The 4th issue of Square is a collection of author Ian McMurray’s unprinted strips from the past few years. My interest seemed to wander from a skimming indifference to a damn good read when going over this zine. McMurray’s illustrations capture that concerned-relaxed look of the everyday twenty-something city dweller, especially with his reoccurring characters Max Gladstone and Rick Ranger. Max plays the gossiping, womanizing friend of Ranger – who is the introverted DJ that doesn’t need women, only his music. The characters discuss video games, music, politics and art in that dry way only a city dweller could. This was the reason for my wandering interest — because while the strips were funny, creative and interesting, the bland moments of being a Toronto 20-something inhabitant seemed to infect too much of it. It was dry and dragged on in parts. Of course, like the author says, these are only unfinished strips from the past few years — so they sit as a take-them-as-they-are type of thing. Apart from these moments, I enjoyed much of the zine. The most interesting work of it comes from “Therapy,” where another 20-something deals with the monotony of city-life, but with cleverly contrasted internal-monologue-type glimpses into her thoughts. Thankfully, the zine isn’t wholly comprised of city-related story-lines, and that’s where the great Beta-Class Monkey comes in — a great capper comic for the zine. (James King)