(p)REVIEW- "CLOSING DOORS and Other City Yarns" by Mark Rudolph

Tired of reading barely-legible tales about overly-muscled dudes, weird aliens and mutant vigilantes locked in a never- ending series of nigh-meaningless conflicts? Yeah, me neither... but peep this preview of  Mark Rudolph's hella-tight anthology paperback Closing Doors and Other City Yarns for a refreshing and much-needed change of pace anyways. You'll dig it.
Here's the Sales Pitch:
Closing Doors- Follows the struggles of record shop owner, Elvin Cherry as his business slowly becomes obsolete and how it effects him, the city and his patrons. 63 pages with extras. 

 Also included: 

Through The Cracks- A detective finds one of his idols in an unexpected place. 7 pages. 

Say it In Slugs- Clancy Fletcher is a struggling reporter on the verge of breaking a huge story. It has every chance of making him famous but equally as much chance of making him dead. 53 pages. 

“…speaking of down-to-earth, off-genre uses of comics, Closing Doors manages to make a failing record store the center of a pretty engaging tale.” – Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, Zot! 

“Closing Doors reminds me of Will Eisner’s Dropsie Avenue, another tale in which a community is bound through the passage of time by a common place, one that embodies their hopes and dreams, their failures and successes” – Rich Watson, Comic World News

I found I could immediately relate to Elvin, the well-worn record store owner in Closing Doors.  When I stumbled upon that cover, Elvin seemed to be making contact with me... like George Washington on the dollar bill and the Mona Lisa before him, Elvin's knowing stare reached out of two dimensional space and challenge me. What did HE know that I did not? Mark Rudolph's simple cover did its job: I had to read this comic asap! A quick Google search revealed that Closing Doors was available to read free as a webcomic... and it was worth the effort.  
The story paints a real picture of what is being lost in the digital age, without being preachy or pretentious about it. Elvin Cherry is such a stand-up guy, an admirable person that you want to root for him, but the story feels so much like real life that it's hard to expect anything resembling a happy ending... Rudolph has an acute understanding of the characters he presents in his story. If they are not based on real people he has met, they feel real... the experiences feel biographical. Good stuff. Anyways, I encourage you to cop the collection on Indyplanet, or head over to his website and read the book online.
holla!
-samax.  

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