I Reads You Review: OTHERS

Creator: Will Dinski
Publishing Information: self-published; 2-color, bound mini-comic, 9pp
Ordering Numbers: View at website: http://www.willdinski.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/pressman1.gif or purchase at conventions in which Dinski appears

Best known for his mini-comics, cartoonist Will Dinski lives and draws comics in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2003, Dinski received a BFA in Comic Art from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and in 2009, he won the Isotope Award for “Excellence in Mini-Comics.” Dinski’s first graphic novel for Top Shelf Productions, entitled Fingerprints, will debut later this year.

Dinski’s mini-comics are handmade books utilizing silk-screened printing on high-grade paper stock. One of those publications is entitled, Others. Dinski bound Others together using a single twine tied around the top of this 4.5” x 6” flip book. A colorful, paper band is wrapped around the book, acting as a kind of mini-dust jacket containing the title “Others,” and the following text: “Two short stories about the solitary and disenchanted.”

Printed in navy blue, the first story is entitled, “The Pressman,” which has as its protagonist a nightshift printer at a daily paper. Although he works at night, the printer spends his days downtown, following office workers around: eating lunch when they do, sitting in traffic with them for laughs, and generally spying on them. His efforts allow him to witness an executive scandal.

Printed in orange ink, the second story is “Get Away from Me,” and is narrated by a bird that makes critical comments about crowds as he watches the humans in the city below. Later, he has his own issues with the pack mentality.

The stories are a little odd, especially “Get Away from Me,” but they have an innate charm that shows through even when reading only a little of them at a time. The format for Dinski’s stories may seem unusual and even distinctive. However, in terms of visuals and narrative, they bear a resemblance to the comics of Dan Clowes and Adrian Tomine.

“The Pressman” has an oddly alluring Film-Noir quality, and the page design and structure also make it quite eye-catching. “The Pressman’s” structure features alternating panels that are either text only (dialogue or narration) or art only. It creates a rhythm that forces the reader to pay attention to each individual panel as the best way to understand the entire story when connecting all the panels as a linear narrative. I think that structure also limits what the reader will imagine happens in between panels.

Dinski’s ideas and stories are a good fit for the format in which he chose to publish Others. This is simply a charming little package is more than just a charming little package. It is also good comics.

A-

http://www.willdinski.com/