Stiro #1 by Mardou and Fortenski
2003
Discovering Stiro was one of those serendipitous events that make your day just seem a whole lot better. Chosen especially for Cherry Bomb Comics by Debra Boyask, a NZ comic book laydee who lives in the UK at the moment, Stiro is a 3 issue comic drawn by Mardou and written by Fortenski.
And it is hilarious. I am one of those self-conscious people who never laughs out loud while reading, but - (it's a breakthrough) - I did with Stiro!
The writing style is very laid back, cool to the point of being pretentious - but it knows it, and that's the point. It makes you wanna don your stripey sweater and your beret and stand on street corners and shoot spud guns at passing tourists....
Just like Marie Antoinette, the first character we meet in Stiro #1. When Marie Antoinette is not taking out tourists, she is charming every man she meets, forcing them to Dance! Dance! Dance! for her.
The comic is made up of lots of small, unrelated stories set mostly in England and France. They take a dead pan look at some of the things that make up our society: self-help books, the intrinsic coolness of smoking, being a punk rock absent father, psychics and talking bottles of whiskey (you know, all of those things that make up our daily life), and they even throw in a board game "Friday Night". What more could you ask for really?
MS 15/8/04