Foetus

Here’s a good compendium of most of Montreal’s most active comic artists in the mixed french-english underground scene. There’s Quesnel, who spearheaded this project and whose style is slowly evolving from a clichéd proto-Mad style to something a lot more interesting, original and definitely quite debased. I can go on forever detailing everyone else’s style, but seeing as most of the other artists have their own zines reviewed in this mag I won’t. The book has a nice format to it, two or three pages by each artist introduced with a little write-up of their own. This makes Foetus be a worthwhile reference, containing each artist’s bibliography, contact address and future plans. If this ends up coming out regularly enough it could very well end up being the definitive guide to what’s going on in underground comics in Quebec. The contents are as varied and interesting as its contributors always are. I much enjoyed Guim and Pat’s strips, which bring to mind the Freak Brothers but without just being about drugs (see Guim’s ‘Crime at the Dollarama!’). A good, thorough introduction to the scene (and it’s bilingual, to boot.) The layout and organization could be tighter, but the contents definitely make up for it. (LR)

Leave a Reply