Reinwald, Josh & Rosenberg, Justin – Crass Sophisticate #21

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Crass Sophisticate #21

You know, I almost didn’t pick this up when I was looking around Quimby’s, as something about that art turned me off.  Then I saw the “#21” (and yes, that is always enough to impress me), the cheap $2 price for a fair amount of content, and figured I might as well give it a shot.  And, as is often the case, my initial instinct was wrong, as it turns out this comic is a blast.  There are two stories here, one dealing with Josh and Justin (who are apparently cousins in real life, if this story is to be believed) having a lengthy conversation about which of them likes ham, which of them is a Jew, and why the hatred for ham is so strong with one of them.  Sounds like you would get bored in a hurry, I know (and they wrapped it up with an excellent panel saying that everybody must have stopped reading long ago), but I was oddly engrossed.  The second story is Josh on his lunch break, talking to a co-worker about the happiest time of his life.  It’s sadder than you may have even thought (after seeing the guy on the cover, that is), but grade school humiliation due to a health freak mom packing all his lunches is always good fun.  As for the art (I’m assuming that the traditional comics listing of writer first and artist second is in effect here), Justin, if anything, pays too much attention to detail.  Granted, sometimes things look a bit smudgy, and he clearly tries to cram too much into the occasional panel, but I’m somebody who often complains about the lack of attention paid to backgrounds by a good number of comics artists.  How he got to #21 while clearly spending hours on background art is impressive all by itself.  So there’s an engaging story, art that challenges you to dig around and see what goodies the man put in it, and a hefty pile of story for a tiny price. Yeah, I’d say that you should try to find this.  $2