This will not be the first time I’ve written about (and sung the praises of) Michael Kupperman’s brilliantly surreal comic Tales Designed To Thrizzle from Fantagraphics. Well, now there is occasion to sing to the absurdist comedy heavens on high once again due to the recent release of Thrizzle #6! And as an added bonus, for (almost) the first time it comes “now with too much color!” Speaking of the aforementioned color usage (previously only utilized in the Thrizzle collected edition) the monochromatic color spectrum of this issue does much to amp up Kupperman’s retro comic leanings. The limited color palette recalls the ten-cent adventures of the Sheena, Queen of the Jungle adventure comics of the 1950’s.
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The content of alternative comics anthologies in the last ten years seems to be veering away from their (potentially offensive) underground roots. Instead, these collections seem to be reaching more towards the art gallery-centric world of the Pop Surrealism movement. For example, Blab! once regularly spotlighted cartoonists like Kaz, Daniel Clowes and Richard Sala. But now it reserves the most space for top names in the alternative art world like Gary Baseman, Mark Ryden and Camille Rose Garcia. All of these creators are equally amazing, but without the often humor driven, obscenely funny stories of someone like Glenn Head, an alternative comic anthology just isn’t as much, well, fun.
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