I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: LET’S EAT GRANDMA-“Deep Six Textbook” NPR’S SOUTH X LULLABY (March 16, 2017).

Let’s Eat Grandma is a duo consisting of two girls from England–Jenny Hollingworth (17) and Rosa Walton (16).  I love that they took their name from the grammar joke about removing a comma.  But the somewhat sinister reality of the name is representative of the somewhat sinister tone of their pop songs.

Not all South X Lullaby venues are worth describing, but this one sure it.  It takes place in an airstream trailer. The setting is wonderful–all wood-paneled and streamlined. And it seems to make the sound echo perfectly.

The song begins with an electric drum–much louder than one might imagine–and then the girls do a little hand clapping game before the music starts.

Rosa on the keys has really long hair.  She sings lead and has an incredible, unique voice–a heavy accent and a menacing but childlike delivery.  Jenny sings occasional lines (they intertwine very nicely).  When the verses end, the chord change is fairly dramatic before it returns to this pretty and slightly creepy melody.

After 3 and a half minutes Jenny pulls out a saxophone and plays a short, weird muffled solo.  And then the song continues on to the end. It is utterly mesmerizing and as fascinating as the duo are.  I’m really excited to explore more of their music.

[READ: January 27, 2017] Cleopatra in Spaaaace!

While looking up Book 3 on Goodreads I saw this book called Cleopatra in Space Book .5 (that’s point five).  It is the original webcomic that inspired the series.  if you’re thinking about reading it, I’d wait until after Book 3 of the graphic novel.  You’ll see why.

Maichak introduces us to the series by saying he wrote it from August 2009 to October 2012 and that it ends abruptly because he began working on the graphic novels.

These pages will never appear in printed form because while they are the basis for the comic, they are a little different and, as he says, they are aimed at a slightly older audience.  But most of the elements are in place like Khensu The Space Kitty, the humor, the pacing and the great hieroglyphics that the aliens speak.  She’s even got her Sphinx space scooter.  Although Cleopatra herself is a bit older (and sexier).

Unlike the books which gave us backstory, this opens with Cleopatra fighting Xerx scum with a laser gun.  The whole first chapter is pretty much flee and fight. There’s a funny moment where she forgot to charge her lasers.  When it runs out, she points it at the Xerx and says “zap?”

In the commotion, they lose a thruster and must land on Hykosis (just like in book 3!)  She asks “How come every time we have to make an emergency landing it’s always on some desolate rocky planet?”

The first chapter ends with a Wall-E type robot revealing that it recorded her saying they were going to Hykosis.  The creature who receives the recording–a kind of bear-looking creature says “This is wrong. She shouldn’t be here yet.”

Chapter 1 is all in black and white.  Chapter 2 is in color.

While trying to fix the thruster they are approached by two creatures who calls her sweet cheeks.  It’s a tall man and a short guy.  They are going to steal her bike, but are very disappointed to discover she is carting nothing but a bunch of junk.  They inquire about a promising bag which she says is just her makeup case.

Although Khensu reveals it actually contains fragile cargo.

This leads to a gun fight and Cleo is thrilled at the action.  But before anything can happen the two run off to their bikes–which are in stealth mode.  She manages to take one down but in the scrum, she blacks out

And then we flash back to one day earlier at Yasiro Academy.  Akila is there (still a red-head). And they are late for a class that Khensu is teaching.  We flash through the rest of their classes and to the detention that Cleo got for being late…again).  A girl in detention (unnamed but his notes say she is Katye) offers to bead her hair.

Cleo runs off and finds Brian who doesn’t seem happy to see her.  She sweet talks him into giving her his skeleton key card and says she’ll put in a good word with Akila for him.

There’s a shift to another location–a bar visited by upperclassmen including short-tempered Fod Franzee.  He pulled out a gun but was contained by Cleo–who is only a sophomore and should not even be there.

So now Khensu is in trouble.  He is in front of the cat council (an amusing scene of cat bureaucracy).  And they say that she causes so much trouble they may have to send her back–that she came too soon for the prophecy.

But Cleo decides to prove to them that she is worth it, and she will do the one thing they explicitly told her not to do–find the Xerx ship.

Chapter 3 was actually drawn by bunch of guest comics because Mike just became a dad.  They are a bunch of one offs and were drawn by:

Dani Jones (very cute about being a new dad)
James Anderson (funny, about Khensu and toys)
Jason Horn (Ninjasaur vs Cleopatra)
Katie Cook (wonderfully cute design, Cleo uses her laser to make a hole in her jeans)
Mike Laughead (make a joke about cats cleaning themselves)
Caanan Grall (brings back Katye and..Nathan Fillion?).
Bryan Ballinger (Episode 1.5395: Archeological Dip (crazy looking in which Cleo eats ancient hummus))
Brian Carroll (gets the look and tone of the strip perfectly).
Harry Myland (brings back Dennis–the big hairy creature)
Gene Gonzales (The Captain and Cleo or Loot Will Keep Us Together–a funny strip about cans of cat food)
Maloney & Preitano (Madness of the Space Mummy!!!  Sometimes a truce just cant be brokered.
Caanan Grall (a fun joke about being reincarnated as Cleopatra)

There’s also 4 part “deleted scene” drawn by Wes Molebash  It’s a fun exchange in which Cleo tries not to tell Akila about the mission but also tells her about Brain wanting to go to the dance with her.

Then he returns with Chapter 3 proper.

They are on the planet and are looking for the guys who stole their stuff (which might just be a biological weapon).  They keep teasing out something bad that happened last time she was in the city.

I’m glad I read this strip after Book 3 because there’s some jokes from the strip in that book–like Cleo wearing the cowboy hat disguise–Akila makes the joke that she looks “like Cleopatra in a cowboy hat.”  In this early version it’s the same joke but made by Khensu.  Book 3 also ends with a beautiful scene oh Hykosis City–similar to the webcomic but with subtle differences.