Broken Wires 1-3

Broken Wires 1-3 Cameron Arthur
Phantoro Press 2024-25
3 saddle stitched 7.25" x 10.25" comics
80 pages total

Cameron Arthur’s interests as a storyteller lay in telling downbeat quiet stories about everyday people. In Broken Wires we shift pov from a small cast of characters who are all just kind of floating along. The main tension plays out between their inner lives (memories, ruminations, worries) and the situations they find themselves in. It’s a highly introspective approach that works well with Arthur’s placid cartooning marked by spartan lines and restrained backgrounds. Characters remain still in their frames encouraging a slow reading and giving some gravitas to the dynamism of the “camera” movements in what are mostly scenes of people talking.

But what’s happening in this comic? A collegiate choir is on tour. One of the singers on his last go round stays with a family in a small Texas town who are dealing with their own minor problems. A son who falls for a phishing scam and a school teacher mother trying to do her best in a typically underfunded school.