CBGB #3

Written by Kim Krizan, Robert Steven Williams and Louise Staley
Art by Toby Cypress and Giorgio Pontrelli

This issue is a disappointment compared to the first three stories across the two earlier issues of the comic.

The first story, written by Krizan (who is a screenwriter) is an odd tale about the origins of rock and roll (I guess), which can be interpreted as culturally insensitive or misinformed, and it has to do with three youth who leave their "tribes" and end up forming a band.  "Boy, do you like Big Noise?" is a good sample of the dialogue.  I was waiting for a character to say something like "Me make-um heap big music."  The art, by Cypruess, is as strange as his art usually is (and I mean that in a good way), especially with wide vertical bands altering the tone of many panels.  The art should be enough to redeem this story for me, but somehow it doesn't.

The second story, written by Williams and Staley (Williams edits the CBGB website) is a music and weed-fueled time travel story that is cute, but came across as flawed.  A professor of music (we assume) goes back in time to the night he broke up with his girlfriend and decides to stay for a concert instead, which somehow alters the timeline, although I don't understand how.

I like this series (more in theory than in practice this month), and hope that the last issue is going to be impressive.  This type of project is crying out for a Vasilis Lolos story, although I think I'm going to be disappointed there...