Dwyer, Brad – Epic Tales of the Mundane #8

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Epic Tales of the Mundane #8

Since I generally write glowing reviews of Brad’s comics, I thought it best to start this one off with a complaint about mini comics in general and this comic in particular. Yes, this is nit picking, so skip ahead a few lines if you don’t care for such things. Why do some comics folk repeat the cover as the first inside page of the story? Or is it vice versa, where they use first page of the story as the cover? Either way it’s a little ridiculous and seems like a waste of a perfectly good page. I’m talking about the comic now, just in case you skipped ahead, and this issue continues the “origin” story of Brad Dwyer. Is it really considered an origin story if the lead character doesn’t end up with any super powers? The story isn’t over yet, so maybe I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. Anyway, the rambling bug clearly has taken me over today, and this comic has two big stories that continue his comics history although, oddly enough, no comics history has been mentioned yet in the actual comics. First up is the story of Brad’s early days in various punk bands and how the lot of them eventually found a place in the desert where they could play without being hassled by the cops. For a while, anyway, as cops do have a tendency to ruin good things like playing music under the stars, far away from the noise of a city. Next is Brad’s slow descent into alcoholism (and almost sleeping pill abuse), as he’s able to marvel from a distance of years at his behavior, both towards himself and towards the ladies he dated. He’s also able to get some comfort from the fact that his friends were even crazier/more destructive than he was, so at least there’s that. I’m eagerly awaiting the first mention of comics in a story called “Get Into Comix!”, but it’s most likely a slow build with some payoff to come. Right? $3