The world of Minor Threats has to be one of the most creatively-charged comic book universes created in the past few years. It owes that success to the fact that unlike most superhero themed books, this universe tends to focus on the villains – specifically, those villains who are clinging onto the bottom rung of society’s ladder for dear life. In the case of Minor Threats: Barfly #1, its protagonist is precariously close to losing his grip.
Barfly #1 is centered on “Shiteater”, a mutant fly and former henchman to the insect-controlling villain known as the Entomologist. After a battle left him wingless and jobless (thanks to the Entomologist being thrown in jail), Shiteater ekes out a meager living flipping burgers while occassionally pulling off the odd heist. But a constant string of insults and abuse is pushing him to the brink.
Writer Kyle Starks has worked closely with Minor Threats co-creators Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum to make sure that Barfly #1 has the same vibe as the rest of the Minor Threats universe, including a protagonist down on his luck and an outlandish cast of characters. This includes the Gridiron Ghoul, a undead football player, and Bertram, Shiteater’s friend who’s a gigantic mutated Hercules beetle residing in the local zoo. Starks’s script has a tragicomic edge to it; nothing seems to go right for Shiteater. He’s hassled by Gridiron Ghoul for trying to get a drink, his boss at the burger joint insults and underpays him, and a heist goes south when his partners betray him.
What really sells the tragedy and the comedy is Ryan Browne’s artwork. Browne brings the same sense of chaos that made Curse Words and Eight Billion Genies so much fun to read; buildings are piles of brick and steel, while there’s a perpetual bluish-black haze in the night sky thanks to Browne and Kevin Knipstein’s color art. The star of the show is Shiteater, who’s immediately recognizable due to his leather jacket and of course the fact that he’s a mutant fly – everyone towers over the little guy, from his boss (who literally grows in a sequence of panels as he berates poor Shiteater) to the heavily muscled Gridiron Ghoul.
The real star of the book is Nate Piekos, whose lettering gives Barfly #1 a unique visual language. As you might have guessed, Shiteater can’t really talk due to being a giant fly, so Piekos has most of his actions do the talking for him. When he leaps from wall to wall during a height, the words “Jackie Chan!” follow him, punctuated for emphasis. When an alarm goes off on his cell phone, there’s bright red letters saying “You Blew It!” It’s those little touches that make Minor Threats: Barfly #1 worth reading – and serve as an example of why this world is worth checking out for old readers and new.
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