CHLOE

CHLOE

Black & White - 132 Pages - Adults Only

The Xeric-Winning debut graphic novel by Hans Rickheit, creator of the critically renowned The Squirrel Machine. Chloe is an estranged teenager living in a stifling rural New England town. After meeting an eccentric dwarfish hermit, she begins a descent into impossible visionary landscapes, sexual deviancy, and the forbidden realms of The Under-Brain. Contained in this early effort are the first explorations of the obsessive themes that continue to overflow in Rickheit's comics output: strange biological couplings, subconscious explorations and unspeakable erotic experiments.

"Words fail me. Reading this was a bit like watching insects crawling around inside of a dead thing for about 20 minutes, but in a good way, or at least in a “I can’t look away” kind of way. If you’ve ever wondered about the potential of the medium and what it can be capable of when somebody lets every dark corner of their brain shine for all the world to see, this is as close as it gets to required reading." - Kevin Bramer - OPTICAL SLOTH

Hans Rickheit's Xeric-funded book CHLOE is an oddly engrossing read that, unlike many of his past works, is reasonably coherent and thankfully relies a little less heavily on stomach-turning juxtapositions of sex, violence and bestial mutations. Which isn't to say that all are not still present in the eerie dosages that make reading Rickheit a reliably queasy experience.

Rickheit is a talented draftsman who handles human figures, animals, inanimate objects, and the nightmarish mutations that frequent almost all of his works with equal aplomb. He's also a natural storyteller, intuitively changing angles to maintain a visual flow, using perspective to set moods, and smartly shifting scenes to sustain his chosen pace.

CHLOE is Rickheit's most fully realized work to date, and the title character is perhaps the most believable and sympathetic Rickheit has yet created. For all those who have yet to experience Hans Rickheit's startlingly unique work, this is the best possible jumping on point. Just buckle up firmly, and take a big handful of Dramamine, because it's going to be a very strange trip. - Robert Young, NINTH ART FRIDAY REVIEW