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Escobedo, Kayla – Monty Comix #4
Monty Comix #4
Some comics cry out for full color versions of themselves, while it doesn’t matter in the slightest for others. I would have put Monty into the latter category, frankly, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had from experiencing this bleak, disturbing world in glorious color. This one is a bit shorter than past issues (probably has something to do with all that color), but there’s still plenty of cringe-inducing stories in here. I mean “cringe-inducing” in the best possible way, of course, as certain kinds of art are failing if they don’t induce cringing. Stories in here include a stinky dead cat in a bag (and all the reactions surrounding it), a fried opossum and a grab bag page of shorter comics, Chris Ware style. The longest story makes up most of the book, and it deals with a sleepover that young Whalegirl attended. Things are going pretty well, then the host girl turns on a porno channel. Not only that, but there’s also beastiality going on. Young Whalegirl tries to process all this but appears to fail miserably, then the sleepover gets even worse. If you’re a fan of these comics (and why wouldn’t you be?) then it’s going to be impossible to pass up a full color version. If you’re not already a fan then maybe you should get some of the cheaper black and white issues first, then you can come back for this and see why it’s essential. If nudity of all stripes is a bridge too far for you, then ok, you got me: these books aren’t for you. For everybody else, that’ll be $6 please.
Escobedo, Kayla – Monty #2
Monty #2
More madcap hilarity from the only comic artist whose name I say out loud whenever I read her books. OK, maybe the truth is that it’s even more bleak than the first issue, but “Escobedo” is in fact very fun to say. Try it! Guaranteed to put a smile on your face, and good luck getting science to explain why that is. Anyway, stories include Kayla’s odd habit of picturing other people in class as bisected cross sections, general spiritual unrest, aimlessness, taking advantage of the brief moments of happiness without over-analyzing them too much, not bothering to waste time regretting the past, reality, pointless endeavors, and whether or not all this is just the elaborate dream of an alien. And that’s when things get really depressing. When you have four stories in a row dealing with a horrible illness, it’s kind of hard to avoid. These stories deal with diabetes (how it slowly killed her grandmother and her own worries about her biological odds of getting it herself one day), liver cancer (and it’s effectiveness at killing people), leukemia (and how it slowly killed her grandfather), and dementia. Top all that off with a story on the back cover (called “What a Terrible World” comix) about guys sexually harassing Whalegirl on the street and her slow, sad transformation to just a pair of boobs and a vagina. I know that women have it unimaginably rough in this regard, and there aren’t enough punches in the world for the assholes who participate in this kind of behavior. It’s just one more aspect of the planet that absolutely sucks. Ah hell, somehow the comic didn’t make me depressed but writing this review did. As for the quality of the stories, they were without exception thought-provoking, sometimes informative, and they ended up forming an impressive comic. Kayla has big things ahead of her in the comics, provided that she sticks with this backwards art form and doesn’t become a bigger star in some other genre. $5
Escobedo, Kayla A. – Monty #1
Monty #1
That was one profoundly strange and rewarding comic. Regular readers of the site probably already know that “profoundly strange” comics are always welcome around here, but this one came in the guise of a coherent, linear story. That’s tricky to pull off and Kayla did it beautifully. This is the story of a girl or boy (ah, the website references a “Whalegirl,” so there you go) with the head and arms of a whale who is trying to take the train to school. Some youths harass her and shove the creature out at the next stop. It’s here that our heroine sees a young girl getting an even worse treatment, but because of her terror nothing is done to help this girl. More is going on behind the surface here, as these two events match up too neatly to be a coincidence. When the lead character gets back on the train our hero gets stuck sitting next to a very loud and greasy man (the type you so often see on trains), and that’s as far as I go in the descriptions. Kayla was nice enough to send the next couple of issues along as well, and I’m looking forward to reading them after this one. Generally speaking first issues of a series are where the experimenting takes place, where the artist gets the stupid mistakes out of the way. Granted, there was a printing error that mixed up the middle pages, but she made that point very clear in a note on the inside cover and the actual content was fantastic. She’s also only 22, so I recommend against going to her website and reading her accomplishments if you’re the type of person who is easily threatened by such things. You should still check out the various paintings, drawings and samples regardless, as she does have a sizable chunk of this issue up for free. I’ll hold off until I read the next too issues to get too silly with the praise, but I sense some serious potential in this one. $4
