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MAGIC PICKLE #1
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Oni Press
Writer/Artist: Scott Morse
Editor: James Lucas Jones
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
Well, this marks the first time I've talked about a magic pickle when I wasn't trying unsuccessfully to pick up women.
Kidding. Couldn't resist.
Given the epic, complex and even stoic nature of Morse's five-part Soulwind graphic-novel series, Magic Pickle serves as an excellent change of pace. Morse flexes different creative muscles with this project, demonstrating his versatility.
A gang of powerful, corrupt produce is wreaking its evil on America for the first time in decades, and thus, Weapon Kosher is awakened from his cryogenically-induced slumber. In his years of dormancy, though, a family home was constructed over his secret-lab headquarters, and that's how, when bursting from his underground lair using his powers, he ends up in the bedroom of a startled little girl named JoJo Wigman.
Though Morse's style is unmistakable, there's definitely a different tone to his work here than in previous works with more serious overtures, such as Soulwind. Though the designs for Weapon Kosher, the Phantom Carrot and the other legume characters were fun, it was the cute, exaggerated looks for the human characters, like JoJo and her brother, that really added a fun, innocent and silly tone to the art.
Though the produce puns make one smile (and occasionally groan, but in that good, punny way), it's the banter between Kosher and JoJo that represent the real hilarity in the book. "You could be an agent of evil." "Are you serious?! I'm wearing footsie jammies, here." That's just one sample of the great humor at play in this book.
Magic Pickle is something of a cross between Herobear and the Kid and Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew... only with food instead of animals. There's a lot of potential in the concept, not only for future limited series, but in other media as well. The simple designs and Tick-esque sense of humor boast a universal appeal.
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