comicbookresources.com

Thursday September 21, 2000

A COMEDIAN, EH?

ARM'S LENGTH #1 is a self-published effort from Mark Price, who won a Xeric Foundation grant for his work here. It's a 32 page black and white comic with heavy cardboard covers, and can be yours for $3.95.

The lead feature story is a sentimental story of a man starting out in the stand-up comedy business. He busts his hump every day working a day job while fighting for his big break inside show business. One day, he meets his idol, Bob Hope, and that provides him with the morale-boosting shot in the arm needed to carry on.

It's interesting on a few different levels. First of all, it shows us a bit of behind-the-scenes business of stand-up comedy. This is the story of a character who not only works on his jokes, but also studies the classic comedians to find out what made them tick and what made them funny. It's more than just coming up with funny material. (Sometimes, quite honestly, a joke is funnier because of its delivery than its actual yucks level.)

Secondly, it's a bit of a bittersweet tale - one coming from a dreamer. I won't give away anything more than that. But Price uses a couple of neat tricks in his narrative to show us this. He repeats a motif of smiling faces, eyes, and hands to help establish mood. The eyes of a hostile crowd all end up with their own inset panels.

One other odd trick: Word balloons encircle captions as the lead character tells his story. It's subtle, but effective. While quoting Bob Hope in a caption box, if Hope shows up on panel, he'll be speaking the caption.

Finally, the most important thing Mark Price pulls off with this story is the grandest illusion of them all: the lead character is not himself. This isn't an autobiographical tale. I didn't realize this until I read some stuff about the book afterwards. Price is so effective at sucking you in to his world and making the lead character so personable, that it's tough to realize he isn't speaking from his own experience.

Two other short short stories round out the collection. "The Artist at Sixty" is a wry look at Price, himself, in the future at a McDonalds. "Beat the System!" is a primer on how to score yourself some free food using the customer complaint number on food labels.

If you'd like to get yourself a copy of this book, just e-mail Mark Price, himself, at MrPriceman@aol.com for more information and get your envelope ready to ship out to Seattle.

Augie De Blieck Jr.
Staff Writer, CBR
augie@comicbookresources.com