produced by Łukasz Kowalczuk
introduced by Kek-w (2000AD)
For Rats and Crows Publishing
Creativity is a strange thing; sometimes it compels an artist to tell a story based in fact, sometimes it compels them to make a story based in fiction, but then sometimes it makes the artist use the book to spew all of the craziness from their head to the page. I’m not sure if the following quote will be in the final book or not, because I have been lucky enough to catch the “Gamma Edition,” meaning this is not the final version, but I don’t think I could explain the feel of this book any better.
“An alternative time-line where everything is day-glo and hyper-lurid, is coloured in eyeball-sizzling limes and vein-popping crimsons; a radioactive saturday-morning cartoonverse populated by the bastard grandchildren of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and the Garbage Pail kids.”
The art in Slime is exactly as described, eyeball sizzling and extreme whether black and white or colorful, all the while being extreme in nearly every other way as well. The art and story both remind me of a cartoon called Super Jail on Cartoon Network a crazy thrill ride of ridiculous proportions. Slime is actually several short stories put into this one book, it seems like it’s all over the board and just a wacky mix of whatever came to Kowalczuk’s mind but there is actually some cohesiveness to the stories. The stories are certainly out there and strange but the art and stories go together like peas and carrots, or more appropriately like insanity and genius.
Slime had a successful Kickstarter and is part of Rat’s and Crow’s Publishing which I really love because the guys behind Rat’s and Crow’s are passionate about comics and producing great work. Slime is at home under Rat’s and Crow’s and I have nothing but the utmost respect for them as a company, they give the artist’s a platform to be free and create without an overbearing hand of a publisher. The freedom to create and be an artist is essential to the indie comic world and the proof that it’s the right way to go about running a publishing company is proof in all of Rat’s and Crow’s properties. I give Rat’s and Crow’s credit where credit is due, I don’t see Slime being successful without a company like this taking a chance and allowing Kowalczuk to do exactly what he wants to do.
If Slime looks like the adventure you have been waiting for then you can get it on Rat’s and Crow’s Publishing website. This is the link to the print and the link for the digital copies.
