11 2002 |
The strip isn't for the faint hearted - plenty of swearing and sex and blasphemy, but that's what makes it great. In a Bloom County kind of way, it uses these extremes to make it's points. There's no story, save subplots which last a week or so; each strip is written in a newspaper 3-5 panel style, with setup, delivery, punchline. If you've read Garfield lately, you can see how this structure can fail in a miserable, disemboweling way. Sinfest suceeds. God is embodied by disembodied hands, with handpuppets, there's the devil, there's a zealot, there's the manly-man-in-a-child's-body, there's the sexpot, and the list goes on and on. There's even a tip 'o the hat to Tom Stoppard, and a bit of strange comic-strip self-reference. Sinfest takes on some pretty heavy and taboo concepts, but it's handled in a smart, funny way. Oh, and to break things up there's a cat and a dog, who don't seem to live in the same universe as the others, but are just as relevant and funny. Go have a look - be amused.