The Essential Bootleg Comics & Stories
by Mel Taylor
illustrated by R.G. Taylor
Studio Comix Press
2026
review by BK Munn
Because I'm embracing "all things Waterloo," the only new comic I picked up this week was this fluorescent banana yellow (picture doesn't do it justice) collection of fugitive pieces by Mel Taylor and R.G. Taylor. All these short stories are written by Mel Taylor, a local beatnik type, and illustrated by his cousin R.G. Taylor, who comic book fans might recognize as the artist behind the exquisite 1980s series Wordsmith, about a 1930s pulp magazine writer, and a short but beautiful early run on the Sandman Mystery Theatre comic series ("The Brute"). The short stories in this book are polished autobiographical reflections on personal heroes, childhood memories, and being down and out; bite-sized, slice-of-life haikus. The narration is poetic in an unpretentious, quotidian style, and the artwork is on point, with R.G.'s expressive (photo-referenced?) linework getting at the heart of things. I was pleased to learn the cousins grew up in Fergus, Ontario, along the Grand River, where I also spent part of my childhood, and in addition to Mel's memories of reading Jack Kirby Fantastic Four comics as a kid, there are two short strips about the local comic shops in the K-W region, the long-gone Now & Then Books, where I bought the first issue of Wordsmith back in the 80s, and the shop where I bought this book, Carry-On Comics.
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