Covers go a lot further with me when picking minicomics than they do with superhero books — mainly because with independently published titles on the individual creator/creative team level, it can represent an extra step that someone went through to exhibit craftsmanship and care to affect how their work as an object is being presented. Poseur #3 grabbed my attention on the rear-wall rack at Chicago Comics mostly for this reason. I’m not familiar with the previous two issues, so I can’t comment on its scenes in the larger context of the series. Nor am I familiar with the creator, Nat. The book is a brilliant example, however, of how to chain together disparate serialized stories in a way that makes sense and challenges the reader on a surrealist level while packing enough concrete scenery, characters, themes to make the stories themselves interesting both individually and in the grander scheme of the work.
Self-inflicted electrocution in various contexts and spontaneously erupting physical forms from amorphous organic blobs are the two major motifs at play here, and if you appreciate extremely confined perspectives that leave a great deal to the imagination while you read, this is a minicomic worth picking up. The art isn’t refined in a traditional sense, but it really comes into focus around figures like the Cthuloid/Starro-ish figure who jumps out of the sidewalk and the microwave scene toward the end. In fact, the imbalance between the detail invested in the surreal elements versus the human characters in the art really drives home the notion of the sci-fi and fantastic forces at work in the story being in control. It’s a neat nuance and made for a worthwhile $4 pull.