thursday

now, this is what i like to see

or just read the text here:

Heads Up Penny worth picking up
By Amanda Sledz
for ZORI3

A standard rule of comedy (and, come to think of it,
nonfiction writing) is that if you're going to take a risk
and go on stage/to the page ovaries out, spare no
one--not even yourself. On that note,
I'm pleased to endorse a comic that does, in fact,
spare no one: a mistress of the obvious placing a
blinking strobe-light over everyday behaviors that
deserve a little poke.

Heads Up Penny is a DIY comic publication by Thursday Suicide, starring a cast of stick-figures (who painfully
sprouted arms in part deux of this series) introduced
with elliptical statements such as "...on roommates"
and "...on "those" girls." Reading like an inspired
conversation between friends, the sunglasses-clad
drawings offer subtle character distinctions, like
pants or dresses, frills and punk hair, etc. The text is
to the point, employs careful use of silence, and lets
no one off the hook.

I tend to feel endeared to books that make me feel a
little embarrassed when I see myself (without the
follow-up excuses and behavior justifications), but
with just a nasty case of humanity hanging out. This
(in my case, whistling and avoiding eye-contact while
everyone reads the attention deficit section) allows
Heads Up Penny to double as a conversation
starter. And nothing inspired this more than
Baldwin's roommate observations, which lead to:
Holy shit, remember when you lived with that guy
who jerked off all over the bathroom floor in
response to a pile of dirty dishes? That was
awesome!

When a book takes you towards this kind of
dialogue, it inevitably spirals toward a mad desire to
communicate with the author: "I wonder if she ever
had a roommate who was too much of a mother-
pampered dumb shit to figure out that doing a load
of laundry while someone takes a shower is a
prescription for a screaming match?" Or: "Has she
thought about exploring the greater world of
academentia? There could be a thousand comics
written about professor evaluations, and
constructing a thesis with MLA style!" And: "I'd like to
see her go after hipsters a bit more, since they're my
top contender for individuals who need to be left on
a deserted island to die, with nothing but their CD
collections and sour expressions for survival."

Heads Up Penny is good for that, in the same way
Thursday's drawings are good for transposing your
own emotional reaction onto the characters carefully
concealed eyes. This is good writing framed in the
brackets of illustration, demonstrating moments of
excellent comic timing and wicked observation skills.
Thursday Suicide
doesnt offer anything more (in terms or writing or
illustration) than what is necessary, and this careful
understanding of the inevitable ADD of her
readership could lead to a long-term career. After
all, Thursday's got an endless source of material,
since what she reflects on is the human condition, of
which there is currently no cure.

It might be worth it in the long term for Thursday Suicide to
focus her observations and carry them further. While
the salt and pepper of a little bit of this, a little bit of
that, is great for introducing characters to readers,
eventually it's nice to have a meaty single subject to
digest--or just a few. I'd also recommend the
following: number your pages! As a reviewer, how
am I to reference the witty comic on page 18, if there
is no page 18?

Heads Up Penny oozes good creative mojo, and
reminds the reader that anyone with get-out-of-bed
drive can produce something, too. I recommend
checking it out and seeing what sort of comics start
unfolding in your own head in response to Thursday's
prompts.

Check out Heads Up Penny's two issues, mini-
comics, and other schwag either here or at www.thecarbonbasedmistake.com/hup/hup.html
other than to say that this review is a VAST improvement over the last, i'd just like to clear up that penny is NOT wearing sunglasses.
she is a robot. her eyes are ball bearings on a track that circles her head.

there, i said it.