Sinfest

East and West, Heaven and Hell, Slick and 'Nique. Splendid piece of art, brilliant writing, exquisite Sunday strips.

Factography

Author: Tatsuya Ishida
Started: 17.1.2000
Updates: Daily (Monday to Sunday)
Website: www.sinfest.net

Words

If you take religion seriously, skip this comic entirely. Better yet, turn off your computer, take a gun and go shoot yourself.

Now, with the religion-serious jerks outta way, the rest of us can enjoy what I consider to be one of the greatest strips. Written and drawn by Japanese-American artist, it's a marvellous mixture of Western and Eastern point of view - not taking any of them too seriously (rather not at all), be it Buddha, Jesus, God or Devil. They're not the protagonists, but they interact with the main characters often and usually in ways not typical for their standard depiction.

The "main man" (not The Main Man) of Sinfest is a macho wannabe Slick. No matter how hard he tries, he just can't get the desired hot steamy action he keeps asking for about any female he meets. Can't blame him for not trying, though. His primary "romantic" interest is Monique, an attractive tramp-like girl who doesn't think twice when it comes to using her charms to get what she wants. She might seem shallow, but her character slowly evolves - just give her time ;-) Other than these two, there's a bunch of other characters - Squig (an anthropomorphic pig), Lil Evil (Devil's fanboy), Seymour (God's fanboy), Percy & Pooch (they're sweet!)... oh, and the sexy devil girls! Alter egos of most characters appear from time to time, usually in a strip parodying... well, actually anything, from movies or other comics to Sinfest itself.

            Monique, Monique, Monique
            You so fine and oh so sleek
            Monique, Monique, Monique
            If you were mine, I would freak

The clean, simple artistic style is amazing. Monday to Saturday strips are black and white, the Sunday strips are colored and have larger format. Now and then, the strip features a calligraphy lesson.

More than words

Hard to choose just a few strips. Guess I'll have to rotate them occasionally.

Merchandise

Three books were published from 2002 to 2005, they're still available in on-line stores. Personally, I recommend buying the Dark Horse reedition (three volumes so far: Volume 1, Volume 2 and Sinfest: Viva la Resistance.

   

Miscellaneous

Calvin and Hobbes reference: Pet cemetary, Originality, and Speed freaks.