Cut Flowers by Pat Palermo
Cut Flowers by Pat Palermo. 2005. 30 p., 8″ x 10.5″, $5. Available from the USS Catastrophe Shop.
I’ve been ordering small batches of mini-comics lately, often selected on some random whim or because I’ve seen the creator’s name somewhere or other. Often they are complete letdowns but most often there is something interesting about the form or story or style. But I’m rarely so impressed with the sheer skill at drawing as I was when I opened up Pat Palermo’s Cut Flowers.
Pat’s style has a classic look to it, like something from another decade. He clearly knows how to work in pen and ink: strong blacks, great line variation, hatching. His realistic style is just a tiny bit cartoony (most in the characters and their dot eyes), but it reminds me of some of the more realistic newspaper strips of the past. His layouts work with a nine panel grid, varying it as necessary. There’s nothing experimental here, but I don’t mean that as a slight. The art is assured and impressive in its classic stylings.
The story here is less impressive. The protagonist, Hank, is a grouchy painting student, who’s angry with a fellow student, Fay, he’s had some kind of romantic/friends relationship with. He isn’t hesistant in complaining about a guy, John, and then accepting his offer of going out for drinks (since he doesn’t have any money and John offers to pay). Hank fights with Amy then goes out for drinks with John. There is conversation and some interesting scenes that are under-developed (a homeless man with a collection of coded cigarette butts, among others). None of it really goes anywhere. It falls somewhere between everyday banality and a dramatic story (perhaps this is “slice of life”). I’ll admit it’s a pet peeve for me, one that I am fully aware I can fall into.
The art student protagonists leads me to believe that this is veiled autobiography (who else would write about an art student than an art student) (I’m also under the impression from posts at the Comics Journal board that Palermo is an art student). There are elements that have that feeling where the author clearly knows more about the story than he is letting on. Maybe there is a story between Hank and Amy (it sounds rather sado-masochistic on an emotional level) but all we really get is Hank yelling about it, finally broken down, except that’s where the story starts. It seems really personal and close, without opening up to the reader.
I could be wrong, maybe he made it all up. Either way, Palermo is an artist to watch. As I can find no other mention of comics by him, I am going to assume this is his first publication. Maybe we’ll see more work soon (though the art must take a long time).
Tags: Comics, minicomics
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