Arsenic Lullaby #16
Ongoing series
AAA Milwaukee Publishing
If
Cyanide & Happiness is just too uplifting for you,
Arsenic Lullaby may be the comic for you.
From the editorial comments at the back, it appears that the short comics that make up this issue were originally exclusives to the trade paperbacks that collected earlier issues in the series. They're all black humour -- the blackest of humours -- but unlike many other comics that ply that particular genre, they're also well written and drawn. The art has a decidedly cartoonish feel to it, but you can tell that a good deal of care and effort is put into every panel.
To give you an idea about the contents, the last (and longest) story in the comic starts off as a seemingly pat tale about children finding out a donut company's donut-shaped mascot doesn't really exist. Only you quickly learn that he
does exist, and was avoiding the children because he's
suffering from terrible depression as the result of being a victim of a Nazi concentration camp. It walks the line between horror, humour, and absurdity, and does so with remarkable skill.
I got my copy for free, with a big sticker pasted to the front saying it was to be handed out to fans of "the Flamming (sic) Carrot, Lenore, Squee, and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac." I love the Carrot, and I can certainly see the similarities, although this is much more disturbing than most of FC's adventures.
Go check out
their website if you think this sounds like something you might like.
