jersey City, NJ, 07302, USA.
Price: $2(US)

Here we go again then. Another chapter in the soap opera of a comic that is Tear Stained Makeup, and I must admit I was quite excited to see what had been happening to Tildy the librarian and the other characters that had been so carefully introduced to us in the first two editions of this ongoing series.

I even felt a sense of indignant outrage when in the first two pages of this latest instalment the musical Basque, Robert was revealed as a total shit. You see it's getting to me I'm even starting to talk like a soap opera geek.

In the first two editions Perez lets us get to know the characters as frail and human individuals, in this chapter he lets us get into the mind of Laura, the chick who crash tackled the traffic in Chapter One and a self confessed freak. It must be said that this journey into the mind is as disturbing as it should be, taking into account that it was obvious from the outset that Laura had issues.

This latest edition is not totally successful, partly because it gets just a little too soapy. The hospital location, the apparently saintly Doctor Wilson combine to veer this latest chapter towards the stereotypical. The introduction of the terminally boring plumber is a little weird though. After the highly effective second chapter this instalment feels a little clichéd, complete with Doctor Wilson rushing off to save the day [maybe] as Laura’s condition deteriorates. The dialogue seems a little forced. Maybe it is just that I don’t like Wilson, Maybe I’m not supposed to. You see the soap opera thing, it's getting to me.

Laura's mental confusion is handled well though as the line between her dream/ coma state and the real world blurs adding to her agitated state of mind. The art-work is "modern" and in this chapter rougher than Chapter Two. The main reason for this is the absence of the toning used previously. I assume that because of the disturbed subject matter that Perez has altered his style to catch that mood as effectively as possible.

Bring back Tildy, I like her.

In a Word: Tildylesss

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