Secretimes

Keith Jones

Drawn & Quarterly

When two simple hobos--a pigeon and his elephant buddy--are wrongfully accused of murdering Mr. Mouse Mouser, the consequences are dire. Secretimes delineates an alternate universe--a world that favors the rich and grinds the poor and unfortunate into paste. Each page is a brightly colored nightmare populated with vapid celebrities and lazily scheming businessmen.

Keith Jones creates a pop parable that is stunning and alluring to look at and hellish to live in. Graffiti-covered walls, melting neon figures, idiosyncratic sound effects, and anthropomorphized bros meld together in this satire of modern life and modern values. His sense of humor is manic, snickering, and surreal, each line imbued with a rich sense of irony. Jones's pacing gives each page a frenzied paranoia that belies his characters' fantasies of utter control. Secretimes is darkly funny in Jones's irresistibly off-kilter signature style.