Review

"Never mind the Volcano Annie, what in Satan's jockstrap was that?" - Duke

James "Mr Slime" Andre and his band of desperados ride into town with the sixth edition of Yuck!, surprising everyone that they haven't been tarred and feathered yet. The cover pretty much sums it up, "adults only". So if you are a minor, a member of the young Liberals, or the Rev Fred Nile, then this isn't the book for you. For the rest of us it's good clean demented fun with a side order of perverted ideas. There are some real sick minds involved in this comic, so naturally the entire ScaryMinds team lapped this one up. Hey let's get in between the covers for some afternoon delight. Is that a sky rocket in flight?

For those unaware of Yuck!, it's a book that delights in reliving the glories of those subversive comics that were the ban of polite society through the 1960s and 1970s, think The Amazing Freak Brothers as an example. So while detractors might simply write Yuck! off as offensive there is a certain amount of social commentary, philosophy, and sheer insanity involved that keeps things interesting. Considering the number or Writers and Artists involved we can certainly sign off on a high degree of diversity going down.

Issue six kicks off with the sort of mind bending allure the wine and cheese set favour, but us lesser mortals are at pains to understand. Johandson Rezende delivers the bizarre in Mesomur, a strip that I'm not even going to attempt to decipher, beyond pointing to some Asian inspired metaphysics going down. You're on your own with this one, good luck kids. I was more at home with the unique styling of Frank Candiloro with Lil Vargg, regular readers of ScaryMinds will be aware of this Dude and his neo-gothic artwork. Always nice to run across something from Candiloro, and he doesn't disappoint here. See what I mean by diversity, you go from a strip dealing with metaphysical to one that pretty much works on delivering the final one liner.

For those who dialled into part one of The Beast with a 1000 C**ts in issue number five, rest assured that part two of the homage to 1950 Sci-Fi outings is included in issue six of Yuck!. Finally our heroes get to confront the alien, and develop a unique way of communicating with it. We're talking the kind of love you clean up with a mop and bucket y'all. If matters of a sexual nature offend, then get the frack out now, Dexter Cockburn isn't taking any prisoners with this one. While this strip alone is raising the flag over the Eureka stockade in the face of recent moves by the Censorship board, alerted to the evils of the dark genre by far right Christian crusaders, I'm pleased no one is taking a backward step here.

Speaking of that subversive element, James Andre provides the script and Luke Pickett the art work to the deceptively simply MILF, Mummy I'd Like to Find - get your minds out of the gutter kids. The strip features the sort of matron that is putting her daughter through hell because the daughter isn't quite as pretty or thin as the other assorted princesses in her class. I would fully expect Mum to drive a large four wheel drive, and terrorise the roads of the North Shore of Sydney. Revenge is at hand for the daughter in the form of an ancient Egyptian curse, and the worse pun in the book. Andre should have been ashamed of himself for that one.

On top of the stories mentioned there is a whole lot of other content in Issue six's 40 odd pages of dark delights. I've given a sort of highlights tour, read the book to discover the rest for yourselves. Considering the comic is A5-mini-comic format that shouldn't present too many dilemmas, as you can pretty much read it anywhere from bed to public transport. There's some additional excellent strips waiting on your appreciation, dial in to get the full impact.

Guess for those new to the devilish decadence of Yuck! I should point out the book is in black and white, with strip length varying from single panels to multi page stories. As stated previously there really is diversity in content that will keep your nose to the page long into the night. Just be warned however that the contents might offend those souls who simply can't build a bridge over these social niceties. Yuck! doesn't even pretend to cater to the middle class newspaper strip reader, but then if that's your thing you probably wouldn't be reading this review in the first place.

I'm always up for a copy of Yuck! and applaud editor Andre for not allowing the book to be watered down in anyway. You know what you are going to get going into an issue so there shouldn't be any throwing of toys out of playpens if the content offends. Best issue thus far, Yuck! #6 is highly recommended to those who like their reading content to push the taboo lines.

Yuck #6 is available online from Milk Shadow Books and for a listed price of $4.99 presents great value for money. All previous issues are still available, along with a wide selection of other titles that cater to the dark genre and non-dark genre fan. Drop in and have a look around would be my advice, bring your credit card yo!