Mean Muggin' #2

Posted: Tuesday, February 1, 2005
By: Darren Schroeder

Creator: Craig Stephens
Publisher: Self Published
Address: 9708 Snowberry Way, Orangevale, CA, USA.
Price: $2.00 (US)

What the hell are you looking at buddy? Oh, you're here for the review. Well, I can understand how that might occur. Those four characters on the cover sure do look fit for a fight, and you'll find more of the bad-ass attitude inside. Both of the stories in this 12 page mini comic concern chance encounters escalating into tense situations with violence a real possibility. You got a problem with that!

The first story is a slightly awkward dialogue between two friends sparked by one of them having an aggressive reaction to a look give to him by a passing stranger. His friend tries to calm him down, then the mean muggin' individual comes back to sort things out. The tale has a laboured quality to it, with more dialogue needed to explain the whole concept than is believable for such an exchange.

Story two flows more easily as a woman finds an unaccompanied package of cigarettes. She makes a move to pick them up when a man comes along and challenges her assumption that they are up for grabs. Conflict ensues, as does some tough and funny dialogue as the two display their quick wit.

Craig has a staunch art style, with solid inking that looks to have been done with a brush. The use of 'zip-o-tone' is heavy in this book, giving the pages a solid look.

I enjoyed the shorter second story in this collection because it explained less and did more. The dialogue is genuinely funny, and mean muggin' was about something: it had a focus and consequences.

In a Word: Gruff

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