DiPasquale, Tony – Spirit

August 7, 2025

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Spirit

Was I expecting to get my heart broken while reading the latest Nugget comic? Reader, I was not. I mean sure, Tony’s work is getting better with each issue of Nugget, and it had already started off strong. But generally speaking my overall mood after reading one of his comics has been more “what did I just read” and/or “oh, so THAT’S what he was going for,” and this one… but hey, I’m getting ahead of myself. There are two stories in this issue, one very short to start things off followed by the much longer piece. Things start off with Nugget taking a walk in the woods with his mother, where he eventually finds and takes home a caterpillar. Anybody who’s done that themselves knows what’s coming next, and that’s the shocking discovery of that caterpillar somehow being replaced by a cocoon, and then a butterfly. It’s a sweet story about the inevitability of change and accepting it when it happens, which serves to make the next story all the more devastating. It’s told mostly (though not entirely) in alternating panels or pages, and it’s not apparent what’s happening for a couple of pages. One panel will depict Nugget’s mother in a variety of scenarios raising young Nugget, then the next image will show adult Nugget taking care of his visibly older and frailer mother. It’s relentless and the end of the story is inevitable; Tony has really stepped up his game with the facial expressions to really take the reader on a journey. Nugget was clearly trying his best but overwhelmed and so very sad, his aged mother was often terrified, confused and embarrassed, and the images of some of the best moments of his childhood juxtaposed with the heartbreaking reality of those final days and months of a life were just brutal. But not completely, because there was still so much love and joy in the memories of their younger days. It was reckoning with a complete life, good and bad, and it’s probably Tony’s best work. Plenty of people will find parallels to events they’re experiencing with their own parents and family, that’s for sure. If you’re looking for more mayhem I’d recommend some of his other issues, but the overall best issue is probably this one. $10

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Posted by Kevin

DiPasquale, Tony – Nugget #4

December 19, 2024

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Nugget #4

This particular volume of Nugget is the longest one yet, with the longest stories yet: 64 pages and only two stories. Should I be irrationally annoyed that he didn’t call it “giant-sized Nugget”? No, I should not. Am I? Maybe a little bit. He seems to be drifting more into body horror this time around, or possibly I’m just noticing it for the first time. First up is a story about Nugget and a friend, seemingly lost at sea. They’re amusing themselves by making faces to each other and generally being friendly, which matters a lot for what comes later. They reach land and the friend makes a discovery: a strange orb that’s making noises that compels them both to lick it in return for visions. And boy howdy, can Tony ever draw some visions. I’ve compared this to Jim Woodring’s work before, and see no reason to stop doing that now. The orb quickly becomes a point of contention for both of them, which leads to some fairly brutal physical violence, in which the orb gets cracked. And if you’re thinking it might have been an egg, you were certainly on the right track with that guess. I’ll say no more about specifics, but it’s a grim tale of friendship and broken trust; that last page is going to stick with me for awhile. The other story is about Nugget, alone again, as he meets a sea nymph while he’s working on a giant head in his yard. Just roll with it! He falls for her immediately and takes her on a tour of the woods, where they stumble across a seriously violent act, and she decides that she wants more of that type of thing in her life. Nugget is heartbroken, but it turns out that there’s another sea nymph wandering around. Do we get to see what passes for sex in this world? I don’t want to say for sure, but I think so? You tell me. This is all entirely wordless, which I must have mentioned in past reviews but haven’t here, and it’s no less devastating for it. It’s the best issue yet, which has been true of all of them, which is a hell of an artistic trajectory. $14

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DiPasquale, Tony – Nugget #3

April 27, 2023

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Nugget #3

Sweet Christmas, but is this ever one gorgeous comic. It’s a double-sized issue compared to the last two, and it’s in full, glorious color. I would have said before this that the little dude would do just fine in black and white, but this proves me wrong. Before I spoil a single thing, if you’re wondering when you should get on this Nugget train, the answer is now clear: start right here. I’ve liked his previous work quite a bit, don’t get me wrong, but he’s on another level with this one. This is one of those cases where a sample image really should say it all. For those of you who prefer a little more detail before parting with $12 (which is a steal for this much comic), fine, I’ll do that reviewing thing. Stories in here deal with things like dreaming and waking up in an existential crisis, the mental image of what will happen when several floating squids are collected versus reality, peeking behind the veil, the cycle of drunkenness, Nugget making himself into a tree (which leads to an absolutely stunning double page center spread) and the impression that other people would get after seeing said tree, a normal day out with a pal, increasingly terrifying dreams while sleeping outside, and a funny bit on the back inside cover about dealing with a rough critic. The back cover is also something else, but I’ll leave that as a total surprise. The two biggest stories in here, and maybe the best (but don’t make me rank them, because I’m not capable in this issue), were left out until now, so’s I can spend more time on them. There’s an extended adventure where Nugget gets sucked into the monster (or benevolent deity?) in the sample image, only to be spat out as four separate pieces, each of which gets into its own adventure. It’s spectacular, and I’m running out of superlatives here, but if this comic only contained that story I still would have left satisfied. And there’s a deeply disturbing piece about Nugget coming across a few dead people/creatures in the forest, and his sudden ability to pluck out their eye and see their last moments through it. Alarming and wonderful. Are there a few other stories I’m not mentioning at all? You’d better believe it. Get yourself a copy, you absolutely will not be disappointed. $12

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DiPasquale, Tony – Nugget #2

March 15, 2022

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Nugget #2

What a spectacularly unnerving comic. I mean that in the best possible way, of course! Otherwise I’d be curled up in a ball in a corner, too traumatized to even write a review. Apparently I missed making this comparison the first time around, but his work does remind me a little of Jim Woodring’s Frank. Outwardly cute protagonist, silently wandering around a world that’s trying to kill him in all sorts of creative and disturbing ways. Still, that’s where the similarity ends, and it’s possible that Tony never read Jim’s comics. Anyway! This is another collection of a few short pieces, and I’m not going to try quite as hard to avoid spoilers this time around, so look out! First up is Dogs, about our hero (I’m just going to assume his name is Nugget) narrowly avoiding being eaten by a monster at sea. He heads home for a peaceful nights sleep, which may or may not be what he ends up getting. Next up is Cake, which is too horrific for me to talk about. I’m still getting chills when I think about that one. Mother is up next, which is only marginally less disturbing, and even then it’s an obvious matter of opinion. Nugget does end up meeting his mother, or maybe he does. But, like everything else that happens to him in an average day, he’d probably have been better off never leaving the house. Finally there’s Bubbles, which is the sample image I used below. Balls of goo dropping from the sky interrupt Nugget’s card game, and they have a profoundly negative effect on his friend. He and his other friend make a run for it, but how do you fight black goo balls falling from the sky? If anybody is looking for a quote to sum up my thoughts, how about “adorably nightmarish”? That seems to be the long and short of it, which is one of those phrases I’ve never fully understood, but I’m still sticking with it. Once again I should point out his spectacular cover, and once again I hope that convinced some people seeing it at comic shops. Check it out, unless you demand happy endings in your comics.

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DiPasquale, Tony – Nugget #1

September 27, 2021

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Nugget #1

Now that there is one heck of a cover. I mean really, if you were to see that in a comics shop, that sucker practically jumps off the shelves. This is a collection of the surreal adventures of a little dude (purely guessing on the gender over here) called Nugget. It’s also a collection of silent stories, meaning that if I go too far in describing them I’m going to end up writing the whole comic in the review. So, in the interest of pulling off the balancing act of telling you about the stories without telling you THE stories, I’ll just say that the stories in here feature our hero getting sucked into a cup, finding a bottle at sea at ending up in a series of increasingly disquieting adventures, eating eggs and the horrific results (including one solid double page spread in the middle), finding his own twin and the desperate pull of the void, and the horror of the red doppelganger. It’s occasionally funny and often unnerving, which is a solid combination in my book. If that’s the case for you too, give this one a shot! $7.25

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Posted by Kevin