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Publisher: (self published) Creative Team: · Jonathan Baylis · T.J. Kirsch · David Beyer, Jr. · Mr. Alan Related Sites: · Official Website: So... Buttons Grade: B

My first encounter with Jonathan Baylis's "So... Buttons" strips related an intimate and revelatory shared by the writer with his father. The strip, "So... My Dad Got Drafted?" (included in this compilation), struck a resonating chord in me, serving as a reminder that even people as close as a father and adult son can still harbor surprises about themselves. As Baylis goes on about the predictability of his dad, the talk turns to the draft, at which point the writer learns that his father actually volunteered for officer candidate school, only to be classified 4F. Shocked, Baylis asks what would have happened if the Army would have been able to correct his faulty vision, predicting the response via thought balloon in a previously established pattern: "I woulda fled." But when his father responds that he would have gone ahead and served, it shakes the author's foundation of all he thought he knew about his father.

One may notice that Baylis's father did not get drafted, contrary to the suggestion supplied by the strip's title. Similarly, an overseas trip to Germany taken by Baylis, himself a Jew, entitled "So... Only Nixon Could've Gone to China," bears reference to neither Nixon nor China, relying instead on the reader being able to make the inference as the author works through his discomfort at a reunified Germany and a visit to Dachau. However, the titles nonetheless serve to set the stage for the sequential art.

Not everything, however, has to be world shaking to be impacting, as Baylis's introspection also lends itself toward considering possible self-held racism when he notices an interracial porno video and realizes he is discomfited by the idea. "So... Racist?" is worth reading if only for the hilarious ending, but it also makes it clear that the cartoons do contain some mature subject matters.

Other vignettes are simply slices of life, recounting moments spent with his stand-up comic girlfriend, or flubbing an audition for "Annie" in the third grade. Like I said -- they don't have to be completely deconstructive pieces to be completely memorable.

The downside to "So... Buttons" is that it relies solely on the writing to maintain consistency between the strips; Baylis does not handle the art chores, and the stories are told by a variety of pencilers -- T.J. Kirsch, David Beyer, Jr. and the enigmatic Mr. Alan -- all of whom have wildly diverging styles, so that Baylis's character is seldom presented with a consistent appearance.

Although there are few direct parallels, the "So... Buttons" stories remind me nonetheless of the works of Aleksander Zograf, if perhaps only in the spirit and cadence of these autobiographical shorts (and, perhaps, due to some of the dream imagery, when employed, that is Zograf's stock in trade).

Any single "So... Buttons" strip will give the reader something to ponder. To that end, I recommend reading them one at a time, with enough time between each strip to fully appreciate the ideas each one will spark.