Whalesville along with Rocks and Minerals appear in Bad Idea’s May releases with quite a reputation. With Matt Kindt as writer this isn’t too big a surprise. In this double feature, Kindt as well as his art teams show off mind bending worlds. Whalesville features a comforting world in a dire place; Rock and Minerals meanwhile is about getting out of comfort zones to see what life can thrive.
Whalesville Is A Small World
In the first segment, Whalesville follows a Monstro/Moby Dick scenario where a number of sea creatures live inside a whale. Having been inside the belly of the whale their whole lives, they don’t know about a world outside of it. They don’t even know that they’re inside a living creature, they all care more about building and maintaining their small city. Although some characters have thoughts and concerns that they don’t exactly share with others. Jack the seagull for example longs for another bird to keep him company; while he likes to tease Caleb the crab as a friend, the thought of another gull sounds good to him. It’s a feeling Lilly the seahorse has after losing her friend long ago from the whale’s blowhole.
So when a fisherman’s son Wawae ends up in their neighborhood, the world changes for them by a bit. Not in wanting a life beyond the whale mind you, but how Wawae’s presence could change everything. The kid’s panic gives a lot of similarities to Gulliver’s Travels that only touches the surface of being an outsider. With time, maybe the city could have a place with him, but Wawae’s father won’t let the whale off for swallowing his son.
Like A Cave
Whalesville as a whole covers the allegory of the cave. Because the sea critters living in the whale have no concept of life outside the whale, they’re prisoners of their own lives; only that doesn’t seem to be a bad thing. They’ve built cultures and tools of use despite their mundane counterparts not having any; that would be Wawae’s perspective anyway. Going back out into an open world with more animals like them might sound enticing to Jack, but they’d lose what makes them special. Also unlike Way who has his father to go back to, who knows where Lilly’s friend is.
Rocks and Minerals: Polished or Edged?
The other story, Rocks and Minerals depicts a post-apocalyptic(?) story about small geoforms that have built civilizations. Unlike Whalesville however, having a fear mongering queen rule a city makes life a little hard. Apparently there are no humans left and the mineral queen has built her rule and culture around demonizing anything resembling the old world. Also there appears to be a social hierarchy around who can be the most polished crystals or who can help provide the polishing with Igneous rocks. But while it’s easy to polish bodies, what about minds? Like any decadent government, the queen prefers to buffer out any outside influences. This includes “unpolished” zones of towns now devoid of human life.
Life of the Unpolished
But for people practically on the bottom like Iggy and Gomer, life seems dull without taking a little risk. Gomer has a grandmother whose mind is half gone so his home barely even feels like home. As for Iggy, he finds value by finding things like eating aluminum cans with knowledge of them. Even the princess needs time out of her mother’s stuffy influence. In all figures, they’re good people who go out of their way to help people unlike them.
When the friends find the turtle Elpis ready to lay her eggs, the big surprise comes from how she can talk to them. Unlike ducks like Bob who can understand geoforms but not actually talk to them. This brings up a lot of questions but the important ones comes from what Elpis means to the friends. Her name actually comes from the Greek spirit of hope, the last thing to come out of Pandora’s box. She’s the discovery of a lifetime that can instill awe in the geoforms, but it comes at the cost of leaving behind the bliss of ignorance. Which considering the queen and her goons were ready to roast the turtles alive, not that big a loss.
Whalesville (Appreciation) X RnM (Discovery)
Between Whalesville as well as Rocks and Minerals is a decent depiction of world building. Audiences being outsiders see through the eyes of characters like Wawae; the world we have can give us more perspective but it can be overwhelming to people not ready to experience it. Besides, when cultures can be built around an environment, it makes everything feel like a real home. Unlike cultures on an us vs. them mentality where because of limited understanding, it can impede people from helping others. It’s always good to stay curious and come up with ideas, the more you learn about your current world the better. You just have to find what works and what doesn’t with real context.
The art by Adam Pollina features the small world inside the whale with images like paintings, especially with colors by Matt Hollingsworth. Outside of the whale, the lack of Dave Sharpe’s lettering feels like a disconnect from the world we once knew, almost like waking from a dream. Tony Millionaire’s cartoonish art looks like a child’s imagination comes to life with the geoforms tiny limbs appearing on a whim. Jim Campbell’s colors just happens to give it all a little more character. Overall it gets an 8/10.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.