Dumpy
Issue #1
Fantagraphics
You gotta take pity on Dumpy, beleaguered by coffee-bumming flies, bad-poetry spouting bears, alcoholic cactuses, and the occasional intersection with the world of Steven, cartoonist Doug Allen’s alternative newsweekly staple. While Steven is funny in a sociopathic way, Dumpy’s particular brand of mental illness seems to be his compulsive nature – he seems to accrete an awful lot of worthless junk in his dump, and is not as sure of what to do with it as he is of its value: “Why, just last week I got this rusted engine block, and I had to soak it in a mixture of naval jelly and liquid wrench for three weeks… until… I could finally move the pistons a quarter of an inch, but just as she was startin’ ta move, the crankshaft busted!” Did Dumpy learn his lesson? Will he now leave scrap engines by the side of the road? “What? Are you crazy? I’m takin’ it home, but I sure as hell ain’t trying ta fix the goddamned thing.”
There’s more of Dumpy in us than we suspect.
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