Chicken is Champ

Posted: Tuesday, January 11, 2000
By: Darren

Cover of Chicken is Champ Creator(s): Toby Morris
Publishers: Self Published
From: New Zealand
Price: ?

The latest release from Toby Morris is an entertaining collection of his most recent projects. There is the first episode of Deliverance where the new pizza delivery boy seems to have gotten off to the worst possible start. The artwork is clean and bold, showing more attention to page layout than most of his earlier work.

The four page Cub Gloves has Toby illustrating a story about a fly lending a pair of gloves to a man so that he can haul rocks on to the top of his house, so that the roof won't be dislodged by the wind. The text reads like a children's story and Toby illustrates it as such; one illustration per page in a pleasing, loose style.

The final major story in the book is a collection of his weekly strip The Droid You're Looking For from his local University's student magazine. This is a delightful work following the adventures of a mechanical farm hand who ends up on a building site in the big city. His impressive strength and simple minded honesty get him into trouble with his work mates. The seven instalments presented here make for entertaining reading and highlight Toby's ability to give his drawings a three dimensional look with a clean and economical style.

Along side these, Toby also includes a few pages of sketches and illustrated poems. In all, an interesting read with its only fault being that since it is a sampler of works in progress none of the plots reach their conclusion.

In a Word: Tempting.



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