An Army of Lovers Will Be Beaten Volume Two
Color! If only it was possible to use it in more small press books. Bernie makes good use of it this time around, and things slip more into dreams in this second book. We get to see a lot more of Lichi (the villain of the story? I’m starting to think that nothing in here is as simple as all that), a dream conversation that Buckeley has with his dead children that will break your heart, a bar battle between Lichi and an outmatched dog (that turns into a battle between the dog and an even more outmatched dog), Buckeley’s old house and the current inhabitant, Lichi trying to prod a sentient mountain into assisting him in his vendetta against Buckeley, Lichi interacting in a dream with his younger self, the cows mourning the parts of themselves that never gets used and shines on the hills, and the return of the llama from the first issue and his desperate search for tits. I guess if you wanted to nitpick you could say that not much changed on the real world end of things, but this book was perfect in really fleshing out everybody involved in all of this. Except maybe for Skunk and Beverly, but we did get to see a bit from the early years and I’m sure there’s still plenty more to come on those two. Colors were rarely used, granted, but when they were used I couldn’t picture it being done any other way. The llama in all his battle gear glory, a quiet moment with the stars, seeing Lichi through the eyes of a family that he’s killing, everything was damned near perfect. I don’t want to jinx the guy by saying that this might end up being one of those rare comic series that we end up showing our friends to prove that it is too a real artistic medium, but it sure has that potential. It’s bizarre while making total sense and riveting even though so much is still to be uncovered. I can only hope that his financial support holds out and he’s able to finish this as he wants to, and hey, your buying copies of these two volumes sure wouldn’t hurt. $10
