This latest installment of Brain Food advances the story of adult films that feature zombie actors, and the resulting zombie babies that are sold to the “forprofit adoption agency” of a Walmart-style corporation.
None of this is nearly as off-putting as the fact that all the text that appears in the comic is typed (dialogue in Arial, narration in Courier). Though it never lacks for readability — and is certainly less labour-intensive for the author than actual lettering — it leaves the panels looking cold and amateurish.
Brain Food occasionally comes across as a less sophisticated Ed the Happy Clown (Chester Brown’s early, experimental story serialized in Yummy Fur). Though it is far less skillfully rendered than Brown’s work, and far less unpredictable, its reassuringly linear narrative benefits from Toft’s intuitive sense of pacing and structure. (Daniel Marrone)
Comic Zine, #16, Mike Toft, PO Box 7246, Minneapolis MN, 55407, USA, brainfood.thecomicseries.com