SIZE MATTERS: The Mini-Comics Blog

Nothing by C. Hollow It’s so rare to get something tangible for free these days, but if you go to C. Hollow’s website, you can get a copy of Nothing #1 for free.

Nothing #1 is a tight issue where Captain Hollow searches his own feelings for what life and death mean to him. If you assume Captain Hollow is C. Hollow and the Sweet Nothing is his wife, then this is an open and shut case of “What does life mean to me?” And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

In fact, Nothing is about something. It’s about the relationships we have with our mothers, our fathers, our significant others, and even the relationship we have with ourselves.

The characters are crudely drawn, but whole. The backgrounds are chunky, but serviceable. In short, Hollow uses basic structures to communicate to the reader what may be going on at any time. It’s kind of rudimentary, but effective in it’s own way. A few quick observations about the comic: Captain Hollow and the Sweet Nothing both have these little swirls for eyes. There are no hints beyond words as to what’s happening inside. The hand-lettered font has this odd habit of highlighting certain letters. It’s kind of distracting at first, but not as distracting as the weird random bold words you find in Marvel comics.
What I like about Nothing is that you have this guy making comics and putting “Issue No. 1 Summer, 2006 Free” on the cover. He’s giving his comics away. AND issue number two is the same price. It’s free. Go to his website and almost every day there’s a new one panel comic. Here’s someone honing their craft and doing everything he can to get his work into your hands. Do us both a favor and go check out Nothing. Maybe he starts charging for the next issue, I don’t know. But if you hurry, it still says “Free.”

There are samples of both issues at Hollow's website. Issue #1 is 29 pages with a color cover.