Catalytic Conversions (Infinite Wheat Paste #1)

The sprawling trade debut from Pidge collects their ongoing Ignatz-nominated comics series about the trippy adventures of an expanding universe of tangentially connected characters. The cast includes Addy, who’s left to cope when her omnipotent superhero friend Jeff self-destructs; Addy’s girlfriend Lilah, a witch investigating monsters in Arizona (“Magic’s so... complicated out west,” she complains); Soe, around whom water and ice keep materializing; Casimir, an alien renegade who winds up working at a truck stop “on the outer rim of the Perseus arm”; and Otis, a robot exploring Buddhism after the death of his human husband. Their linked stories are populated with humans, aliens, animal people, and uncategorizable beings. Pidge’s chunky line art, drenched in neon colors, recalls early webcomics, 1960s psychedelic cartoonists like Vaughn Bodē, and such underground animators as Sally Cruikshank. Though rough and rambling, this cockeyed series will hook readers nostalgic for classic underground comics. (May)