It Came From the Longbox III
This is a series where I write about a comic chosen at random from my longboxes. At some point this may expand to DVDs or CDs or video games, but for right now the focus is on comics.
Today's comic: The Adventures of Rheumy Peepers and Chunky Highlights - Oni Press, 1998
Writer - Penn Gillette
Artist - Renee French
The issue begins with two Borscht-belt comedians fleecing a couple of trombone players in a card game. They're using pickles for chips, which might make the cards a little slippery or sticky, depending on the actual pickles used. (I'm always partial to a good bread-and-butter pickle myself, but a good dill pickle is a thing of beauty.)
Anyway, we meet Rheumy Peepers and Chunky Highlights as they distribute cash advances, play cards, and come up with the idea for the answering machine. There's also sheet music for their theme song, which you can download as an MP3.
Truth be told, there's just not that much going on in this comic. There's a lot of dialogue, the art is nice, but not much happens. It feels as if about half the issue is missing somewhere, and so we're left to fill in the gaps between the first and second acts. Renee French's art is pretty good (there's an interesting interview with the artist) and I'm really interested in his work The Soap Lady. I'm also a fan of Penn and Teller--I haven't seen their short film Invisible Thread in years (it came out on Showtime in 1987 and that must have been where I saw it) but it's one of my favorite alien invasion stories. Plus, I don't remember the cast being that huge, so now I'd really like to see it again.
Anyway, this issue is OK and feels as if there might be more to it, but we never saw any more of it. Oni's done some great stuff but I'm not sure you can count this in their highlight reel.
I need to find these comics, by the way. Darwin explaining evolution to an eyelash mite? Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
Previous Installments:
ICFtL I: ROM #5
ICFtL II: Invisibles #5
