There are some chilling moments in this, the second issue of Starck’s pseudo-autobiographical pseudo-comic. Page 17 features our heroine standing under a grapevine growing hatchets. The sign says Small Town Grapevine. Our heroine, we’ll call her Therese, is holding a box of band- aids upside down. It’s empty. She’s concerned. She’s gushing blood. Band-aids dated Nov. 2 1995 or Mar. 5 1993 barely suppress oozing hatchet wounds. On the adjoining page, Starck invites the reader to literally feel her pain: an actual band-aid, glued to the page, seeps a thick line of bright red paint. Typical, if anything can be typical to a work as disconcerting as this one, Therese, the character, is at once elusive and candid. She shows us things, we think we know who she is, and yet, we wonder why she has asked us to watch her drop-kick her heart into oblivion (pg 19). Nonetheless, we watch, fascinated, repulsed, contorted, and, strangely, incredibly, guilty.
comic / #2, 25 pages / main creator: Therese Starck / $3.75 / PO Box 8192, Victoria, BC, V8W 3R8