Ridiculand #1

Wouter Goudswaard's Ridiculand arrives with a cover that sets the absurdist tone perfectly: a crowned, bearded figure in a blue dress sits regally in a green armchair while a wide-eyed little character stands nearby, seemingly spouting great arcing streams of water that splash across the floor. It's deadpan, surreal, and genuinely funny — the kind of image that makes you pick up the book before you've even read a word. "Balthasar" promises the sort of cheerfully strange humor that European comics do so well, all rendered in Goudswaard's clean, expressive line.