Ragmop

In the mid-90s Rob Walton wrote and self-published a very strange and funny comic book series called Ragmop. Sales apparently weren’t that great, and he cancelled it after (I think) ten issues. Recently he finished the storyline, and updated it for for 2006, and published the complete story in a book.

It’s not possible to actually summarize Ragmap, but it tells the story of Alice Hakwings and many others in pursuit of the O-Ring, which permits the owner to control the universe. There cast of characters includes angels, god, three dinosaurs, the pope, the president, the man in the chair (who controls the president), the piltdown man, etc. It’s both a left-wing economic satire and a cosmic comic book story in the style of Jack Kirby.

The story is full of in-jokes and references to comic books and popular culture. The drawing style is pure cartoon, though quite a bit more sophisticated than it seems at first glance. It’s all so odd that I don’t even know whether to recommend it to anybody or not. I’ll just say that I thought it was incredibly good, and I’m very glad to see the series finished, collected and available.

Matt Wagner supposedly said “Rob Walton? Oh, man, yeah! He was like a priest or something. Then he went crazy and shot someone. Now he draws comics.” That’s as good a description as any for what it’s like to read Ragmop.

The book also comes with a backup series by Rob Walton’s brother about Adam Smith, and how he didn’t say what most people think he said.