Safari Honeymoon

Jacobs (By This You Shall Know Him) belongs to two groups that are increasingly influential in the art comics world. He’s among the many cartoonists influenced by the abstract fantasy art style of the 1990s art collective Fort Thunder, and he’s also worked on the wildly popular cartoon Adventure Time. The fusion of the two styles makes for lush, lively fantasy. In his latest, a pair of newlyweds, accompanied by an accomplished safari guide, spend their time observing and shooting at wildlife in a jungle jam-packed with bizarre, soul-eating parasites, all the while wading through the awkwardness of their newfound married life. The jungle seeps in around them in both obvious and subtle ways: the guide’s tongue has been replaced by a parasite that heightens his sense of taste, and the husband’s frustration with his lack of authority away from his prestigious job captures the shifting power dynamics between him, his wife, and their escort. The writing is terse and effective throughout, full of tantalizing glimpses at the bizarre creatures that inhabit the jungle. Jacobs makes some of the most intricate, most fascinating, and oddest stories in comics today. (June)