It’s the most wonderful time of the year for many indie comics fans making their way to Short Run Comix & Arts Festival in Seattle. This Saturday it’s the place to be to meet up with old friends, survey recent comix offerings and nab some items making their debut, like Brandon Lehmann’s WOMP WOMP #3. Are you already a Brandon Lehmann fan, or have you been waiting for a friendly nudge? Well, here goes. Let’s take a peek at this new title, a fine example of what you can find at Short Run.
WOMP WOMP #3 is Brandon Lehman’s new 28-page full color book debuting at Short Run.
What happens in the pages of WOMP WOMP stays in WOMP WOMP. All the more reason to seek it out. Seriously, these kind of books don’t read themselves. But if this book could, it would have hilarious tales to tell like the first story in this collection, “The Time Machine.” Yeah, you read that right. Lehmann goes on an all-out time travel trope bender to give the reader masterfully crafted satire. Lehmann keeps perfecting what he does to the point of it being just a sheer joy to read. I think he’s developed a highly original universe of deadpan humor that, like Frankenstein’s monster, is a beast moving under its own power. Ah, but don’t aim a pitchfork at this guy. Read. Enjoy. I think Lehmann is having a great time with his work and that’s a reward onto itself. And yet, it’s not too much to ask for more. With each year, more fans emerge, more ideas take shape for more comics. I see that Lehmann has some amazing prints of stand-alone art to sell along with his comics. I hope to maybe even see some animation down the road. Whatever he does, it’s finely-crafted and worth your attention.
Page excerpt from “The Time Machine”
So, in closing, I say, “Womp! Womp!” to all of you! “Womp! Womp!” Say it out loud. Fascinating how it instantly amuses. Well, it sounds like that sound you hear on game shows when the contestant gives the wrong answer, right? It’s a funny and weird sound and, hey, it can be a quick tonic for so much that we have to put up with in life. It sure is. I’m not gonna lie! I’m not gonna lie! Oh, how I hate that phrase. Have you ever heard anything more vacuous and phoney?! Well, . . . of course, you have! We put up with so much. All the wretched counter-intuitive contortions we must endure. And for what? As a sign that we’re a team player and totally and utterly sane? No, it’s madness, I tell you. Sheer and total bonkers. So, yeah, you make some time for yourself. A little (or a lot!) of ME time and yell it out proudly, scream it out unabashedly, “Womp! Womp!”
