"Ticket Stub collects all 9 issues of the beloved mini-comic zine series by critically-acclaimed cartoonist, Tim Hensley. In the 1990s, Tim typed subtitles for movies and broadcast television during his stint as a closed-caption editor. In darkened rooms lit only by a TV screen, he would cue up his favorite scenes and draw them into his sketchbook. No movie nor tv show, however classic or campy (ranging from Butterfield Eight to Big Momma’s House), was safe from his unique comic treatment. Mixing stark, powerful imagery with his distinct play on language, each page is dense with the Wally Gropius creator’s crisp, trademark linework. It’s truly a feast for the eyes."

creator’s crisp, trademark linework. It’s truly a feast for the eyes."

A mashup of words and pictures, sourced from films with a flow leaning at some points more towards the nonsensical than the succinct. At times, Hensley pulls the creative urges keeping him from simply watching the film before his eyes - he's obviously restless if he has a sketch pad nearby at all times - together and pulls off snappy one pagers that in one moment act as play by play reviews of major plot points and in another, proselytize greater key mysteries of what he believe the film is trying to put across. At certain moments, Hensley channels Kurt Schwitters with playful word salad that rolls like a rubber bowl down a badly leveled hallway, while at others, he puts the verbal side of things onto a more Kerouac-esque level; rambling rambunctiously, but still making some semblance of sense. Artistically, Hensley's combination of words and pictures recall Ray Pettibone and wouldn't look out of place on the cover of an 80's SST comp (well, maybe some of them, anyway; not the ones that cover films like Love and Basketball). The book's title, Ticket Stub, is a re-current verbal motif that materializes every several pages and bridges an odd sense of continuity amidst the scrambled musings smattered across each new page. Would Roger Ebert read this? Likely not. That doesn't mean you shouldn't, though. - KS