A queer, neurodivergent teenager with a mad scientist complex? An adorable zombie pigeon? An all-star Drama Club King turned Werewolf? These are just a few of the instantly iconic and lovingly illustrated moments from the debut issue of The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos from Dark Horse Comics. Christopher Chaos – created by horror comic icon James Tynion IV (Nice House On The Lake) with writing by Tate Brombal (Something is Killing the Children) and art from Isaac Goodhart and Miquel Muerto – started out as a digital comic on Tynion’s Substack, and is now finally getting published in physical form through Dark Horse, with impressive new covers and unique design.
SPOILERS AHEAD for The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1!
Quickly established as part horror, part queer romance, and an all around great time, The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1 offers an incredibly strong start to the exciting new series, with absolutely gorgeous art, dynamic and atmospheric color, and the beginning of a monster story unlike anything seen before. Starting from the unique and eye-catching designed by Dylan Todd, Christopher Chaos is clearly created with an intense amount of love, care, and intention – unsurprising coming from the creative team of Tynion and Brombal. With spectacular covers from artists like Nick Robles and David Talaski, The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1 introduces its main protagonist, the titular Christopher Chaos, as a lonely and introspective young man who has always been different, and is finally done with trying to hide it.
Dark Horse Comics
Tate Brombal’s writing is heart wrenching and heart pounding, evoking a powerful sense of longing and sadness from Chaos, while somehow keeping the intensely traumatic events and feelings the young mad scientist has in a beautiful balance with the chaotic joy and vibrancy of each and every page. Christopher Chaos is a young queer teenager with a mysterious and complex past, abandoned by his parents after birth (his apparent biological father is shown, a major mystery all on its own), who has a shocking ability to view the world computationally, giving him the ability to create or fix any number of things most scientists would deem impossible.
Dark Horse Comics
Chaos’ ability – and his need to suppress it from a young age in nearly every aspect of his life – is a stunning metaphor for the experience of growing up both neurodivergent and queer, with the introspection to recognize you are built differently, but not sure why or how you can “hide.” As a neurodivergent queer myself, who started ADHD medication at an early age and was told to stop playing with only girls by the adults in my life, the loneliness, longing, and confusion that Chaos expresses speaks directly to me, and will to many others who have experienced similar moments of exclusion, judgment, and shame.
Isaac Goodhart’s art is perfect for the series, with Chaos’ unique design so clearly setting him apart from the rest of the characters in the book, and showing the loneliness, shame, and longing Christopher feels with heart breaking clarity. Miquel Muerto’s coloring is the perfect complement to Goodhart’s art, with the bright blue, pink, and yellow that makes Chaos stand out so much contrasting perfectly with the more muted and “normal” coloring of the rest of the world. The lettering by Aditya Bidikar, one of the best letterers in the business currently, is also the ideal match to the tone of the series, with Bidikar’s sound effects working as the necessary enhancement for the horror that Chaos experiences, as well as the scientific experiments he works on.
Already a love letter to classic and iconic monster stories from the debut issue, Christopher Chaos successfully subverts and enhances the common tropes of these monster mythos, making the Werewolf the hero, the monster-hunting cult the villains, and turning the Frankenstein-like mad scientist into the sympathetic protagonist of the story. While these types of genre-defying monster stories are not new in fiction, Christopher Chaos feels fresh and in a league of its own, potentially because of the inherent transformational queerness of “monster fiction” being heightened by the inclusion of an explicitly queer main character, one that the reader will have no choice but to passionately root for.
The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1 provides a lovely setup for the ongoing series, establishing a heartfelt and vulnerable connection to the main character, quickly identifying him as queer (instead of making queer readers just guess and hope like other queer-adjacent comics), and divulging the perfect amount of mystery to be unraveled over the coming issues. With a brilliant and experienced world-building creator like James Tynion IV and a talented writer like Tate Brombal there is no doubt that the many mysteries and cliff hangers revealed in this debut issue will slowly unravel, drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the monstrous world of Christopher Chaos, grounded in the deliciously colorful and expressive art from Isaac Goodhart and Miquel Muerto.
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