Last stop. Boney Borough.

June 15, 2011 8:08 AM

Welcome to Boney Borough, a place where the unit of currency is credits or creds; the most popular (and illegal) sport is DieBall, a game in which the players rub an adhesive, gooey, and brain-damaging substance called Die Gunk on their hands and bodies to help them hold on to the ball; and where one itinerant, nicotine-patch addict, self-proclaimed botany professor, Professor Panther, spreads his knowledge of hallucinogenic plants throughout the town like wildfire. Oh, and did I mention that Boney Borough and its inhabitants are also being watched over by aliens, who are using the townsfolk as guinea pigs in a single-minded experiment? Or, it might be best to say, like ants in a colony.... This is BodyWorld, a comic by Dash Shaw. And it's all online.

First serialized online, the comic is now available in printed form, and is a finalist in the Graphic Novel category of the LA Times Book Prizes. In a recent interview about the comic, Shaw said he posted the work online first because by the time something gets printed, he's outgrown it.

If the pages from the all online are too long, you can view a more segmented version, starting with the prelude, which appears to be lacking chapter 12 (warning: long page, lots of images to load, and it's the end of the story). And don't forget to keep an eye on the Boney Boroughs maps.

posted by filthy light thief (9 comments total)

Nice! I really enjoyed Bottomless Belly Button. I love his drawing style.
posted by neushoorn at 8:51 AM on June 15, 2011

I read through the first few chapters, pretty good. Bookmarked for later.
posted by RustyBrooks at 11:32 AM on June 15, 2011

Nice. A little Gary Panter, a little Aeon flux, a little Charles Burns.
posted by cmoj at 11:38 AM on June 15, 2011

It looked like the crap junior high school students come up with- I didn't bother with it past the first minute. Naturally, it's going to be a Metafilter darling.
posted by happyroach at 12:08 PM on June 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Glad you stopped by to let us know.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 12:40 PM on June 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

1911 called, it wants its art criticism back, happyroach.
posted by cmoj at 12:59 PM on June 15, 2011

What a specific year. I'd like to know more about the criticism of that era.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:11 PM on June 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sorry it didn't work for you. And sometimes there's more to a graphic novel than the graphics.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:12 PM on June 15, 2011

I fucked it up. I would have been referring to the 1913 Armory Show. I bet people would have been even more pissed in 1911, though.
posted by cmoj at 10:45 PM on June 15, 2011 [2 favorites]