Halo & Sprocket is a rare treat, but one that I always savor when it comes out. This particular issue isn't quite as laugh-out-loud funny for me throughout as the others had been, but it still has the same mixture of common-sense philosophy, likable characters and sense of humor that has made the series a must-read, and one of my favorite reads, since I first picked it up. It follows the usual format of a couple of short stories, although one of them isn't directly related to Halo & Sprocket, and closes out with some guest art from names both well-known (Andi Watson and Steve Lightle) and not-so-well-known (Scott Stewart and Rich Marcej, a friend of Callen's who is working on his own comic). It is as always light entertainment with intriguing questions in the underpinnings.
In this particular issue, Callen takes on the art world, with the three friends heading out to an art show, and the humor is once again based as much around the unusual worldviews of a robot and an angel as it is around spoofing some of the illogical nature of their experiences. Callen writes the story so that it is funny even for those who have never directly experienced an art show, and while providing laughs, also provides a few things to think about, as his unusual characters question accepted wisdom. Sprocket's ponderings of the nature of photography and paintings are particularly clever.
While the longest story is "But is it Art..?", my favorite stories in this issue are actually the shorter ones. Callen opens with a story of Halo and Sprocket playing basketball and discussing their friend Katie. It sheds a little bit of light on the relationship between the three of them (it marks the first time we've really seen Halo and Sprocket without Katie for any real length of time), and it also illuminates the strange sensibilities (and senses of humor) of the two characters. I love that what they find funny are things that anyone else might take for granted, and while they're making fun of Katie, it's done in a gentle and loving way that show the friendship of the three through it all.
I am not what you call a cat lover, as anyone who knows me will tell you. However, Callen captures such a universal vibe in his "Are Cats Highly Intelligent (But Aloof) or Just Plain Stupid?" that I couldn't help but laugh and enjoy the feature. Perhaps it is because the more universal question of whether our pets understand us, and what they're thinking, applies as much to dogs as it does to cats, that made this one so funny to me. Or perhaps it's because Callen has a keen sense of observation and even sharper sense of humor. Either way, this little two-page feature was a fun note to go out on.
Though this issue of Halo & Sprocket didn't bowl me over as much as previous ones had, it's still one of the more unusual and fun comics to be found on the stands. You can read it in bits and pieces for a laugh, or look at it as an examination of the human condition using some very strange outsiders from the human condition.
