By Lance Tooks (NBM/Comics Lit)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-430-9
Lance Tooks is a story-teller with a mainstream comics pedigree and a fascination with many media and mediums. Darlin’ Niki is the second in a quartet of stand-alone stories dedicated to exploring the relationship between Humanity and the Devil (the others being The Devil on Fever Street, The Student and Between the Devil & Miles Davis) in sharp, subversive, satirical and sometimes polemical terms.
Sixteen year-old Niki has been thrown out of her comfy home by her dad. Henry Gojira is the World’s Greatest Capitalist, with nations hanging on his every word. Since her birth Niki has been the company figurehead and logo, with her face as on Apparel, Food, Entertainment, Merchandise, and even the company’s personal religion, Gojiranetics. But the boss is not your typical bread-head. He is also the World’s Greatest Philanthropist – as long as you do things his way…
When Niki rebels, desperate for freedom and the chance to make her own decisions, she discovers that even with like-minded friends to help her it’s not that easy to escape, forgive or forget… So what is a parent to do?
This allegory is compelling and breezily told, if occasionally a little heavy-handed, and the simplistic black-and-white cartooning, cannily blended with collage and computer enhancements, make this a very fresh-looking book, with a good-old fashioned mission to make the reader think. A great example of the power words and pictures can wield.
© 2005 Lance Tooks. All Rights Reserved.