(House of Harley; 2022)
The latest edition of House of Harley Studio’s UGLY MUG, presenting adult oriented artwork from the world’s foremost underground cartoonists. It’s not unlike ZAP COMIX, but far more esoteric and anti-mainstream (and British) in orientation.
UGLY MUG’s major name Ed Pinsent (who was well represented in UGLY MUG 5) is back with no less than three offerings, starting with the 11 page “Endicott and The Case of the Five Windows,” a freeform account of an especially resourceful window washer who while at work on an upper floor of a big city skyscraper witnesses a murder; I promise you won’t be able to figure out where the strip is going. Also, following the portion of Pinsent’s “Wilby Wilberforce” comic strip contained in UGLY MUG 5, we get a further portion of Wilby’s adventures (for the full Wilberforce saga see the anthology MAGIC MIRROR).
John Bagnall, another favored UGLY MUG contributor, offers “Viktor Frankenstein Retired,” which amply demonstrates Bagnall’s self-description of his work as evoking “pleasantly musty evocations of a vanishing world,” in this case a 19th Century British seaport where one Viktor Frankenstein spends his final days. The primitivist artwork is redolent of an especially warped children’s tale, as is “I Got Hung on the Wire” by the acclaimed artist and fringe culture enthusiast Jason Atomic. It has a young boy doing suffering just what the title describes, resulting in a nasty flesh wound; the boy is also haunted by what he believes is a ghost, and ends up covered in bramble thorns.
In “The Young Prince Umsween” Chris Reynolds gets plenty of mileage out of six indistinct photographs and dialogue balloons detailing a fight between two women over the patronage of an infant prince. Further strangeness is provided by the bizarre maze-like city plans of Jim Barker, incorporating what look like eyes and gold bars, and highly quirky portrait sketches of various unidentified people by Patricia Gagnat (whose unique aesthetic is amply displayed on her facebook page).
House of Harley Studios’ uncredited artists answer the question “What Is A Product Manager?” in a single page comic strip, which illustrates how such folk “help businesses squeeze maximum cash BLOOD out of product STONE” (as illustrated by one guy strangling another), and encourages us to “be sure to thank one today.” In “Sous Chef Blues” Tom Baxter Tiffin offers a meditation of sorts on drug abuse and the apocalypse, with dialogue balloons presented in Spanish and highly sketchy imagery sourced from famous Mexican art prints.
Obviously this volume (and its predecessors) won’t appeal to everybody, but for those interested in high weirdness in the comic book sphere you’re advised to pounce, and pounce quickly.