For such a deserving comic, this has been in the 'ZUM! pot' for far too long . I came across it digging about in the 'pot' where the comics listed in the catalogue reside, but once stumbled upon I could not resist having another little read of the comic, because - well - it contains one of the funniest pages of comics I have ever come across. I will not spoil things by going into any detail here - but this particular Janet Street Monkey strip is set up over a couple of pages, & then you turn the page for a simple, perfect gag. It still succeeds in making me chuckle (even rereading it for this review).
Janet Street Monkey is not the main character in the book; after all, limiting a comic to a character with a vocabulary limited to, "OO!" might not exactly make for a comic with deep intellectual gravitas (although... theoretically it might be fun to create an exercise with such restrictions...).
The main strips in this comic feature a young schoolboy by the name of Dorset Gore. They follow him & his friends around Kurious Middle, to which Dorset has just moved up from junior school. Speaking from personal experience - having moved to a good few 'new schools' as my parents moved - I can vouch that the tone of the strips has a satisfying level of verisimilitude; all the settings seem to have more realism than, say, Grange Hill (which I always hated). Kurious Middle however, is no mere 'schooly' comic strip. Paul B Rainy (gosh - you have to wonder what imaginative nicknames his 'school friends' came up with) uses the material of the settings to weave some pleasantly skewed tapestries. There are fantastical elements thrown into these stories: The Idcorder (does what it's name suggests) & Teetoo, a character who helps Dorset to 'go out' with Baby Spice (um... sort of). These elements distort the normality to fantasy, but without shattering the inherent believability of the characters & settings that have been set out; it's a neat trick & left me impressed with Paul B Rainey's storytelling abilities.
I can only apologise to the readers of ZUM! (& Paul) that I have not brought this fine comic to your attentions sooner; if I were to take time literally, Dorset Gore would not only have left Middle school, but also Senior school by now. He seems a bright lad - perhaps he's perusing further education nowadays... or maybe he's a struggling small press cartoonist supplementing art by working in an open plan office making a big Book Of Lists.
Still, there is one benefit my tardiness... this comic is actually still available; (at the time of writing the review) more than that, Paul would appear to have an abundance of stock & perhaps little room to store stock, thus is willing to part with copies for the mere price of you sending he an envelope & stamps.
So, I urge you to have a look at his website without delay, check the details, seize the moment, send of for this comic! Do it now!
mooncat