“-vol.1: Headtrip”
Story, art, letters, and shy bladder by Fernando Pinto; Published by 215 Ink
Warped! kicks off amusingly with an illustrated disclaimer in which creator Fernando Pinto reels off a motherlode of obscenities (you name it, it’s there; he even gets very, um, creative at times) to prepare the reader for an orgy of profanity to follow (actually the book rarely gets that hardcore in its language).
The action starts with Sandy, our co-protagonist, whose mission on an alien planet is to secure a baby slug-like creature, but she runs afoul of its awakened mommy slug-thing. Sandy gets the baby slug to her partner and Sandy’s co-star Angus, her business partner/ roommate who “likes to read too much”. The duo escape aboard their spacefaring abode, “The Millenium Trollop”.
Then comes “The story so far!!” which Pinto states are “2 pages of exposition catching the reader up with what our main characters are about, since the writer is not good enough to do it in a subtle manner like them pros do it. Excelsior!” Needless to say, this encapsulates the origins of our hapless duo. They met on Earth at the “Sacred Mother to Those with Teenage and Irresponsible Parents Who Drink and have Sex in the Back of A Pacer” orphanage. Sandy was left in a basket outside the home. Angus arrived at the home after his mother was compacted at the junkyard. They bonded over the fact Angus was a robot and Sandy had body odor, hence no one wanted to hang out with either of them, and so, they hung out with each other.
Sandy was kicked out of the nunnery at 19, with Angus in tow. From there, they started their own bounty hunter business (“not as cool as Bobba Fett or anything. We couldn’t afford the fancy helmets” according to Sandy). “The story so far!!” actually is quite good enough, despite Pinto’s protestations; with both pages taken as a whole, the design is very striking.
Next stop: Staz’s Joint, a waystation for bounty hunters where, unfortunately, Sandy and Angus are persona non grata. After a brief introduction to the bizarre assortment of bounty hunters frequenting Staz’s, we find Sandy attempting to collect bounty on the baby slug creature that they procured earlier. Staz refuses to pay in full because it’s unconscious. After coming to terms, Staz offers them a new job, a lucrative new gig: transportation services for an “adult entertainment mogul”, said services giving a ride to Alondra Luna, a porn star that Angus has a major thing for. And off they go, headed for another surely twisted mission.
Pinto closes the book with “Filler Page”, a lengthy 2 page screed on the genesis of Warped!. Afterwards there are two pages of character sketches, which are quite excellent.
Pinto piles on the absurd, the whimsical, the vulgar, the poor taste, and the pop culture references. The book is thick with attitude – namely, Sandy’s, as she is our narrator and guide through this indeed warped universe. Pinto’s line quality is topnotch; his art reminds me at times of Jamie Hewlett – appropriate, as Sandy has a glimmer of Tank Girl, and a touch of Octobriana sans the politicizing. But she is definitely no Barbarella. However, her blunt edge, punk rock attitude, and dark humor do somehow congeal into an affable sex appeal. I for one am ready for more of Sandy and her hapless companion Angus.
