This is the first compilation of Phillip Blackman’s (aka NobbyNobody) comic strip “Odd-Fish”. The strip revolves around a group of aquatic creatures and their very funny adventures. Phillip describs the process of making Odd-fish like this:
“Odd-fish is drawn mainly with a biro on ordinary printer paper before being scanned into a computer and fiddled with in Photoshop to add speech bubbles, sound effects and other such fripperies.”
I have been reading Odd-fish for awhile now and love it. If you haven’t read this comic before you should shoot over to www.odd-fish.net and give it a try. The artwork is brilliant. The writing is silly and fun. When I found out that Odd-fish was finally available in printed form, there was no question in my mind what our featured book would be for April.
You can purchase Odd-fish right now by visiting the Lulu marketplace. The actual link is as follows: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback_book/odd-fish_book_one_inexplicable_zebras/5789952
Book description
The first compilation of Odd-Fish strips covering the first year (and a little bit) of Odd-Fish. ‘Inexplicable Zebras’ contains deleted scenes restored to their original glory and other previously unpublished
The Main Characters
Lovecraft & Howard, from Odd-Fish.net
* Lovecraft
Nominally an Octopus but sometimes seems to be a Pentapus, Hexapus, Septapus etc.
Lovecraft has a love of dodgy Japanese animation, the more suspect and the more tentacles the better.
Although he often displays a certain naive charm, he has a sinister side too and sometimes reveals flashes of pure evil genius. Lovecraft hates Zebras.
* Howard
A Puffer-fish and long-suffering best friend to Lovecraft the octopus.
Howard doesn’t suffer fools gladly and has an intense hatred of ‘net-speak’ and its derivatives.
He acts a a foil to Lovecraft’s sillyness.
* Octobot
A robotic invention of Lovecraft’s making and a martyr to rust.
Octobot was sent by Lovecraft on a mission to destroy humanity but due to unforseen circunstances dodn’t quite achieve its goals.
Octobot can be programmed, controlled remotely or driven from a cockpit behind its right eye.
* Hugh
A Manatee or possibly, as he’s in the ocean, a Dugong.
Hugh is very, very unlucky and suffers terrribly with a bad, possibly terminal case of ’sods’ law’. Everything happens to poor Hugh.
* Star Wars Squid
A squid with an obsession with Star Wars
While not actually a Jedi (because Jedi’s aren’t real) he believes he is with every fibre of his being and spends a great deal of his time waving a broom handle around and making ‘Vwwoorm, whuuumm, Kshhh’ noises.
Star Wars Squid is quite likely to tell you that he’s your dad, whatever species you may be.
* The Tiny Tinned Zebras
No one knows how Howard came to have a tin of zebras in his kitchen cupboard or how, after Lovecraft opened the can thinking it was food, they could be still alive.
The Zebras now live and breed like vermin in Howard and Lovecraft’s shared house where they form a constant annoyance with their habit of chewing things and leaving turds where the friends least expect.
