Gillette, Joseph & Schuster, Eric – Prizon Food #1

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Prizon Food #1

You know how to get on my good side immediately if you’re making comics? Make the art for the comic look like those old Kings Quest style computer games from the late 80’s, complete with boxy word bubbles and close-ups of the characters that somehow look worse than the images that are from farther away. That’ll do it right there. Well, that or put zombies in your book, but at this point even I’m getting sick of zombies. So I like the style, clearly, but what is this comic about? Well, I’m not entirely sure yet, but as this came with the next two issues of this series, I also don’t care quite yet. Things start off with the pig pictured on the cover trying to wake up a purple gorilla (?) who’s passed out in the sand. Said gorilla (Waltar) was looking for his mermaid lady love (who may or may not know that Waltar exists) but never spotted her. Meanwhile, there’s a mysterious ship in the air, and the camera pulls back to reveal what appears to be a gigantic mound of shit on his island. Then we switch to see what Party (brother to Waltar) is up to, as he’s flying a kite and has to rush inside when the phone rings. Oh, and his face is upside down. The king (pictured in the sample below) is calling, and he’s trying to get Party to take care of his brother. What the problem is has not yet been identified, but that’s what future issues are for, right? No sense spoiling the rest of this, but we do get to see the mermaid for a second and that mysterious ship does get identified (sort of). As somebody who played way too many of those old computer games, I loved all the little tricks these two put into the comic. The long distance shots of the characters on a beach, the green light from the ship, the “…” reaction shot, the image of the mermaid through the lenses of binoculars, all brilliant. Maybe if you’ve never played those games this won’t mean as much to you, but it’s still a funny, intriguing and delightfully warped comic either way. A bit expensive at $6, perhaps, but man is it worth it.