Wednesday 20 June 2012

What? You say you don't read Underground Comix anymore? WELL 'FHA Q!!!' (FHA Q #1-3 by John Orlando)

So, I was hoping to review issues #1 & 2, of John Orlando's 'FHA Q'; (a quality looking contemporary U.S Underground Comix), but it looks like the copies he sent over from the states got lost somewhere in transit.

Well, I hope SOMEONE, somewhere is having a bloody good read of them anyway!

Having seen numerous panels and teaser strips online for the book, I can honestly say that FHA-Q looks to not only keep the tradition of the U.S Underground comic alive and well, but it also reflects the tone of great satirical comics like MAD and Humbug, bringing them up to date for today's hectic and crazy world.

The warped tone of themes and characters includes all kinds of sympathetic freaks, misanthropes, weirdos, eccentric geniuses, curvaceous women, swipes at corporate greed (vs the everyman), the recession, life on the street, and scenarios that mix the modern world with slightly surreal goings on.

John has also promoted the comic by showing lots of the fake advertisments and reader testimonies that lampoon the consumerist society in which we live.

No one seems safe from being caught in the crosshairs and trapped inside the panels by Orlando's pen:

From what I've seen so far, anyone and everyone from art critics, pretentious intellectuals, the self obsessed and greedy, to those who angrily attack things they don't understand, to judgemental misanthropes and the terminally humourless.


At the time of writing this, issue #3 has just come back from the press and is available to buy along with the other two issues.

You can buy any of the three issues individually, or as part of a triple issue deal from JGM comics online:

http://jgmcomics.ecrater.com/p/15266892/fha-q-3

Be warned however, as Orlando states in his own disclaimers; reading it can bring about all kinds of weird side effects, maladjustments, or warp your mind for good!...