Losers Weepers #1
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| Losers Weepers #1 |
J.T. Yost has hit on something here that is truly a novel approach to storytelling and ideal for the comic book medium. He has taken found notes and stitched together a completely invented continuing narrative that ties the imagined characters from the notes together.
In this issue of Losers Weepers J.T. has written a story around the found text from three notes. Note 1 came from a discarded journal with just a few pages detailing a woman's uncomfortable relationship with a boyfriend that suffers from mental illness due to a brutal attack. The woman pours out her feelings of depression and regret to her journal and acknowledges that she has to leave her boyfriend for her own good, which she later records she actually does. Note 2 was found written on an envelope. It's just a few lines of an angry sexual rant that may have been a poem or rap lyrics. And note 3 was a napkin with a short note about borrowing money and a possible reference to drugs.
Using the three notes J.T. builds an entire scenario where the lives of these people (those that wrote the notes and those the notes were written about or for) intersect and the consequences of their meetings drive the action that leads to the writing of the next note, that in turn leads to the next. In this issue J.T. has the mentally ill jilted boyfriend (Sean) of the woman (Lupe) from note 1 write the angry rant that is note 2, and then a homeless guy (Tiger) that Sean knows writes note 3 after taking Sean's money while Sean is passed out. Absolutely brilliant! And J.T. has crafted the connections between the characters so seamlessly throughout Losers Weepers that it's easy to imagine the events unfolded just as J.T. presents them!
The artwork in Losers Weepers is mostly made up of simple, expressive lines used with gray screens to add weight, depth, and mood to the images. This approach works well as it gives the stories the personal feel they deserve. The layout and lettering are equally as pleasing. An interesting addition J.T. chooses to include are copies of the actual found notes themselves. Images of all of the notes are printed within the pages of the comic so the reader has the experience of seeing and reading the actual note. This helps to bridge the gap between the fictional world J.T. has created and the real world that inspired it. The notes also serve as a nice segue between the lives of the characters. At the end of the comic J.T. provides appendixes where the notes are re-printed in a common font for easier reading. This actually helps because some of the handwritten notes are difficult to interpret. J.T. also includes his own notes in the appendixes explaining his interpretations where there is ambiguity.
I've read Loser Weepers #2 (review forthcoming) and found J.T. continues the process by building on the story from issue #1 by using more found notes and creating more characters and their related stories for the second issue! This looks to be a really interesting and entertaining series. Jump on board now!
You can get you hands on this cool comic and experience it for yourself at http://www.birdcagebottombooks.com/
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