The Thousand Deaths of Baron Von Donut
Writer and Artist: Douglas Paszkiewcz
Ever run into a comic that’s obviously been sitting on a retailer’s shelf for a long time and turns out to be a real gem? Doesn’t happen very often to me, but when it does it’s incredible.
About a month ago I was rifling through the independent comics section in my favorite store and discovered the August-September issue of The Thousand Deaths of Baron Von Donut. Now, there’s nothing like an unusual title or cover to draw me in, because I do in fact judge a comic book by its cover. The title convinced me I was in for a ride of bizarre humor, and I wasn’t disappointed. Not to give away any of the jokes (should anyone else wish to read the story), but Thousand Deaths tells the sad origin of the classic mousetrap, a few stories with the Baron himself, and the absolutely hilarious origin of alien anal probes.
What’s disappointing about this book is that nothing else has been printed since the August-September issue. One issue is still better than a stack of crappy Marvel comics, though. If you enjoy some good good humor, or would just like a break from the over-testosteroned superhero nitwits, give Paszkiewcz’s work a try and track it down. The low print runs of most independent books makes it unlikely that your local comic shop has any of these in stock. But, it looks like a TPB collection with several issues of Arsenic Lullaby and the one issue of The Thousand Deaths of Baron Von Donut will be available soon, so you may not have to do much back-issue bin hunting. The bad news? It’s listed at the arseniclullabies.com as a $50 HOLY-CRAP-IS-THAT-THE-PRICE hardcover trade paperback! I hope that it’s just the fancy-HC signed price, and not the price from Diamond, or that a soft-cover edition will come soon.
Maybe it’s time to start digging around the back-issue bin.