Bertino, Mike – Trigger #1

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Trigger #1

To everyone who has the Mike’s original trigger series in mini comic form (unless it was collected and I never heard about it): this comic has nothing to do with the other Trigger series.  Or at least it doesn’t in any way that I can see, but it has been a few years since I read that series.  This comic, is everything that is good about comics.  Click on that cover just to see how impressive it is (go ahead, treat yourself).  As for the comic itself, there are three stories, and it’s been ages since I’ve seen a comic where the pieces involved are so absolutely different from each other.  The first story is called Grown Ups and it seems to be the only one of the pack that is going to be continued later.  It’s all about the first day of a young teacher who has moved over from teaching P.E. and has gone onto history, his interactions with his students and his meeting a fellow teacher out for drinks.  That other teacher also had a couple of ladies with him, one of them seems to take a shine to our hero (named Conrad), and things progress from there, right into an excellent cliffhanger.  I’ve said this before with series that ended after one issue, but seriously: don’t leave me hanging here, OK?  The second story is hilarious, and a complete shift from the first piece.  It deals with two friends (one of whom has the hots on the waitress at their favorite bar), a waitress set on revenge, a gullible lunkhead of a bartender and some drunk teenagers.  Again, do y0urself a favor and embiggen that sample image.  Finally there’s Below Us, a dead serious tale about a young man who is getting messages through a new plate in his head and how it forces him to deal with some issues in his past.  Again, it’s damned rare for the first piece of a comic to be serious with a touch of humor, followed by (that rarest of things) a laugh out loud story, and capped off by a serious story dealing with past abuse and learning to live with it.  There are a misspelled word or two, as I’m legally required to point that out, but leaving that aside this is a damned near flawless comic.  If you’ve read Mike’s stuff over the years and maybe weren’t that impressed, or were confused because you only caught part of a larger story, check this one out.  It’s self-contained and brilliant.  $5