‘Actors’ by Stuart J McCune - Now on Kickstarter.

‘Actors’.

Created by SJ McCune.

Published by Millicent Barnes Comics.

Complex and sinister.

Relevant and beautiful.

Confusing and satisfying.

A conundrum that never ceases to inspire.

We are more than our physical existence is a state of knowing that SJM has always translated onto a comic page for me and his many readers and followers. He shows in this new book the complicated and multi-faceted reality of being a human now in this year 2019 and beyond. We carry around a digital shadow this is now frighteningly plain. Stuart J understands this and again asks us who we truly are. He pokes at us through enigmatic and iconic artwork with questions. Aligning truth and art with something you will never read elsewhere or elsewhen.

‘I like it. You can like it too. That would make you like me.’

As much as I hate to admit this as a fifty year old curmudgeonly angry male I also live this altered and other reality. This world in the palm of our hands or in the so-called Devil’s Window. The creator of this book translates that faked(?) world into the pages of something planned and staged and rehearsed like a play or a movie (maybe) but altogether unusual and surprising.

‘INT DEATHBOX’.

We see ‘actors’ and ‘scripts’ and ‘sets’. We see the false as it creeps into the real and the false creeping beyond it’s definition. Where and when does everything exist? I’m never sure, but I’ve a feeling there are at least a couple of answers here. And in touch with the forces around us Mr McCune has concocted another nightmare in full colour. It has depth and intelligence. It is a deadly mystery.

It will encourage you to ask questions or/and you can follow the pages and the text and enjoy this starkly strange half hour of reading. It has a deep bleakness to every glorious panel as well as it’s obtuse and alarming arc.

This is a book unlike anything else you will read. It speaks on levels I personally find inspiring and also profoundly disconcerting.

This is not a review. This is an echo of the feeling and thoughts I have from this comic. This comic makes the hairs on my arms stand up. This is a feeling and a wide-eyed stare. I will go back in and see how it affects me again and again. I feel that a rewind and a reread is in order.

‘Now everything is nothing.’

........one of the final images will haunt you all day.

I have a feeling that Stuart J McCune enjoys playing with our states of consciousness!

A book that asks many questions yet is also a joy to read and watch.

I consider him a pal - he also isn’t that strange or scary in real life!

I encourage you to back this Kickstarter asap https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/496548914/actors I’ve backed everything he’s created and have a growing library of wickedly brilliant art.

You can follow Stuart and his art on Instagram @sjmccunebc and on Twitter @StuartMcCune

Many thanks for reading.