I was, I'll admit, very disparaging of Terry LaBan's The Unseen Hand, a series I reviewed earlier this month. I just didn't think it was very good, but that's just my opinion. I was intrigued, however, by the mention in Mr. LaBan's biography of his "Archie meets underground" series Cud Comics. That very weekend, the always-reliable Purple Gorilla Comics had this lovely example hanging on the wall. Of course I snatched it up.
Of course I did.
And now I'll have to track down every issue, because I love Eno and Plum. LaBan is telling stories here of people who were my age in the mid-90s, in their early-20s trying to figure shit out. I think Generation X had a bit of a crisis around this point. We had that youthful optimism that generations have, that we could effect real change, but we were also realizing that we were a small generation. A lot of pop culture from the 90s is very grim, and I think it's from a recognition of not being able to change things. Cud Comics is an extreme reaction to that, moving from anger to irony, trying to find the humour in a feeling of ineffectualness.
Damn. Sorry. That was a downer.
Eno and Plum are great characters, and I cannot wait to read more about them.
"If we have sex, it'll lower my sperm count!"
