Roberts, Rafer – Plastic Farm #12

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Plastic Farm #12

Well, as promised (if about nine months later than I had intended), I did in fact go back and read all of these issues again, more or less in a row, to try and get a handle on just what Rafer is working towards here. Conclusion: yes, he does have his shit together. I noticed all kinds of little asides while reading them together, like other characters in backgrounds of other scenes and how the incredibly deliberate pace maybe, just maybe, is being done for an excellent reason: to have us know all about these side characters by the time they show up in the main story. I have to say that Rafer showed some serious guts by having his plan and sticking to it, all the while trying to get distributed and at least break even on Plastic Farm, while having a story that seems to be all over the map until you read it in chunks. So! This issue is a natural break, sort of, and it ended up being an actual break as Rafer took some time off to pay off all his debt from putting this book out for a few years. More people are arriving at the airport bar and Chester finally continues his story, this time going into detail about meeting his mother and relating some fascinating behind-the-scenes conversation that tells us more about who is chasing him and a tiny bit about why. OK fine, I still don’t know where plenty of this is going (like the cannibals, or the point of the issue with the lovers leaving each other as one went off to college, or the deep cover agent who was setting up the Senator) but the important thing is that it’s very clear that Rafer knows exactly where this is all headed. A quick glance at his website doesn’t show much in the way of new issues, which is a shame, but he is offering all 12 issues for $25, if you’re curious, and that’s certainly the way I’d recommend reading this. Even the artist changes that I thought were jarring the first time around all seemed to fit in. It could all fall apart, as the pessimist in me insists on pointing out, but right now this has the chance to be one of the truly remarkable comic series to be produced in the last ten years. Here’s hoping he finds a box of money so he can keep it up…