Gonzales, Rickey – Squish

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Squish

One of these years I’m just going to get a graphic novel from Rickey and be done with it.  Of course, that’s also assuming that I’m going to make it to SPACE one of these years with a pile of money.  This mini has a tiny original comic and then a preview (done in screenplay format) or his latest book, The Death of Ginger Fierbusch.  The comic is the brief story of a young woman who, while on the phone to her father, squishes a bug.  After doing this she goes on about how it makes her feel bad to kill bugs, how maybe some other higher being in the universe will decide to squish her one of these days for no reason.  It’s gets a little maudlin, her dad gives her a bit of a pep talk, and there’s a delightfully awkward ending.  As for the free preview, the screenplay format maybe wasn’t the best way to show the new book, but if he didn’t have any actual preview pages done it’s better than nothing.  It’s the story of the two best friends of Ginger Fierbusch, a local drag queen and podcasting sensation (do those exist?), trying to make sense of her death.  It has potential, clearly, but there really wasn’t enough here to pass any judgement one way or the other.  Next year at SPACE I’ll pick it up and see for myself, until then who knows?  Check out his other books first (as there’s much more to them), but this is still worth picking up for his short comic if you see him at a con.  $1