What the hell should I read next? I wondered, as soon as I finished Accidents of Nature. Tongue just wasn’t holding my interest anymore (there is only so much “wah, he left me” that I can take), I wasn’t much in the mood for Thunder and Blood (even though the first chapter was decently intriguing), and in all honesty, I’m too busy to do much of any reading anyway. (The hazards of being a part-time and also freelance web designer: sometimes things just get insanely crazy!)

While I was at Mike’s tonight, he mentioned that he is out of box space for his comics and graphics novels. “Speaking of which,” he said. “I have to give you something to read.” He jumped up and dug out his three Wormwood graphic novels. He’d shown me them when he had first read them. The artwork is ghoulish and gothic, reminding me of a much more violent Jhonen Vasquez. The guy who does Wormwood also did 30 Days of Night (the movie was meh, but I hear the graphic novel is sick).

All I knew about Wormwood is that the main character is a dead body controlled by a little worm.

Totally up my alley; I was the token goth girl of my graduating high school class.

I took the books home and read the introducing chapter, “Leroy’s Special Brew,” in one sitting. I so wish I had the time to read more; these books have read-in-one-sitting potential, which is what I think Mike did. The scene opened with Wormwood and his robot sidekick — a ZZ Top lookalike — sipping beer at a demon strip club. They chat with Wormwood’s apparent ex-girlfriend, Medusa (the owner of the club), when a tentacle sprouts out of one of the other patron’s mouth, turning him into a venus flytrap — but scarier. The tentacles grab Wormwood, start to choke him, and the ZZ Top robot shoots Wormy’s head off.

AWESOME.

They then have to track down who started the whole mess, as Wormwood tells them that the tentacles are contagious and are implanted in people who come into contact with someone or something else infected with the fungus. Wormwood is a beer loving corpse. He deduces that the fungus is being put into the beer, and is pissed that someone is fucking with his beer.

It was a great introductory chapter. The author is also the artist, so what you see is what is exactly what was in his head. This, in my opinion, is how all comics should be. (Kudos to my future brother-in-law Robbie for writing and drawing his own graphic novel.) I feel like, with all of the chefs contributing to the stew, a lot of the original idea is lost and turns into something else entirely. I know I would go mad if I couldn’t draw, had to write a graphic novel, and couldn’t properly communicate to my artist what I was seeing.

Templesmith uses this prelude to explain that the demon strippers are actually guardians to the gates of Hell. His dialogue is colorful and witty, and it has less of a potty mouth than I do. (Seriously; we’re lucky the name of this site is not Fucking Bookworm. And this is why I will probably never get any advertisers.)

I also love the colors used; each page sticks to the same color palette, and the result is the feeling of being in a world full of witty undead, demons, and a few humans thrown in the mix.

There’s no strong language, but it’s pretty suggestive, so I wouldn’t recommend giving this to a kid. For anyone who can appreciate dark humor mixed with everyday humor, this is for you.

So what are your favorite graphic novels? Leave a comment and tell me about them!

PS: Take our poll so we can decide on our first book club read!