Vector Hugo: The Epicene from the Epicenter

by Matthew Thurber

All VECTOR HUGO: Epicene From the Epicenter.
Hugo is a 10 year old literary snob whose parents abandon him during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Fluffy, his equally nerdy best friend, for company. A mysterious babysitter arrives dispatched from the Federal government....what are her designs? With the gift of a typewriter from the ghost of Genesis O'Porrodge, Hugo types himself into the past: the silent film studios of 1915, where he becomes a juvenile comedy sensation alongside his glamourous co-star Kittens.
Then, things start to get really weird.
A surrealist adventure comic about authority, freedom, the alteration of time and identity... and spanking!

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Mike E. Mancini]

Matthew Thurber is an American treasure. He is one of the only cartoonists I would ever suggest as Pynchonesque. His characters, dialogue and plots are all over the place, difficult to keep track of, and it all never ceases to amaze with the pure inventiveness of the entire work. He manages to maintain a topicality to each book that is clever, absurd and relentlessly satirical. He is one of our greatest living cartoonists, able to compress the incredible insanity experienced during the pandemic lock down into four-panel pages of comic madness.

This is a slim book with around 45 strips, mostly four panels a page (some are broken up into one panel over four pages), each page a testament to Thurber's numerous strengths as an artist. His main character, Vector Hugo, utters the opening dialogue balloon. The strip is dated March 23rd, 2020, Hugo has his hands up and out towards the reader, he states: "I'm only 10-years-old and I understand everything that is going on." Readers of the New York Times--where the first ten strips first appeared--must have been relieved to have a prophet proclaiming as much.

In classic Thurber style all manner of weirdness is laid out in a very matter of fact way: we, the reader, never stop to consider the weirdness, as the art work thoroughly assures us of a consistent universe where this is as normal as the strangeness that was right outside OUR very own windows at the time. These are comics as dadaist art. This book came out with little to no fan fair, and is a mere blip on the comics radar, but it is worthwhile seeking out.