Minimum Wage vol. 1: Focus on the Strange

I may not have liked “Maximum Minimum Wage” as much as Robert Kirkman, but I thought it was a fun character study about struggling cartoonist Rob Hoffman’s day-to-day life with work, friends, and his girlfriend Sylvia.  Now, creator Bob Fingerman has brought us a new series that picks up not too long after the original series left off.  We’re still in the 90’s and Rob is about to finalize his divorce from Sylvia.  This is after the two of them got married at the end of the previous volume, and having read it I can say that this is the least surprising development here.  Now he’s back living with his mom until his finances get sorted out and is relying on his friends and this new thing called “internet dating” to take his mind off of his ex.  So when he’s not busy hitting the clubs, doing a bar crawl, or helping his friends with their public access shows, Rob is “focusing on the strange” as he gets to know friendly stoner May, former TV star Belle Fleur, and his co-worker Sylvia in intimate succession.

Though the original series didn’t endear itself to me for all the ways it reminded me of Alex Robinson’s brilliant “Box Office Poison,” this new series actually comes off pretty well when judged as an extension of the original.  Rob’s mixture of neuroses and self-confidence are still more endearing than irritating, and the camaraderie he enjoys with his guy friends rings completely true.  It’s also engaging to see how his life is a constant mix of successes, setbacks, and sideways steps (had to keep the alliteration going there…) that it feels eminently relatable even if you aren’t divorced or juggling work as an artist for a porn mag and a “TMNT” knock-off for kids.  That being said, the humor is just as raunchy — I don’t even know what to call the kind of coitus interruptus that closes the story here — and male-oriented as before; so, if that doesn’t sound like something that would appeal to you, then you may want to stay away.

Also, Fingerman has only kinda sorta made this book accessible to those who haven’t read the original series.  This means that while it’s easy enough to grasp Rob’s character, and that of his friends, you’ll be missing out a on a whole lot of context that informs the many relationships of this volume.  Particularly that of his ex, Sylvia, which informs a lot of what’s going on here.  It’s because of this that I think new readers would be best served by checking out “Maximum Minimum Wage” first to see if Fingerman’s style is up their alley along with enjoying a complete story.  If you like it, then you’ll want to check out this new series as well.  Fingerman may have been gone a long time from these characters and their world, but his return shows that he hasn’t lost a step with either.