Matthew Thurber is a cartoonist from Washington State, now residing in Brooklyn. His comic book series, “1-800-MICE” is to be collected by Picturebox. His comics have appeared in anthologies such as Kramers Ergot, The Ganzfeld, and Yale University Press' Anthology of Graphic Fiction. He has exhibited at Adam Baumgold Gallery, Southfirst in Brooklyn, and the Fumetto festival in Lucern, Switzerland. In 2006 he was named “Mini Comics Artist of the Year” by The Comics Journal. He has performed at venues from the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles to Issue Project Room in New York with his musical project Ambergris, and played saxophone from 2006-08 with Soiled Mattress and the Springs.

1-800-MICE Issue #3

by Matthew Thurber

Published by Ambergris Books

Release Date: September 2009

B/W: 24 pages with color cover

Retail price: $4.00

Matthew Thurber’s epic comic book series is back with its finest issue yet. An anthropological study of the imaginary city of Volcano Park, with a soap-opera-styled fractured narrative and a cast of thousands, Thurber’s work is sure to delight fans of ambitious comic book narratives, as well as those of screwball comedy and Oz-style fantasy.

To summarize this episode: Following a prelude in which a skywriting propagandist falls to his death, Groomfiend the Mouse, claiming depression, infiltrates the office of Dr. Vial, and leaves with a prescription to the mysterious drug, Creosote.
Meanwhile, we return to Officer Nabb’s identity confusion, as he watches a documentary about the persecuted Dapper Chaps on a wooden VHS tape. The origins of the talking trees of Volcano Park are explained. Tom Chief, leader of the Dapper Chaps, attempts to persuade a cynical Nabb to join his cause against Aunty Lakeford, a supernatural being.
The action returns to Peace Punk who narrowly escapes his Sushi Chef assassins by crawling into a bagpipe and being exhaled as pure sound, crossing the water to Scotland, where Aunty Lakeford herself lies in wait.