ZIPS AND EELOO MAKE HUMMUS

An alien duo comically attempt to make hummus.

Zips is a tentacled, single-eyed orange extraterrestrial, while pal Eeloo is a cute childlike green creature with crab-pincer hands. Together, they host a self-styled cooking show in which they impart culinary wisdom based on their extensive knowledge of human food, garnered over the course of nearly one week on Earth. Overconfident Zips has come to the table ill-prepared. Realizing how interminably long the dried beans must soak leads to frustration. Managing the machinations of the mysterious food processor tests Zips’ dexterity. A missing ingredient requires a risky dash to the grocery store. When the aliens finally complete their concoction, readers will have learned a lot about both of them: Zips’ bombastic attitude belies a general lack of knowledge on all things human, while it turns out that Eeloo’s pincer hands have many useful applications in the kitchen. Their humorous quest mirrors a caregiver and child experimenting in the kitchen, a location where many readers may have experienced failure, persistence, and, hopefully, a final tasty victory. The structure of the comic is rather rigid, with pages generally composed of four panels of dialogue emphasizing the duo’s interplay, but the story is most exciting when they break beyond that, making messes and reacting to challenges with visual gags.

A mix of simple comedic ingredients with a few twists as garnish makes for a funny, fast read.