Customer Reviews

Lio's Astonishing Tales: From the Haunted Crypt of Unknown Horrors

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love Mark Tatulli's quirky cartoon tales of Lio, the "Weird Kid"; the befriender of giant squid, spiders, zombies, bunnies and aliens; the maker of flying machines, invisibility potions and Killer Robots; the puzzle and pride of his bemused father. The cartoons are consistently funny and the perpetually optimistic, cheerfully oddball and eternally creative Lio is an inspiration to aspiring Mad Scientists everywhere.

This treasury contains the same Lio cartoons that were previously published in the collections "Happiness Is a Squishy Cephalopod" and "Silent But Deadly". It adds only a small amount of new material: a few quirky fake adverts on the back and inside covers and four pages of early experimental sketches of Lio. There are also occasional comments on the cartoons from the author: typical two or three lines per cartoon, on around 30% of the cartoons.

If you're new to Lio, this is a great place to begin!

There's a trendlet of comic strip authors offering commentary on their own work, and this one example does a good job of commenting in an interesting and enlightening way on the creative process without overdoing it. The bits about people objecting to strips, as well as the admission that some strips didn't really work, are particularly good insights into the mind of Tatulli. New material includes the front and back covers and conceptual sketches. I read this with my 11 y.o. and 14 y.o. but some of the comments went over their heads, which is no problem. It may not be appropriate for the youngest kids, but the clever and lighthearted tone make even the most macabre strips funny, rather than scary. You have to wonder if Tatulli was influenced by Gahan Wilson, but if he was he doesn't admit it here.

I have to say that this is one neat book. It is a comic book, in the same vain of Garfield or Calvin and Hobbes. I wasn't familiar with Lio before this book. Lio is a bit of an interesting character, he sort of reminds me of Ed Grimley (performed by Martin Short) but much younger.

Lio is a little kid who is very much obsessed with the macabre and elements that are rather malicious in nature. For instance, in one of the comic strips, Lio is beating the Grim Reaper/Death in the board game "Life". Another adventure shows Lio visiting Paris with his father. Now his father is totally taken by the beauty of this city. Not Lio, he runs right to Notre Dame so he can take a picture of the Hunchback.

Some of the comics are in color, where others are in black and white. Mark Tatuulli also puts some commentary underneath many of the comic strips explaining his motive behind each strip and/or the history of the comic. The cover of the book itself has this rustic, shopworn feel to it. Almost like a throwback to old pulp fiction magazines.

I think this is a great twist on comic strips; many times comics are very slapstick or base the smiles on pratfalls. The adventures of Lio are very wry and dark in nature, this leads to very abysmal type of humor. It might not be everyone's cup of tea. It also might be determined on an individual basis if these comics would be appropriate for little children. In contrast, the illustrations are rather cute and there really isn't any dialogue between any of the characters, so there is a level of simplicity to these strips.

I found this book to be a refreshing twist on the standard comic and I will be keeping my eye out for Lio in the future.

I had no familiarity with the character or comic strip of Lio before reading this book. I picked it solely based upon the cover art, and I was not disappointed. The entire book is a high quality presentation, with commentary on the cartoons, early sketches, rejected cartoon concepts and even hilarious fake advertisements by the artist. The book is miles ahead of the usual newspaper comic collections of just straight reprints with no-frills. I had almost as much fun reading the supplemental materials as I did reading the comics themselves, and it looks great too!

The comic itself is an interesting series of one-off jokes. The artist talks about how hard he worked to distinguish it from stuff like "The Far Side," but it does tread some of the same darkly comic material sometimes. It also shares some similarity with stuff like "Dexter's Laboratory," with the main character Lio often participating in off the wall mad-science experiments. There is also a bit of Tim Burton flavor with the fascination and wonder of seemingly monstrous creatures.

All that said, Lio has a distinct voice and look, with an emphasis upon visual storytelling and a fun, sketchy style that is distinct from the clean and sparse look of most modern comic strips. The one-off strips keep it moving along briskly, with only the slightest hints towards a continuity.

If you like dark, off-beat comedy that has a bit of a fantastic flavor, then this is an excellent comic delivered in a book with a great presentation.

Having given up on newspaper comics for a while now, I was very delightfully surprised to discover Lio. As many of the other reviewers have stated, it's very hard to describe the architecture of a general Lio panel as it treads along that fine line of dark humor mixed with the somewhat grotesque and ironic. There were quite a few strips that I'm surprised made it into the general newsprint media without censorship. Being a fan of Johan Vasquez (Invader Zim, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac) and Roman Dirge's works, Lio was like a calmer, (little) less psychotic younger brother of the same genre.

This particular book was a great intro into the works of Mark Tatulli as it includes many snippets of insight on the various strips so you can start to get an idea of the thought process behind the creation of the comic. However much of the content is reprinted from previous Lio books, so if you regularly buy the Lio releases, you may want to peruse this book in the store before buying it to see how much of the content would be "recycled" for you.

It's really hard to describe this comic - take Calvin and Hobbes, subtract the tiger, mix in a generous helping of Edward Gorey and Charles Addams, then you might have something like Lio.

Some are single panel cartoons slightly reminiscent of The Far Side, but most are multi panel cartoons which build up to a climax on the final frame. Many are wordless, none have dialogue. This means you may have to think a moment before the humor is apparent - thinking, imagine that!

The book starts out with "The Origin of Lio" and several of the strips have brief commentary underneath them - it's really quite interesting to see how the cartoonist thinks while developing a strip.

I was entirely unfamiliar with this comic until receiving this book through Amazon Vine. Since then I've very quickly gone through the whole thing. I very much enjoyed it. If you look through my reviews, you'll see that I don't give many five star ratings. This one definitely deserves it.

I recommend it for ages 7 and up, particularly if you have a dark sense of humour.

Full disclosure: I received this item through the Amazon "Vine" program

If you've found this review to be helpful, please let me know!

When combined, collections make treasuries. Lio treasuries have about 224 pages, while collections have around 128. So Silent But Deadly: Another Lio Collection + Lio: Happiness Is a Squishy Cephalopod = Lio's Astonishing Tales: From the Haunted Crypt of Unknown Horrors.

There's Corpses Everywhere: Yet Another Lio Collection is also another collection. It only has 128 pages.

If you buy collections, you will see the same strips again in treasuries.

That said, this is an excellent treasury. You don't get a lot of extra "behind-the-scenes" stuff. But Mark Tatulli still puts comments under some of the strips. He said he loves to draw, and it shows in his work.

I was stunned to see how much detail and how many colors he decided to use in his strip. At times, it seemed like an embarrassment of riches. This strip is art in more ways than one. It is also sweet and will appeal to those with a darker side. Lio reminds me of the music video for Émilie Simon's "Flowers"--gothic, but also adorable.

I respect the fact that many strips don't use words. Actions alone leave a stronger impression.

I only hope Lio never loses its originality.

Through a local newspaper I became a huge Lio fan, so I began buying all his books. This one especially I'm fond of because I have a lot of the old horror and sci-fi comics and pulps it was based on. Lio is an edgier and more imaginative Calvin. Highly recommended, and more so if you want to enter the warped mind of the cartoonist!

As a child, it always amazed me how many of my friends "grew out" of a love of monster movies, gruesome comics (and even superhero comics), and a daily or yearly awe of things like bats, snakes, witches, vampiers, werewolves and halloween. Those weird and wonderful dark alleys of childhood were my favorite avenues. As an adult (technically), I'm even more dismayed at how many of my "age group" could not care less about such things (check out the strip in this book in which Lio finds his dad reading a magazine about those who love their garages -- bleecch! I STILL don't understand guys, or girls, who can spend hours reading, or talking about, cars or sports, while _not_ finding discussions about Halloween, magic, quantum physics or big goofy dogs the slightest bit interesting). More's the pity. In the fascination with such things (or with the pure joy of playing) lies the secret of eternal youth.

Mark Tatuli understands alla that -- and more. His influence by the likes of Charles Adams and Gahan Wilson (check out the hunting related toons inside -- or the faces of the ocassional vampire), and his obvious homage to such greats, are part of what has made "Lio" one of the best comic strips in many a moon (right up there with the likes of "Pogo," "Bloom County" and "Calvin and Hobbes"). And the coolness of a comic strip sans dialouge (except the ocassional note/letter, sign or cry of shock, is still a novelty on the "funny pages" these days. Tatuli mixes 4/5ths weirdness with 1/5th sweetness (a note from Calvin's dad encouraging him to be a cartoonist -- or Calvin's undying, and very hopeful crush on the almost-rabid Eva Rose, check out the full-color Sunday strip on page 177 -- yeah, as Tatuli notes, it _is_ a bit weird -- but for us romantics, only a bit). Not too worry, lovers of weird/dark comedy: there are plenty of zombie gags (Tatuli loves 'em), strange visitors from other planets, cameos by the likes of Dracula, Frankentstein, the Wolfman and the Creature From the Black Lagoon -- and even cameos by the likes of Charlie Brown, Garfield, Dagwood and Blondie, Pinnochio, you name it (Tatuli loves to "visit" other comic strips -- and visit his weirdness upon their characters). There are even a couple of message strips, done in a completely weird way, of course. Lio's adventures are set in a weird -- but always good-natured -- parallel world, where a the surprise in a box of gorilla flakes pulls you right into the box, zoos are filled with black bears and "gummi" bears, pets consist of spiders, snakes and a squid named Ishmael, a science project can result in a giant robot which destroys downtown buildings or an army of pink, robotic bunnies, to days spent dreaming up inventive ways to enact revenge on the school bullies who persist in picking on him and hanging out with vampires, ghosts, dragons, gorillas and, ocassionally death (one funny sight gag features Lio eating a box of "Life" cereal, munching and reading the back of the box, while (you guessed it) the Grim Reaper sits across from him at the breakfast table: eating a bowl of cereal and reading the back of his cereal box, appropriately labeled, "Death."

Good, gruesome fun for all -- who are so inclined.

This is a delightful collection of Lio's comic strips. It has the humor that I appreciate and find funny. It does have a dark side to some extent but it is truly funny. There is commentary below some of the strips giving us some insight into it.

This book will make a great coffee table book as it is one that someone can pick up and enjoy regardless of where one opens the book. Although this probably will never happen, but I think this would be a good one for waiting rooms everywhere.