Don't be fooled by the crazy-high issue numbers... this is actually issues one through three of Chris Wisnia's demented and highly enjoyable Tabloia, a bizarre mixture of tabloid fiction, political parody and comics of the '50s and '60s. The strange numbering is part of the larger design scheme of Tabloia, which give the book a lot of its strange charm. Across these three issues, Wisnia spins three parts of a six part story about a body found on the highway, as well as self-contained stories of Dick Hammer, Conservative Republican Private Investigator, the skeptical Dr. Debunko and monster-hunting journalist Doris Danger. Some of the features are a bit on the slight side, notably the one-joke Dick Hammer strips, but most of the stories are very engaging, and the lead story, a twisted bit of pulp fiction with a '50s monster movie science twist, is worth the price of admission all by itself.
The defining element of Tabloia is actually its quirky, off-kilter sensibilities, which can be seen literally from cover to cover. Damon Thompson's sharp covers are full of the kind of hype usually seen in both supermarket tabloids and Silver Age comics and the back covers feature witty commentary on our censor-happy culture by indicating every single thing in the issue that might be offensive. EIC Rob Oder displays the willful ignorance and cheery disposition so common in corporate letter columns to hilarious effect as fake letters lambast the non-existent previous installments of Tabloia and Oder responds in bombastic, friendly fashion. The stories in Tabloia are all a bit on the weird side, and the framework of Tabloia is meant to reinforce that off-kilter sensibility.
My biggest complaint about Tabloia is probably that I'd be much happier if Wisnia had just presented all of "The Lump" in one place, rather than stringing it out across six parts. I enjoy a lot about Tabloia, but the varied cast of characters, strange mystery and moody, inky artwork of "The Lump" are absolutely the best part of the book. "The Lump" is like a CSI story viewed through the lens of EC Comics and '50s B-movies, with a little examination of modern body modification culture thrown in for good measure. Each installment has me anxiously awaiting the answers, both the larger ones of what the Lump was and what happened that started this chain of events and the smaller ones like how it ties into the story of Skitz and Max Quinlin. "The Lump" defies genre, seeming like the kind of thing that could be called crime fiction, but it's a little too quirky and full of personality to be chucked into that genre easily.
Of the other features, my favorite is probably "Dr. Debunko," which finds a calm, rational person running into countryfied yokels who want to blame every occurrence on monsters or satan, and whose response is usually to destroy or kill someone or something. Debunko's exploration of the real cause of these monster outbreaks are perfect examples of deadpan humor, and the none-too-subtle message about uneducated people acting out of fear is a good one at any rate. However, while "Dr. Debunko" neatly skewers its real-life targets, "Dick Hammer" misses the mark by a wide margin. The central gag, that Dick Hammer is a conservative and also kind of a dick, isn't all that funny, and the liberal cliches that he runs up against aren't real funny either. Wisnia aims at poking fun at both sides of the political spectrum, and winds up making somewhat weak points about both and falling pretty short in terms of laughs.
The other common feature is actually inked by Silver Age inker Dick Ayers, and his inks serve to transform Wisnia's style into something that could easily have come out of one of those Lee/Kirby monster comics. Which is appropriate, since "Doris Danger" is very much a tribute to those types of comics, as spunky reporter Doris Danger finds a different giant monster in each issue, runs afoul of the authorities and is then saved by the hilariously-named Monster Liberation Army. Truthfully, the "Doris Danger" strips have some of the same repetitive nature that I found in "Dick Hammer," but the style and subject matter are charming enough to overcome that.
Ayers isn't the only guest creator at work in Tabloia. Wisnia's name is a new one to me, but clearly he's got some clout in the industry, as Tabloia features pin-ups from notable names like Gene Colan, Sam Kieth, Mike Allred, Thomas Yeates and Los Bros Hernandez, all terrific of course. Wisnia is no slouch in the art department either, with a particular gift for heavy use of shadow. However, while the art is good, it is the strange sensibility of Tabloia that is its strongest feature, represented in a quirky, unusual design sense and a compelling, twisted lead tale in the form of "The Lump." 8/10
