The Fairer Sex, Part XXI: Me and Edith Head

Winner: Best book in The Fairer Sex

When I picked up this undersized trifle, I was so hopeful that I had found the next contender for Rabid Rachel’s bottom of the heap spot. It’s hard to make a book worse that RR. Maybe if one does get made, the comic industry bans together to eliminate all the copies that exist and anyone who might have read it. So my search to find a new “worst book” in the Crapbox has been mostly in vain.

I looked upon Me and Edith Head’s small size as a sign of weakness and potential to suck. Sure the picture on the cover is well done, but any artist can get lucky once. (Ok, maybe not the Rabid Rachel artist, but I’m speaking in generalities here.) Little did I realize that what I held in my hand was 15 pages of pure gold.

MaEH was nominated for an Eisner in 2002 in the category of Best Short Story. How something from a magazine called “Dork” beat it out, I have no idea. Originally published in the September/October 2001 issue of CICACA magazine, the story was published in undersized version by Cold Water Press. Steve Lieber does the art and Sara Ryan the story. Together they create a story that I can only compare to a perfectly whipped mousse, it is light and sweet with a twinge of bitterness. Its small size makes you underestimate how rich it is, how you’ll savor every bite and, although it’s filling, will leave you hungry for more. Very tempting to crown it queen of the crapbox. Or at least tempting to put a hit out on those Dork magazine guys and the Eisner voters for that year.

Best of all, if you wish you didn’t have to rely on me to see it, you don't have to: Steve Lieber has the entire thing online HERE.

Every single page. 

I was going to do the usual thing by cutting and pasting in stuff with my comments, but I feel that would ruin it. 

Go to that link. 

No cause to be shy. 

It is 15 pages. 

Heck, my ex-wife read it and liked it. And she hates comic books. If you’d like, come back here and share what you thought about it.