The Li'l Depressed Boy #14

Issue fourteen of S. Steven Struble and Sina Grace's quietly affecting series finds the Li'l Depressed Boy standing alone outside the Royal Theatre, arm in a sling, while scraps of paper and "Now Playing" flyers swirl around him in a muted, overcast streetscape. There's something both melancholy and oddly compelling about this small, blank-faced figure dwarfed by the old theater marquee — the whole scene carries that bittersweet, slice-of-life mood the series does so well. A fine addition to one of Image's more understated gems during the publisher's 20th anniversary year.