I just got Folk #4 in the mail today, courtesy of the source of sci-fi mini-comic greatness, Tyler Stafford. This is the third issue of Folk that I’ve read, and they just keep getting better and better! Stafford’s storylines harken back to old-school sci-fi pulp stories but the art and layouts are informed by a twenty-first century cartoon aesthetic. According to the intro, Stafford’s computer is “on the fritz” so this issue is 11 x 17 sheets folded in half (I guess he draws the pages 8.5 x 11?). The larger art looks good, maybe Stafford should continue to make his comics this big.

Here’s a page that encapsulates the concept of the issue:

That page also showcases one of the aspects of Stafford’s comics that I dig the most, the way he blends his borderless scenes together while keeping the flow between them highly readable.

This next page, though, shows the most interesting thing about this comic, the way that Stafford portrays the experience of feeling someone else’s dream on tape:

I highly recommend this comic and I’m going to keep buying everything that Stafford puts out. You can buy Folk #4 here.

I just received Folk #2 by Tyler Stafford in the mail on Monday. I ordered it after I read the review on Optical Sloth, who, by the way, is well on their way to doing one minicomic review a day in 2009!

I was waiting to do a scan on one of the pages before I posted about Folk #2, but the venerable Shawn Hoke already took care of it for me:

Just check out the backgrounds in this page, especially the lower-right panel! I love how much detail Stafford puts into his environments, I usually just put in some generic mountains or fill it in with black … something for me to think about … Anyway all of y’all should order Stafford’s comics, available through his etsy.