Kafka meets King Lear by way of Young Frankenstein in KID LOBOTOMY, a dark, demented, monthly satire that follows a dysfunctional family of hoteliers. Will sibling rivalry, seduction, and shapeshifting eventually lead to sanity or salvation?
Big Daddy is a rich hotelier who, in a cracked echo of King Lear, appoints his youngest descendant to manage The Suites, a peculiar hotel located behind the Black Crown Pub. Affectionately known as Kid, his good looks and swagger can't hide a rough childhood of strange therapies and brain operations that have awakened inner demons and psychodramas. This of course makes him eminently qualified to perf more
There's more. There's so much more. All of it, packed into a single issue that offers the sweet promise of more wanton abandon to come. Look upon Kid, standing over a rooftop at night in naught but his Union Jack speedo and Doc Martens, clutching at his harp like a wild-eyed Orpheus. He's comics' ownFerdinand Magellan, a navigator of the cerebral cortex. An icon. Read Full Review
If you want something new, different, trippy as hell, and just out there, Kid Lobotomy is the way to go. It's an absolutely fantastic comic and I'm hope it's the first of many, many more from Black Crown! Read Full Review
Speaking of the art, it is done by Tess Fowler whos deceptively simplistic yet wonderfully skilled interpretations of the furthest reaches of the human mind give us a glimpse into this insane world. Read Full Review
Kid himself is an enigma. He is everything I want from a tortured, creepy, supernatural punk kid, and more. The interspersed Kafka-isms, surgical elements, and mental anguish builds Kid into a complex, interesting character. At this point, Kid could go in any direction and it would be interesting, but I hope he delves deeper into the bowels and caverns of The Suites, rather than further into his own sexual escapades and confusions. Read Full Review
The needle is on the record and the first track is a banger. Lets get this party started. Read Full Review
Kid Lobotomy #1 is a mixed bag of a debut issue. It is visually strong while containing a potentially engaging narrative bogged down by flaws of pacing and development. There is still room for improvement next issue as ideas and characters are expanded upon. At the very least, Kid Lobotomy #1 shows that Black Crown publishing aims for comics that critically engage the reader. Read Full Review
Overall, KID LOBOTOMY follows Black Crowns mission as well as it can for the time. Its a lot harder to shock people than it used to be, especially in comics. What was once a dirty secret of the industry 50 years ago now exists almost anywhere but the big two. That being said, Both Milligan and Fowler bring their a-game to this good, and if you can reconcile their different styles, youll find a book that rests somewhere in between American Horror Story and the young adult horror genre, to name drop some works with a similar tone. Read Full Review
Fowlers embrace of the concept and the palpable energy she puts on the page, backed by the most conventionally leaning coloring in Lee Loughridges recent work eschewing the minimalist palettes he opened his work on Catwoman, Black Canary, and Wolf with a softer contrast more reminiscent of Fowlers frequent collaborator Tamra Bonvillain is more than enough to justify an initial investment in Kid Lobotomy, but Milligan will ultimately have to tug a lot harder at the threads he introduces here to draw out the considerable potential of their collaboration. Read Full Review
Its a curious start, and while it's clearly not going to appeal to everyone, I think this one is a slow burner that will gradually pick up momentum in the next few issues. Read Full Review
This first issue has a frenetic, unbalanced quality that fits right in line with the story's Kafka-esque sensibilities (and numerous references to Kafka himself). However, the jumbled narrative makes it difficult to truly connect with any of the characters or their struggles Read Full Review
If you're looking for the next Vertigo, right now, this isn't it - Kid Lobotomy is something a bit more impressionistic, a lot more avant garde, perhaps even a bit more self-indulgent. Only time will tell if this comic will settle into something a little more traditional, or if it will carry its out-there sensibilities, Direct Market trends be damned. Read Full Review
This issue was a pleasant surprise. I think the fun lies in the concept -- it toes the line between establishing some emotional weight for the characters, and still approaching from a place of surreal wackiness. I genuinely had no idea where it was going, and I loved that. The visuals are ok, but it was the narrative in this one that kept me reading.
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