The Lupus Issue 1
70p A3
The Lupus
65 South Grove
Sale
Manchester
M33 3AR 20 Pages
BixandFloodie@Yahoo.co.uk
“Second Hand Misery” is a nice example of melancholy humour. The script is a lucid affair verging on the drab, but the writing coupled with the illustrations conveys a true faith in the hopeless, which is fundamental to the protagonist Bix’s life. Muffin Arse and the list of Floodies habits add a secondary humour to it, but the depiction of an insomnia demon is an especially nice touch, with some very deadbeat dialogue to finish the strip. On the outside cover at the back Floodie appears giving his personal view of “Second Hand Misery”. Puts me in mind of those movies with one of the characters giving some sort of half arsed soliloquy over the credits. Very Good.
Now Johnny Crucifix by Tom Oakes and Tommy Oxo is one of the funniest strips I’ve seen in a long time. Apparently on of the things people say about this strip is that the art is really awful. But with these strips I have here the illustrations fulfil their needs. The two drug-dealing nuns at the start of the first strip have an over the top funnies strip look about it, which is maintained through both parts of the story. The background inking has a somewhat throwaway messy look which when you consider both the dialogue and the character art doesn’t really matter. Something that really attracted me about the dialogue was the Mexican accent, which is communicated well by Oakes. All three strips make for issue 1 of The Lupus a book to look out for.
(Review by Richard Barr)