These Comic Bookies Have 'Issues'

At some point during your educational years you took a side job for some extra cash. That was most likely your first interaction with co-workers and customers. It can prove to be an eye-opening experience to the world of stupidity and crazies in the world. This is where Issues: The Series begins. The comedy web series is self-described as the “misadventures of the strangest gaggle of geeks this side of cyberspace.”

Zeke Oros (Noah Rothman) starts his new job at a comic book store, Comic Relief, to help pay his way through school, although on his first day he finds a “world that rivals the pages he loves to read”. The store is filled with colorful characters: Mack the assertive but endearing co-worker, Bobby the drunken store manager, Jackson the self-absorbed regular, and Edgar the silent ex-marine.

With more in-depth character introductions the series feels a bit like a feature film chopped up. Also my little knowledge of being a “Bookie,” a term coined for the series to describe comic book readers, I may have missed some inside comic book jokes. It’s just like watching The Guild and not understanding World of Warcraft (WoW) lingo. Regardless of your level of fanboy-ism, this series has a niche audience that will inevitably jump on board.

However, the real intrigue of the show is freshman web creator Scott Nap. The show started as a result of last years writers strike, and with a little push from professors and some cheerleading from Felicia Day

, he jumped on the web series bandwagon. Nap is a former employee of the same comic book shop that Issues calls home, hence the series inspiration.

Nap spent his life savings, quit his job, persuaded a cast to work on spec, and filmed during operating store hours to complete the first season. The passion of this project doesn’t stop there, in production they encountered even more frightening set-backs: a lead actress having encounters with a narcoleptic, destruction of the store front window, and an attack of bees.

After breaking the front store window, and not having enough money to replace it, Nap had to step back and say to him “How badly do you want to finish Issues, how bad do you want to continue the story?” Although by this point Nap wasn’t alone in his journey, donations came to the rescue and he was encouraged to finish the season. A sweet reminder that what you put out is what you get back, hopefully this optimism will lead Nap and crew towards a second season.

Episodes are approximately 10 minutes long (Scott notes that future episodes will be trimmed down) and can be found on YouTube and on the official show site in Hi-Definition every other week. Be on the lookout for Rocketboom’s Joanne Colan cameo in future episodes.