The Matchbook Comics of Silber Media
All Comics written by Brian John Mitchell
Art by Various
Silber Media

People don’t say this often enough, but mini comics are cool. Really cool.

Those tiny, cheap volumes printed on 12 generic pieces of printer paper, folded and half held together by a single staple down the middle? Love them. Those pretentious, autobiographical comics you only find in comic book stores in walking distance to some rinky-dink liberal arts college? Can’t get enough of them. Those ugly, xeroxed books with art that looks like it was done by some disgruntled high school kid and, in fact, probably was? Those are my favorites!

Enter Brian John Mitchell. He’s been doing his own style of minis since 2003. A musician out of North Carolina with a small record label, Silber Records, he sells his own matchbook-sized comics through his website and at shows. They’re small in size, but large in scope. Whether it’s a western or a domestic drama, an autobio-comedy or a straight sci-fi, the style stays essentially the same. One panel per page. Short, declarative sentences. Like a haiku, it’s a sparse but surprisingly rich approach to doing comics.

Silber Media does a lot of things, and one of those things is making tiny little hand-written, hand-drawn mini comics that are about the size of match books. The makers of these little comics have released a new batch for fans of theirs to check out.

Lost Kisses # 9 & #10

Lost Kisses is a series that follows characters in their simplest form: as stick figures. These stick figures like to offer up a lot of thoughts and philosophies about the world around us, and more specifically, they dive into the ruthlessly painful world of romance and relationships.

Worms #4

A bit of a trippy mind-screw of a ride, Worms tells the story of a girl who mysterious wakes up in a hospital, attached to an IV filled with worms that are making their way into her system. Over time, the girl begins to find herself getting stronger as she attempts to escape the evil hospital.

Out there in the world, right this moment, there are countless independent comic book writers and artists trying to make their mark in the comic world. Silber Media is one of those folks, but instead of sticking on the regular path or taking the new road of digital comics, these guys and gals took an alternative path rarely traveled: mini-comics!

Mini comics aren’t comic books, and they’re not comic strips. They’re kind of a hybrid of the two. Each is about the size of a matchbook, with one panel, one picture, and one or two lines of dialogue on each page, but in the page-turning book format. Basically, you throw a handful of them in your pocket and go wherever you need to go. At a low point in your day, grab a mini-comic and go to town.

Currently, Silber has multiple mini-comic series going on, including Lost Kisses — which follows a lowly stick figure on his bitter, loathing quest for vengeance on a hated ex girlfriend; as well as Worms — a nightmare of a story that sees a girl waking up in a mysterious hospital, tied to her bed and attached to an IV with worms in it that slowly work their way into her system.