Staff Picks (December): Puke Force

Brian Chippendale, the man behind Maggots, Ninja, and If n' Oof, is at it again with Puke Force, a graphic novel of single page comic strips that are as scathing and dark as they are hilarious. 

With a name like Puke Force you go in expecting a degree of silliness and discomfort, but the surprise is its intellectual observations of pop culture absurdities, the vanity of social media, and the realities of government propaganda.  Behind the shaky line art and the wild characters runs a harsh indictment of racism, consumerism, and corporate greed.  But it also lightens things up with intensely detailed set pieces that feel something like a “Where’s Waldo?” book written by and for the criminally insane.

These pages are chaotic and dense with wit often hidden away in little corners of rooms or far away in fields lathered in crazy.  Subtle conversations between story extras or signs that either make no sense or just a little too much sense are just a few of the kinds of gems you will go hunting for, panning over the pages with your index finger like a kid trying to find Waldo’s hat.

Chippendale will make you laugh even as he makes you profoundly uncomfortable.  The inked art vibrates as if it were drawn on a napkin perched on a bass amp.  The content, jokes, and general rudeness of the book chafe against the warped values of modern living, the true cost of self-actualizing through possessions, and wildly imply a feeling that we might all just be living it up on a booze-cruise careening off the edge of the world.  Puke Force reads like a case study of Brian Chippendale’s own mind even as it analyzes the world we all have to share.

—Trevor Richardson

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly Item Code: DEC15 1269 Release Date: 02/17/16 SRP: $22.95