Having just recently reviewed one of the weirder comic art books I’ve had the pleasure of reading, I decided to follow it up with Zonzo by Joan Cornellá. If you’re a fan of surrealist and intensely dark humor, this will probably be a good option. If no, this will leave you cold, as it is incredibly weird.
Zonzo (Fantagraphics)
Self-published back in 2015, Zonzo is pretty much exactly what you’d expect if you’ve stumbled on any of Joan’s artwork via Reddit or Imgur. The art itself is very bright with intense color palattes, and makes me think of grafitti in its simple lines and images.
The subject matter? Let’s just say I had a hard time finding the tamest of pages to include here, just to make sure I didn’t shock anyone coming in cold.
Nearly every page has some disturbing murder, decapitation, mutilation, or serious injury. Quite a few of the deaths are babies, and quite a few people smile during them. This is where I say, “But wait! It’s actually funny!”
Guess what? It is:
Man escapes hit attempt only to jump into a sack race? Well that’s fantastic.
Now, as I said above, this is not for everyone. If you can handle a dark turn to your laughter, or if you want to harken back to the days of the type of gross out humor you probably found awesome when you were a kid, this has it for a much more adult audience.
I enjoyed this book. It’s funny at parts, deeply odd in others, but overall it’s worth a read.
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