Something came out this week that really stood out in a few ways. For one thing, it’s an oversized hardcover, and so can be easily weaponized against whole families of living creatures.
For another, it features the high priest of evil elder immortals, Cthulhu, in a dapper suit prominently and consistently. Only 500 of these books were printed, and each one has a hand-drawn sketch from the creator. The art style is fun and cartoony and if you let a child see it you should be arrested immediately. That’s right. Arsenic Lullaby is back with The Big Stall (Douglas Paszkiewicz).
If you haven’t noticed by now, I like to summarize the books I review. For one thing, it proves that I read the things, and that I can read. (Take that Mrs Phelps!) For you readers that follow the titles I review, it provides a sense of where an issue takes place in the larger story, so you don’t have to spend time scratching your heads about what happened when. For those that don’t follow the title, I try to give an impression of what kind of book it is, so you can get an idea of whether or not you’d want to pick it up. Douglas Paszkiewicz foils this format of mine with different stories, setting, characters, all within the same book, so no summary is really possible. Not a problem.
For another, it features the high priest of evil elder immortals, Cthulhu, in a dapper suit prominently and consistently. Only 500 of these books were printed, and each one has a hand-drawn sketch from the creator. The art style is fun and cartoony and if you let a child see it you should be arrested immediately. That’s right. Arsenic Lullaby is back with The Big Stall (Douglas Paszkiewicz).
If you haven’t noticed by now, I like to summarize the books I review. For one thing, it proves that I read the things, and that I can read. (Take that Mrs Phelps!) For you readers that follow the titles I review, it provides a sense of where an issue takes place in the larger story, so you don’t have to spend time scratching your heads about what happened when. For those that don’t follow the title, I try to give an impression of what kind of book it is, so you can get an idea of whether or not you’d want to pick it up. Douglas Paszkiewicz foils this format of mine with different stories, setting, characters, all within the same book, so no summary is really possible. Not a problem.
I’m angry at ol Doug, and not just because he’s working outside the box I play in all the time. I’m angry that he’s got so much talent and putting it to such dark and sinister use that I laugh and immediately want to turn myself into the police for laughing at the thing I just laughed at. So many beloved characters from pop culture meet horrible, brutal, violent ends, but the trips that bring them there are so real and common that the reader almost forgets that they don’t live in a world where walking pastries complain about their jobs. I love seeing it, I just hate that it didn’t come from my hands, and so I am angry.
It might help, at this point, to mention that Arsenic Lullaby is what the kids call dark humor. See, one day Humor and Horror got married, had a kid, had their house foreclosed on when Horror’s job got outsourced and so Humor had to move in with her sister, and when Horror took their kid on a camping trip, Horror had a bit too much to drink near a teenage camp, and yada yada yada, Horror’s not allowed in Turkey anymore. The parents spent a fortune on the kid’s therapy sessions, and all it did was ruin the therapists’ careers. That kid is dark humor, and he’s seen things, man. Things. And on dark humor’s best day, he’s Arsenic Lullaby.
So maybe I should try to talk about what’s in the book. See, the recession is still hitting everyone hard in different ways. Mascots don’t have the same products to promote, or their PR people don’t have the same imagination they used to have. That’s the dark part. Humor comes along in watching familiar scenes play out with completely new and wildly inappropriate contexts. This happens again and again, crossing geographical borders and genres as easily as streets. It’s a wild, fun, emotionally traumatic ride, and you’ll chuckle with every step.
So maybe I should try to talk about what’s in the book. See, the recession is still hitting everyone hard in different ways. Mascots don’t have the same products to promote, or their PR people don’t have the same imagination they used to have. That’s the dark part. Humor comes along in watching familiar scenes play out with completely new and wildly inappropriate contexts. This happens again and again, crossing geographical borders and genres as easily as streets. It’s a wild, fun, emotionally traumatic ride, and you’ll chuckle with every step.
This book isn’t just great, it shows you how it got to be great. There’s the normal stuff, like showing unique settings, having dialog that’s witty but not too full of itself (CC NOTE: Yeah, wish we saw more of that...), colorful art. These are things that aren’t standard, but really really should be in comics. I get it when a creator’s young, still finding their style, mistakes are going to get made, and that’s fine, that’s great, but when seasoned veterans can’t drawn a man standing at attention without proportions that could only be cancerous, that’s a serious problem.
This book also has some of the lesser-known qualities, like directional panel layout and creative use of vanishing points. Confused by what those are? Well, he explains, demonstrates, and deconstructs them in the back of the book. That’s free education. You can thank him later.
I really appreciate this little gesture on his part, because it’s something that doesn’t happen nearly enough. Take another artform, like cooking. People hoard their secret ingredients, they’ll take their best recipes to their dying graves, and what does that accomplish? A few people talk about how one time they tasted something special, that nothing since has tasted quite as good, and maybe they remember the name of the guy that made it. Big picture is that future generations lose out on a special experience and future creators give themselves ulcers wondering if they can ever do the same thing. Well, guess what? If you think you’ve done something special, someone probably did it already, and even if they hadn’t, someone else is going to figure it out eventually. David Mamet said it best, if without political correctness: “What one man can do, another can do.” So, that being the case, doesn’t it make more sense to teach others how to do well so the world can be filled with better things, and that things can only get better from there? Doug thinks so, and so do I.
Yet another reason this stands out is that it started as a Kickstarter project. Even better is how this project became a success. Not only did the project get more than double its goal, but one of their contributors was the one and only Comic Carnival. Yep, we got in on the ground floor with this one, and because we proved to be such people of vision, we’re able to sell this internet success story for just $12, not the $20 cover price. Again, you’re welcome.
Short version: I like this book. There are a lot of other books coming out this week, many of which could draw the eye, but nothing has quite as much story behind its arrival on our shelves as this one. So I think and hope you understand why, this week, it deserves a review all by itself. See you next week!
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