From Aspen Comics, Vince Hernandez, Adam Archer, Federico Blee, Josh Reed.
Oh my goodness! In my excitement to show all of you loyal readers some exclusive images from Psycho Bonkers I forgot to review the book. If you missed those previews click the Psycho Bonkers tag at the bottom of this article and you’ll find all the cool stuff right there.
Speaking of cool stuff, holy crap have you read this yet?!
Psycho Bonkers takes place in a world that I called the crime and mystery of Speed Racer mixed with the physics and craziness of Mario Kart.
Shine is driving her car Shiza in the Bonk Race. She races with the assistance of Gabbo and through everything that may happen in the race she carries her family’s name and tragedy with her. Through spirals and loops and fire and massive skeletons and what might be living earth. Just the easy stuff for a young girl like Shine.
If any readers know a harder working writer than Vince Hernandez, I would like to meet this person. Vince creates worlds like your average person creates dinners. But unlike sticking by the familiar pastas and chicken dishes Vince whips up some assassins, then some magic, and then a bonkers car race. Shine is perfectly balanced between being naive and wide eyed but there’s enough of a glimmer behind those eyes that shows she has the potential to step up when it will inevitably be called for.
That is also thanks to the amazing work of Adam Archer. How does an artist take this fever dream of an idea and understand how to put it to paper in a manner that can be understood and loved by new readers? Its a mindset I don’t know if I share but damn if Adam doesn’t nail it. He takes us through so many parts of the Bonk Race with a quick dip into the past and it all feels genuine.
Josh Reed does an amazing job of keeping voices distinct. Quite a difficult task when there are multiple racers, a robot mechanic, and an intelligent car who all have their own voices. Josh puts every letter down perfect with zero nervous sweat stains to be found. Federico breaks apart a game cartridge and finds the code for colors then hacks that code and puts it into his own coloring process. When so much media – movies, television, games – have scenes take place in the dark in order to cover up any problems or lack of detail its refreshing to see work this vibrant even in the middle of a giant monster skeleton.
Whatever you’re jonesing for be assured that Psycho Bonkers has it. Great female lead, car chases, video game physics, and a mystery hanging over all of it.
