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Minimum Wage
Minimum Wage: Book Two
Bob Fingerman's Minimum Wage
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
116 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
59 people want to read
About the author
Bob Fingerman
155 books101 followersRecent releases are From the Ashes, a satirical "speculative memoir" set in post-apocalyptic New York (IDW, March 2010) of which The Onion wrote, “As a blitz of astringent satire, an unabashed love letter to his wife, and a love-hate manifesto aimed at the whole human race, From The Ashes is a gem; as an addition to the often-staid canon of post-apocalyptic pop culture, it’s a revelation… A“
In August 2010 my second novel, Pariah (Tor Books), a Pinteresque zombie tale, was released. It rec'd a starred review from Publishers Weekly and an A- from Entertainment Weekly and was Fangoria's Book of the Month selection. The mass market pocket edition came out in 2011.
My most recent release is the deluxe oversized hardcover collection Maximum Minimum Wage, from Image Comics (April 2013), which made Entertainment Weekly's Must List and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
In August 2010 my second novel, Pariah (Tor Books), a Pinteresque zombie tale, was released. It rec'd a starred review from Publishers Weekly and an A- from Entertainment Weekly and was Fangoria's Book of the Month selection. The mass market pocket edition came out in 2011.
My most recent release is the deluxe oversized hardcover collection Maximum Minimum Wage, from Image Comics (April 2013), which made Entertainment Weekly's Must List and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 6, 2020
#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. From the May 1997 edition with a theme of "Offered Again" Comics:
INTRODUCTION
Is there anything better than picking up a large chunk of a series you'd previously overlooked, reading it through from the beginning, and discovering a quality book you'll never want to miss again? That's one of the reasons I love trade paperbacks. But what are you going to do if there is no trade paperback? If you're already ordering from PREVIEWS through Rockem Sockem Comics, you can take advantage of the large number of comics which are "offered again" by various publishers each month. When a book is offered again, the publisher is generally trying to promote the latest issue of a series by making the back issues available for new readers. Or the publisher might be pushing the back issues in a month when no new issue is being offered. Usually, unless labelled otherwise, the books being offered again are mint condition first editions. This month you have a chance to take advantage of the system and pick up nearly complete runs of three very unique and deserving series.
EARNING A LIVING
MINIMUM WAGE BOOK ONE (Fantagraphics Books)
MINIMUM WAGE VOLUME 2 #1-6 (Fantagraphics Books)
Gen-X slackers are everywhere. Books. Film. Television. And, of course, comics. Sometimes it seems every other independent comic features slackers. Luckily, some of those comics are good.
MINIMUM WAGE tells of the evolving relationship of two young residents of NYC. Rob Hoffman is a 24-year-old aspiring comic book artist. Alas, he must toil at drawing silly strips for porn mags and humor rags until he can realize his dream. Rob's girlfriend, 28-year-old Sylvia Fanucci, manages a hair salon by day and spends her free time loving and tormenting Rob. BOOK ONE covers their decision to move in together. VOLUME TWO #1 finds them apartment hunting, while #2 gets them to moving day. This all leads to an inevitable question in #5. Along the road the couple has to deal with a voyeuristic young nephew (#2) and a comic book convention (#4). Jealousy rears its head when Rob wants to collaborate with an attractive performance artist/porn star/writer (#5). Rob spends #6 hating everyone else in NYC and fruitlessly taking his portfolio around to various magazines. While most of these topics are handled in a light and amusing manner, issue #3 changes pace drastically to tackle abortion.
Writer/artist Bob Fingerman shows quite a bit of talent, something I hadn't expected after his previous effort, the race-swapping fantasy WHITE LIKE SHE (Dark Horse Comics). He handles slice-of-life storytelling well. Having recently searched for a new rental myself, I found the apartment search and parody of realtors especially true to life. The lead characters are strong, and the side characters are all funny or colorful. Every character, including the leads, is presented with flaws as well as good points, making them all very human. Fingerman's cartoonish drawing style is very accomplished and helps differentiate and define the many friends, co-workers, family members, strangers and acquaintances who appear throughout the series. My complaints are minor: the pacing of the stories is a bit slow and uneven, and the plot sometimes changes course in mid-stream.
I must warn y'all that this book is for adults only. Fingerman depicts full-frontal nudity and graphic sexual situations, because, after all, sex is another part of daily life.
Each issue features a different guest artist doing pin-ups on the back cover. So far, contributors include (in order, issues #1-6) Pat McEown, Kevin Nowlan, Dave Cooper, Dave Johnson, Mike Mignola, and Kyle Baker. Stephen DeStefano, Evan Dorkin, Ted McKeever and Bill Wray all add interior pin-ups to issue #4. Also, a thinly-disguised Evan Dorkin ("Kevin Orkin") appears in the comic convention issue offering sage advice and assurances to Rob, who is promoting his first solo comic book.
If you want a quality book about a couple of struggling twenty-somethings, sign up for MINIMUM WAGE.
Grade: B+
(MINIMUM WAGE VOLUME 2 #1-7 are solicited this month in PREVIEWS on page 270!)
INTRODUCTION
Is there anything better than picking up a large chunk of a series you'd previously overlooked, reading it through from the beginning, and discovering a quality book you'll never want to miss again? That's one of the reasons I love trade paperbacks. But what are you going to do if there is no trade paperback? If you're already ordering from PREVIEWS through Rockem Sockem Comics, you can take advantage of the large number of comics which are "offered again" by various publishers each month. When a book is offered again, the publisher is generally trying to promote the latest issue of a series by making the back issues available for new readers. Or the publisher might be pushing the back issues in a month when no new issue is being offered. Usually, unless labelled otherwise, the books being offered again are mint condition first editions. This month you have a chance to take advantage of the system and pick up nearly complete runs of three very unique and deserving series.
EARNING A LIVING
MINIMUM WAGE BOOK ONE (Fantagraphics Books)
MINIMUM WAGE VOLUME 2 #1-6 (Fantagraphics Books)
Gen-X slackers are everywhere. Books. Film. Television. And, of course, comics. Sometimes it seems every other independent comic features slackers. Luckily, some of those comics are good.
MINIMUM WAGE tells of the evolving relationship of two young residents of NYC. Rob Hoffman is a 24-year-old aspiring comic book artist. Alas, he must toil at drawing silly strips for porn mags and humor rags until he can realize his dream. Rob's girlfriend, 28-year-old Sylvia Fanucci, manages a hair salon by day and spends her free time loving and tormenting Rob. BOOK ONE covers their decision to move in together. VOLUME TWO #1 finds them apartment hunting, while #2 gets them to moving day. This all leads to an inevitable question in #5. Along the road the couple has to deal with a voyeuristic young nephew (#2) and a comic book convention (#4). Jealousy rears its head when Rob wants to collaborate with an attractive performance artist/porn star/writer (#5). Rob spends #6 hating everyone else in NYC and fruitlessly taking his portfolio around to various magazines. While most of these topics are handled in a light and amusing manner, issue #3 changes pace drastically to tackle abortion.
Writer/artist Bob Fingerman shows quite a bit of talent, something I hadn't expected after his previous effort, the race-swapping fantasy WHITE LIKE SHE (Dark Horse Comics). He handles slice-of-life storytelling well. Having recently searched for a new rental myself, I found the apartment search and parody of realtors especially true to life. The lead characters are strong, and the side characters are all funny or colorful. Every character, including the leads, is presented with flaws as well as good points, making them all very human. Fingerman's cartoonish drawing style is very accomplished and helps differentiate and define the many friends, co-workers, family members, strangers and acquaintances who appear throughout the series. My complaints are minor: the pacing of the stories is a bit slow and uneven, and the plot sometimes changes course in mid-stream.
I must warn y'all that this book is for adults only. Fingerman depicts full-frontal nudity and graphic sexual situations, because, after all, sex is another part of daily life.
Each issue features a different guest artist doing pin-ups on the back cover. So far, contributors include (in order, issues #1-6) Pat McEown, Kevin Nowlan, Dave Cooper, Dave Johnson, Mike Mignola, and Kyle Baker. Stephen DeStefano, Evan Dorkin, Ted McKeever and Bill Wray all add interior pin-ups to issue #4. Also, a thinly-disguised Evan Dorkin ("Kevin Orkin") appears in the comic convention issue offering sage advice and assurances to Rob, who is promoting his first solo comic book.
If you want a quality book about a couple of struggling twenty-somethings, sign up for MINIMUM WAGE.
Grade: B+
(MINIMUM WAGE VOLUME 2 #1-7 are solicited this month in PREVIEWS on page 270!)
January 14, 2019
Another fantastic book, great, excellent art
August 3, 2017
Did not love this the way I loved earlier "Minimum Wage", but I'll still keep reading.
May 30, 2015
I'm torn on this one, at first I found the story to be a little off putting and juvenile for my liking. I stuck with it and felt like it turned a bit of a corner and really drew me in to quite a frank and honest portrait of modern life and dating. Then it felt like it managed to overstay it's welcome a bit and I went back around to feeling it relied much too heavily on juvenile jokes and situations, even if it did have a few poignant things to say.
Looking back over the work as a whole I can't help but feel the crass tone of the book over-weighed any important points it managed to make, which is a bit disappointing as there was some interesting storytelling here too.
Looking back over the work as a whole I can't help but feel the crass tone of the book over-weighed any important points it managed to make, which is a bit disappointing as there was some interesting storytelling here too.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews