The Back of the Line

The Back of the Line is an innovative collaboration between writer Jeff Parker and artist William Powhida. Through four stories interwoven with images, The Back of the Line follows the plight of ornithophobic, cuckolding, leering, scooter-thieving, laundromat loving, peeing-while-sleepwalking James J. Wreck. The narration in the suspect, second-hand account of James's best friend sometimes agrees and sometimes conflicts with the documentary evidence of James's deeds, creating fissures in the story as each of the two men see it. Motivated alternately by revenge, jealousy, altruism, and obsession, they continually misread one another in a train wreck of egos and desires. In the end each must choose between a damaged relationship and the possibilities of a better one. Designed as a handwritten journal, The Back of the Line is the improbable diary of two fractured souls, a document of the narrative and visual detritus of their world.