The second volume collecting the popular Web comic Goats
gets off to a slow start, but then, it's understandably hard to follow a story line in which your characters turn God into a sandwich and eat him. Goats
is reminiscent of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
, only stranger and less plot-driven. Diablo, a rooster with a can-do attitude who happens to be a Satanist, and Fish/Fineas, a mad scientist goldfish with multiple personalities, are the closest thing to heroes. Together, they venture forth to stop Diablo's quasi-evil son Oliver and save the multiverse. Meanwhile Jon and Phillip, a pair of geeky human slackers, sit around a bar for a while before getting kidnapped to reprogram the universe. The multiverse, you see, is a giant virtual reality program, and both worlds are looking for the programmer who can change things for the better. Of course, being slackers, Jon and Phillip have no idea how to do this and little interest in doing so, much to the consternation of their kidnappers. Random potshots at libertarians, user agreements and Monsanto follow. A baroque confection of jokes, science fiction tropes and sheer inspired weirdness. (Dec.)
