Ant’s Rant: goD the Dyslexic Dog

Today I had the opportunity to talk to writers Brian and Philip Phillipson at New York Comic Con. They are the creators of the 3-part graphic novel series “God, The Dyslexic Dog”. They gave me the first volume to review, and I am happy they did. Not only do I love free stuff, but I actually really got into this book. The first thing about this that caught my attention about this book was the title. Certainly it can’t be about God being a dyslexic dog, that has to be some kind of bait and switch gimmick. Sure enough, it’s not. It’s absolutely about God being a dog that’s dyslexic. That’s not all it’s about though, it’s about this dyslexic dog being the God of Inversion, meaning he’s a God that eats other gods, and he’s a dog.

The basic premise is that all of the Gods humanity has ever believed in are real, and they are out to destroy humanity after Pandora’s Box is opened and Bacchus (AKA Dionysus), the immortal God of Wine and Festivities, puts into motion a plan to make the Mayan Armageddon come early. The hope of humanity lies in the hands (and paws) of doG the Dyslexic God, Pandora (who herself was trapped in “The Box” which becomes Pandora’s Box after she drunkenly opens it), and Nez (a dyslexic child who becomes the master of doG). Bacchus, being the god of Wine, magically creates a super-wine called Bliss which gives him more power whenever someone drinks it. He gives it to a bunch of demonic dead gods on Earth and then challenges doG to an immortal battle. Dog eats the drunken gods and becomes tainted by the Bliss drink which causes him to lose his memory and lose his way to the Heaven/Valhalla/Mt Olympus/whatever you want to call it ( the place of Gods is a mix of all these things, since all gods exist). It’s up to Pandora and Nez to restore doG to his former strength and help him gain back his memory in order to defeat Bacchus before the Mayan Armageddon comes.

Storywise, this is a very interesting take on the big existential question, as well as a good way to amalgamate all religions together in a way that doesn’t offend or cause controversy. The story is an epic tale and draws on many theological beliefs from many different eras in human evolution. When Darwin is introduced as another antagonist, the story takes a turn towards the Science vs. Faith route. The story ultimately becomes about science’s slow killing of religion, and it’s done in a way that isn’t arrogant or pompous in anyway. It’s actually a very satisfying take on the conflict, and I’m very interested in seeing how this pans out. It’s very original and actually starts to become humorous when Darwin becomes drunk with power and starts reassigning Gods to new roles over animals (for instance, Zeus the Greek God of the Gods is reassigned to become the God of Turkeys, and Thor the Norse God of Thunder becomes God of Frogs). The story is definitely one of the more insane and brilliant epic tales I’ve seen.

Artistically, it is creative but overall confusing. This is the definition of good art. It’s supposed to inspire different thoughts in different people. The problem is, this is a comic book that’s supposed to have a definite illustration of what’s supposed to be happening. There’s not supposed to be artistic ambiguities. There’s many parts of the book that I either can’t tell what’s supposed to be there and I can only discern one or two parts of the image as understandable, or can only see as the only way to draw some of the things that really have no visual way of being displayed. For example, a dog eating a group of gods isn’t exactly something you can draw simply, so the image becomes something more abstract and unusual, but still serves it’s purpose. I’d have liked for things to be a little clearer visually.

All in all I really love how intelligent the Phillipson brothers seem to be, and it’s a very well thought out story that I am happy to have been introduced to. It’s only 3 parts, but for it to become something longer would be unnecessary. It’s an epic tale but it doesn’t have a reason to be a long and drawn-out ordeal. It’s a good thing the story explains itself in writing, though, as you really wouldn’t be able to tell what’s going on if you just go on the images.

I give this a solid 4.25/5. It would’ve been higher if the artwork was clearer.