The Comic: Whistles, Volume 1: The Starlight Calliope
By: Andrew Hussie
Type: Graphic Novella
Content Rating: PG-13, for a couple moments of wince-worthy violence and some instances of being generally disturbing.
Plot: Following on from our spotlighting of a comic about pixies, here's a comic about clowns. Also, yes, it's by Andrew Hussie, who's certainly been praised on this site before--in prior spotlightings of his most prominent webcomics, Problem Sleuth and Homestuck, and in a recent interview. Anyway. Whistles is an interesting blend of dystopian sci-fi, horror, and humor. In a bizarre future (or perhaps a parallel timeline) filled with lots of tall, twisty buildings, circuses appear to have become one of the most dominant forms of entertainment, and one of the tops of the tops in the area is the Starlight Calliope, whose headlining clown and show-stopping star Whistles is beloved by all who see his antics. One unfortunate night, however, sets Whistles up to be executed--in the brutal byways of the day, clowns' entertainment has become a sort of noble duty, clowns themselves becoming a sort of caste, and when a clown fails to express joy or to amuse, or has a serious moment, their career is over and they are mercy-killed...and eventually processed into food for the circus-goers. (Even more horrifying? This is all public knowledge.) However, through a series of accidents, Whistles is spared this grisly fate and let out into the world at large. While he is content to explore, his fellow clowns believe him ideally placed to overthrow their ringmasters, and so begins a plot to free all clowndom...
Personal Thoughts: Whistles is an odd book. But overall, it's a good kind of odd. It blends comedy and horror a lot better than you'd expect from two such disparate genres. Really, it needs both to function--a lot of the comedy is innate from most of the characters being clowns, and it prevents the story from taking itself too seriously--otherwise it would come off as needlessly gritty. Likewise, I don't think it could carry itself on pure comedy with the sort of story scope it seems to be aiming for. Whistles himself is also an interesting protagonist: he's completely naive and innocent. He's so brainwashed by the system he's in, in fact, that he continues to sympathize with his ringmaster even after he's been shown every possible bit of evidence to convince someone that this is a horrible monster of a man, and is half-tricked into the fight to save his caste. Whistles was originally going to be a series (hence "Volume 1," and the ending is definitely open), but according to my interview with Mr. Hussie a few posts back whether he'll necessarily return to the project remains unknown. In spite of this, it can still be considered a mostly self-contained story (save for the introduction of Sugarshoe, an evil foil to the main clowns, who gets roughly three pages of screen time and was clearly meant to show up in greater capacity later). Yes, Sugarshoe. The clown names in this are hilarious in of themselves. My personal favourite? Doodlebean. Clowns aren't usually my thing, but Whistles is a performer I'd love to see more of.
Holden Out.
