Fingerman has the knack for identifying the humor in the weirdest and the most unexceptional people or situations. This first installment of Fingerman's crisply rendered mini-epic presents a couple of days in the life of Rob, paradoxically stuffy N.Y.C. slacker/artist and reluctant party-boy, who freelances for porn magazines while convincingly delivering the line "You kiss your mother with that mouth?" to his shoot-from-the-hip girlfriend Sylvia. Rob slouches along from Pork magazine headquarters to Brooklyn and beyond, sharing joints, drinks and woes with his baggy, sex-starved buds?prototypical loser-types all?along the way. The sneakily incisive Fingerman presents his characters in all their skewed, dweebish glory, from their often hilarious dialogue to the band-emblazoned T-shirts that they wear like ID tags. The graphics and overall atmosphere are distinct from such earlier work as White Like She; Minimum Wage has a clean, cartoony style that manages to be both light and cluttered in a manic, obsessive way, tight yet loose-limbed. His backgrounds are packed with layers of detail that, when decoded, provide further insights into an engaging and entertaining work that is dense with demented particulars

During its run in the mid-'90s, Minimum Wage racked up critical accolades and a devoted following, numbering among its fans Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron, Dana Gould, Scott Aukerman, Margaret Cho, Janeane Garofalo, David Cross, and more. Why? Because each page boasted sticky, uncomfortable truths drenched in bleakly familiar humor. It was "cringe comedy" before the phrase had been coined, presaging squirmy shows like Louie and Girls. Set in a New York so real you can practically smell it (so claimed Mike Mignola), Minimum Wage is the workaday saga of cartoonist Rob Hoffman and his firebrand girlfriend, Sylvia. He churns out strips for smut rags and off-brand MAD knockoffs and she languishes managing a hair salon. With their colorful crew of friends, they forge ahead against the brutal indifference of their hometown. This definitive edition includes the original 72-page "pilot" episode (Minimum Wage Book One) and the revised "director's cut" of the main storyline. Plus, a bonus color section featuring original cover paintings and guest pin-ups by Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, Dave Johnson, Jill Thompson, Dave Cooper, Glenn Barr, and others.

Freshly separated Rob Hoffman is trying to reassemble his life. Only 25, he's going through a divorce, his finances are in ruins, and he's forced to move back in with his mom. All around him things are changing. The Internet is about to erase his number-one source of income: men's mags. But the Internet also offers a new angle on dating, and so begins Rob's adventures as a singleton.