Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Plastic Farm: Sowing Seeds On Fertile Soil Graphic Novel
Ambrosia Publishing
Roberts, Warrenfeltz, Morgan

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Plastic Farm is not a super-hero comic. It's also not your typical non-super-hero comic. I wouldn’t classify it as a science fiction, horror or mystery comic. Though, it has elements of each and it has something extra in there I can't quite identify. As such, I enjoyed for the simple reason I had no idea where this story was going.

The collection is broken up into five main, distinct stories. The first one deals with a drunken guy named Chester. He confides in his friend that he is messed up in his head. We can also deduce this based on the evidence that he puked all over the rug in his stupor. From this point we launch into the remaining four stories. The first is direct link from an image that Chester describes to his buddy.

This image Chester has is about the Kamikaze Kid. He doesn’t have eyes and he rides in a setting out of the old west without a weapon on a dinosaur. For me, this was the best story of the collection. The Kid heads into a bar where trouble finds him in the form of a bartender, the law, some locals and a fortune teller. This story flowed well and had a twist of an ending. I liked it a lot.

The next main story was about a man sitting in a airport bar reading a story of his to the lady bartender. The story he recites is about an orphan named Chester who is raised by some clergy in a converted asylum. Chester has a rough time with the older boys, the nasty cloth-men and the demon children of the escaped inmates from the old loony bin. This story was excellent as well. The story is interrupted by another patron of the bar, Raoul, who gives the lady bartender a hard time.

The next us is a couple of cannibals. They seem to be lazy and bored as well as starving. This story might be the best artistically, but is so lacking in dialog I found it to be kind of slow and uninteresting. Another strange tidbit is the timeframe of the story. This story takes place in the early sixties whereas the other identified timeframes take place decades after this one. I am at a loss as to how this one fits in. Maybe it doesn't at all. I couldn’t tell.

The final story is about two cops on a sting. They have a low-life informant about to set up a big-time boss. The story is short and nicely done with a twist at the end. However, I felt it could have been more building in the suspense. Again, maybe this was all part of a larger scheme in the comic, but if it was I didn’t get it.

The art is very good. It's black and white which could turn some folks off, but it only adds to the story. In some cases, such as the cannibals, I felt it made the story so much better. Some of my favorite images were the dinosaur tied to the horse railing and the look on the inmates faces throughout that particular story.

In summary I enjoyed two of the stories very much and liked the art work for all of them. I was a little bored with one of the stories and the other two were so-so. There probably was an overall tie for everything but it was not something I caught on to, but then again I was entertained and that is the purpose. It should be noted that the copy I had for review did not include the bonus material, which could have ratcheted up the geek goggle score. I am a sucker for bonus stuff. Beware of harpoons.

3 out of 5 geek goggles.