King Of The Flies

Last week I finally got around to reading King Of The Flies, a hardcover graphic novel by Mezzo and Pirus, that was released by Fantagraphics Books a couple of weeks ago. Not having been previously acquainted with their work in Metal Hurlent (they are from France), I just ordered King Of The Flies because the art sample I saw looked interesting in a Charles Burns (Black Hole) kind of way. Well to say that I was blown away with King Of The Flies may be an understatement because this graphic novel evoked to me some of the best of Charles Burns dark, odd comic creations with the wordsmith, insightful stylings of Alan Moore.

King Of The Flies is very odd, but in a good way, not in an inaccessible, what the hell is going on and why should you care way. It does take a few pages to get into the characters, the writing style, and what's going on, but once you get there, you'll know that Mezzo (the artist) and Pirus (the writer) are two comic creators that should be highly lauded (and I'm sure they are in France, but from my little online research before writing up this entry I couldn't find anything else of theirs that has been translated into English). This graphic novel is "only" 64 pages in length, but there's a lot of text on every page so King Of Flies seems like it's twice the length it is. There's very little dialogue in King Of Flies as the story is told mostly in narration, but none of the narration is of the sort where one wonders if the writer is being paid by the word.

Following are a couple of examples of some of the sharp writing on display in King Of The Flies:

"I get a kick out of breaking news. Especially that little jingle at the start. It tells you right away something serious has happened that's gonna blow your little problems out of the water. I kind of enjoy it."

"Malls are the last places on earth where the word 'architecture' still has any meaning at all, but I think I'm the only one who realizes this. They're like the cathedrals of our age."

"You can't look at a photograph of the early Stones without envying them. I mean, their anti-establishment coolness, that slick fuck-you vibe. That's what I'd achieved under my mother's shadow, and I couldn't stand the thought of a stepfather coming in to shatter my world. I prayed that he sucked in bed and that my mother would dump him."

When is more coming? Must have more of this in a hurry!