Too often, creators think that just making something outrageous makes it funny. So we get any number of stories where God or the angels or other aspects of the Christian faith act in a manner more consistent with bickering humans or drunken fanboys, and we're expected to find it funny because it's unexpected. But it isn't unexpected at this point, it's what you expect from a project that takes Christian tenets as a jumping-off point. Which makes the projects that actually subvert expectations, like Millar's relatively straight Chosen or Chinsang and Crosland's hilariously funny Heaven, LLC all the more enjoyable. I first happened upon Crosland's work, which reminds me a whole lot of Jim Mahfood's manic underground style, on the warped man-in-costume comedy Puffed, and Heaven, LLC isn't far afield of that kind of thing, positing Heaven as your typical corporation, thrown into a tizzy when the CEO disappears. The resulting story sees a variety of figures from Biblical stories (or at least, their modern/corporate versions) unleashed on Earth to find God. And, as is the nature of such things, hilarity ensues.
The first obvious stumbling block for Heaven, LLC was setting up the notion of Heaven as a corporation in a way that is both believable and funny. Chinsang pulls it off very smoothly, presenting a reason why God would need a board of directors that reinforces Chinsang's take on the "supreme" being and then explaining who is on the board and why with equal deliberation and cleverness. Chinsang's board contains characters like John the Baptist, Jesus, Adam, Eve and an offbeat interpretation of the Holy Spirit, and it's a great cast of characters. In fact, though the story Chinsang tells is definitely finished in this graphic novel, there's so much to like in the way these characters interact that I'd love to see more stories featuring them.
And then there's God and the Devil. Both of these characters have been written so many times that it's difficult to say anything new about them. Beyond the philosophical exploration of these characters, both of them are so everpresent as concepts that they've been explored in a variety of pop cultural forms and in just about every genre. Chinsang probably isn't saying anything here that's never been done before, but I did really enjoy his take on both of these characters. God, in what is probably the most blasphemous thing to be found in the book, is like some bizarre mixture of Bill Clinton and George Bush, with the horny lust of the former and the brains of the latter. For all of that, though, he's kind of a likable doof, and his adventures on Earth are a lot of fun.
Lucifer is likewise less on the sinister side of things and more of the ultimate used car salesman with a practical joker's sense of humor and an inability to do what society would expect of him. As with most stories of the Devil in modern times, he's actually a fun and sympathetic character, less the icon of evil and more a version of the classic trickster god. Lucifer also has some of the best lines in the book, and most of the really funny pop culture stuff comes from him. The first laugh-out-loud moment for me was when Lucifer shares his feelings on L. Ron Hubbard, although seeing him right at home in Hollywood was also hilariously fun.
Chinsang's story is definitely one for the grown-ups. There's a heavy focus on sex and nudity, which is as it should be given that he's contrasting the typically high morals of the Heavenly bunch against the more... let's say realistic... morals of the corporate set. So you get things like Lucifer's assistant giving God a blowjob to distract him, God dating a stripper from Detroit, Lucifer casually setting fire to someone who is inconveniencing him and a full third of God's search party spending their entire time at a strip club watching the show. The outrageous nature of the story works for me, however, because rather than just trying to show off how edgy he is, Chinsang is using this outrageous stuff to be really, really funny.
Heaven, LLC is a book that only a few artists could have done justice. Dave Crosland is absolutely one of those artists, and his work here is excellent. His designs for all the members of the board give them their basic personalities, and while they're all great, I think my favorites are probably the designs for God, Lucifer and the tight-ass (even though he has no ass... a conundrum!) John the Baptist, but they're all terrific. Crosland also has the manic intensity and crazy background detail that I'm used to seeing in Mahfood's work, most visible in his portrait of Hell but notable throughout the book. The humor comes not just from the situations, but from Crosland's crack comic timing.
