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Heisler, Matthew – Zoar
To all of the people out there complaining about a lack of original ideas, or how everything is a sequel or clearly designed to be adapted into a movie, I give you… Zoar. Seriously, I am going to have a hard time explaining this in a way that makes even a little bit of sense to you, but I’ll do what I can. I will say right away that it was a delight from start to finish, and that the page I sampled below will give you a solid look into how perfect the dialogue of everybody involved is. This is the story of… huh. How about I tell you where I thought this was going? Things start off with a castle on top of a large hill. We see a princess (?) with plumbing problems, followed immediately by a little man who looks a lot like Mario from the games coming to help her out. Oh, I thought. A Mario Brothers parody. Well, those can be good or not, so I’ll keep an open mind! By the end of the page I discovered that the cause of the blockage was a little boy who has the Earth for a head (complete with an orbiting, talking moon) and I knew right then to throw any preconceived notions I had out the window. We meet the three women who basically run all or most of creation (the virgin, the earth mother and the seducer), get the origin story for the little boy and finally get a glimpse of the inevitable future of the planet (in one of the more haunting two page spreads you’re ever going to see). And that’s all in the first half of the book! From there we get a peek at some of the people on this planet and deal with some parental problems with the father. This whole book is hilarious and unlike anything you’re else you’re likely to see, so support it, yeah? We’re going to need this kind of escape from reality to stay sane over the next four years.
Heisler, Matthew & Michael – Milkbaby #7
Milkbaby #7 Now Available! $2.50
The Heisler family must have done something right to produce two kids whose imaginations are this delightfully screwed up. After all, most families are lucky to produce one person who does comics in some way, so kudos to them for that. What’s this comic about? Well, if you take a look at that cover you can see almost everything that goes on in here, except for Rasputin. You have an adorable boy and his friend the elephant who get tricked into selling drugs, an act of sheer heroism, wacky silent hijinx, Detective Barney Miller on the job, and Rasputin, who has been done before in mini comic land, but it’s a great story and it’s always nice to see it done well. This is one of those comics where you can find little things in the backgrounds of the panels when you dig a bit, which is the best kind in my book. As for who does what in the comic, well, they both write and draw their own pieces, and as far as I can tell don’t collaborate directly on stories. At least not in this issue. I was going to say that Matt seems to be the more bizarre of the two, but after flipping through this again I have to say it’s a tie. An interesting collection of stories, worth checking out.
Heisler, Matthew & Michael – Milkbaby #6
Further proof of the potential wonderfulness of these two exists in this book, in case anybody out there was curious. First up is a story by Michael about all the Robot Gods and their own petty squabbles. They also threw in a few of the Aztec gods, who were apparently also robots. Plenty of mayhem and destruction here as well as some funny. Next up we learn (via Matthew) the origin of that walrus-looking dude from #7 after the kids take some drug-laced candy and one of them ends up blind. Whoops, I spoiled the ending! Finally there’s a short adaptation of a RZA song involving gunplay, a crash and a monkey, so that’s most of the ingredients needed for a successful comic right there. Color me thoroughly impressed, as I think I was also after #7 (I’m reviewing this one later, for everybody who’s reading this years later, theoretically)
