Tom Neely sent over his first graphic novel- The Blot. It’s the wordless story of a man who wakes up one morning to an ink blot take-over. He can’t seem to get rid of this inkblot. It shows up on his morning paper, on people’s faces and sometimes tries to fill whole panels of the comic. Then he shows his problem to a lady friend who tries to help him and they share the blot (and some love-making) and everything is great. But good things always come to an end, don’t they? I don’t want to ruin the ending but let’s just say I was sighing a lot turning the last few pages. This comic has some great imagery. Besides the blot, there’s a giant wolf with tentacles coming out of it’s mouth, masks, and seas of people. The style of the drawings reminds me of Popeye a little bit. But that’s really my only reference for old timey comics. It’s not very often that you get to see those types of characters naked. Tom’s characters have all their parts drawn almost realistically. At first it seemed unsettling but then I realized it helped make these cartoon characters more human in my mind. It was a pretty brave stylistic decision. You can see more of Tom’s work here and make sure to watch this fun anti-Bush animation and this animated music video for The Muffs he did. Pick up your copy of this graphic novel here. Nice work Tom! Thanks for sharing.

© Julia Rothman 2007