Kyle Starks' strangely perverse but ultimately entertaining new comic, Rock Candy Mountain, is a feast for the ears more so than it is for the eyes. It opens with a bizarrely funny scene in which the devil himself takes on a group of hobos, and he doesn't stop until, alas, all of them are dead, much to his own surprise. "Well, shit", he says to himself. "I really should have kept one of them alive."
The story focuses on a mysterious drifter called Jackson, a loner who rides a Kentucky bound freight train in search of the mythical Rock Candy Mountain, and who encounters various people on his journey. One of the men he meets, a failed West Coast movie star, who goes by the name of "Hollywood Slim", is the perfect antithesis to the homeless vagabonds that inhabit Starks' goofy and comically stylized illustrations, which are more reminiscent of Sunday cartoons than anything else that Image publishes these days. His writing style is also witty and sharp, and full of various zingers ("He's got punch diarrhea and their faces are the toilet bowl").
Rock Candy Mountain (colors by Chris Schweizer, design by Dylan Todd) is most certainly a unique new vision on the independent comic book scene. Its juxtaposition of grotesque caricatures and clever one-liners in Starks' perverse hobo society recall the wit and satire of Mark Twain. Here's hoping that Jackson reaches his legendary destination, and that he takes thousands of new fans there along with him.
B+
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