Moe

By Piotr Nowacki
www.magazynkarton.pl

When I was sent some comics from Poland I was initially a little unsure about if I would be able to review them. If they were entirely in Polish I wouldn't be able to read anything! Thankfully, Moe is a silent comic, and thus doesn't suffer from my lack of ability to speak Polish.

Instead I grew concerned with some of the character designs. There are many characters in this comic (or perhaps just the same character in different guises) that look an awful lot like early twentieth century racial caricatures (I didn't scan any, so you'll just have to trust me, I did get ask some friends what they thought, and they agreed with me). Of course, this doesn't quite look out of place because the entire comic is reminiscent of early twentieth century cartoons, with a main character who's a funny looking dog, weird slapstick humour, and a storyline that is less coherent narrative, and more just a series of things that happen.

And if the whole comic was telling a story about that time period, or using parody or satire to create some sort of message I'd be okay with the (possible) racial caricatures appearing in this story. But it's not, and so I'm just generally left with a sense of unease, even if the art is good, and I could easily imagine the whole thing as an animated short. I just wish that some of the character designs had been different.