ASTRO MOUSE VS. ASTRO CHICKEN

This graphic novel, imported from Spain, is full of unlikely sentences.

Readers who open this book to a random page might see, “We’re prisoners of a bubble gum bubble!” or “Light Bulb, I never knew you were so good at sculpting monsters from dinorhinosaurus boogers!” or “SPLATASPLATSPLAT!”—which is the sound a spaceship makes when an enormous green booger is caught in the propulsion system. This story is not lacking in boogers. Astro Mouse and his crewmates are constantly in the middle of an adventure, and most of the adventures involve boogers or poop or pee. In fact, one of the main characters is a living turd named Caca. The stories are best for readers with no attention span whatsoever, because Astro Mouse flits from one peril to another as though someone is changing channels on a remote. Anyone expecting a logical story should know that the characters—none of them human—include a light bulb and a potato who’s a championship wrestler. The character design is often appealing and sometimes witty. Potatoator has five eyes, and Astro Mouse looks like a subversive parody of Mickey—as if his nose had been inflated with a balloon pump. But some of the characters—in particular a ship’s domineering captain—are so unpleasant that readers may wish their segments were even shorter.

The perfect book for someone who’s had way too many energy drinks.