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Jim Woodring pays homage to the classic Big Little
Book format to put his silent signature character
through his most transformative adventure ever.
Jim Woodring has been drawing the otherworldly, allegorical
adventures of his cartoon Everycreature, Frank, for three and a
half decades. These stories are a singular rarity in the comics
form — both bone-chillingly physical in their depictions of Frank’s
travails and profoundly metaphysical at the same time. Not since
George Herriman’s Krazy Kat has the comics language been so
exquisitely distilled into pure, revelatory aesthetic expression.
With Quacky, Woodring adopts the format of 1930s Big Little
Books to deliver a text story with illustrations, in which the typically nonplussed Frank’s reactions are told to us explicitly, through
narration and his own thoughts. Frank is buffeted by generosity,
anguished to see how loving friends perceive him, distraught by the
process of aging and physical transformation in a beloved pet, delighted
by nature and physical experiences shared with others, and ultimately
sees a path toward radical acceptance in the face of trauma.
Frank cast regulars Pupshaw, Pushpaw and Manhog are here, along
with new entries to Frank’s world of the Unifactor. And, in a backup
feature, we meet a cast of toontown pigs in a story that undercuts the
kiddie book format: “Hoggy Goes Hogwild.” Cunningham, the clever
pig who helps all his friends, and his confirmed fiancée, Porceline, are
called on to assist local pal Hoggy – who turns out to have gone on a
violent crime spree, presaging a possible psychotic break.
Jim Woodring is back, and no two worlds wouldn’t be the same
without him