The Portable Frank back

From Mark's all-time comicbook God comes a more affordable, 200-page repackaging of some of the classic black and white material found in the hardcover to prove that The John Peel Of Comics' veneration was unequivocally merited.

Frank is an anthropomorphic, purple-and-cream-skinned, white gloved, buck-toothed... bear of sorts. (Like most of Woodring's creations you can see some identifiable animal in their origins - Pupshaw and Pushpaw are dogs after a sort and Man-Pig is a man who looks a bit like a pig and trots like one - but they're unique creatures in their own rights.) He's a fallible being given to temptation (or insatiably curiosity, depending on your point of view) but defended at every juncture by his loyal companions/pets Pupshaw and Pushpaw. The stories are fantastical, phantasmagorical fables, mostly silent so that you can bring to them what you will and interpret them as you like, and if you were to sit down with someone else and discuss any given piece you might find it revealing - of yourself and of your friend. I often describe them as "mind-altering, yet legal". Enlightening too, as I say. Just don't be taken in by how kid-friendly it looks on the surface: it isn't. There's all the cruelty that comes with real life, and all the unsettling strangeness of dreams. The man is a visionary, a veritable shaman with that rare ability to communicate with wisdom and skill.