Last weekend, while the rest of New York’s geek community were off getting their Star Wars and video game fixes at Comic Con, I ventured into the hippest of all indie territories—Williamsburg, Brooklyn—to check out a show that was closing at Cinders Gallery called “Adolescent Rage.”

The exhibition was the effort of Closed Caption Comics, a Baltimore-based collective of all-around creative folks who produce zines, comics, and art, as well as play in bands, run a music label—Lost Ghost Records—and organize an all-female performance festival, Puss Fust. Not bad.

The space at Cinders was given over entirely to Closed Caption, with all 10 of their artists represented in a combined total of more than 80 pieces. The work varied from quiet but intense nature drawings by Conor Stechschulte to Noel Freibert’s swirly, trippy screenprints of creatures and monsters, to the busy, sometimes crude, collages of Chris Day.

Considering the wide range of styles and large number of works, the exhibition was surprisingly cohesive—like carefully ordered chaos. Walking into Cinders, it was immediately clear that this was the work of a collective, a group of like minds. There was an overall aesthetic and attitude—a kind of off-the-cuff, DIY, “why the hell not?” mentality—that permeated all of the art. Also a general lack of concern for reality, except insofar as it could inspire the creation of weirder, alternative ones.

To that end, personal favorites included Ryan Cecil Smith’s amusing take on the classic camp bunk photograph, Muscle Camp, and an excerpt from Closed Caption Comics #7 by Lane Milburn in which a group of people descends into a dark room in what looks like a castle to behold and marvel at a book.

The show is over, and I lament not having written about it sooner to give New Yorkers the chance to check it out. But Closed Caption is a busy collective: Their zine comes out twice a year (the release of Closed Caption Comics #8 coincided with the Cinders show), and as previously mentioned, they have lots more going on. Track their movements and pin them down by checking out their blog, closedcaptioncomics.blogspot.com.

–Jillian Steinhauer