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Tempo Lush #1: Lucy the Octopus
Three cheers for the mini comic box set! I don't see nearly enough of these things. Mostly because people don't create enough mini comics to put one of these things together, I suppose. This is the first of 10 comics included in this collection, which comes in a tiny and adorable teddy bear/comic holder. Sadly it defies scanning, but a look at his website should give you a clue. So how about the comic? This is a series of short pieces about octopi (a word you don't get to use nearly enough) that generally manage to be funny. There's incomprehensible childhood taunting that makes just as much sense for octopi (tee-hee) as it does for anything else, giving the gift of pets to the little children, accessorizing, wishing for popularity, Lucy's misguided attempt to stand up to bullying, and a slightly longer piece about how baby octopi are born (and what happens to the parents). Like I said, it's generally funny stuff, and I loved how it's a fold-out comic, meaning that it takes a little bit of puzzling to figure out how it all fits together. Not too much, as the stories make the order abundantly clear, but I do love the fold-outs for whatever reason. And did I mention the fact that this whole issue is in vibrant, necessary (for underwater stories) color? Like I said, this is only the first of 10, so there are plenty more to come. No price for individual issue, but this thing is roughly $16.50 if you convert it to US dollars. UPDATE: screw you spellcheck, octopi is too the plural for octopus! Also, according to Wikipedia, octopuses and octopodes. You can have those last two, I'm sticking with octopi.
Delicate Axiom #1 Now Available! $7
There's a fine line I try to walk in these reviews, where I theoretically tell the audience enough about a comic to pique their interest without giving too much away. Some people don't mind at all and some people would even prefer to learn as much as possible about something before buying it, but I can't stand spoilers so you'll get no such information from me. That being said, it's really tough not to spoil anything in this one. It starts as a conversation between two female friends in a bar. Ramani is upset because her boyfriend hasn't been the same since he witnessed the death of his friend Jericho. His other friend Abdul was with him at the time, but they've since stopped speaking and the details of the death are left vague. After some searching (without her boyfriend Ken being involved) they manage to locate Abdul, but he's off in the mountains and unreachable. Anything past that point would be giving too much away, at least in my view, as a good deal of the joy I got out of reading this issue was the constant, completely unexpected surprises and I'm not coming close to ruining that for anybody. I will say that it's gorgeous, funny and smart, three very good things in a comic, and I'm more than a little curious to see what else Richy has done. Richy lives in London, so the exchange rate puts this up to about $7, but it's a fat comic and well worth it.
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