3 out of 5

You know I love my oblique indie stuff, no arguments there.  Be it the drunken, musical musings of Steve Lafler; the vile-spewing cynicism of Denis Worden; the visualistic fetishism of Dave Cooper; the mysticism of Jim Woodring.  I’m in there, buddy.  So I’ve got nothing against flippant, shouty characters like Sammy the Mouse, or surreal, go-nowhere plots as featured in these deluxely printed Fantagraphics volumes.  However: something I’d like to say is a common thread in the oddball stuff that I enjoy is that it doesn’t get in its own way.  It doesn’t dodge and reroute as a means of self aware avoidance (i.e. avoidance is cute and meaningful!  watch me drink and talk about it!)

Part of the time, when Zak Sally is just doing a sort of vulgar Mickey Mouse riff, with the depressed, hermitted Sammy begrudgingly going drinking with simplistic pal puppy or the brash Feekes, the books have a nice, hazy buzz to them – an amusingly nonchalant exploration of living in one’s own darkness, presented in a scratchy, notebook style cartoonism, beautifully printed in colored-pencilish blacks, whites, blues, and browns.

But the other times – and moreso, as we move past the first volume – Sally starts to get fussy and, in ducking ‘neath directly talking about anything, makes his “everything is not okay” statement sorely obvious.  This is, for better or worse, your average “sensitive” masculine voice: I’m open to talking about talking about my feelings, but I need to remind you that I am talking about my feelings because I am sensitive.  It’s a step removed.  That’s getting in its own way.  So as the book gets weirder and weirder, introducing another “layer” of reality, it becomes less interesting.  Sammy picks up a half-girlfriend whom he hates but is upset when she leaves; Puppy is working on a secret project; there’s some harried beast stalking the lands.  But what’s the point?  It starts in a place we recognize, sitting alone, not wanting to be bothered but not knowing what to do with ourselves when not bothered, and similarly, Sally isn’t sure what to do with Sammy when he’s left to his own devices, and so keeps throwing distractions his way…

Perhaps tellingly, the series was never finished.

Interesting, and definitely eye-grabbing, but fitfully, and frustratingly, too familiar in its inability to find a theme or statement.