Keith Helt's nine year old zine, Flotation Device,
isn't usually a comic; it's ordinarily the home for Helt's
autobiographical
nonfiction prose, accompanied by photos and collages.
For its eleventh issue, though, Helt did something a little
different. He enlisted the aid of several of mini-comics'
finest to illustrate a series of brief anecdotes, all written
by Helt, about how he got into zines in the first place
-- an "origin" story for Flotation Device,
if you will. And with a roster of artists including John
Porcellino
(King Cat), Gabrielle Bell (the Book of series),
Jeffrey Brown (Clumsy), Allison Cole (Never
Ending Summer), Kevin
Huizenga (Or Else), Dylan Horrocks (Hicksville),
Anders Nilsen (Dogs and Water), Ryoko Oguchi (Baka-Geta),
and
Onsmith (Baka-Geta, Bombtime for Bonzo)
-- among others -- what could possibly go wrong?
Well, as
it turns out, nothing. The results are nothing
short of an inspiration.
Don't think that these stories
are merely self-indulgent autobiographical anecdotes. Helt
figures into each of the
stories one way or another, but they never stoop to the "shit
that happened to me" school of autobiography. Although
a handful of strips are only tangentially related or entirely
unrelated to Helt's relationship with zines, it's a theme
that carries through the entire 64-page booklet, keeping
the bigger picture in sharp focus at all times, even through
stories like "Keith Has to Pee Again," illustrated
by Ryoko Oguchi.
Helt has put a great deal of love for zines
onto the page, and it's an affection that his collaborators
obviously
share: without exception, the artists seem inspired by
the stories they are drawing. Why wouldn't they be? Mini-comics,
after all, are the comics industry's equivalent to zines.
These stories are, in a sense, their own stories, as
well. (And, in fact, this is literally true, to some extent,
as Helt is apparently friends with Anders Nilsen, Jeffrey
Brown and John Porcellino.)
One of the standouts, the untitled
Nilsen-illustrated story is a seemingly off-topic six-page
sequence in which Helt,
working the late shift at a gas station, convinces a friend
of his to breakdance, apparently to impress a couple of
girls who happen to be there. It's an amusing story, atmospherically
rendered by Nilsen, and it stands well enough on its own,
but with the following chapter, "More Shameful Confessions," illustrated
by Cole Johnson, Helt talks to the reader, mentioning off-hand
that it was on these late night gas station shifts that
he wrote much of the first issue of his zine.
As Helt explains
further that he had recently been dumped, and that creating
that issue helped him get through that
period in his life, the preceding story takes on new
meaning. Likewise, each of Helt's tales adds to and fleshes
out
the one before it, adding up to one of the most satisfying
and memorable reading experiences I've had this year.
If
you're not lucky enough that your local zine-friendly shop
already has a few copies, you can order Flotation Device #11
directly from Keith Helt by sending $5.00 plus 50¢ for
shipping ("check, money order or well-hidden
cash") to Keith Helt, 1242 Dean St., Woodstock, IL
60098.
