“I was there when they landed on the moon in a studio in Kentucky in June; I’ve got Kennedy’s brain in a jar … if you knew what I knew you wouldn’t laugh so hard”
Several years ago — and by that I mean back in 2012, Gordon Harris was nice enough to send me Pedestrian, his post-apocalyptic tale about … well, it’s basically about regular people just living their lives in a world that has no support for them anymore. 
In my review, I noted that the book ends on a note that begs for a sequel, and after 12 years, Harris has done one, Dinner with a Conspiracy Theorist, which, as the cover contends, is an “unnecessary sequel,” although I would argue against that. In fact, this book cries for a sequel, too, so I hope Harris doesn’t take another decade continuing his story! (Although, I suppose, he probably has to eat, so we’ll allow him to make money for that.) Dinner with a Conspiracy Theorist is 64 pages long and costs $17.95.
Ok, so in Pedestrian, a dude named Ray, who always wears a bellhop outfit (he explains why, just a bit, in this new book), is living in his post-apocalyptic world when he discovers there’s another person out there, a young lady named Tamaya (who’s the conspiracy theorist in this title). They come across a carrier pigeon with a map attached to its leg, which they follow to a small compound where lives a dude named Joe. They meet him toward the end of the book, but right as it ends, a small house (it might be a port-o-potty, but I’m not sure) is split in two … by a barbarian with a sword. Yep, a barbarian-looking dude, with cape and winged helmet and big ol’ sword, just shows up in Joe’s outhouse. Nobody finds this strange, I should point out. The second book picks up pretty much exactly where the first one left off, as they all head inside Joe’s house for some tea (sadly, there is no dinner, as nobody eats anything during the book). The barbarian (who never gets a name) is fascinated by stuff like electricity (Joe’s compound, unlike a lot of the rest of the world, seems to function fairly well); Tamaya launches into her conspiracy theories, which are wonderfully and wildly unhinged, and Ray begins to hear strange noises coming from outside the house. Joe explains to them that he once worked for the government, trying to solve the weird problems of the world, which does not endear him to Tamaya. 
There appears to be a portal to the barbarian’s world opening on the property, and as it does, it spews forth a horrific monster from the very depths of hell! … a giant emu. Yes, you can see its legs on the cover there, and it is kind of peeved. The barbarian takes this all in stride, as he’s used to fighting giant birds, but other things are happening, too, as Tamaya investigates the strange noise and discovers … something odd. The book ends on another cliffhanger, as something from the barbarian’s past shows up, and it is very clearly connected to “our” world, so perhaps there’s more to the barbarian than we think!!!!
As with the first book, this is more surreal than you expect. Harris doesn’t worry too much about the fact that the world has ended — sure, there aren’t a lot of people around and there’s no infrastructure, but everyone seems fairly healthy and Joe, at least, doesn’t seem to be hurting for food and shelter. This is, honestly, more a book about people just hanging out and trying to make some sense of the world — which is where Tamaya comes in — than anything, although Harris certainly does move the plot along, albeit in very weird directions. It’s a difficult book to review because of that — it literally is just people hanging out and talking, with a giant emu thrown in for shits and giggles. But Harris does a nice job with the characters — they each have a different personality, and they bounce off each other well. Joe seems a bit more mature than the others, and he takes the whole “apocalypse” thing seriously, while Tamaya’s obsession with fitting everything into a clear narrative seems to speak to a deep trauma in her past. Ray is the easy-going type, while our barbarian, like all good barbarians, is all about action and not introspection, and he seems oddly pleased to have something to fight when the emu shows up. There is some action, as I noted — giant emu and all — and Harris does an interesting thing with moving the plot along, as the next stage of the characters’ journey comes about because the barbarian is fighting the emu. Things are getting weirder in Harris’s world, and I have no idea where he’s going with it, but it’s kind of neat. 
Of course, the biggest problem is that it took 12 years for this sequel to come out, so who knows when the next one will come out. If you’re wanting a coherent plot, this might not be for you, but as an interesting character study, Harris does a nice job with it.
Harris’s art is fine, but not great. His figure work is still a bit stiff, although the barbarian’s fight with the emu flows a bit better than I thought it would. His perspective can be a bit wonky, too, but it’s not a deal-breaker. His storytelling works quite well, though, which is important, and he does a good job, as the story gets weirder, of blending the mundane parts of the art with the more esoteric stuff. When the emu breaks through the dimensional barriers, Harris does a nice job not only showing the cracks in reality within the panels, but he cracks the panels a bit so that the entire fabric of the comic itself starts breaking down. He does a nice job with the scale of the emu, as we get a very good sense about how big it is and how impressive it is that the barbarian is able to defeat it, and after the big fight, as the book gets even stranger, he does some clever things with the art to show how the world is getting odder for our heroes. He’s good at showing the loneliness of the world, too, as it is after an apocalypse, so even though the world doesn’t look too devastated, it feels devastated, because Harris does a good job with the isolation of Joe’s place and the characters. It’s not great art, but it gets the job done.
I’m not entirely sure where to get this comic, unfortunately. It doesn’t appear to be on Amazon, and Harris’s web site isn’t viable anymore. You can find some of his stuff on-line, and maybe if you poke around, this will come up. I do hope we get more of it sooner than it took this one to come out, but we shall see!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆
