Slime Freak

It’s the dialogue that really made me fall in love with Carlos Gonzalez’ epic sci-fi series, “Slime Freak”. I’m not sure what the early issues are like, I only have one of them, and it’s just an A4 size sheet of paper folded in half, a big difference compared to the 30-40 page regular issues he’s putting out now, three of which came out this year. I think that started with issue #6, which also included a Russian Tsarlag CD-R. The prolificacy alone is mind-blowing.


This is a comic that is more about the immediate reading experience rather than connecting from issue-to-issue, mostly due to the innumerable cast of characters (and missing a couple of issues), though maybe it would be easier if collected into one continuous volume. The story follows various factions as they vie for attainment of “Havaskin ability”, a powerful exoskeletal suit created through bizarre alchemic processes. It’s a weird, horror movie world of ghosts, mutation, super science, and underground celebrity. The characters are snake-like in appearance with elaborate costume patterning. This is something that I have recognized as important to Carlos in real life as well, always donning a specific outfit when he is performing, common objects given unreal potential as props in a creepy, semi-alternate universe.


At the end of issue #9, he includes an excerpt of Wally Wood’s “My World”, which is a more than apt analogy. You can tell Carlos puts the same love and sweat into his work, not just in story and art, but in composition and physical object. He includes regular “see issue #X” footnotes, tiny profile faces next to narration, Xerox art, shout-outs, center spreads, and universal cover design of hand-drawn colored pencil outlines. He breathes the medium like Vincent Price. I want to find this in the drugstore.