REVIEW: Monsters #1-2

March 10, 2008 on 4:27 pm | In Reviews

Monsters #1-2
By Ken Dahl
Buy it at www.iknowjoekimpel.com/

This one kind of caught me off guard.
I saw that Microcosm was putting out a collection of cartoonist Ken Dahl’s engrossing work in May and remembered really enjoying a story he did in the indie anthology series Papercutter. I asked Wizard Entertainment Editor/mini comic junkie, Rickey Purdin if he had any of Dahl’s books and he brought me these two fancy-looking numbers. My, what pretty screen-printed covers!

I had no frame of reference for what Monsters was about (which I’m very thankful for), and the slow realization of what was going on was one of the most jarring comic reading experiences I’ve had in a long time.
Spoiler alert? (This book’s about herpes.)
Monsters is told in an auto-bio style, though Dahl vaguely clarifies in issue #2 that it is a work of fiction. In the first two issues the protagonist, unaware of his own condition, gives herpes to his girlfriend and the relationship slowly deteriorates to the point where they both start sleeping with other people.

Dahl brutally drives home the effect having a disease like herpes would have on a person, how they view themselves and their lives moving forward.

Personally I’ve got to say that Monsters is incredibly depressing in an incredibly addictive way. Dahl really has a handle on how to write the interpersonal drama and introspective narration. His use of daydream-y manifestations of the protagonist’s feelings, like when a cluster of microbes tackle him when his girlfriend first tells him she has herpes, also give it that extra bit of unique artistry.

Reviewed by Dave!