Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #7

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #7

Between this and the recent mini comics from Max Clotfelter this is starting to feel like nostalgia week around here, as Brad was another one of the earlier people to consistently send me review books. Or my sense of time is all wrong and I’m mistaking the number of books he’s sent for the time period in which he sent them, which is a distinct possibility. But enough about website history, who cares about that in as disposable a medium as the internet? This comic is the first one that Brad produced in a couple of years due to financial troubles and life in general, and most of the material is from 2008 and 2009. Still, self-loathing three panel strips are pretty much timeless, and there aren’t enough topical references to make it dated. The bulk of the book is the three panel strips, with a the first part of a short story in the end that, to me, was the highlight of the comic. It dealt with the moment in high school when Brad went from being a painfully shy and awkward kid to a kid who used hate as a shield. Getting called out by a girl that he had previously rejected (after Brad’s acne flared up in a big way) was the final straw, and the reactions from all involved were authentic as could be. I’m intrigued as to where this is going next, assuming he keeps it going. Sure, I could just peek at the next issue that he sent me to figure that out, but then where is the mystery? As for the three panel strips, I might be the only person on the planet who thought his strip where he was trying to decide if he was doing three panel gag strips or a diary strip was funny as hell, but it won me over. Other subjects include what he should have said to specific questions, how his life was going (what with being newly married and sporadically employed), cats, trips to the doctor, geeky stuff and how awesome his wife is for appreciating it all. Worth a look if you’re already a fan, if you’ve somehow never heard of the guy you might want to go back to the earlier books to get more of a sense of who Brad is, but this one is just fine as a stand-alone comic. $2