Arsenic Lullaby - Interview with Creator Douglas Paszkiewicz

Doug

So after reading and reviewing Arsenic Lullaby the Devil’s Decade I reached out to the creator/artist/writer Douglas Paszkiewicz to do an interview. Doug’s work is fun and has an edge to it that most comedy is missing. We have become a politically correct society that has no sense of humor; Doug is working to correct that problem.

Jim: Arsenic Lullaby is absolutely brilliant and hilarious, but touches on subjects that most people would not get near, much less make jokes about it. What possessed you to go down the road of serial government baby killers and Zombie Fetuses?

Doug: It wasn't really a conscious effort to go down dark roads.  I just wrote/write stories that I found funny.  Often the content is driven by what I think would be fun to draw for awhile. I drew the witch doctor in my sketchbook and liked the drawing so I found a way to stick him into a story. There is also the problem of keeping things original I try to find elements that haven't been beaten to death already in the form of songs, movies, comics, etc. So after 6000 years of human civilization that really only leaves darker content that other people haven't wanted to touch...like fetuses and killing babies. I may come up with a funny story about a working class dad and his wacky neighbor but what's the point? It's either been done or something similar has. So it is really a matter of what my brain latches onto filtered by what has already been strip mined by every story teller before me.

Indies Preview Review for November Part 2 of 2

The end of a short month....


Fantagraphics Books

Tales Designed to Thrizzle #7 by by Michael Kupperman
In this issue Quincy, M.E. makes his comic book debut, struggling through the fantastic landscapes of his own dreams in Quinception, in which St. Peter also gets his own comic book. Snake n Bacon make an appearance in Reservoir Dogs 2, where the gang reunites for another caper. Twain and Einstein deal with some family issues, and a special section of History Comics presents the story of the Kennedy/Nixon debate and the incredible saga of Bertrand DeCoupeur, alias The Scythe! 32 pgs, FC, 6.75 x 9.5 $4.50
Lee: Ok, I’ve read the hype about this for a long time but never picked it up. Then last week Greg starts talking about how Kupperman suddenly has a book out for Marvel. Now I definitely have to see what’s going on with this.
Gwen: I can't say I'm terribly drawn by this as it's a bit hard to tell what it's about. It seems like it could be interesting but I'd need a little more information before picking it up.

GC Press LLC
EC Archives: Haunt of Fear Vol. 01 HC by (W/A) Various
The hauntingly spectacular artwork by legendary comic artists such as Johnny Craig, Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Feldstein, and Kurtzman has been fully restored in this first volume of The Haunt of Fear, which reprints the first six issues, twenty-four stories orinally published in 1950 and 1951. $49.95
Lee: Until we had the guest post a last month, I thought that everyone loved old EC material. I thought it was one of those timeless classic things that everyone appreciated. Guess I was wrong. Oh well, I still love these stories and can’t wait to read them again. This is another excellent collection if you can afford it.
Gwen: Yeah, hard to love the old horror comics from before I was born... actually these are from before my Dad was born! I actually do have a few friends into the older horror comics and while this may not be my cup of tea it looks like a good collection.

Aquaman #1 - A Review

So not so long ago it was big news that DC Comics was going to reboot Aquaman with the a-list creative team of Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis.

Then they decided to reboot all their books and offend every woman on the planet, so this got a bit lost in the shuffle. But they’d been promoting this book for a while and even run a major company event running up to its relaunch, so its probably worth a deeper look.

Indies Preview Review for November Part 1 of 2

Gwen: Not too many books to cover this month. But at least there's a cute robot!

Lee: It was a light month. I am not sure if there just wasn't anything all that interesting or just really bad hype. But, there are some really expensive selections just in time for Christmas... well order them with Christmas money.

Adhouse Books

Heaven All Day SC by (W/A) John Martz

The lives of a lonely factory worker and an abandoned robot become intertwined as the man struggles to complete his life's work - a mysterious contraption that he must keep secret from the outside world. Visit Martz here.  24 pgs, $4.00

Gwen: Oh my gosh that robot is so cute! I'm sold. Seriously though the concept looks really good so I'd be interested even if the robot wasn't adorable.

Lee: I have to agree, this looks great.

Arcana Studio

My Best Friend's a Booger GN by (W/A) Tyler Kirkham (W) Rian Kirkham

Who would have ever thought you could have a booger as your best friend? Well, if your imagination is anything like Skyler Grayson's, the possibilities are endless! At a time when Skyler is feeling really down and all alone, he finds his greatest friend in - you guessed it - a sneeze! $6.95

Lee: As soon as I read the title I knew I had to pick this book. So I picked a winner! Bwah ha ha!!!

Gwen: Ewww. Just, ew.

More picks below the break....

What I read this week...

So, Jim has finally motivated me to discuss all the things that I read the previous week. I've always held out because I don't read nearly the volume of material that he does. Then Thomm pointed out that no reads near the volume he does so here I am...

I read 2 books this week. The Fallen Angel Omnibus and Pinocchio.

The Fallen Angel Omnibus, written by Peter David, illustrated by a couple of artists, published by IDW

This unnumbered omnibus collects the first 21 issues of the IDW series. Not to be confused with the original DC series which was collected in the Volume 0 omnibus, or the Volume 2 omnibus which collects subsequent issues.

Fallen Angel is about well.... a Fallen Angel who lives in the mystical town of Bette Noir. Her son, Jude, who was 2 weeks short of taking his final vows to enter the priesthood, has taken over as Magistrate of the city. And so, in the span of 21 issues you learn the origin of the Angel, watch her son try to manage a city that has a life of it's own, and encounter all sorts of baddies along the way.

The Week in Review – September 21

The new DCU rules, in fact this week they rule so much that I’ve decided the week in review is all about this week’s number one issues from DC. I think the strangeness of the reboot, and it is a reboot, is wearing off and I’m just enjoying the books for whatever they have to offer. So far I have sampled ever single series and except for Static Shock I will try out issue #2, that book just did not cut it for me. This week the pros and cons and the issues I have with the new DCU are front and center, but it is nice to hear how much this is not only reviving DC, but has had an impact of generating excitement about other comics as well. Hopefully this is the start of a renaissance for comics and not just a short term impact from a marketing gimmick. Also I hope Marvel does not follow suit, as that would be lame.

Batman #1 by Scott Snyder, Greg Cappullo and Jonathan Glapion was a great start and is right now my favorite DC series. Scott just concluded a great run on Detective and for me, defined Dick Grayson as Batman and is now doing the same for Bruce Wayne as Batman. I loved what Grant Morrison did with Batman and I’m enjoying Scott’s work, what a great time to be a Batman fan. This issue reestablishes Batman as the detective and shows us that both Bruce and Batman are going to be an integral part of the book. The first half sets the status quo and starts off with Batman and Dick (disguised as the Joker) shutting down a breakout at Arkham. From there we move to establishing Bruce Wayne as trying to help start a revitalization effort for Gotham and next to a murder mystery with the main suspect being Dick Grayson. This is absolutely no way you could not want to come back for the next issue. Grep Capullo and Jonathan Glapion did a fantastic job on the art. The action, the gadgets, the horror of the murder, everything except for one panel was great. You can see my remarks about that here. Over the years Batman has gone through a lot of changes, but Denny O’Neil and Neil Adams were important to the book and Brubaker and Rucka did some good work on Batman, Grant Morrison breathed new life into the franchise and now we have Scott Snyder who has the potential to be one of the best writers on Batman ever, can’t wait for more.

New Post At WCS

Near Death #1 – A Review