wha tha faaaa...?

[burnunit]

Okay, seriously. What the crap? I've been checking out the Strib's new comic 9 Chickweed Lane and I have no idea what the hell is going on. First off, the visual style is totally interesting, fairly dynamic, good strong images, etc. There's kind of a retro styling that I like, the attention to hairdos and noses with real character--sort of a neo-Searle or I'd say even a neo-Hirschfield, but in a daily panel strip. The artist plays with the panels a little, breaking them up, drawing across them, etc., which is also pretty dang cool. The blonde (Edda) is cute in a I've-got-huge-eyelids-and-a-buttony-nose sort of way (hey, mrs_lovett you might recall that I also like cute blondes, such as yourself, so maybe you can get out of my grille on that one! but oh, wait, she's a ballet dancer. frik! why, God, why?!?) and there appears to be an honest-to-goodness gay couple in the strip and I guess there's a character named "Thorax" (THORAX??) who may or may not be able to travel through space/time, but I've never seen him (it?) or the other women in Edda's family. Every time I check into the strip, it seems there's some sort of clench going on with the blonde and a man (I think one of the clench-men is her presumably gay dance partner), or there's oblique conversations of which I've missed the beginning where I guess they're talking about being in love, but not with each other, or they're just talking about being... what? artistic? special?

But because I have no fricking idea what's going on I am insanely compelled by the whole mess. mrs_lovett could tell you how I've railed, "what the hell is UP with this thing?!" on a number of occasions. The content is weirdly mundane every time I happen to read it. Supremely so. Creepily so. Here's 9 Chickweed Lane's wikipedia entry, for your edification. Today's strip features another clench and a three panel pull-back with the focus on these weirdos gazing into each others' eyes, which I guess we're seeing from the POV of the shadowy figure observing them schmecking or whatever. That was the last straw, which led me to Wikipedia and Google to find out what is UP with this shit!

Now to weirden things up a LOT, Brooke McEldowney, the man who draws Chickweed Lane, is also something of a professional musician and critic (and I thought the name Brooke was a woman's name. so i guess the creator is a middle aged man who plays violin, not the young woman who I thought was writing about herself or something. who's the creepy one here, again? ) who also likes to draw something called Pibgorn. Pibgorn is an online-only strip starring a succubus, with demons and magic n'shit in it. Big dramatic images in color and pretty bizarro. Consider from the recent 30 days archived at comics.com. Or just go to Oct 1, Oct 3, and the definite "we're thru the looking glass here, people" award winner for today: Oct 4.

I leave you today with September 10 in which a nekkid fairy covered in mold holds up a note from the author, explaining he has a hard drive problem.

Let's us just see here...

Musician: check. Into comics: check. Computer geek: check? Sexuality unknown, but comfortable with homosexuals: check.
I say, let's send him some candy bars to bulk up (he's pictured above) and introduce him to dangerhotrod!!

Comments

[unclebastard.livejournal.com]

Maybe Fred Basset is more your speed.

[burnunit.livejournal.com]

Oh My Effing GAWD that's right! Fred Basset is exactly like Chickweed! And it makes me almost as insane! At least 9 Chickweed Lane has some T&A. Fred Basset is just infuriating.