BLASTOSAURUS: Retardation review

Here is where Richard Fairgray, the legally blind comic artist from New Zealand, really starts to up the ante with his comics. While the first two story arcs were good, Retardations is when Richard really starts to deepen his writing. Retardation (the term) refers to a narrative device commonly used in film, whereby certain characters or the audience are given information which for one reason or another is withheld from another character. This issue is a one-shot, and follows a hillbilly janitor working the night shift at the shadowy company Factory Corp. His pet frog escapes into the off-limits underground rooms of the building, and he wanders around many rooms, oblivious to the horrendous experiments going on around him. This issue is quite intriguing because it sets up little subplots for further exploration in later issues  while the janitor just cleans everything. And you kind of have to laugh at the janitor (Keith) who has absolutely no idea what is going on around him. He cleans a dirty window and cannot see a man being tortured on the other side. When the man inside is killed, and a pool of blood seeps out, Keith simply thinks it is red paint and mops it up. 

The art, if Richard's previous artwork in the comic is anything to go by, is great. Detailed backgrounds intrigue and tantalize, and all is clear and well-set out. And a cool thing to watch out for is when Keith is in an enormous room, filled with preserved failed experiments in big 

canisters. Among the freaks inside these are a little ghost from the Pacman game, Elmo, some characters from the Aaargh! Real Monsters cartoon, a Furby, a dwarf, and what seems to be Dr Neo Cortex from the Crash Bandicoot video game.

Overall, I'm rating Retardation 8.5/10. I'm left interested and satisfied at the end, but until the teasers of what's to come are elaborated on more, I can't help but see some pointlessness in it.

Richard Fairgray is a bloody genius with comics, and he's really onto something here. Go to blastosaurus.com for more cool stuff. And now Blasto comics are gonna be available here in the US of A - Richard has signed on with Jeff Katz from Top Cow comics, and these + other Blastosaurus comics will be released under the imprint of American Original Press soon. Woohoo!

Posted by Fantom at 2:23 pm, WEDNESDAY 24 June