REVIEW: “Lost Kisses” and “Worms”

No Comments | Posted: April 16th, 2009 | Filed under: Reviews | Tags: brian john mitchell, lost kisses, worms

Brian John Mitchell sent me over some very small comic books to review and the design fetishist in me immediately liked the form factor. As a package, each issue measures two inches by two inches and provides a surprisingly dense read, especially for the price point.

The body horror in Worms #3 is muted in a few places by some pretty dodgy art from Kimberlee Straub, but Mitchell’s strong first-person narrative compensates nicely; it’s deceptively simple and displays a keen ability to use the text space on each of the tiny pages to great effect, building suspense very nicely. Despite actually quite enjoying this, I immediately wanted to see how the writer would make use of a larger format, where this form factor’s limitations are removed and his scripting would get more room to breathe.

Unfortunately, I was a bit underwhelmed by Mitchell’s autobiographical Lost Kisses comics I was given (issue 7 and 8.) I think a good deal of this is because I’m just past the whole stick figure thing at this point, especially as Matt Feazell and Randall Munroe make almost every other comic using the technique moot. Points for exposing some nasty truths about himself and his toxic relationships, but haven’t we crossed the event horizon for comics of that ilk?

You can read (and order) issues of Lost Kisses and Worms on the Silber Records site, where they’re linked at the bottom.

---