24 pages, 13 stories
For many years I have supplemented study and purportedly ‘proper’ jobs (that never paid enough since NZ is a proud member of the ‘low wages’ club) by working for Hamilton retail institution Browsers Quality Secondhand Bookshop, an environment conducive to the ‘human comedy’ in all its weird and wonderful manifestations.
At some point I thought that the more interesting and memorable encounters with customers would make for a good comic project, in a realist ‘slice-of-life’ vein that I hadn’t done before. Even though the drawing style was kept simple it took years to do (although I suppose rearing infants and writing theses takes a lot of time aye).
‘Shelf Life’ has actually proved pretty popular in Hamilton at least – must’ve sold close to 100 copies, and the local paper The Waikato Times did a feature on it.
Boulangerie 