COMICS: Fifteen minutes

Fifteen minutes.

Give or take, that's about how long it takes me to read the average comic. Less than a minute a page. Fifteen minutes of entertainment, for three bucks. Assuming it is entertaining; some comics I've gotten recently, I might as well try to see how far I can throw two dimes off a pier every minute for a quarter hour -- same investment of time and money, probably more fun.

That's an expensive habit. You have to really love comics to invest that kind of money in such a brief period of enjoyment*. And I do really love comics. But when I don't get that fifteen minutes, I can't help but feel a little ripped off.

And so we come to this week's Street Angel. The official site has a pretty accurate description: "Not much happens this issue. Street Angel looks for something to eat." Too true, too true. It's a change in pace from previous issues. More downbeat, more realistic.

But I was done in less than five minutes. I sat there for a moment, looking at the last page, and thought, "That's it? Really? What a gyp!"

Is it fair to judge a comic by how quickly you're done reading it? I say yes. Because while the overall mood of the comic, its art and storytelling style, were successful, and I enjoyed the comic while I was reading it, it wasn't a full comic to me. Everything in this issue could have been conveyed equally as effectively in four or six pages, without the self-indulgent pacing (or lack thereof), with plenty of room left over for an actual story. Being homeless sucks: I get it. You don't need a full issue to convey that to me. In fact, you don't need a single page. I'm a sharp guy. I was already aware going in that homeless people do not have wonderful lives, that they do not in fact routinely have wacky adventures involving mad scientists and ninjas and pirates. But I am not interested in reading realistic depictions of homeless people. I am interested in wacky adventures involving mad scientists and ninjas and pirates.

Previous issues have contained subtle touches among the crazy hijinks to remind us of Street Angel's poor living conditions, which helped add dimension to the comedy. This new issue, though relatively light-handed, still felt like a bludgeon of social consciousness: Look how awful she has it! She's digging for food in the trash! This is a terrible way to live! There's nothing funny about it!

No, there isn't. Which is not what I'm looking for in a humor book. I don't need a comic to school me in the plight of the homeless. I see actual homeless people every day; one look has far more impact on me than any comic ever could. I don't want a true-to-life Street Angel. I want a Street Angel who has action-packed team-ups with Jesus.

Maybe it's intended more as a showcase for the art; the lack of anything happening really requires the art to carry the book. And it's good art, reminiscent of Paul Pope, with some lovely detail. Check out the two-page spread at the bottom of this preview. The background is just beautifully rendered. But I'm not a comics reader who gets overly absorbed in the artwork. I enjoy the art, or I wouldn't be reading comics. But it's the stories, the words that really draw me in. In the best comics (and I would rank previous Street Angel issues as among the best comics I've read this year; I'd say issue #2 is one of the funniest comics ever published), the art and the writing complement one another. In this issue, there's nothing to back up the art. There's no story to make me want to spend time with the art, which is why I just breezed right through it.

Overall, I'm conflicted on this issue. Like I said, I enjoyed it while I was reading it. But the overall experience was unsatisfying, a real let-down after previous issues. Somehow, it manages to be a good comic that's not worth buying.

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*Initial enjoyment. Obviously, there are many comics that I've read dozens of times, extending their entertainment value. But there are many others that I've read once, and never looked at again.