ZZZ
Alan Bunce
Reviewed by Steve Rutan

This is a “free sample ‘collector‘s item misprint,” due to the fact that issue which appears on the stands (well, the shelves) in March will sport a full-color cover and two pages near the end in correct order. Full-color will be great; it‘s a decent cover now, but with the depiction of a man under a blanket with a highly-complicated patter, adrift in dream amidst his toy, that could be a knock-out. Of course, it all depend on what Bunce does with it.

This is a near-miss. Bunce comes across as some sort of strange cross between Scott Patty Cake Roberts and Walt Poot Holcombe. He has Robert‘s stylized figures down, but not his manic energy. He has Holcombe‘s willingness to engage in a sustained, whimsical tone for page after page, but not his gorgeous line or biting sense of humor. Imagine a comic drawn by Roberts‘ long-time studio assistant from an unused script found in Holcombe‘s personal effects, and you may have the idea. Not that Holcombe‘s dead, or that Roberts is using assistants. Oh, never mind.

Anyway, ZZZ is accomplished in a sense -- a wordless story telling of the protagonist‘s adventures vis-a-vis a genie in a semi-magical, or at least expansive, set of caves -- it‘s a dream, of course). The artistic choices as far as mood and pacing indicate an older artist. That‘s too bad, I hope Bunce is as young as possible, because something this restrained, done by an artist with an eye towards abstraction (nice cat), indicates potential good times ahead.

As for now, unless you‘re a big, big fan of wordless comics, dream stories, or fairy tales, it won‘t be a loss for you to skip it.

ZZZ #1, March 2000, Alan Bunce is at 66 Pacific Ave, #1509, Toronto, ON. CANADA. M6P 2P4. It will cost $2.35.