MadInkBeard

(La Mano, 2005) John Porcellino makes minimal comics that are quite amazing in their simplicity. This book collects stories from King-Cat Comics about his long-running job as a mosquito abatement man. They span from an extremely rough 1989 piece through to new stories from 2004. While not as successful as his A Perfect Example (just back in print from Drawn and Quarterly (ed.- 11/05)) they are an available way to sample his work. I highly respect the way he tells a story with the barest of bones. His drawing is so iconic as to occasionally be obscure were it not for the accompaniment of story and text (the muskrat in one scene would be a mystery were it not called a muskrat in the text). Readers of the McSweeney’s comic issue will know Porcellino as the creator of one of the two mini-comics included in the issue.