“I have an ambitious need; I want to watch you destroy me. The fun part will be knowing that you won’t.”

One subject that I’ve already tackled a few times is how much I love the myriad of ways that anthropomorphism can be presented in comics and indeed, across other media. If the few posts I’ve made about furry comics so far prove anything it’s that there are countless ways to tackle subject or explore other subjects with it.

Rory Frances is another artist whose work I really love, and although he has a longer on going comic at the moment that I want to write about in the future,I really want to focus on his shorter comics and the personal interests he showcases in them. His works is currently being featured in the on-line video game mico-zine Zeal.

If you’ll excuse me going of on a tangent for a moment, you should really check out Zeal too! I’m not a video games fan by any stretch and still love the unique perspective they give on classic and “rarely discussed” games, showing new and strange ways of thinking about them. It’s an ethos I can completely get behind.

The comics presents a world with humans and ‘toon characters co-existing. I won’t focus or dissect the world too much as neither does the comic, Frances seems far more interested in focusing on the interactions of it’s characters. Boys Are Slapstick deftly delves into the idea of identity, especially in relationships and how partners perceive each other. Here it’s emphasised by certain characters being literal ‘toons. Safe and non threatening. I think maybe a lot of us can relate to this? That stage in a new relationship, the act of performance as you present yourself in the way you think the other person would like you to be. Even perhaps liking it? Not having to deal with the spikier, altogether more complicated and messy version of yourself.

Read it in it’s entirety over at the Mammon Machine: Zeal website along with his second contribution ‘Date Nite’. I was going to throw up the NSFW warning, which I guess it still might be if you think situations involving large cartoon mallets fall under that category…