Farel Dalrymple

Like an illustrated version of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, this drug infused fable is utterly stuffed with beauty to the point of running over with minute details of wonder. Sadly, the hallucinogenic allegory is too true, as it’s just as mind-blowing, as it is downright incomprehensible. The story drowns in all the different realities and characters which continuously speak their minds before wondering if they just spoke out loud or if it was all a dream. Luckily, the visual show more presentation is some of the best artwork in comic book history, and you can pick any page at random and have an amazing experience getting lost in the scenery, if you stop trying to make sense of it all. show less

I keep picking up Farel Dalrymple books because of the artwork, but then I read the words - the ones I can make out through the godawful lettering - and all I can think is, "What the hell?"

A seemingly simple adventure of young people, a cat and a robot banding together to fight an evil wizard unfolds through free association and dream logic. Ugh.

I suggest glancing at the pictures at a store or library and then putting the book back unread.

The Wrenchies by Farel Dalrymple is a time travel, dystopian YA graphic novel. It blends magic and science and comic book tropes to create a world destroyed and over run by monsters. Only the children are able to fight back.

With the retro, 1950s or early 1960s backstory to The Wrenchies combined with the horrific events that lead up to the present day, I'm reminded of early Stephen King, "The Body" or It. Things get out of hand when a pair of boys go into a storm drain and are attacked by an show more unspeakable evil.

The background art for The Wrenchies is stunning. It's crowded with details that need second and third looks. When a new location is introduced, especially in the far future, there's usually a single page devoted entirely to it, like an establishing shot. They remind me of the sorts of picture books I loved as a kid that featured cut aways of day to day things (like skyscrapers, hospitals, factories, etc.)

But stunning set design wasn't enough to get me fully engrossed in this book. The plot itself is nonlinear (fairly normal for a time travel story) and frenetic. With a huge ensemble cast all fighting for panel time, combined with the cuts back and forth, as well as some incredibly disgusting scenes involving a combination of extreme violence and the typical rotting decay of horror, I lost interest in trying to sort of the time line.

The gross out factors of the book seem to be there mostly for padding. Cut most of them out, and the remaining story is a much tighter, still non-linear tale of self sacrifice and time travel. show less

Very smart and sharp, quirky in just the right way. I can't say I always understood what was going on or why, but I kept reading. A slightly tighter story might help, though I wonder if some of Omega's shaggy-dog charm would then be lost.