|
MAGIC PICKLE #1
Highly Recommended (10/10)
|
Oni Press
Writer/Artist: Scott Morse
Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
You've got to love any book that starts out with "and in local news, a rogue group of farm-fresh produce has seized control of the art world." That's your indicator, right there, of everything the series is going to be about. Magic Pickle is a delight (perhaps even more than Morse's ambitious Soulwind), an all-ages book that doesn't talk down to
its younger readers or bore it's older ones. The idea of sentient vegetables
locked in a struggle for good and evil seems just surreal enough to be funny,
but not so over-the-top that it becomes hopelessly goofy or stupid. And Morse's
artwork has the same tone, fun and lively without being overly cutesy, embracing
the strangeness of the concept but without making it so strange that readers
can't identify with the story.
Morse has captured elements of classic super-heroes and classic children's adventure comics and melded them quite effectively. Much as Mike Kunkel has done with Herobear and the Kid, he gives us a somewhat enigmatic super-hero and his talkative kid sidekick, letting us see just how neat all of this is from a child's point of view. Where Morse surpasses Herobear and the Kid,
however, is in his work on Magic Pickle, who is a character all his own. Pickle
(also known as "Weapon Kosher," another one of those little touches that just
strikes me as immediately and hilariously funny) is a take-off on Captain
America, Superman and all of those other great and patriotic hero archetypes.
His matter-of-fact manner is used to great effect with his reactions to the
"disembodied head" of his scientist commander or the realization that his lab
now sits underneath a girl's bedroom.
It's the dialogue that makes a lot of the book work for me. Weapon Kosher's re-assimilation into the waking world is a lot of fun, with great back and forth between Kosher and the Professor and a goofy in-joke reference to Return of the Jedi. Even better
is the first meeting between Kosher and Jo Jo. Watching as Weapon Kosher plays
the naive straight man to a young but fairly perceptive girl provides a great
deal of amusement, particularly when Kosher tries to keep his secrets only to
have Jo Jo remind him that he just gave them away.
To really bring this concept off requires stylish and humorous art, and Morse is in fine form in that department. Weapon Kosher, despite a lack of identifying facial marks other than eyes, is incredibly expressive, and the designs for the Brotherhood of Evil Produce are also examples of stylistic genius. Morse's artwork sets a consistent tone for the book, but at the same time conveys the changes in setting, from a high-tech secret lab to a girl's bedroom to a rundown criminal hideout. Honestly, I found some parts of Soulwind a bit hard to decipher, but I
have no such problems here, as Morse's work is a crisp and beautiful example of
solid comic-book storytelling.
You should really give this book a try.
It's something different, it's got beautiful artwork and the writing is
entertaining for readers of all ages.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
