The middle ages of zine culture produced some fantastic works out of Montreal. The most well known is probably Julie Doucet, but another great creator of comics and zines is Shane Simmons, a master of experimental comics. A writer of screenplays and TV scripts, his early career produced several short zines, including one major series entitled Angry Comics. This series ran until issue #12 before it was discontinued.

A real gem in Simmons’ career is his five part comic series Money Talks published by Slave Labor Graphics. The first issue came out in June of 1996 and the series was published bi-monthly until February 1997. This concluded the first volume of Money Talks, but sadly the series was not continued.

Simmons, an extremely skilled writer, paired his scripting with characters from American, Canadian and British monetary bills and notes. Although perhaps a little off-putting to begin with, the style becomes quite comical, especially when Simmons further experiments with how to impose facial gestures and action using only the bust of characters.

The story begins in Evansville with the death of Edward Warfield. It soon comes to light that Edward’s death was at the hands of his rival tycoon played by George Washington. The story follows the mob style activities of both of the rivals and related characters such as the Bowes family, a mother and her three daughters, all played by different versions of Queen Elizabeth. At the hands of Simmons, the comic has expert comedic timing and character dialogue.

Simmons can now be found at Eyestrain Productions where he and his other work is available to look at or order.