Rice, Nathan – The Daily Compulsion #5

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The Daily Compulsion #5

How many daily diary strips do you think have existed in comics since James Kochalka started his? Granted, he wasn’t the first person to do it ever, but that’s what seemed to make it a “thing,” so go with me on this one. Out of all of those diary strips, what do you think was the average strip number when the cartoonist did a strip about how they were sick of doing a daily strip? Nathan makes it #10 in this one, but he only did 11 strips, so at least he didn’t drag it out like some people do. Has there ever been a daily diary strip where at least one of the strips wasn’t about the creator being sick of making it? Hey internet, somebody out there must have far too much free time on their hands, get on this please! While we’re waiting for the numbers to come in, how about I talk about this comic for a bit? This is Nathan’s first book in 7 years, meaning that at least two of the strips show opinions that he no longer has (he mentions this in the intro). To me this raises the obvious question of why he bothered to include them at all, but if he’s trying to show an accurate timeline of his life they do come in handy. The first disavowed strip deals with cocaine and how it has messed up different people in his life (which makes me wonder why he no longer stands by it, unless it’s because of that silly conspiracy theory about the Clintons and coke on the last panel) and the second strip deals with why people really commit suicide and how the best way to avoid it is to think a few steps ahead and realize that things will get better. These would have been totally unremarkable if it wasn’t for that intro, but now they stand out a bit. Other strips in here include his regrets about never becoming friends with a guy because they both liked the same girl, the 11 diary strips he made it through when he briefly quit drinking (most of these were pretty good strips, but he didn’t have years to get sick of doing them either), a few different recovery jokes/strips from AA, and a pretty funny bit about Alcoholic Anarchists Anonymous. The best part of the comic is the last story, a continuing piece about how he ignored all kinds of signs about how his drinking was out of control, how he quit for a bit and then fell back into it. Here’s hoping it’s not another seven years until his next comic, as I’m curious to see how that all turned out. Overall it’s a good comic with all kinds of different stories for that old fashioned price of $1, so give it a look.

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Posted on September 25, 2013, in Reviews and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Comments Off on Rice, Nathan – The Daily Compulsion #5.

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