{"id":21631,"date":"2020-02-09T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T08:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=21631"},"modified":"2020-02-07T18:53:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T18:53:27","slug":"liberty-meadows-sundays-book-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2020\/02\/09\/liberty-meadows-sundays-book-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty Meadows: Sundays Book One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Frank Cho<\/strong> (Image\/Monkey Boy Press)
\nISBN: 978-1-60706-564-7 (HB)<\/p>\n

It’s ALMOST too late to concoct a suitable St Valentine’s Day extravaganza worthy of the one who puts up with you, so let todays review serve to remind you that not only is love strange but it can also tolerate an incredible amount of unsavoury behaviour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it just shouldn’t have to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/em><\/p>\n

Like many wonderful modern comics strips, Liberty Meadows<\/strong> grew out of a prototype college newspaper incarnation: specifically, the University of Maryland (College Park) student periodical The Diamondback<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Back then the strip was called University\u00c2\u00b2<\/strong> but it still revealed the warped genius and stunning graphic virtuosity of native Marylander Frank Cho. As a syndicated strip Liberty Meadows<\/strong> launched on March 31st<\/sup> 1997, running until December 30th<\/sup> 2001. It also enjoyed a respectable run as a comic book released through Insight Studios.<\/p>\n

The strip which won a hoard of awards before going on hiatus (hey, if Bloom County<\/strong> can come back after decades, so long as the artist’s still alive, I’m keeping the faith for this and Calvin & Hobbes<\/strong>), is a whimsical masterpiece of comedy appealing to anyone afflicted with a love of pop culture, wistfulness, slacker-ness and unrequited passions. This first hardcover (or digital) compilation of full-colour Sunday strips cover the first three years and is saucily appreciated by Cho’s great pal and confederate Mike McSwiggin in his Introduction.<\/p>\n

What’s it About,<\/em> I hear you enquire? Easier asked than answered\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Exhibiting elements of the aforementioned Berkely Breathed’s magnum about Opus<\/em>, and cheekily pilfering and channelling every comicbook, TV, movie and trash culture icon you might imagine, the episodes occur in and around the animal sanctuary of Liberty Meadows and generally revolve around the ever-so-patient animal psychologist Brandy Carter<\/em> as she blithely tries to circumvent her innate hottie-ness and get on with her job.<\/p>\n

The major obstacles to this simple ambition include not just human impediments such as shyly adoring vet Frank Melisch<\/em>, clumsily dangerous janitor Tony<\/em>, sanctuary owner Julius<\/em>, and Brandy’s super sexy roommate Jen<\/em> (she’s a rocket scientist who loves to toy with men\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6) but also the scene-stealing frequently obnoxious smart alec talking animals such as midget circus bear Ralph<\/em>, literally sexist pig Dean<\/em>, hypochondriac frog Leslie<\/em>, innocent waif – and duck – Truman<\/em>, mute dachshund Oscar<\/em>, OCD-suffering raccoon Mike<\/em>, Khan<\/em> the catfish and an evil cow dubbed The Cow<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Further turning this small word upside down are conspiracy-theorist and local barkeep Al<\/em>, Brandy’s ex Roger<\/em>, her parents (say no more), and a couple of duplicates from a mirror universe: Evil Brandy<\/em> and Alternate Frank<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

You’ll thank me for not giving away any of the 138 beautifully rendered, seditiously surreal gags, but I will push my luck by stating Cho insinuates himself into proceedings on a regular basis (as forth-wall busting chimpanzee Monkey Boy<\/em>) and warning you to watch out for low flying dinosaurs, wandering daydreams, outbursts of 3-D, and constant outbreaks of strip and movie spoofs such as Prince Valium<\/em>, Mighty Shmoe Pong<\/em>, Jungle Gym<\/em> and Flush Gordon<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Frank Cho is a very funny guy and also one of the best dramatic illustrators in the business, so you’ll also appreciate the spiffy Sketch Gallery<\/em> featuring pencils, inks, roughs and some delicious images of Brandy as your favourite female superheroes.<\/p>\n

Magnificently redolent of (and proudly swiping from) Walt Kelly, Dave Stevens, Frank Frazetta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Michelangelo (not the turtle), and others of their prestigious ilk as the gag demands, Cho’s blend of anthropomorphic anarchy, sublimely lavish glamour illustration and devilish wit means this is a timeless treat and treatise on love you simply must see\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 and \u00c2\u00a9 2012 Frank Cho, Monkey Boy Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Frank Cho (Image\/Monkey Boy Press) ISBN: 978-1-60706-564-7 (HB) It’s ALMOST too late to concoct a suitable St Valentine’s Day extravaganza worthy of the one who puts up with you, so let todays review serve to remind you that not only is love strange but it can also tolerate an incredible amount of unsavoury behaviour … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Liberty Meadows: Sundays Book One”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[90,113,78,125,148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-classics","category-comedy","category-comic-strip-classics","category-humour","category-romance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-5CT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}