BOP! More Box Office Poison

This slim volume is a great companion to the Box Office Poison phonebook. BOP! More Box Office Poison reprints Alex Robinson’s short stories from the SPX anthologies (there was a piece in each volume from 1997-2001), Private Beach #4, and the color special published by Antarctic. It also contains Robinson’s 24-hour comic and a new story showing how Caprice’s friends deal with her ex-boyfriend.

Since most of these were written as stand-alone stories instead of chapters in the bigger graphic novel, they have a purity of insight and characterization that’s a pleasure to read. Some of the stories jump into the future, showing what happened to Caprice or Sherman, while others illustrate how Jane and Ed became the people they did. I’ve missed these characters; it’s nice to briefly catch up with them.

If you’ve heard about Box Office Poison but haven’t wanted to commit to the whole large book, you could give this a try as a taste.