The Fellowship was fortunate enough to obtain a copy of TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN: CUTIE ISLAND from BOOM!
Studios. Shannon Wheeler writes and draws.
This eclectic trade paperback combines strip-like story arcs
with other elements such as poetry adaptations. Our hero has written an opera
about his own life. A rabbit and his worm friend have great adventures. A
factory worker and his space squid muddle through their mundane existence. You
know, the usual TPB fare…
This stuff is funny. It’s definitely a very dark humor, and
it’s not always rip-roaring, laughing-out-loud funny, but it’s funny. And it
often has some level of emotion wrapped up in it, which gives it an almost
philosophical flavor. (Not sure if you can tell yet, but it’s really pretty
hard to describe.) Those emotions are often dark, but the humor helps the
reader relate (if they don’t already).
But please don’t take my difficulty in describing it as
criticism; I actually find it refreshing. I like the sense of originality, and
the simplicity of the presentation (Wheeler draws it himself, with no color,
much like a newspaper comic strip) adds a great deal to that sense. And like I
said, it’s funny.
TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN: CUTIE ISLAND
~Mike
