While we're on it: "SAD GIRL" (Beto, New Stories vol. 2)

Well while I was talking about Beto (Gilbert Hernandez) and his contributions to the second volume of "New Stories", I thought I should also mention his "other" mini story in that book: "Sad Girl". Contrary to his "Hypnotwist" story, this one seems much more firmly grounded in a form of reality, which character interactions and exchanges. It feels a bit like what Beto did after his had finished writing about his Palomar characters, where they were now planted in the USA (or some such area), and are living the everyday modern existance. This little story centers around a female character the guys refer to as "Killer", or "Sad Girl", since she seems very preoccupied by her ex-boyfriend and his new love interest (although we never see them in this segment). She talks about having a role in a Hollywood film, a remake of an old art-house film which took 10 years to complete, but thsi modern remake seems to have been put on hold due to a lack of budget. She complains about just running in front of a green screen, while everyone else around her think she did nudity, or even an adult feature! "Killer" works as a belly dancer in a restorant, goes to school, and seems to know everyone in her immediate surroundings. The story is interesting in the sense that Nothing really happens; it is as though we are exposed to a mere snapshot of a random part of someone's life, with no beginning and no end, and Nothing really of any consequence happening. As usual it is drawn in the now popular post Y2K Beto style which is less detailed and less lush / dense than his 80s or 90s work, but again is far better than some of his really "lazy" works (such as the disapointing "The Garden Of Flesh" which I had so much high hopes for...)

P.S. Come to think about it, and I did think about this prior to writing up this little post but I sort of forgot as I was writing it (good thing I save them as drafts before sending them out into the interweb world!), "Killer" might very well be Fritz's daughter (or one of her daughters), for she shares numerous physical characteristics as her pale skinned counterpart. She is also a belly dancer, and Fritz was known to have these incredibly strong pelvis muscles, able to crack walnuts with her belly muscles, and "Killer" also has aspirations as a film performer, much like Fritz became a B-movie actress. I'll need to look deeper into this!