Novel Ideas By Bill Love

Halo and Sprocket Vol. 2 Natural Creatures

Writer/Artist- Kerry Callen

Amaze Ink | 76 pages | B&W | $9.95

ISBN # 978-1-59362-131-5

This week and next we are going to look at a couple of books that may be a little light in page count but are anything but light in entertainment value. (And the $9.95 price tag for both is a nice break, too!)

I can’t tell you how excited I am to see the return of Halo and Sprocket! There are simply too few books out there that appeal to fans of metaphysics, logic, human nature and slapstick comedy. The premise of this book is simple. An angel, a robot and a single young woman live together. Don’t ask why. (Kerry Galen won’t tell you anyway!) There are no adventures to tell; they just sort of talk to each other. It’s what they talk about, and how Kerry tells it, that is so much fun.

This series is actually an examination of being human as observed by two outsiders. Katie tries to answer their questions about human nature, and human inconsistencies, to the satisfaction of neither. Dry psychology? Hardly. The cartooning is simple, direct and effective. The dialogue is alternately deep and frivolous, often in the same panel.

Halo and Sprocket is one of the most original ideas in comics. In stories of only a few pages each you will laugh repeatedly and still take away some universal truth to ponder over. This is the type of book you will want to shove into the hands of everyone you know just to share the laugh. That’s a lot of entertainment for only $9.95.

Novel Ideas - Bill Love, Senior Editor of Graphic Novel Scene Magazine, looks at comics that never saw a staple. Many creators bypass the magazine format and publish original graphic novels. Novel Ideas spotlights the best, both old and new.