by Randy Lander

STRANGE EGGS #1 Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics Contributors: Crab Scrambly, Roger Langridge, Jennifer Feinberg, Todd Meister, Jamie Smart, Chris Reilly, Derf, Tommy Kovac, Steve Ahlquist, Darron Laessig, Jon Adams, Dave Ray, Kerry Callen, Ben Towle, Ian Carney, Woodrow Phoenix, Jorge Santillan & Scott Saavedra Editor: Chris Reilly Price: $3.95 US The high concept of Strange Eggs is a, well, strange one: Two kids on a farm get weekly delivers of eggs that hatch into bizarre things, everything from their alien companion Hoop to evil puppets to mutant kittens. If you're getting the sense that this might have something in common with Slave Labor's twisted goth offerings like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, you're on the right path. In fact, Vasquez collaborator Crab Scrambly and Skelebunnies's Tommy Kovac, two guys who work in that style, are two of the contributors. However, editor Chris Reilly goes deeper into Slave Labor's talent pool (and beyond) for the first issue of Strange Eggs, featuring work from Halo & Sprocket's Kerry Callen, Sugar Buzz's Ian Carney and Woodrow Phoenix, Comic Book Heaven's Scott Saavedra and Fred the Clown's Roger Langridge, among others. The resulting anthology is a mixed bag for me, but there are certainly a number of gems in there, and I think that fans of Johnny and that type of twisted, funny material will almost certainly be delighted by the contents of this book. Despite the concept featuring two young kids, I wasn't really expecting Strange Eggs to be all-ages. However, even with that expectation, I was surprised at the generally twisted sensibilities to be found within. Langridge's "Tale of Uncle Willie" is quite funny, but borders on the disturbing with a bloodstained man whacking a dragon to death in front of the children, and the same funny yet kinda eerie vibe comes off of Jonathan Adam's cynical "Tale of Culpability" at the tail end of the book. The conclusion Adams comes to, with the kids coming to resent their benefactor of sorts Roger Rogers, is also played out in the story by Steve Ahlquist and Dave Ray that makes great use of comedic repetition and a surprisingly dark punchline. That's not to mention some of the very strange things that pop out of these strange eggs: a bitter, angry, destructive puppet, a deformed and remarkably reproductive kitten and a pathetic smelly alien creature are three of the weirder examples. Each of these stories is funny not so much because of the bizarre creatures hatched but because of the way the stories play out. The kicker of the "acronym for everything" type agency that takes the puppet away provides a nice punchline, as does the weirdly melancholy ending of the story of the ostracized smelly creature or the Pokemon-like solution to the kitten problem. This leads to another theme common in a few Strange Eggs stories, the bizarre and funny moral. Kerry Callen, one of comics' most underrated humorists, serves up a hilarious tale that reminds us that "it's sad how people everywhere aren't distributing alcohol to their local homeless people," while Reilly and Laessig provide an explanation for why believing in creationism can so often get you eaten by rampant dinosaurs. Crab Scrambly's story, while off the beaten path of the Strange Eggs theme even more than the slight departure of Langridge, offers up another odd moral about the dangers of living in isolation when monsters are about. Truth to tell, there were some stories here, as with any anthology, that just didn't connect with me. There were a couple stories that are either silent or make use of just sound effects that I didn't find terribly clear or engaging, and some of the creators, such as Jamie Smart, put so much detail and so much crazy lettering into their works that the whole page just becomes a jam-pack of "noise" and I can't really connect with the story. In addition, while I'm all for surreal humor, I've found that there's a definite diminishing return, and by the time I had reached the tale of the Boxing Bucket at the end, my laughs at the sheer weirdness of some of the concepts were starting to fade. Bottom line, Strange Eggs definitely lives up to its adjective, as it features some truly bizarre flights of fancy from a variety of creators whose sensibilities might be described as twisted. It also features some artwork I really like, particularly that of Callen and the artists on the tale of the deformed creature and the boxing bucket (the credits I have aren't entirely clear, so I'm not sure who the artists are). Those in the market for strange and funny will definitely want to give it a look, and especially those who are fond of Slave Labor's other darkly humorous offerings like Johnny, Bear and Skelebunnies. 7/10 Email Randy Lander comments about this review.