Tortilla, Issue 1

Jaime Crespo
www.jaimecrespo.com

Tortilla is exactly what the title that scrolls along the bottom of the zine says it is: comix & stories. After having gone through the whole thing I’m looking forward to issue number two.  Most of the comix have no relation, but that didn’t make them uninteresting.  They were mainly what seemed to be self-reflexive moments in Jaime’s life, except for maybe “Too Fat to Do Shit Man,” (hopefully).  But aside from the comix the best part of the first issue of Tortilla is the story Well You Needn’t. This 10 page narrative is about what the author berst describes  as, “Every now and again you run across a person that could have been pulled directly from an old Tom Waits song.” It snagged me at that very moment (which conveniently was the first line of the story.)  As it continues it keeps putting the author in a situation where he runs into a girl who has fallen into drugs and alcohol, prostitution, and squatting at various stages of his life.  Although her story changes as time goes by and they see each other randomly, his doesn’t and she always remembers that.  Without giving away the grand finale, let’s just say the story ends as bleak as most Tom Waits songs about one of God’s forgotten fools.

(Jamison Kester)

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