Alien Toilet Monsters #1
Writers: Carol Zara and Eric Barnett
Artist: Eric Barnett
Publisher: Omnimorphic Productions
A review by Josh Rose
Wow, where do I start? So a friend of mine reached out to me seeing if I would be interested in reviewing Carol Zara’s comic Alien Toilet Monsters #1. They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but with a name like Alien Toilet Monsters how can you not want to read it? Maybe it was because my inner-child remembered Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets and basically screamed at the outer-adult me to read it. Either way, people on the train were looking at me funny.
Alien Toilet Monsters #1 is a wild ride. It has three levels of story and all of it is set in the near future. First we have inter-dimensional travel, and forbidden worlds with animals that mutate after every meal. One such dimension is the broadcast location of a nature documentary. Second we have star-crossed lovers Angel and Frankie. Frankie’s wife Angel died 15 years ago and an Angel from another dimension is visiting this Frankie on Multi-16. Alternate Frankie follows Alternate Angel and inadvertently brings an inter-dimensional police force down on them. Lastly, we have 4ndr34 angry that unknown actress Carol Zara (yes, writer Carol Zara) was cast in a movie based on three soft-drink-mascots. The last two storylines take place in Frankie’s pub, and through human negligence a mutated fox/scorpion thing from Multi-241 ends up eating the garbage behind Frankie’s.
So we have aliens (alternate dimension beings?), and monsters. I’m still waiting for the toilets to come into play. Zara and Eric Barnett tied those three stories together much more effectively than Zack Snyder did with Batman v Superman. I’m interested to see how 4ndr34’s story will play out, considering she is surrounded by two Frankies, police, and there’s an alien fox outside. This is definitely not a kids’ comic. There is a fair sprinkling of choice words throughout, and an alien mating documentary included.
One thing that Eric Barnett does really well with the art is the complex and many varied expressions on the characters’ faces. Unfortunately, I found the panel layout to be confusing and hard to follow at times. The speech bubbles didn’t help this very much. But, boy did he nail the design of the alien species, and the Inter-dimensional Police Force. Barnett’s colours are also really well done, in particular the red lights emanating from the police uniforms which really adds to their menace.
The Verdict
Buy It! Alien Toilet Monsters #1 is crazy, but I am really curious to see where this story takes us. How will Zara’s character affect the story? When will toilets become monsters or vice versa? So many questions! Not enough answers!
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