Of course, I’m writing this before I leave for San Diego, so that could be so much bullshit. You might all tell me that I suck and that I’m a loser not fit to lick Kevin Smith’s boots clean. If that turned out to be the case, then please ignore that “thanks” in the previous paragraph and feel free to fuck off and pester Randy or Don or someone like that.

Formalities out of the way, let’s get this column underway, shall we? This week, I have three books that are just damned odd. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good, mind you; they’re just… odd.

EGG STORY
Written and Drawn by J. Marc Schmidt
Published by Slave Labor Graphics

First, let me give a big shout out to a fellow “Marc-with-a-C.” Always nice to see a homie getting some work out. Word, Schmitty.

EGG STORY is, exactly as the title states, the story of some eggs and their travels in the world after they’re laid. It is a story about siblings, about friends, about love, about longing, about credit card fraud, about trying to rise above your humble background, and about trying to get a job as a ninja.

I’m not making any of that up.

In fact, while that sounds more than just a bit silly, EGG STORY turns out to be a touching and poignant look at some very deep and emotionally realized characters. They just happen to be eggs.

Brother and sister eggs Feather and Five Spots are part of a carton that wind up in the home of a woman named Julie, and discovering that they will eventually be killed and eaten when Julie returns from vacation, they, along with some other eggs, decide to escape the refrigerator and try to live a life for themselves. They will lose some friends to madness, and another will undergo a startling transformation, but mainly, they will learn how to live and how to balance their desire to grow against their inherent limitations as eggs.

Schmidt is working on two levels throughout this book, giving us a very simple and humorous tale about an egg who puts on an ninja outfit and buys throwing stars on one level, and on the other level he is examining the human condition and what it means particularly for children who are growing up in what has become a very harsh world to live in. To say that it’s ingeniously done would be an understatement.

Credit must also be paid to Schmidt’s deceptively simple art. It would be very easy for this book to look lazy or complacent, considering that the characters are, for the most part, ovals with few details. Instead, he uses strong panel grids and well-designed backgrounds to help add to the story’s (and the characters’) depth. It’s really all quite lovely.

If I had to compare EGG STORY to anything, I’d (with all sincere praise) tell you that it reminds me of nothing less than the work of the great Shel Silverstein. Like so much of Silverstein’s work, it flavors its characters with a life and soul that jumps right off the page and into your heart. An unexpected, if odd, surprise, indeed. Grade: A

SIBAM?!

Obviously, a live-action take is not in the cards. But I do believe that there is a brilliant animated film to be made here. With the quality of computer animated films continuing to grow in terms of detail and beauty, the key for animation now is to find strong stories and characters to put on the screen for us to watch. Marc Schmidt’s Eggs would be something brilliant and wondrous to watch in a theatre. Hopefully, someone will take notice and make it happen.

FINISHES

CANVAS
Written and Drawn by Alex Fellows
Published by Fantagraphics Books

Now, we get really strange.

Canvas is a relatively normal fourteen-year old girl, confused by her thoughts and emotions and hormones. Nothing strange about that. Except that her mother is a pig and her father is a frog. Anyway, they take a family camping trip wherein Canvas falls for two different guys, gets drunk for the first time, and begins to experiment with acting out what her hormones are telling her. This, of course, stresses out Momma Pig and Daddy Frog.

I’m at rather a loss when it comes to CANVAS, really. Artistically and story-wise, it’s a very good book. There are any number of wonderful character moments, and not a one doesn’t feel authentic. But then there’s the question of Mom and Dad.

Why? Is the strangeness of Canvas’ parentage supposed to add to or represent her position of an outsider? Are they meant to metaphorically stand in for the embarrassment that most teenagers feel about their parents? Or is Fellows having us all on and we’re meant to guess that if Kermit and Piggy shagged and spawned, their daughter would be a human mess of confusion, just like everybody else? I don’t know. But what it boils down to is that it feels like a distraction, not an enhancement, and with a book as good as this one is, it didn’t need any distractions. Grade: B

LESS THAN HEROES
Written and Drawn by David Yurkovich
Published by Top Shelf Productions

LESS THAN HEROES is a superhero story. Sort of. In Yurkovich’s world, cities contract superhero teams to be on call to fight evil. However, Philadelphia, not wanting to pay union wages, hires a non-union team of weirdoes and half-wits and crosses its fingers. That team is called Threshold, and unfortunately, they have a membership slightly more concerned with dental hygiene than battling villainy.

As you might guess, Threshold is played less than seriously in this book. What’s odd, though, is that there are a number of secondary plots happening in the book the eventually cross paths with Threshold, and those secondary plots are deadly serious. A government conspiracy you’d swear that Yurkovich downloaded from Warren Ellis’ brain. Some black magic that destroys an entire family and eventually threatens to destroy the entire city. There’s a bizarre mismatch in tone throughout this book that nearly leaves you with reading whiplash. And yet somehow it works.

You get engrossed by the stories. Yurkovich’s talent for small and subtle detail makes the book richer and deeper than you expect it to be. And you get captivated by wondering if Threshold will actually ever do anything. As with the other books this week, it’s just odd. But whaddaya gonna do, you know? Grade: B

That’s all the odd for this week. I’ll see you in seven!

E-mail me from the link provided. Review materials may be sent to: Marc Mason, P.O. Box 26732, Tempe, AZ, 85285. You can also find me at The Comics Waiting Room

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