1 out of 5

This is only one issue; I assume it’s a one-shot.  Excellent example of boring design and how not to use the digital format, to say nothing of the mushy dialogue style and poorly executed story.

So a truck driver, seeking to beat the clock, crosses too many state lines and does a space-time warp to some intergalactic eating contest world where all the residents are walking, talking foodstuffs.  In order to leave and be back on his way, he must champion the challenger – a giant hot dog.  Since we’re in a land of man-sized foods, only reasonable that the contest involves eating food-sized humans.

It’s totally not a bad pitch for what could be a kitschy, silly and fun tale, and that, I believe, is what Lundy was going for, but it ends up being an unsatisfying drag.  The art style isn’t quite definitive enough to be notable, in the sketchy, indie field of Matt Kindt but with an inked hastiness more akin to a Fantagraphics style of underground.  This doesn’t sound too definitive because, frankly, it isn’t.  Lundy gives himself room to create some fun food characters, but his lead trucker – Burt Jackson – and the edible anthropomorphs – don’t really have too much personality, Lundy’s style essentially a mash-up of influences and design without really feeling like he’d carved out something purely his own.  The presentation ads to this unimpressive feeling: at 70+ “pages” in digital format, it seems like you’re getting a nice long read, but Lundy starts every page already mapped out with symbols covering each panel, and each “page” just removes the block over the panel.  Along with a sepia wash, I suppose it’s meant to give the book an old-timey theater feel (though this doesn’t really match with the trucker-talk tone, but whatever) but the lack of color and ‘movement’ instead makes it way too static.  Digital books can take advantage of the format by doing interesting panel reveals – this finds a way to both use and defeat that format.

And the writing is run-on sentences and words that don’t always make sense.  You get the gist, whatever gist there is, but it’s never a good sign when I realize a sentence doesn’t make sense but I’m not too keen to reread it to make sure, instead just taking my understanding and moving on.

I’m supportive of anyone getting their work out there.  My work’s not out there, so Lundy is several steps ahead of me – having had the guts to finish something and put it out for public consumption.  And that’s it’s free is, of course, awesome.  The result of getting it out there, though, is that its exposed to opinion.  So this was mine.