If I had to pick the quintessential Joe Hutchinson story, there are a lot of good ones. But then you would throw me up to a wall and threaten me within an inch of my life…so I’d have to pick one. Whimpering, shaking uncontrollably, I’d cry out:
MY FISH TOLD ME OF THE CRAVING!
(And then I’d give up whatever shred of dignity I’d have left to be set free…but that’s another story.)
Seriously, this one is perhaps Joe’s masterpiece. 16 minicomics pages (including the cover), superb storytelling, crazy art. A plot that starts slow…inserts the “twist”…and goes insane. Throw in a bit of the macabre, and you’ve got yourself a gem.
Take a look and see what I mean:
Again, these are greyscale scans where the photocopied minicomic has a goldenrod cover stock wrap — hence the grey pages.
That said, brother Daryl (an accomplished graphic designer by trade, and better with the digital tools than I) remastered this minicomic and every other Joe Hutchinson story we could find related to animals and packed them into a single volume — Joe’s Comix: WILD KINGDOM! 124 pages, colored for the first time in a glorious full magazine-size package. It’s wonderful. A true Phoenix Masters project, to be sure.
Phoenix Productions 