Dollmatrix
Comic, Zeke Clough, zekeclough.co.uk, [email protected]
Cross R. Crumb with a dusting of H.R. Giger and you’re left with a decent frame of reference for Dollmatrix, an intensely visceral comic that is awash in black and white madness.
Linear it’s not and that’s OK since Zeke Clough has created a work that demands attention and grows in depth with repeated “viewings.” Some might consider these drawings pornographic on some level, but the imagery is so abstract (as are the orifices) that it’s hard to categorize beyond any reasonable estimation. Yes, there is a clear phallic obsession and bad 1980s heavy metal album art may or may not be another reference point. But whatever the case, in comic form, Dollmatrix really, really works. Pores ooze, machines explode, smoke billows and pretty much every character drawn is covered in either slime or internal organs gone external… or both. As a bonus, the “Before+Before=After” spread in the centrefold is a fun, deranged take on one of those spot-the-difference drawings you typically only find on children’s placemats in bad suburban chain restaurants. At a tumescent 64 pages, a ton of effort clearly went into this comic and it truly is worth the effort. The creatures and their excretions are so densely packed, you seriously will end up staring at each drawing for two to three minutes just to absorb all the 2D dementia within. (Cam Gordon)