Fourthman Reviews: Ropeburn

By Lee Newman

Ropeburn #1
Published by Fragile Press
Written and Illustrated by Jeremy Smith

Imagine all the heart of Peanuts mixed with the meditation on the mundane found in Clerks and you will have an idea of what Ropeburn is like. It in format and overall artist style, it is more reminiscent of Schultz. In angst and setting, it is a companion to Kevin Smith’s work.

Jeremy Smith is a winner of the Xeric Award (editor's note: Jeremy is selling his work directly from his blog, in addition to through Diamond). The Xeric Foundation started by Peter Laird is a corporation that offers financial assistance to folks looking to self publish their work. Jeremy used his award to get Fragile Press off and running. His first comic is this collection of slice of life anecdotal vignettes. The humor is smart assed, but the spirit of the book looks for the silver lining. If you look at the cover, you’ll see a single splash of color in a bloom rising from the crack of a grey dull world. That is what the humor of the book does. It looks at the things that frustrate us and makes light of them.

Much of the book appears to be auto biographical. More than half the strips are centered around Pizza Delivery boys and their trials & tribulations. The reason I say that it seems to be autobiographical, is that the dead on voice that is associated with these pieces can only come from experience. If Smith has not worked as a delivery boy then he has a keen eye for the world around him. Even if he has, that eye is just as acute.

Much of the rest of the material falls into the same category thematically, but is not as genuine. They are cute. Just as humorous, some are more thought provoking – for example, there is a series of one page panels that display a single man’s struggle with devils surrounding him that are peppered throughout the book.

The art is appropriate. It is of the newspaper strip variety, with clean lines and a strong sense of character design that leads to a very consistent look. Honestly, the whole project reminds me of the early work by Snoopy’s creator and this reader hopes that Smith’s career is as long & storied.