The FUO interview with Josh Latta.

Josh Latta is an illustrator and the cartoonist behind the Rashy Rabbit series of minicomics.  I met Josh through Brad McGinty back when I lived in Georgia but before I met either of them I was reading their comic strip Brad N' Josh in one of the free alt papers.  I've been a fan since the first time I saw one of their strips.  Josh was nice enough to answer a bunch of email questions I've sent him over the past few months and I've finally cobbled it all together into what I guess you could call an interview.  I'll note that I have left much of the grammar and spelling as it was typed because I feel that it is truer to the way Josh and I speak than perfect grammar would be. 

Not to get into the cliche' of "tell me your life story in one paragraph" but can you talk a little about how/when/where you came from and how you ended up becoming a cartoonist?

I grew up a little outside of Atlanta in Stone Mountain.

It's a heavily wooded area with lotsa trees,wildlife and creeks right there in our neighborhood. I've never been a particular outdoorsy or sports type but I remember wondering around the woods and playing in the creek by myself.

I wonder how many kids still do that today?

I always loved animation.  I remember I was particularly fond of Disney cartoons and features.  (Which, by the way, were hard to find on television pre-VCR's.) I loved Looney Tunes, Woody Woodpecker, Hanna-Barbera cartoons and pretty much any crap that they were showing at the time, like the Smurfs.

I've always liked cartoons more than most I suppose. I remember that my father used to pick me up at daycare on the bus and once while walking home we found a desk that was being thrown out along with some one's comic book collection. I remember there being some Donald Duck comics and an issue of Scamp.  This was before I even knew how to read but I treasured that stack of comics and took them home. (My dad carried the desk.) So, I guess you can say it was because of animation and funny animals.

Anyway, I've always enjoyed drawing. My parents always told me that I've draw all my life. You'd think I'd be better then!

I never had much interest outside of drawing anything but cartoons and comics.

I've been drawing comics or "sequential art"  since before I could even write. I'd just fill in the word balloons with letters and call it a comic.

I guess when I really got serious about it was in high school when I met and befriend a really clever and funny cartoonist named Dave. He was really light years ahead of me in drawing and his ideas were very clever and funny. I guess he really got me thinking about comics in a new way.

I gotta confess, I wasn't drawing as much as I should in high school until I met him.

Really thanks to him,and his subsequent death, I started to work hard on my art instead of coasting on being better than average. Dave committed suicide and I started to draw more for whatever reason.

I too remember drawing a lot less in high school and looking back I 

think a lot of that was because the support totally disappeared.  In 

grade school, drawing was applauded by teachers and parents but by 

high school it was discouraged if not flat out condemned by teachers.  

As if it got in the way of more important activities such as sports or 

socializing with the other sex.  Were your parents and teachers 

supportive of your drawing as you got older?  Do you feel like you have any support now?

Well, yeah the support in school was totally gone, or worse yet, never there to begin with. One hard thing for any one to deal with is learning that you aren't a child prodigy, or worse yet, that you never were a prodigy. I found high school incredibility humbling in more ways that one, but it was hard when you realized you were no longer the best artist around. I think I coulda used a little less support as a kid. My head got too big. I do feel like I have a good support system, then and now.

Were you into any boy’s adventure stuff as a kid or teen?  In my day, 

it was kind of one or the other without a lot of middle ground.  It 

was Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers and superheroes or it was Care 

Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and Barbie.  There was not a lot of humor 

stuff other than HB and WB re-runs.  I guess the Teenage Mutant Ninja 

Turtles were somewhere in the middle but I was already buying skateboards and rock music by that time.  Did any of that have an impact on you?  Were you ever a fan of the Marvel and DC superhero stuff?

Yeah, my earliest influence on life in general were The Smurfs, Disney and Warner bros. cartoons, but of course I was susceptible to the whole "collect them all" mentality and got into boys action stuff. I loved He-Man, GI Joe, M.A.S.K, Ghostbusters, TMNT... you name it. I collected action figures as a kid fer sure.

But yeah, I too got into skateboards (the art on skateboards as well as Rat Fink, all those decals are what made skateboarding so lurid to me).

Yeah, I was into Marvel and DC. I got into super hero comics as an adolescent and I was embarrassed by liking "funny" comics. I was a teenager. I liked serious things. One thing is for sure, there was a lotta super heroes that took themselves seriously in the late 80s/ early 90's... I dug Batman and The X-men, Spider-Man and, uh not much else, really. I liked whatever Art Adams or Jim Lee drew.

What was your gateway into adult/indie/alternative/underground comics?

I got into Robt. Williams paintings so I was kinda familiar that there is this underground stuff going on and I always heard the name "Crumb" being passed around so I saw the documentary and fell in love with his work. Coming from a politically correct sensitive boy era, Crumb was quite a revalation for me. I wouldn't be surprised if more cartoonist say that was their introduction to Crumb.

But you know what? I think I bought Milk & Cheese before that so that coulda been my first indie. ..and to think, I bought it because David from Roseanne wore a M&C t-shirt on an episode.

Was there any event or situation or inspiration that pointed you in the direction stepping beyond being a fan and starting to make comics?

Well, meeting Dave.  He was doing his own comics in high school just for fun and I thought they were great.  Brad McGinty too.  I met him and he was always drawing comics without knowing what to do with them. He was just doing it to get stories out and I felt that was admirable. 

What were the first comics you made and what were they like?

Discounting the ones I made as a kid,  I did painful to look at comics that were full of leftover teenage angst and pop culture references.

I 'm really embarrassed by them.

 The first comics I saw of yours were the Brad N' Josh strips that InSite ran.  Can you talk a bit about how that came to be?  How you and Brad got together and how it ended up in the paper?  Was that a positive experience?  What did you learn from it?

Brad N' Josh came to be quite organically. I met brad through an old acquaintance, well, this guy used to do murals for a local pizza chain and Brad and I both met him individually and kinda became his assistants. Which meant he'd scribble out a design and Brad and I'd do all the work. We both felt grateful to get professional work, but there was a lot of resentment and passive aggressiveness that came with it. To let off steam, I suppose Brad and I would draw crass comics about each other then we'd start to draw ourselves in these comics interacting on the page. We did a whole lot of these on scrap paper and in sketchbooks and they 'd come out pretty funny. Actually, you have to step up if you wanna hang with Brad on the page.  His art was always great and he'd come up with such clever stuff.  Well, I learned a lot working with him. I learned that making comics could actually be fun!

I was doing a strip for the local paper and I was working with a script. This is the worst way to do a comic. The comics were stiff and belabored.  I was still coming up with the plots but I farmed out the script to a friend of mine. Well, the relationship started to dissolve and I wasn't interested in continuing without him, so I just ended the strip and slipped B&J in it's place without announcing to anyone.

B&J was pretty much hated by the editor, the owner of the paper and the staff.

It didn't discourage us though, Brad and I knew we'd created something ahead of the curve.

I guess you can say it was a positive experience just due to the fact it forced us to do the comic because we had a deadline. I work better with deadlines.

I learned a lot mostly working with Brad.  It's not really anything tangible, but I learned to improv on the page which I'd never even attempted before.

What other experiences have you had with papers/websites/anthologies etc. running your work?  I know there was at least one Zounds strip and that other strip, was it just called "Comics"?  What are your feelings on running strips in papers or magazines and is it something you will pursue again?

Anthologies are good at reaching new audiences however, I don't really like doing them.

I hate to reinvent the wheel every time I do a new comic. I'd rather just do Rashy comics.

Before Zounds, I did a comic called Suicide Funnies. That was my first real strip. It's ultra embarrassing to look at now. But technically, that was my first minicomic. A Suicide Funnies compilation.  I was a little disappointed in minicomics, mainly because I didn't know that copiers couldn't do full bleed!

I continued with minis because Brad was doing them and I was really impressed.

Suicide Funnies turned into Zounds. Zounds was Suicide Funnies with a script writer.

I won't pursue the free monthly and weeklies anymore, because the people who run these things don't like comics, they don't care about comics and if they had their way the comics would be replaced with ads.

Plus, they never pay.

What other artistic work experience have you had?  Animation, design etc. and how has your comics work informed that and vice versa?

I've done a ton of hack work; graphic design, animation clean ups and inks, flash animation spot illustration.  You name it.

I was pretty awful at inking in animation. My lines are never very clean. It was a real struggle to keep up. I never moved past that stage.

The animation is very helpful. I learned about construction, which sadly, I didn't learn about earlier in my career or life.

Animation made me a stronger artist, I guess learning some fundamentals about graphic design helps, but overall, I don't enjoy that kind of work in the slightest.

These days I mostly do flash animation.

I remember you worked with a writer on the political piece for the 

Creative Loafing.  How did that process work for you?  What kind of 

response did you get from that?

It was pretty fun, I liked the writer, but ultimately, I don't really enjoy working from a script. It got a good response, but this was right before the crash n' burn of the alternative weekly.

What are your thoughts on self-publishing in general?  Is it something you enjoy or a means to an end?

I enjoy the freedom of self-publishing but I don't necessarily love to layout a book, fold and staple n' all of that.

However, if you are self-publishing anything you are already ahead of the curve.  Most people never get past the stage of wanting to do comics and not knowing how.  It's not so hard, you just start!

Why wait for DC and Marvel? If you got a story, tell it!

What kind of commitment does it take on your part to sell the books as a self-publisher?  Conventions, mailings, online sales, retail sales etc.?  How much effort does it take to get the book out there and do the rewards justify the efforts.

Selling the books is the hard part.

Conventions are fun and good for networking but I never sell much at them.

I'd avoid retail mainly because most comic shops won't buy them outright and want to do consignment.  For the most part, they just sit on the shelf until both you and the comic shop forget they have them.  Even if you do sell them, you only get half which is a loss because most mini comics are sold at cost. I seem to sell them online, but that's due in large part to reviews and online networking.

I feel it's all worthwhile when I get a nice email from someone that enjoyed the book.

How much importance do you put on social networking?  Facebook, 

MySpace, blogs etc.?  Does it help to generate commissioned work and 

find new readers?

Yeah, both! I don't know about comics really, I think most of those sales are because of reviews, but yeah, I do some commission stuff for people I met or only know online.

Plus, it's nice to hear a kind word about your art or whatever, especially from women.

How did the work you have done for Brian Jonestown Massacre come 

about?  Or, how did they find you?  Was that the result of social 

networking?  Does work on posters and things like that ever translate to comic sales?

I'm a huge fan of theirs, so I just sent Anton a drawing of him as a Simpsons style character, and he liked it and wanted me to draw the whole band in this style. Now, this is before that Simpsons avatar thing, so a lotta people thought it was from a real episode and I don't think the band did much to dissuade it. Anyway, that just opened the door for me.

Can you talk about how Cute Girl Demographics came to be?  I'm interested in how a publishing partnership like that may have advantages over being a one man DIYer.  Has it opened any doors?  Are there any bigger goals with it?

CGD came about when Brad, Jennifer Young and I were all working on comics at the same time and thought we'd have a better chance of getting noticed at cons, online and retail if we had more than just our one book.

It kinda came out of necessity because we didn't have that many books under our belts. (Well, with the exception of Brad.)  CGD's was picking up steam to the point we had an intern and quite a bit of buzz, then Jennifer, who really did most of the work, left.  (Hint never start a business venture with a couple.) And after that, it was just Brad and I. We both still put the CGD label on everything, but ultimately, it only exists in name alone.

Brad and I both have some books under our belts and careers apart from each other so it's not quite as important as it was four years ago.

It'd be nice to put out other peoples books, but we have no capital.

Also, I should mention meeting J.Chris Campbell and his posse kept me on the minicomic track.

Can you talk a bit about the Rashy Rabbit series?  What inspired it and what inspired the changes from issue to issue?  What is next for Rashy and where do you see the comic going.

It's about a character named Rashy Rabbit.  Stories about me and other people I knew growing up. They usually involve sex and drugs and other various debaucheries. It stars a rabbit, who's basically my stand-in, and reacts much the way I would or did.

Rashy started off as a semi-autobiographical story one shot, under the name Anxiety, Sleep Problems and Depression.

I guess I picked a Rabbit due in large part to the fact I didn't feel like drawing myself page after page, and due to the fact funny animals are my favorite strand of cartooning, so to speak.

Once we kicked off CGD I realized I needed to keep working and I went to work on another Rashy story, based on prior work experience but arranging several things that happened years apart in one

story.  But by issue 3, I pretty much stopped writing scripts and improved on the page blurring the line of reality and fiction more.

Then by issue 4, it's pretty much just a work of fiction.

I guess the style changes are mainly from my taste changing and my art getting better.

Also, some changes come out of the necessity of the storytelling. I guess that's why classic cartoon characters and comic characters changed so much in the early years.

Now ah'days you don't see much of that, because of licensing so that's why like, Adult Swim crap or whatever always looks the same, it doesn't evolve.

Rashy 4 was a pretty big departure not only from the way the first 3 

books were executed but from the way most people today are making 

comics.  What can we expect from Rashy 5?  Is it a conscious decision 

to make an effort to mix things up?

Thanks! Yes, I feel like it's a conscious decision because I learn from drawing Rashy what works in his design and what doesn't. I change it accordingly. I think cartoon characters should be organic and change in the direction you need to tell a certain style of story. Plus, I'd like to think my drawing gets better each issue.

Rashy 5 is the cartoonyiest of the bunch. It's more funny animal/wacky adventure this time around. Sure there's still some pot n' tits, because I can't turn my back on that, but I want it to feel like Asterix.

I have an idea for the next one too, and I plan on getting started, uh any day now.

What are your longer term goals?  Obviously to make good comics and to sell lots and lots of copies but, do you seek to have any of your existing work like Rashy published by a bigger publisher?  If so, would you still self-publish other ideas?

Ultimately, it'd be very nice to be published by someone else and let them worry about the marketing and the grunt work of the book. It doesn't really matter, I will continue with or without the support.

How do you see the state of self-publishing?  What potential does it have and where can it go?  Do you think it is possible to sustain a series like Rashy in this day and age without a publisher 

I would like to think so.

I think that Rashy would appeal to people outside of the comic shop.

I can never understand why there are so few humor comics. Comedies are being pumped out from Hollywood daily and people go and see them, but people won't read something that's funny? I don't buy it.

Maybe I should take it online, webcomics seem to be thriving.

What are your thoughts on the state of minicomics at this time?

How has it changed since you started making them?  Are they getting better?  

I think there certainly are more people doing them, which is good, but mini comics by in large are a conservative medium. No one is really telling daring stories or taking a chance on humor.

Do you have any thoughts on where minicomics could go?  Could money be made?  Is there a way to get the types of short stories or episodic stories like you do into the hands of a larger audience?

If you are selling something, anything, you can make money off of it. I doubt I could, and most people I know can't, but if you are a shrewd marketer and a nice person that people wanna be around, you can.

However, that's not taking in account the sheer amount of man hours it takes to draw a comic.  That money is lost...

Josh Latta will be debuting Rashy Rabbit #5 a.k.a. Redskin Rashy published by Wide Awake Press at the Fluke Mini-Comics Show in Athens, GA on April 4th.  I assume that the comic will be available for sale in the near future either at Wide Awake Press or Cute Girl Demographics or both.  Go bookmark Lattland to keep up to date on all the Latta goodness. 

Further reading:

The FUO review of the first four issues of Rashy Rabbit. 

Brad N' Josh. 

Shannon Smith and Josh Latta at HeroesCon 2008. 

Thanks Josh!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s.  This is just a thought that came to me as I was editing this but, folks from Georgia will probably be able to guess which pizza chain Josh and Brad did work for.  Living in Virginia now I can testify that said chain is one of the things folks from here mention when they come back from a visit to GA and they all remember the cool art.  It's a small world after all. 

Josh Latta's RASHY RABBIT

Anxiety, Sleep Problems & Depression #1 (2004?), Anxiety, Sleep Problems & Depression #2 (Spring, 2005), Rashy Rabbit #3 (Feb. 2007) and Rashy Rabbit #4 (Spring 2008) by Josh Latta.

http://lattaland.com/

Published by Cute Girl Demographics.

Available for purchase here.

Samples of Josh Latta's comics can be found on his blog.

Rashy Rabbit #3 is one of the main comics that inspired me to start file under other. Josh sent it to me sometime in early 2007 before that year's Fluke show. I picked up a lot of great minicomics at that show and after reading those and Rashy Rabbit #3 it occurred to me that I was not seeing a lot of reviews or publicity for all of these great books. I read a lot of minicomics reviews but the comics being covered were not the comics I was seeing. I felt that there was something missing in minicomics coverage, criticism and discourse. So, after many months of second guessing and procrastinating I finally launched file under other and it was my plan that Rashy Rabbit #3 would be one of the first comics I would review. My expectation was that it would take a long time before people started sending me comics and that I would cover some of my favorite existing comics in the meantime. The meantime never came. Minicomics started showing up in the mail immediately. I was instantly behind and I am still very behind. I had it in mind to cover the comics as they showed up in the mail and so the Rashy Rabbit review stayed on the back burner. Now, at this point, Rashy Rabbit #4 is out and has had several reviews and I'm feeling that if I wait any longer to write about it that (1) I'll be the last blogger on earth to cover it and that (2) Josh will be on Rashy Rabbit #12 by the time I finish the thing.

But before I jump into Rashy Rabbit #3 or #4 I want to got back to where it all started with a minicomic called Anxiety, Sleep Problems & Depression. I love this title because I have a fondness for long titles but I understand why Josh simplified it to just Rashy Rabbit. It's a long title and it is probably a bit intimidating to some readers but it does describe what the thing is. This first issue does not try and pull off any kind of origin or character setup nonsense that usually bog down first issues. It jumps right in like a good TV sitcom and Josh pulls this off by filling each page with a fully realized and believable cartoon world.

Josh starts the comic off with a series of pantomime panels that introduce the reader to Rashy's world and you immediately understand the setting without any exposition. Josh's tight detailed panels have the vibe of 70's and 80's underground comix but the character designs and cartooning harken back to the funny animal cartoons made long before Josh was born. It's a funky lived-in look and even though Rashy is a rabbit you know right away that this is going to be an adult comic and that anything could happen. I don't see this in many comics these days. Even in some of my favorite comics, the backgrounds are just there out of necessity. That method works great in action comics and manga but it's nice to see such a fully realized world. It sets the tone of the story and helps you understand where the characters come from. And it's not so much about the amount of detail put into the backgrounds. It's about the style put into the backgrounds. In my favorite underground comix like those by Gilbert Shelton, Robert Williams or Crumb you instantly know the vibe of the thing before the characters even speak and these comics have that. It's the same kind of instant recognition you get from classic animated cartoons. Like Heckle and Jeckle cartoons or the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comix, Rashy has his own funky little world. This book is probably one of my most re-read comics because each time I look at it I catch little jokes and gags I might have missed the last time through. Each panel has its own life filled with neat little details like birds pooping or monsters getting it on in a video. The panels are full of motion and drive the story at a rapid. This is staying a lot because the pages have very ambitious layouts of anywhere from six to thirteen panels. For a twenty page minicomic, this thing is pretty dense. I'm not patient enough to count the panels but there are a lot of panels. My hand hurts just thinking about all that drawing, inking and lettering but it's really a pleasure to look at. (These scans really don't do the pages justice but if you click to enlarge you will get a better idea. Josh also has some samples on his blog.)

The title of this review probably clued you in that Rashy Rabbit is the star of the series. Rashy is a young single aimless working class rabbit who could serve as a cipher for most young single aimless working class American humans (or folks like me who once lived that life, oh, say back in the 90's..) except that he's a rabbit. Rashy's character and situation are all in the title. He's insecure about work, relationships and life in general and suffers the accompanying anxiety, sleep problems and depression. The story in this specific issue revolves around Rashy going over to his girlfriend Penny's house for a date. Penny's parents are away so the date goes through wine, weed and sex and devolves into a drunken shouting and sob fest. The story is one most of us can (unfortunately) relate to. It's not that different than the relationship drama seen in TV sitcoms except it has the R rated realism of sex, drugs and language not safe for television... oh, and rabbits.

It's not the story that is important as much as the execution. The dialog and the cartooning are very clever and realistic. And by clever, I don't mean that the characters all talk in the same college grad voice we see in too much fiction. I mean it's clever in that Josh has a knack for breaking the language down into the instantly recognizable cliche's and stereotypes we humans really use in these situations... only with rabbits. Each character has their own voice and comes with their own emotional motivation. It is amazing how may writers fail to see the importance in this. Apparently the dead on accuracies of the character's actions and emotions are due in part to a bit of autobiographical slight of hand. Having read the comic several times, it never occurred to me that it might be autobiographical but Josh recently revealed on his blog that this issue was semi-autobiographical. Maybe it's the thin veil of the anthropomorphic animals but I really think it's just the strength and efficiency of his storytelling that distracts you from thinking about " is this a true story" or not.

Whether it is auto-bio or fiction does not make a lot of difference to me. I like both but what I look for the most is honesty. I'm not talking about the comics being truthful or factual but that the creator as storyteller is being honest with the audience. That he/she is not cheating it by using an easy device that is not true to the characters. That once the characters are created, he/she allows them to go where they would most likely go without being afraid of stepping on the audience's toes. That is the kind of honesty I look for in all art and that is the kind of honesty I find in and love about Josh's comics.

I don't' see a lot of this kind of honesty in minicomics or comics in general these days. I fell like cartoonists are holding back. That cartoonists are thinking too much about the audience's reaction and are coddling the audience. A few people just lay it all out there. Some of the better auto-bio creators lay it all on the page (Matt, Brunetti, Kochalka etc.) and I think that is why people find them so refreshing compared to mainstream comics but I don't see a lot of this kind of honesty in fiction comics. I think cartoonists, even in minicomics, are too conscious of the potential book, movie, web, publishing etc. deal to just be honest. Josh Simmons' and Johnny Ryan's fiction comics have the kind of honesty I'm talking about. A few others do. Josh Latta's definitely do. But it's not the norm and that's a big part of the reason I keep re-reading these Rashy Rabbit comics.

In Anxiety, Sleep-Problems & Depression #2 Rashy is dealing with the same issues but the story is more complex and introduces a bigger supporting cast. We get to see Rashy's working life at Mal-Mart (an obvious Wal-Mart stand in) and his interaction with friends and co-workers. This issue is more a commentary on the horror of a retail life and the pitiful social life a retail pay check affords than it is about Rashy seeking to resolve his issues. Rashy's issues are pretty much unresolvable and make up who he is. His issues are the situation in the sitcom of his life.

This issue introduces Rashy's friend and co-worker Morie. Morie is a nice counter point to the Rashy character. He's not especially smarter or less miserable than Rashy but he handles the working class life with a less drug addled and more introverted way. This issue reveals more about Rashy's world and the people (or dogs and rabbits) that live there. Rashy's world is pretty much Atlanta, GA and this opens up the door to a lot of racial and social issues. This comic does not have any kind of agenda but Josh does create a variety of characters from different social/racial/economic backgrounds and it's fun to see them interact. Rashy is white and Morie is black and while they are friends Rashy still steps into some stereotypical blunders. This is getting back to that honesty thing I was talking about. The safe way to go would be not to deal with racial stereotypes but Josh is honest about his characters' world and how they react to it. This opens the door to some really funny racial interactions. Like I said, I don't' think there is an agenda and I don't think it's even trying to be satirical, I just think Josh is being honest about our insecure hero Rashy and how he would act in these situations. I lived in and worked retail in Atlanta myself and I can tell you, these things happen, people do act this way, they do speak this way and on a good day, it's pretty funny.


There is also a neat little segue in the story that focuses on their crazed boss and his delusions of retail power. There are some nice recurring gags dealing with Rashy's fear of this crazy beast and a particularly funny bathroom scene where Rashy overhears his boss's phone call with his mistress. This scene would stand out in any of your favorite stoner comedies or underground comix. The emotional volume is turned down a bit from the first issue but the jokes are more effective.

The drawing and storytelling in this issue are of the same style as the first but everything is just a little better. A natural progression in Josh's craft. The panels are just as detailed but less cluttered. The drawings are cleaner and more relaxed. The use to tones takes the place of some heavy background rendering. It's a more polished comic than the first. This issue also features a backup story with Rashy in World War II that features some lush inking by Josh's Cute Girl Demographics partner Brad McGinty. With 32 quality pages, you won't find many many three dollar mincomics more solid than this.

With the third issue, Josh changes the title to Rashy Rabbit and changes from a horizontal to more traditional vertical format. I like the horizontal format but I suspect Josh changed to vertical because it is easier to print. The change pays off. It's a really good looking book. Very strong cover design and color. The page layouts are much more traditional in this book as well. It is still packed with more detail and more panels than most comics but (for the most part) Josh sticks to a 6 to 10 panel layout. The drawing and cartooning are another step more polished than the 2nd comic and where the 2nd issue moved from heavy rendering to tones, this issue moves from tones to thick blacks.

Once again the emotional intensity is not as high as the first issue but the comedy is turned up another notch. The sight gags and jokes work with more punch and the page transitions really click. This is a very well executed comedy comic. Very often my idea of "best" and "favorite" do not match but I think this is my favorite issue of the four.

The story follows Rashy clumsily wandering through his life trying to get just a little sexual satisfaction either through "massage" therapists, coffee shop girls or strippers. Whatever it takes. This rabbit is desperate. Josh really nails all the awkward steps the modern young loser has to go through in pursuit of sex and/or relationships. There is a really great scene where Rashy stumbles through meeting a girl at a coffee shop. Parallel to Rashy, Morie has his own relationship problems. Morie finds himself in pursuit of a lesbian co-worker and this turns into a nice little subplot with jokes playing on Morie's complete inability to read the opposite sex. These jokes set themselves up but Josh is not heavy handed with it so you find yourself pulling for Morie even though you know he is doomed.

One of my favorite scenes of the series so far is when Rashy tries to kill two birds with one stone by hooking up with the coffee shop girl and trying to score weed at the same time. It's a great bit of comedy where Rashy realizes that nothing is what he was expecting. We get to see Rashy crushed by the "meet my boy freind" moment all young men get slapped in the face with at one time or another by some girl who seemed really into them earlier in the day. There are also some good laughs in the failed drug deal routine. All of the issues have little sub-culture moments like that which I think could really appeal to a wide audience. I fell like there are a lot of folks out there really wishing there were comics like this in their latest issue of High Times, Heavy Metal , Playboy or even Maxim. (Do people still read magazines? Don't even get me started on my ongoing rant about how much I wish there was a magazine like Weirdo out there. If I could wish new issues of Weirdo into existence they would have Rashy in them.)

With the fourth issue of Rashy Rabbit, Josh introduces a radically different style to the series. I was caught off guard by the change at first but that had less to do with the new style and more to do with how much I enjoyed the previous style. This issue uses a much simplified drawing and character design style. Both the characters and the world they exist in have been stripped down to a purer more animation oriented design. It's kind of like an animation studio had been handed the first three issues and told to break it down to where they could animate the thing without killing themselves. This issue looks more like old Dell and Gold Key comics (complete with a lovely retro cover) than an underground comic and while I was taken aback at first I really think it makes Rashy and his world a lot better. As I said, the third issue might be my favorite so far but the fourth is definitely the best. Using this more "cartoony" children's funny animal comics style to depict Rashy and his "mature audiences" world is much more perverse than the previous issues. And while the character designs are simplified they are also bolder and their actions and emotions are more instantly recognizable. This helps the comedy have a more instant impact. Josh's use of varying grey tones in this issue is near perfect. The tones make it look less like manga or black and white western comics and more like a pre-color animated cartoon.

Another step Josh has taken toward efficiency is abandoning panel borders. Traditionally a cartoonist might present the occasional panel without borders to emphasize the moment or to let a scene breath. What Josh has done here by eliminating all the panels is to make the comic seem like one endless panel. The pacing seems lightning fast. You don't so much read the comic from panel to panel as you watch the characters move from panel to panel. It's much like watching an animated cartoon. You don't think of the panel and page transitions you just sort of watch them happen and try to keep up. This technique is really perfect for this type of comedy and it makes for a very engaging read.

The story starts off with a bang. Right from the start you have interracial/interspecies sex. The first four pages of the story resolve the Morie/lesbian date sub-plot in a short and precise yet laugh out loud shocker. And I don't mean laugh out loud as in introwebnet "lol", I mean that I really laughed out loud. And I never laugh out loud. Without spoiling the joke for you, Josh takes the Morie character to a place I did not want to see him go but still left me laughing. Then the story is back to Rashy and introduces his obnoxious gangstah/playah pal Benny. Benny shares Rashy's weaknesses for the ladies and the weed but has none of Rashy's insecurities. Benny is over the top and fearless and leads Rashy into all kinds of trouble he would have probably chickened out from on his own. Benny is a very funny and well executed character and allows Josh to tell some crazy stories. Benny is one of those guys that can arrange some great night out on the town and then stick you with the bill before you notice you can't escape. We all know someone like Benny and if you don't then you might be Benny.

Once again this issue shows Rashy try to stumble his way through a hook up with a different girl. I don't know if it is intentional that Josh places Rashy in these no win situations with women but I'd like to think it is. I'd like to think that if there were thirty Rashy Rabbit comics that Josh could find away for Rashy to screw it up with the ladies in thirty unique ways. He's like the Bizzaro James Bond.

These four comics have such great honesty to them. I feel that honesty is the best thing an artist can give to his/her audience and I don't see enough of it. Sure, I read a lot of auto-bio comics that are truthful. Even fiction can be truthful. But the truth is relative. One person's truth is meaningless to the next. An artist can present the truth but that won't make the audience believe it. The audience can fell honesty. I've read and re-read all four issues of Rashy Rabbit many times and each time it takes me back to the 90's and that point in my own life when I was a lot like Rashy. I don't think that would be the case if the comics were not honest. They would just be funny stories. If Josh had cheated it and used easy narrative devices and placed the characters in safer situations it might still be funny but it would not feel authentic. Because Josh presents his characters and their world with honesty it has the power to capture that feeling of what it was like to be young dumb and single at the turn of the century. I think that years from now people will be able to look at these comics and say "yeah, that was what it was like". Well, at least I will.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith