Brubaker, Elijah – Reich #4

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Reich #4 Now Available! $4

I can see that it’s been just about a year since I updated this page, but Elijah has clearly been working the whole time, putting out three new issues.  In the world of small press comics, that’s an avalanche of issues, and it remains one of the most fascinating series out there.  In this issue we learn that Wilhelm’s mother cheated when he was a young boy (and we see how his father would alternately nurse her back to health after her suicide attempts and beat her when she was healthy enough to take it), we start to see some of the political unrest of the time with a huge protest and a massacre by the police, and of course we get more conversation about Wilhelm’s theories of sexuality and how to become “genitally healthy”.  Elijah does take one liberty in this issue, as Wilhelm gets involved in a confrontation on the street between a one-armed beggar and the police (that never, theoretically, happened), but it helps frame the riots later in the issue.  This series has the potential to be mentioned in the same sentences as some of the greats of the genre if Elijah keeps this up, as this is the sort of thing you could show anyone and have them get instantly engrossed.  It’s really not to be missed.  $4