Staff Picks (January): Please Keep Warm Collection — This Must Be The Place

I’m inching dangerously close to being “that guy that only reviews Silver Sprocket titles,” and it’s for good reason. They’ve come out of the gate with a series of books and creators that have a unique style and voice that’s hard to get anywhere other than the merch table at a church basement show or a beer soaked zine you’d find on a city street.

Please Keep Warm is well within that style. I’m reaching that point in life where people around my age are actually becoming parents, and this collection of Michael Sweater’s previously unpublished web comic is a nice summation of how I think that could shake out for some people. There’s something very comforting about this comic, as a mildly pierced/tattooed mid-20-something with full adult responsibility and very few unpatched jackets. It’s built upon the foundation of a number of loosely related people trying to support a precocious 7-year-old and her often bizarre antics.  It’s not often in comics that you see non-traditional family structure portrayed as mostly positive and improvised, and I think it’s a sorely lacking subject. I wouldn’t look to it for the most accurate realism of the struggles of child rearing and relationships; it’s humor almost all the way through. But there are a lot of small moments that ring true and feel, sometimes embarrassingly, relatable. 

The art is perfectly suited to the tone, as well. While it may not appeal to everyone, I think Please Keep Warm’s first collection is a funny read, packed with a lot of heart.

— Luke Martin

Publisher: Silver Sprocket
Item Code: JAN181741
Release Date: 3/28/18
SRP: $20.00