REVIEW: Ludocrats #3 is a sequential narrative driven (at least partially) by pelvic thrusts
Ludocrats #3 is due out July 15, 2020.
By Keigen Rea — Any attempt at reviewing or critiquing Ludocrats feels like it’s missing the point entirely. Yet, missing the point is not in itself a defiance of Ludocratic principles, as there can be whimsy and intent in missing the point, and may even have more Ludocraticity than trying too hard to understand something. If one does not understand a thing, can one review or critique it?
In comics, there are lines, and colors, and letters. These things are put together in such a way that creates a narrative when you process them in the correct order. Experiencing Ludocrats #3 in such a way, I would say it is a comic.
In a story, you have characters, and a setting, and a plot, and a conflict. Again, Ludocrats #3 has such ingredients. This is certainly a story, and it is inarguably told in comic form.
Of course, with a review or critique, one needs to look at a story, dissect it, and explain what about it is enjoyable, what perhaps needs some work, and whether the comic is worth experiencing or not.
In this comic, Otto humps his way through both a wall and a page turn to get to his goal. Hades is a being made of sound that we somehow experience in a soundless medium. Erotic torture is administered. A beast is faced. A French chef doesn’t get to cook desiccated flesh. Otto lies flaccid in grass.
In other words, this comic doesn’t easily lend itself to criticism because it’s built to be as big and ridiculous as possible. That isn’t to say that it’s beyond criticism either, but that many criticisms would be missing the point, and that it’s difficult to do with individual issues (maybe even more difficult than serialized comics tend to be).
Really though, my overwhelming take on the issue is that it’s fun. I think the closest comparison is The Adventure Zone, with all the energy and personalities of an RPG campaign rather than a mimicry of a clock’s inner workings. Ludocrats #3 doesn’t feel like a story that festered and fermented for a decade or two (even though it kind of did), it feels like a collaboration, not just between creators, but characters. The characters have agency and use it to be as big and ridiculous and as terrible as possible, and it is so. Much. Fun.
Most of the time I need to pour over an issue to figure out what I have to say about it. I need to figure out creator intention and balance it against the effect it has on me, but when I try to do that with this issue my brain becomes a wet fart. I take a deep breath and become a balloon. I walk to the end of a plank on a pirate ship and look down, the shark’s face is mine. If I eat me, where am I? In me or out me?
Overall: 9/10, or maybe 6, since it’s just an upside down 9. Or maybe 8 because then you can’t flip it. It’s fun and I liked it? 9.0/10
Ludocrats #3 REVIEW
Ludocrats #3
Writer: Kieron Gillen and Jim Rossignal
Artist: Jeff Stokely
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image
Price: $3.99
LUDOCRATS, the comic that makes its whole creative team shout, "Oh God. What have we done? Why didn't anyone stop us?" on a monthly basis.
Release Date: June 17, 2020
Buy It Digitally: Ludocrats
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Keigen Rea has only three cases of a Baja Blast remaining and is frightened and amazed by devouring eight cases in one month’s time. You can find him on Twitter @prince_organa.