The Chuckling Whatsit
Author/Artist: Richard Sala
Writer: Fantagraphics
Initially Revealed: 1997
New Hardcover Version: January 2023
The Chuckling Whatsit by Richard Sala — for the uninitiated — is a comics traditional. It’s an idiosyncratic and deeply bizarre homicide thriller of a e-book, one which could be very a lot an excellent cartoonist’s singular imaginative and prescient. In truth, when Sala handed away in 2020 not lengthy after the beginning of the pandemic, the e-book was among the many many causes The Beat praised him as one among our favourite horror cartoonists, a staple of the positioning whose work we often wrote about round Halloween. A grasp of noir and thrillers, Sala created a physique of labor stands as a real achievement.
The Chuckling Whatsit — first revealed in 1997 — had been out of print for a while. This month, nonetheless, it not solely returned with a full printing, however it additionally obtained its first-ever hardcover version, out now by way of writer Fantagraphics. Whereas maybe not Sala’s most readily accessible work — that honor ought to in all probability go to the Snow White-skewing, Delphine — this new version is a welcome reminder that the The Chuckling Whatsit is a timeless and towering achievement of each the spooky thriller style and of the graphic fiction medium.
With the brand new hardcover version in hand, I revisited The Chuckling Whatsit to begin the 12 months. I used to be struck mainly with simply how singular the e-book feels, even for many who have learn Sala’s different work. It’s a scene-driven story through which a group of fascinating and superbly-designed weirdoes — all of whom are some type of unsavory — bounce off of one another as demise lurks within the margins. The narrative feels unfastened and chaotic till the barn-burning final sequence. There’s an virtually non-linear method to story right here, a complete disinterest in viewers hand-holding because it pertains to the characters and their varied agendas, that are virtually to a one as shocking as they’re complicated. What guides the story as a substitute is a way that one thing sinister may very well be wherever at any time on this world amongst these outsiders. This all imbues The Chuckling Whatsit with an eerie and propulsive sense of pressure, making for a speedy and jarring learn proper on by way of to the books last pages.
The ingredient that stood out most to me upon a second examination was Sala’s use of astrology. To me, astrology can really feel like a sport of hen with the coincidental (your mileage might range, after all). Inherently, one by no means is aware of if the observe is fully incidental, a sport pushed by the shared experiences that folks have by being born in a given month, and that’s a part of what’s at work within the story. How a lot ought to the principal characters consider about something? How a lot is simply coincidence? Ought to these concerned simply prostrate themselves on the alter of the unknown as they’re carried to their fates? Plus additionally, what’s with the key society and the masked murderer on the rooftops and the spooky-as-all-hell little dolls?
There’s lots in The Chuckling Whatsit, all of which is fascinating, to make sure. However the astrology motif is the one which type of transcends the opposite touches, even because it’s used all through the e-book with restraint, which I believe is the precise transfer. The very last thing a plot that will depend on ambiguity wants is all of its characters introducing themselves like, ‘Hello, I’m a Virgo, let’s discuss what meaning.’ The opposite alternative that actually works for the e-book and its curiosity in astrology is that the protagonist, Broom, is a reluctant — if not outright disinterested — astrologer. He’s the one now we have guiding us by way of this world and this thriller, and he doesn’t need to be any a part of it, probably not. He doesn’t like his job, he’s not particularly involved with the victims, and — as we discover out later — if not for the machinations of others within the shadows, he in all probability would have been killed instantly, a number of totally different instances and in a number of other ways. That alternative too is splendidly not belabored.
Illustrated with Sala’s black and white pen work, The Chuckling Whatsit in the long run is a narrative of a hapless investigator getting mired in a thriller that feels countless, and, true to kind, the e-book doesn’t give us each final reply when it reaches its conclusion. It’s extra a journey of the atmospheric, a story tight-rope stroll the place you’re virtually rooting for the walker to fall simply to see what complete disaster would possibly appear to be. I completely adore it.
My different curiosity throughout this read-through was the bodily e-book itself, and I’m delighted to report that the brand new version is beautiful. Jacob Covey and Daniel Clowes are credited with the e-book’s design, which is actually excellent, from the jarring shade distinction on the entrance cowl to the WHO WHAT WHERE WHY idea on the again, above a Sala femme fatale having a drink with a disembodied skeleton (simply excellent stuff). The e-book additionally incorporates a run by way of of the forged on the very finish, which is able to remind readers of simply how bonkers and various the folks in The Chuckling Whatsit really are, type of re-emphasizing how particular this e-book is because it closes. Lastly, the e-book jacket has an extended and respectful rundown of Sala’s life and profession, which is a really good inclusion.
All of it provides as much as a brand new hardcover that’s a worthy version to any shelf; in the event you’re in search of a single Sala work so as to add to your assortment of graphic fiction, this may be the one.
