Explosive Comic
comic, Mark Laliberte, 18 pages, swimmersgroup.com, $8
Explosive Comic is classically focused in every sense of the word. It definitely seems to be taking cues from the most obvious moments of Superman and Batman, from the graphic style to the sound effects (KA-BLAMM, SPLUPP, KA-BOOM! and the like). But what makes this work unique is that the comic itself is generally devoid of characters, at least in human or quasi-reptilian form. Instead, the explosions are the characters. Generally speaking, it’s stuff blowing up or breaking badly, and the resulting noises and chaos. It’s a unique concept, and once the reader clues into the fact that Explosive Comic is literally a comic about explosions, the focus certainly shifts you into a different point of view. For this fact alone, the comic has huge re-readability, since I’d imagine most people who’d pick this up would want to take a second look through more informed eyes. When I tried this, it’s almost like I was consuming a totally different work, since I was basically bracing frame-to-frame for more crap to blow up. This is kind of a work of micro-genius and the fact that the comic itself is printed on thick stock with bright, detailed drawings in full colour just adds to the impact that much more. A total blast to read!