Not all comics have to be either made up of superheroes or graphic violence. W. H. Rauf, who had worked with Heavy Metal in the mid-seventies, came out with his own unique take on the spy genre with the publication of Carpe DIEm.

Carpe DIEm sets out to tickle your funny bone with a story about a group of assassins, all of whole are named after days of the week, they have their own distinctive personalities and are led by an eight-balled headed, Sir Monday, but everyone hates Monday’s and now you know the level of humour in this collected graphic novel, which has been reprinted by Titan.

The book was written by Rauf with Rhoald Marcellius providing the art. The colourist is Sakti Yuwono with lettering being provided by Imam E. Wibowo.

The basic structure of the stories is pretty traditional, with the team having to pit their skills against megalomaniacs, with their armies of evil drones trying to take over the world. What sets the series apart is the level of zaniness which permeates both the writing and the art.

Stories start from a fairly sensible point, but this doesn’t last long. In the first tale they are pitted against Aaron Chef, who counters the team with a mammoth broccoli, this is quickly followed by an army of clowns and a devastating ultimate weapon shaped in the form of a giant cat, the only entrance to which is through its anus. All the stories follow a similar vein.

The art is bright and shows it influences from Tank Girl to Japanese anime. Few of the pages use traditional panels, preferring to split the page in more dynamic ways; however this doesn’t make the story difficult to follow.

Overall the book is a cornucopia of entertaining nonsense, which turns out to be genuinely funny.

9

Charles Packer