Now based now out of Yellowknife — like Marvic Adecer (also of SOS Media, profiled on page six) — and having replaced “Alberta” with “Arctic,” The Royal Arctic Illustrated Literature Society (or RAILS) returns with issue two of Fabula Nebuculata, which again features the work of the two founders, plus three new contributors.
Santa Cruz, California native Alison McCreesh provides (literally) faceless characters in her four funny “Housesitting Moment” cartoons and her coy, touching, seemingly autobiographical strip, “Why I Never Became a Cartoonist.” Without eyes or mouths to show expressions, her characters are all words and body language, a constraint that actually frees the narrative, allowing it to be wordier than most strips and winking at its title all the while. From Brazil, Bruno Souto adds a fabula all his own, complete with talking animals and cow shit — wait, what? — and a moral da historia in the final panel. Last but not least are Paige Saunders’ 10 stick-figure-laden non-sequitur strips, which flirt with the absurd and more than fulfill this issue’s gut-buster requirement.
“Pold” (aka Leopold McGinnis) returns with a full-colour, front cover gag strip about the streetcar our hero wishes he’d taken, and Adecer’s “Black Bear” picks up where it left off, with the roommates who’ve been feeding their bear. (A hilarious and creatively paneled chase ensues.) Adecer also gives us a snappy letters section, and some “Bonus Comics” in which, above a strip explaining a college drawing exercise, we follow a string of nonsensical but creative drawings as they unite and form a zany creature called the Cocktopus. With tongue in cheek, Adecer promises a “Vajellyfish” next issue. Let’s hope it arrives soon. (Daniel Perry)
Comic, A Compendium of Picture Stories from The Royal Arctic Illustrated Literature Society, Marvic Adecer and Leopold McGinnis, royalails.com