Sniffin' Grundies

The Comics Issue 2010

by Patrick Rapa

I do not know what grundies are. I have a guess — there may be a clue in our culture's affinity for elegantly brief portmanteaus — but I've never looked it up and I do not plan to. I wish to preserve the giddy sense of mystery I felt when I first set eyes on Jameson Murphy's untitled submission to this year's Comics Issue. If you haven't read it yet, do so now (look below).

WTF, right? Is that a fingernail on the grundies-sniffer's nose in the first panel? Did he, like, stuff the grundies in his cheek and then turn into a rocket in the third panel? Much like the lumpy snake in the middle, I am unabashed in my bewilderment and amusement.

But maybe you're like that stilt-legged banana-bird, utterly nonplussed by the sniffer's antics. Perhaps you are even grossed out, because you do know what grundies are. That's fine. There are plenty more chances for this year's Comics Issue to win you over with sex, violence and weirdness, starting with our beautiful front cover, drawn by local comics superhero Brian "Box" Brown.

And of course we received and enjoyed plenty more entries than we could jam into the pages of this recession-era newspaper, so check out our other favorites at Critical Mass over the next few days. Ain't no big deal.

(pat@citypaper.net)

Click any comic to enlarge it:

Andy Hood

Jameson Murphy

Cody Pickrodt

Dennis Lingg

Lou Matlow and Rog Petersen

Jacob Lambert

Andrea Pearson

B.H. Mills

Greg Erskine

K-Fai Steele

M. Jacob Alvarez

Patch