Titus's Reviews > BodyWorld

BodyWorld’s art style, and the beginning of the story, both suggest that it’s going to be a certain type of “alternative” comic: focused more on weirdness and humour than on depth, characterization or plot. In fact, the story starts out quirky and enigmatic in a way that reminds me of Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes, its oddball characters, opaque dialogue, absurd comedy and occasional cartoonishly over-the-top events priming me for a comic without much real story (or with a totally wild story that makes no rational sense). However, although it remains suitably strange throughout, BodyWorld actually develops into a sophisticated, fully realized narrative. It ends up something like a goofier version of Black Hole by Charles Burns, mixing human drama and existential themes – in a high school setting – with outlandish speculative fiction.

It takes a little while to hit its stride, but ultimately it strikes a good balance between wackiness and serious drama. The characters are exaggerated pastiches of archetypes, but they still have decidedly human cores, and a surprising amount of depth. As a result, I find myself drawn into their stories, and the comic as a whole. As far as its “speculative fiction” aspects go, there’s no worldbuilding to speak of – it doesn’t take itself quite that seriously – but the setting and premise are quite original and unfailingly interesting. Without wanting to give too much away, the story revolves to a significant degree around altered states of consciousness, in a way that reminds me of Crawl Space by Jesse Jacobs, and some of my favourite issues of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff, and suffice to say BodyWorld executes it excellently.

The basic art style isn’t particularly special, though it does make great use of colour. Most of the comic employs a strict 12-panel grid, which feels a bit restrictive at times, but this also means there’s considerable impact on those occasions when the grid is broken (which is mostly tied to psychedelic experiences). It’s when depicting psychedelic episodes that the art truly comes into its own, using a bunch of great visual techniques to impart a real sense of altered consciousness.

In sum, this is an excellent comic that satisfies my desire for a proper plot and fleshed-out characters, while also indulging my taste for psychedelia, irreverent humour and unbridled weirdness.