Prologue by Kenan Rubenstein

I opened Kenan’s small envelope with excitement. What manner of comic goodness (or badness) would be inside? And that’s why, though Prologue, a one-page comic in booklet form that unfolds as the plot does, is available online in its entirety, I suggest getting a paper copy, so that you too can find out what comes in small packages.

Prologue’s story concerns a shy guy at a party. With each unfolding of the comic, a new thought or event occurs in what proves to be a “too good to be true” night for him. Although the whole awkward-guy-finally-meets-adored-girl set up is overused in short story alternative comics, but I wanted to see where Kenan was going to take it and in the end I wasn’t disappointed.

By getting creative with grays, Kenan sets the rollicking party scene and night streetscapes apart from the romantic drama happening in them. His main characters are in richly shadowed black and white, also highlighting the intense quality of their interaction.

Prologue is a good example of form dictating narrative flow. I’d like to see more of these Oubliettes (French for secret dungeons) and how Kenan continues to work with the folded form.