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ARROWS BRING COMFORT: An Alphabet Book
by John Hankiewicz and Onsmith
(56pp mini comic, $2.00 from
John Hankiewicz / 18 W. Traube Ave. / Westmont, IL / 60559 USA or
Onsmith or
The Holy Consumption, which also offers a special edition with a signed and numbered, hand-tinted etching by Hankiewicz for $10.00)
Review by Mike Hunter
This mini runs through each letter of the alphabet, the name of a household object assigned to each. Onsmith and Hankiewicz take turns illustrating those objects, which are given a visual "twist," in the surreal fashion of Meret Oppenheim's famed "Fur-Lined Teacup" sculpture. Some are sinisterly unsettling - a toothbrush sprouts fishhooks instead of bristles, for instance - while others are of the "what's wrong with this picture" variety. (An oven is missing its door, a teakettle its handle.) Onsmith's pulled back on his usual cartoonishness, both artists rendering the bizarro items in a deadpan fashion most apropos for surrealism, as Magritte well knew. On the last page there's a drawing of an arrow, resting peacefully on the pillow it's pierced. A perfect encapsulation of the slightly creepy charm of this clever little book.
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