Obscure Comic of the Month is a column where I take a look at a comic or series that hasn't really been talked about. This covers independent comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more.
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Geopolitical Manipulation Through the Use of Fungi Based Parasites on 186F by LANDO – Decadence University Press/50 Watts Books 2016
Contains Spoilers
Geopolitical Manipulation Through the Use of Fungi Based Parasites on 186F is one of those comics that you take one look at and think 'Okay, I've really got to find out what all this is about.' The comic is part of LANDO's Decadence University Press series, a group of stories stylising themselves as old educational textbooks, each printed in coloured ink on coloured paper, they have a unique style that stands out from the crowd and can't be ignored.
Geopolitical Manipulation Through the Use of Fungi Based Parasites on 186F specifically tells the story of a race of tentacle-faced aliens living life on an earth-like planet. Completely textless, the reader is left to their own initiative in piecing together the sequence of events we are brought to witness.
Then, almost as though through the logic of a dream, we follow a seemingly lost and emaciated alien, wandering through barren wastes. The alien then comes across a large mushroom, which in turn drops an egg-like spore onto the helpless creature's head, possessing and taking control, though to what degree is left ambiguous.
It's at this point, re-reading the comic, that we realise that all the aliens bar the tiny one at the start have had such spores stuck to their heads. The implication, though likewise ambiguous, is that the war and empire are being instigated by the fungus.
The story ends with a single panel of a city built around a giant alien skull, with an even bigger fungus spore on top, shattered and broken apart by bombs. Like previous panels in the comic, it's an ambiguous note to end on, open to many interpretations. Does this indicate that the aliens might have finally rose up and fought off the control of their fungal overlords, or that the fungus themselves have devastated the planet by turning on one another?
Geopolitical Manipulation Through the Use of Fungi Based Parasites on 186F is only twelve pages long, but it packs so many ideas and wild concepts onto each page that it feels longer. The artwork is fantastic and evocative, surreal and yet realistic at the same time. The war weary soldiers and blackened battlefields strike a sombre tone, and by the story's very nature it feels as though we are only catching a small glimpse of a larger picture.
Due to the story's ambiguity (last time I swear,) it demands to be read and re-read again, the meanings of it's dream world pondered over. That alone makes Geopolitical Manipulation Through the Use of Fungi Based Parasites on 186F far more than a short comic that you'll read, enjoy, but probably soon enough forget about. It's scope is far grander than it's limited page count would normally allow.
The comic serves as a perfect demonstration of the kind of comics that LANDO's Decadence University Press series can cover, and if Geopolitical Manipulation Through the Use of Fungi Based Parasites on 186F is any indication, the entire series has carved out it's own unique place in the world of independent comics.
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Jack Harvey 2023. Geopolitical Manipulation Through the Use of Fungi Based Parasites on 186F is (c) LANDO. Images used under fair use.
