Booby Trap
Booby Trap #1 © Jon Chandler
Booby Trap #1 ZUM!: |
Being Cute with misanthropy.
Jonathan Chandler likes to refer to this/the comic's creator through another character called Ripper the Fuckin Elephant - which is a delightful medieval looking human with improbable tusks & a (phallic) dangly nose. This unfortunate embodiment of self seems to suffer even more than the other characters that he prolifically crates. The cover of the comic features him in an unexplained grisly water death & inside he is routinely humiliated & cast upon the rocks (literally). All good misanthropic fun - loved it.
Purgatory seems a continual theme in the comic - in one sorry the main character specifically states from his barren landscape that this is where he is. This character's purgatory is a lonely futile existence... scraps of redemption are tossed to this dog begging for scraps of hope, but the malcontent remains damned (Har!). The other seemingly 'purgatory located' strip, featuring 2 'pipe heads' - now that one made me laugh out loud - something I rarely do with a comic - so it must be doing something very good. As this is the last strip in the book it is also well placed to leave me in a good mood.
The Artwork herein has delightfully gonzo cartooning that sometimes seems to be channeling the fevered imaginings of Dark Age monks. The artistry is mainly very accomplished, but then there are some strips where there seem to be obvious errors; in that line quality & proportions sometimes veer off the high standards on display elsewhere in the book. It makes me wonder if the comic is an assemblage of work of a developing artist or lapses in quality control - I suspect the former.
There is also a sort of feverish vulgarity (which for some reason reinforces the thing with the monk channeling) - Hieronymus Bosch without the moral high ground. A bunch of 'beings' decide it would be a good jape to test the suitability of Ripper The Fuckin Elephant as an "Ambassador on Earth". Needless to say - the (spectacularly delineated) hoards who congregate to watch this test are unimpressed by the base nature of the 'Fuckin Elephant', but hey - it's entertainment.
For work by someone new to my eyes, I find the comic shows a pleasant maturity & happily requires a crude maturity of its readers. I'm impressed & a curiosity for more is piqued.
mooncat
| Boobytrap #1: 36 25x17.5cm pages, glossy full colour cover: |
Received at ZUM! HQ: caption2003 02viii03 |
£2.25 (+P+P?) | Jon Chandler, 3 Ball Charlie's Motor Exchange, 14 Mill Hill Est, Aldringham, Leiston, Suffolf, IP16 4QB |