Yet, such is Robinson’s skill, that by the end of the book he’s managed to reveal her sympathetic aspects. While he’ll put up with almost everything for the sake of having an attractive girlfriend, others see her for what she is, and she’s primary source of conflict and disagreement. The character that comes to dominate the series, though, is Sherman’s eventual girlfriend Dorothy Lestrade, also a writer.ĭissolute, manipulative and capricious, she’s able to twist the inexperienced Sherman around her little finger. Sherman’s best mate is wannabe comic artist Ed Velasquez, who eventually ends up working for old pro Irving Flavor. He lucks out first time when looking for an apartment, taking the loft room rented by historian Stephen Gaedel and his partner, cartoonist Jane Pekar. Our way into the cast of Brooklyn twenty-somethings of the 1990s is Sherman Davies, bored bookstore employee and prospective writer. It has its limitations, but for the most part is adaptable enough to get the job done. Robinson has absorbed Dave Sim’s storytelling techniques and artistic quirks, and applies them extremely proficiently, yet maintains his own cartooning style. The improvement in is his art is not as immense, largely because he starts at a higher level and the influence is more obvious. There is so much to love and cherish about Box Office Poison, not the least of which is seeing Alex Robinson develop from an extremely talented newcomer with a few ideas about moving characters about (seemingly influenced by Kyle Baker’s approach) into the complete dramatist.

Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson