Bordeaux, Ariel – Deep Girl #1

Ariel on Facebook

Deep Girl #1

It occurred to me while writing these old timey reviews that these artists might not keep their work in print because they think it was completely awful, and I’m ruining something by posting these old minis at all.   Then again, screw that.  This is some funny shit.  The art may look a bit crude compared to her later work, but so what?  Do you lose points for not being as accomplished an artist when you first start out (as this was done in 1993) as opposed to where you are 17 years later?  If anybody out there really hates that I’m posting their older work for all to see, they can let me know and I’ll take it down.  In the meantime, I think it serves as a helpful reminder that a lot of these people are still making comics, just in case you’ve forgotten about that.  This was one of the first minis I ever bought, and it definitely set the tone for what I was looking for.  Here was this woman, putting out her first comic, who fearlessly lays herself bare for all (well, the couple of hundred people who bought this) to see.  There’s probably a dozen or so cartoonists who got me interested in this business and kept me interested with how often they put out comics (back then, at least), and Ariel was definitely a big part of that.  So what was in here?  Pieces about her delusions of grandeur (thinking she is perpetually on the cusp of fame as an artist while working as a waitress), how shopping for a bra has always been a miserable experience, Weepy the Wee-Wee, Smile-O-Matic, and your very own monk.  I’m just shouting into the wind here, but if anybody ever wanted to put these into a collection, I think they could sell some copies.  Just one man’s opinion…