Mondo #3

by Ted McKeever

If there's one thing in comics that you can always count on, it's that Ted McKeever's work, post-Metropol, just keeps getting stranger and more obtuse.

This issue finishes the three-part Mondo series with all the various characters and plot elements coming together at Venice Beach.  A gigantic squid is threatening the Beach, and Catfish, our irradiated Hulked-out main character, shows up to fight it.  As does the mayor.  The girl on roller-skates rolls by too, and the crashing satellite also puts in an appearance.  So do three naked Teletubby-like children, who are apparently monks who protect the giant squid.

I really don't know what McKeever was trying to say with this series.  His recent META 4 at least seemed structured around some kind of internal logic, but this series has read as one long, strange acid trip of a story, and I think in the end, I'm a little bored of it.

On the positive side, McKeever draws like no one else in the business.  His completely unique style works well for this type of story, but it also makes me think that he just wanted to write a story about a 'roided up freak, a giant squid, and a hot girl, and this is what he came up with.

The back cover advertises the upcoming McKeever series Blacktop Apocalypse as 'a transcendental road-trip through the zombie wasteland'.  Even though I'm a little tired of this type of thing, I predict I'll end up buying this as well.  I just hope it's a little more focused.

Mondo #2

by Ted McKeever

People read comics because of the sheer potential of the medium for telling stories, despite the fact that fewer creators begin to even scratch at the surface of what can be done with matched words and pictures.  Not Ted McKeever though - he's able to tap into a level of comics goodness that few can ever hope to achieve.

Mondo is pure comics.  The story doesn't make a lot of sense, but each and every scene in this issue is incredible when read in its own right.  The series is two-thirds finished, and I don't feel like I have a clue as to what is going on, but I'm loving this book.

Much of the issue is given over to the series's star, Catfish, who has been mutated in a radioactive chicken factory accident into a hulking man.  He's being pursued by a giant chicken (a six-foot cock, says the newsman, smirking).  Also, there is a satellite set to crash to the Earth near Venice Beach, which is being dismantled and excavated by the mayor, who believes that there is a giant Ferris wheel buried beneath its sands.  Also, a newsreporter basically loses it on air, adding some very colourful commentary to his telemprompted recitation of the day's events.  As well, there's a girl on rollerskates who doesn't like themed diners (or giant apes).

McKeever's often been very improvisational in his work (read META 4), but seems to be moving into a new area of stream of conscious comics making.  His art is horrendously beautiful, as always, and his writing continues to challenge and entertain.  You don't need to understand a McKeever comic to enjoy it, and therein lies his genius.

Mondo #1

by Ted McKeever

There is no one who makes comics like Ted McKeever.  I've considered myself a fan since I bought the first issue of Metropol back when it was being published as part of Marvel's Epic line. I was immediately caught up in his utterly bizarre and Biblical vision of future urbanity.  In his most recent work, META 4, McKeever had moved away from religious matters to begin to explore other topics, although a lot of that series was right over my head, so I don't feel too confident talking about it.

Now he's started Mondo, a three issue mini-series being published in Image's 'Golden Age' format, which makes it somewhat oversized when compared to other modern-day comics.  This first issue has something like 33 pages of story, which makes it a nice satisfying chunk of comics goodness.

It appears that McKeever is playing around with superhero tropes this time around.  Catfish Mandu is a strange guy.  He works at a chicken factory, where his job is irradiating freshly-butchered meat so that it triples in size.  He never talks to anyone, and is notable in his apartment building for being absolutely silent at all times.  He has no friends, and is often the target of his co-workers' mean-spirited jokes.  One night, Catfish is visited at his home by a mysterious chicken, who leaves an egg outside his door.  The next day, Catfish falls onto the conveyer belt that takes chicken carcasses to the be irradiated, and after the dust from the subsequent explosion clears, Catfish is now super-strong and over-sized (looking a little like Guido in X-Factor).

McKeever also lays the groundwork for a couple of other plot elements - there is a young violent woman named Kitten Kaboodle who shows up, and it is made clear that there is some sort of disagreement between the mayor of Santa Monica and the people who use the beach.  I'm not sure where either of these elements will lead us, but I trust McKeever to find some strange use for both.

As with any McKeever production, his art is the biggest draw.  His work is a little less abstract than it can often be here, and definitely benefits from having larger pages to fill. This is an intriguing comic.