110 Per¢ by Tony Consiglio

Well, in honor of Independence Day, I thought I should come up with some theme for today's review. The best I could come up with, however, was a book published by an independent publisher. That'll have to do.The new book by Tony Consiglio, 110 Per¢, is named for a fictional boy band that is the obsession of the story's main characters. Consiglio has been around the mini- and art-comix scene for at least a decade now, mostly associated with his title Double Cross. That mini started out as most do, with short stories focused mostly on comedy. Over the years the stories grew to have more depth, and pathos was added in just the right amount.

The tone of this book achieves that balance of comedy and drama to push the characters through their respective arcs. He uses three main characters and one major supporting character to delineate the different commentaries to the story's situations, and handles them all skillfully. The story is only 130 pages, but Consiglio gives it a feeling of weight by building the characters from the ground up, taking the space that each one needs to be rounded out. I don't know anyone who behaves like these characters, but they were all totally believable and that, for me, is one of the great strengths of the author's writing. Each character was given a situation that I could empathize with, even if I could never see myself in their situation, and each of their stories plays through in a realistic way.

The art is strong as well. Consiglio works in a style that is not seen much these days in long form comics, a kind of updated bigfoot style that is open and subdued. His characters are cartoony without being cartoonish, and unique while fitting in perfectly with the world they inhabit. He also manages to come up with distinctive designs for every supporting character. Too many comics artists suffer from a weakness in this area, often making it easy for the reader to confuse two characters with similar or identical appearances, and he never falls into that trap. The art has a comfortable feel, and remains consistent in the design of the "sets" that the characters inhabit. His layouts and page design remain interesting and service the story, while the inking, while occasionally weakened by a lack of line weight variance, brings the whole thing together with attractive blacks and textures.

I am glad to see a long form story from Tony Consiglio, and hope that the marketplace demands more. I think that he might yet grow into the type of artistic powerhouse that is Peter Bagge or Alex Robinson, whom I view as telling the type of story that Consiglio tells. His art is not as unique or distinctive as Bagge's and his stories have yet to show the ambition that Robinson's have, but time will tell.