Full-length Murgatroyd & Nepenthe Graphic Novel is Perfect Summer Reading
By Dan BrownSummer is here and so is D.S. Barrick’s full-length Murgatroyd & Nepenthe graphic novel.Now is the perfect time to savour this dreamlike tale of two outsiders travelling through a series of psychedelic landscapes, musing about the nature of life as they go. As I’ve said elsewhere, this book is utterly original – I’ve never read anything else like it, which is a good thing.It’s hard for me to describe the pair’s first book-length adventure. It is poetic, wistful, fun, and challenging in all the right ways. If you don’t know the name D.S. Barrick, odds are you’ve already seen his work. He is the Forest City cartoonist who created the lively mural on the exterior of L.A. Mood’s new location at 100 Kellogg Lane. His characters likewise grace the store’s bags and T-shirts.He is also the illustrator writer behind the venerated local character Skulsi Thatcher and has collaborated with writer Scott MacDougall on the Lucky Unlucky series. Barrick is on record as saying what he wanted to do with Murgatroyd & Nepenthe, first published as four separate comics, was to create a story that has no beginning or end – he wanted it to be “all middle.” What this means in practical terms is the focus rests on the two central characters and how they interact. It also makes it impossible for me to “spoil” the story.At the same time, you’ll have a hard time ignoring the different locales the oddball pair move through.There are pyramids, ships that travel on air as easily as water, Christmas trees, rugged cavescapes, and sparkling vistas of stars with flying saucers that put me in the mind of how Jack Kirby pushed the comic form in new directions back in the day.Another way of saying it: This is the most colourful black-and-white book I’ve come across.There are also girl vampires, street urchins and robots (a D.S. Barrick specialty). As part of the bonus materials, the London artist has even included renderings of his characters done by his young daughter in the back of the new volume.The reason I think this is the best time to read Murgatoryd & Nepenthe is because in the lazy summer, the overtaxed brain needs a break from the usual routine.So if you want a thought-provoking and moving diversion from the stuff being done by the big publishers, check out D.S. Barrick’s latest. It will blow your mind, but in a good way.How Barrick will top himself, I don’t know, but I hear through the grapevine the next projected book in the series has an intriguing premise: Murgatroyd & Nepenthe in space!Dan Brown has covered pop culture for 30 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
