I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DELTRON 3030-“The Return” (2013).

After thirteen years, alternative rap supergroup Deltron 3030 is back.  If you’ve forgotten, Deltron 3030 is comprised of Dan the Automator, Del the Funky Homosapien and DJ Kid Koala.  Evidently the album is chock full of guest stars (which I usually dislike, but the guest stars are a weirdly unexpected bunch–David Cross, Amber Tamblyn, chef David Chang?–so I’m curious to hear what they are going to add to the sound.

Okay even I admit I don’t really remember what the first Deltron album sounded like, but if memory serves this seems to be picking up in that same spacey vibe that made Deltron so weird and fun.

There’s a story going on here, told in Del’s awesome rapping style–mellow and trippy with big words and convoluted phrasings.  Of course, this is only track 2 on the record so I don’t know exactly what the story is about.  But I know that Deltron 0 is back and I’m pretty excited to hear the whole thing.

You can hear this track on NPR and you can watch the intro track (featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt) here:

[READ: September 20, 2013] Almost Silent

This book collects four of Jason’s previous books “Meow, Baby,” “Tell Me Something,” “You Can’t Get There from Here” and “The Living and the Dead.”

“Meow, Baby” (2006) is a collection of  “short stories” from Jason.  They feature the same (looking) cast of characters as most of the other Jason books I’ve read (anthropomorphic animals), but there’s a few additions: a mummy, a zombie,a  skeleton and a vampire.  None of the pieces are titled and the only way to know when each is done is when you see his signature.  This is just to note that if there is a mummy in two stories, it’s good to know he’s not necessarily the same mummy.

The stories are quite funny with variations on mummy stories (wrapping your head in a bandage after you are hurt, getting an erection(!)), and vampire stories (the same looking guy is always following him with a stake) and some very amusing domestic scenes with skeletons.  I enjoyed the one where the mummy comes out of the sarcophagus, looks at a newspaper and then walks back into the sarcophagus with a look of despair on his face (his face is still covered in bandages—Jason has an amazing way of expression even with people who have no faces). There’s also a whole series of skeletons who climb out of their graves and go about mundane tasks .  There’s even a guy dressed like the Terminator who has some funny moments where he misses the opportunity to say his trademark lines.

The last few pages are three panel strips—like daily cartoons .  Were they ever shown in newspapers?  These show that Jason is also very funny at punchlines, not just dark stories and black humor.  True, all of these three panel comic are black humor (with the same cast of zombies, vampires, mummies and skeletons), but he really makes some funny and unexpected strips here.

“Tell Me Something” (2004) is a story told in flashbacks about a relationship gone bad.

As it opens, a male bird character steals a wallet from a male dog character.  The wallet contains a photo of the dog guy with a bird lady.

We flashback to a scene where the bird guy rescued the bird lady from a thug.

In alternating flashbacks (with black background) and flash forwards (in white background) we learn that the bird lady’s father didn’t want her dating the bird guy because he was a poet (although a very tough poet).  We see that the dog man who the bird lady was with is a mean and horrible guy.  Then the bird guy rescues her.  And they fly away (in an airplane).  But she leaves behind some evidence and they are followed.

In the flashbacks we see that they were to be married but that the dog guy set up the bird guy as a cheater and the bird lady threw him out on his ear.  It’s a very sweet story, except that it doesn’t have a happy ending.  Well, actually the ending is happy, it’s the middle that is not so happy.

“You Can’t Get There from Here” (2005) is a play on the Frankenstein story.  A scientist brings a monster to life. He goes after some women (sexually, in a very mildly drawn way) so the doctor creates the Bride of Frankenstein.  The monster loves the Bride, but the doctor also falls for her and starts plotting against the monster.  So he makes a new woman and thrusts her at the monster, taking the Bride for himself.  The monster doesn’t want the new woman, and he goes into a rage.

There is much kerfuffle and fighting (as well as a lengthy scene interspersed with two mad scientists talking to each other about what’s going on).  The fact that this love triangle plays out amidst a mob with torches and violent scene with a knife is certainly comical.  There is a surprisingly heavy romantic angle in the story, but as with most of Jason’s works, no one is happy at the end.

“The Living and the Dead” (2007) starts off with a man who sees a prostitute who he can’t stop thinking about. He decides to save up his money so he can spend a  night with her.  But while he is working hard, a meteorite strikes the earth and brings zombies back to life.  Soon, the man and the prostitute wind up together, fighting off the zombies at every turn.  (The overall time frame of the story is very short).

This is one of the few stories that ends up in a kind of sweet way, although since we know Jason’s work, we know there is a very dark twist to the happy ending.

I enjoyed all four of these books quite a bit.  The stories, while not amazingly original in idea are so well executed and convey so much with so few lines (and again, no pupils—I love that his live characters have white circles for eyes but the zombies have black circles—no pupils anywhere).  I’m glad I read this book after reading some of his other longer books because I didn’t know that he did the shorter three panel/actually-funny-not-just-dark comics.  It was quite a treat to see this other humorous side from him.