Indie Comics to Watch Out For!

Torment
Paul Schoonerman
168 pgs
Goomba Graphics

An autobiographical take of a 7 year-old, left alone in the world when his mother dies of cholera. He spends three years in an orphanage, struggling with his demons, until he loses all four of his limbs in a freak accident. Drawn by Schoonerman using only his teeth, inspired by the style of Bill Keane. "Horribly depressing, and sickeningly melancholy! Four Stars!" - Spinnin' Indies


Forgotten
Randall Charles
48 pgs
Charlesmain Press

A 9 year old has to grow up in a hurry when his entire family is killed in a gas tank explosion. While tearfully going through the wreckage of his home, he discovers his mother, father, and older sister had all been struggling with depression, and were all self-medicating through alcohol and drunken fist-fights. Drawn entirely on the backs of discarded Christmas cards, then scanned into book form. "So sad, it borders on unreadable. Best comic of the year!" - Grum Reviews


Buried Memories
Chuck Hein
210 pgs
Threefrog Graphics

A desperately lonely middle aged man in a dead-end job with no family or relationship prospects discovers why all his pets have committed suicide. Hein calls it 'George Gately meets Aleister Crowley.' "Even more Heartbreaking and miserable than 'Open and Shut.' Chuck has outdone himself this time!" - Books R Good


High Life
Pauline Endive
168 pgs
SPS Comcis

An 8 year-old girl watches her mother fall apart, trying to come to grips with an abusive relationship. Drawn in Endive's trademark stick figures, this book is entirely without dialogue or narration. "Virtually incomprehensible, yet I know if I were to understand it, it would make me very very depressed. Comics Perfection!!" - Ditto Comics


Eight and a Half Minutes to Liftoff
ZacK
512 pgs
Beat the Press

An 8 year-old boy is dying of dysentery in 1930s Brooklyn. ZacK takes us through the last eight and a half minutes of his life, one page per second. Scribbled into ZacK's arm with loose staples, one panel at a time, then meticulously photographed. "This is by far the saddest book I have ever read, and I have blinded myself with acid so that it will remain the saddest book I will ever read. Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad. Capes are for babies, THIS is what cartooning is all about. One Hundred Stars." - Stanley Littleman, 'Broken by Life; A Homosexual Iguana's Tale'