If Don Martin, Charles Addams, Bill Watterson, Sergio Aragones and Gahan Wilson all stumbled drunkedly into the Brundlefly Machine together, the result would presumably be cartoonist Mark Tatulli and his wonderful comic strip Lio.
I don’t know why this strip doesn’t have more of a rep, but it’s easily the closest thing we have to a genius newspaper comic strip these days. (Although I’m awful fond of Get Fuzzy.) Lio is a young lad who loves all things macabre, and his adventures are chronicled (almost fully) in the wordless tradition of such old timey comics as Henry and the Little King. Given the Don Martin influence evident in his pencils, however, one can only assume that Tatulli was more likely inspired by Sergio Aragones’ trademark no dialogue strips for Mad Magazine, which sadly have been the only reliably funny item in that periodical for quite some time now.
Silent But Deadly is the second collection of Tatulli’s strip, the first being Happiness Is a Squishy Cephalopod. A third collection, Lio’s Astonishing Tales: From the Haunted Crypt of Unknown Horrors, will be available on the 18th of this month.
There’s little continuity in the strip, so if you’re going to start with one, I’d go with the second or third volumes. The first is pretty funny, and establishes many of the strips ongoing tropes (Lio’s helping animals strike back against hunters, making fun of other comic strips, monsters, giant monsters, mass destruction, dead children, etc.), but per usual it took him a bit to hit his stride–although not that long of a time.
That said, I thought the second book especially and more consistently delightful, and found myself literally laughing aloud at many strips. This even extends to the blurbs on the back, which appear to be from actual complaint letters the strip drew to newspapers it appears in.
Great stuff, and a nice reliable present for any oldsters who loved Addams and Wilson, or the youngsters just starting to love all things monsterish.
