4 out of 5

Our regular Plusworld delivery folk finish a day of delivering to disgruntled customers, then begin the long journey homeward to settle in to their true reward: some empanadas from Ronaldo’s.

Packed in a Ronaldo’s paper bag, and done up in bright green on off-white paper, this mini-comic is another delightful life-slice from Bolt City occupants, perfectly avoiding some of the Yes-And wandering of Ben’s other minis by providing us with the empanada framing – as long as we get to the ultimate goal of chowing down by book’s end, anything can happen inbetween.

But rather key to the fun of this is that Ben doesn’t push that. There’s an ongoing gag of everyone remarking on how good the empanadas smell, hinting that some nefarious, empanada-losing shenanigans may occur, but instead, Sears takes the inbetween beats to have our duo contemplate their jobs, their lives; very much representative of what true after-work chatter can feel like. This makes some eventual empanada shenanigans very satisfying, and even moreso – spoiler – the success of the two getting to sit down and enjoy their meal.

While Ben’s rounded-corner, boxy design is embedded into the series by now, as-is much of it taking place at night and requiring Ben’s shading gradients in a two-color mini, it can still be hard on occasion to pull out details and depth when the pages are smaller and the panels crowded. The overall vibe and tone of this are clear throughout, and in general, I love the design sensibility – Wallace and Gromit vs. Mad Max. But, yeah, that’s the only knock here: as Ben’s world gets more and more detailed, it pushes against the limitations of the mini-comic format.