Customer Reviews

The Milkman Murders

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Barbara has a terrible life. Her husband is a drug-addled abusive wreck, who hates her. Her daughter is a slut that seduces older married men. Her son skins cats for fun. Then to add to the misery, a deranged milkman shows up at her house, assaults and rapes her.

Barbara adds to her foul life, by pretending that it is all normal. That they can be the Cleavers if only they all sat down and had a nice family meal together. But that idea, like the milk, is perpetually sour. The old ideas are dead and gone, turned into something terrible. This is personified by the milkman, an image of a supposedly ideal past, now a deranged twisted monster.

The horrible reality of Barbara's life is undercut by a program she watches regularly, Leave It to Mother, a Donna Reed-esque sickeningly sweet family comedy and the polar opposite of this tale. These two ideas of suburban life snake around each other like a Ying-Yang symbol. The TV show is the bright spot on the dark side, which she clings to to maintain hope and the idea that her life may get better somehow. Until Barbara destroys the TV and it all goes black.

Parkhouse's art blends with the script brilliantly. The perceived grime and filth is everywhere. Each character is foully drawn that you can smell the grime and BO wafting off of them. Just looking at them, made me lose my appetite. The ugly caricatures of human beings highlight the underlying message of this story: Innocence is merely ignorance in disguise.