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... veers from hyperextended allegory on racial prejudice to domestic melodrama -- pretty corny throughout, especially the chicken feed scenes ...! Anyhow, the corniness is cut nicely with non-aggressive weirdness -- I wanted to say "unself-conscious weirdness", but who can ever say for sure? I liked the opening sequence best: POV shot of some Filipino dude m-bating to the Internet; his eyes drift ceiling-ward as he's about to come, a single feather floating aimlessly in the air ...

Alanguilan's texture-heavy drawings are well suited to portraying the natural beauty of the Filipino countryside. I especially like the "quilted hatching" (or whatever you call that technique) that he uses for objects in shadow, backgrounds, and faraway objects. It's the black-and-white comix equivalent of an obviously painted backdrop in the movies; it heightens the theatricality of his characters' interactions with one another. Alanguilan's figure work is a little stiff, which isn't conspicuous when most of the figures are talking chickens, but a more cartoony approach might have allowed him greater emotional range, funnier jokes, more readable character designs, etc. His art reminds me of Jason Lutes' in Berlin , except with a more cinematic sweep.

I love reading Filipino syntax and word choice in English, but I wonder how much of that stuff non-flippy readers will care about or notice.

Nobody's going to enshrine this book as the successor to Maus . Despite similarities in theme and modus operandi, Maus is serious business, and Elmer is trash. For what it's worth, though, the two are about even in entertainment value.