Before addressing the content of this book IDW Publishing gets my highest accolades for presentation. Over-sized hardcover books have become a new genre for collectors and this book outshines many of them with glossy graphics printed in bright colors directly on the cover eliminating the need for a dust jacket. The paper is a perfect fit to duplicate the original presentation with a more crisp feel than traditional newsprint and the covers are reproduced in full color. I dare you to pick this book up at your local comic shop and not purchase it, I couldn’t.
I was first introduced to David Boswell’s Reid Fleming character in the pages of Flaming Carrot Comics in the mid 90’s and somehow forgot about this brilliant creation. Thanks to IDW Publishing you can now own these hard to find stories in a beautiful collection with hopefully another volume to follow.
Laugh out loud one liners fill every page of this book including the cover through beautifully scratchy art. The narrative follows the overly violent milk delivery man through six issues of his own title and a strange detour through the 40 page love story HeartBreak Comics.
As odd as the Heartbreak storyline is it stands out as the most impressive chapter in the book. The art is beautifully rendered with cross hatching filling in the shadows and adding a visual depth to the weight of the more serious parts of the story.
The title character Reid Fleming is as flamboyant and whimsical as he is violent. Surrounded by a mundane group of people, his death and gravity defying antics don’t seem to shock those around him. He chain smokes cigarettes and downs bottles of Rye Whiskey while committing every moving violation possible. Reid lives an exciting life dating an actress and quitting work during the day to watch his favorite television program “Dangers of Ivan” before losing his job to extreme negligence of company property.
Throughout theses seven issues a strange world is created wherein fist fights, practical jokes, and reoccurring dreams are commonplace. If you enjoy debauchery in the form of comic books it doesn’t get any better than this. There is high and low brow humor to be found here, most of it so subtle it will slip by if you try to read this like an average comic book.
Highly recommended
By David Boswell
Introduction by Jonathan Demme
Reid Fleming World’s Toughest Milkman Volume 1
Hardcover
224 pages
$29.99
Check out http://www.reidfleming.com/ for more information, merchandise, and digital comics.