Miello, Tony – Gapo the Clown #1

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Gapo the Clown #1

Oh look, another comic about a drunk, gassy clown. Hilarious! I wasn’t expecting much from that cover (this was one of my blind grabs at SPACE ’07) and, well, I didn’t get much. About half of the tiny mini comic contains “stories” while the rest is sketchbook pages and the like, so you’re really not getting your moneys worth even if you like this type of thing. As for the actual content, Gapo burps, farts, shits his pants to top a farting baby, beats up an old lady for her denture cream, and pukes. Not a whole lot to analyze, really. That either sounds hilarious to you or not, I’m not going to be able to say much here to convince you either way. The art looks sloppy and rushed, and don’t get me started on the “you’re/your” problems. My only hope for this as a concept was that it was something Tony tried (he says in the intro that he did the character as therapy after watching too many children’s shows) and moved on to bigger and better things, but one look at the website kills that hope. Gapo is a twice weekly webcomic, and if you’re intrigued there are pages and pages of free archives. It does look better than the art in the comic, and he’s expanded his cast of characters (Gapo is apparently doing a children’s show now), but the punchlines are the same: burping, farting, and puking. At least he’s trying an actual story there, if I have to say something nice about this. Recommended if you’re 12 or have the sense of humor of someone who’s 12… $1