I found Chip Zdarsky on twitter in the lists of more than a few people that were following him and have checked out a lot of his work recently and I am really getting into his style. So today I discovered the above strip on The Canadian National Post website (you can click through the image to get there).
It’s a great story that uses one of those techniques which I always enjoy when it is utilised to good effect — taking an off-kilter approach (absurdist?) and casting more light on a subject than a straight up look at the subject would be capable of. Tim Burton does it a lot but for some reason the first thing that sprang to mind was Six Feet Under and I swear that has more to do with the style of approach and the sense of humour than the fact that the story starts at a funeral.
The comedic has always had that facility — to deal with subjects which in other mediums come across as ham-fisted. Zdarsky, like a lot of comic creators I am having the good fortune to happen across lately, works with a scalpel and not the bloody great meat cleaver some writers are cursed with. Knowing when and where to push, how to apply the right pressure to the psychic wound of a character — that takes skill. I think the fact that comics straddle such a wide array of disciplines makes it even harder to get right and I think people might finally be starting to appreciate it. Well, maybe.
Google Zdarsky and there is plenty our there on tinternet to enjoy. Go to it!
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