Plastic Farm #24

Plastic Farm #24 is a digest size, 40-page, B&W comic by Rafer Roberts.

This is the continuing story of Chester, a guy that sees and communicates with a small, four-eyed demon that no one else can see. The demon acts as some sort of guide and teaches Chester philosophy and spirituality. Chester at times is a reluctant student and not always that interested in the demon's lessons. In this issue, if I'm following the story, Chester is telling his story to some guys in a bar. His story is about hanging out in the woods with some other folks and rearranging the stars in the sky with his finger. In the mean time a couple of the guys from the group in the woods are conning some hippies to get their food. Later we find Chester in a room alone with the demon learning how to see the universe at the end of his nose and willing objects into existence through visualization.

The first few pages of this issue dealing with the hippies is illustrated by Andrew Cohen. The remainder of the story is illustrated by the comic's creator, Rafer Roberts. Andrew's pages are crisp and clean with bold lines and sparse detail. Andrew's illustrations are easy to follow and his characters expressions are great! Then Andrew transitions his portion of the story into Rafer's by merging his drawing style with that of Rafer's in the last three panels. This is a really effective way to move the story from one setting to the next and from one artist to the next. Really well done.

Rafer Roberts' approach to illustration is very different. Rafer stuffs the pages with lots of sketchy line work and plenty of detail. As opposed to Andrew's characters that look somewhat whimsical, Rafer's characters look dark and tortured. They carry the weight of the story in their expressions, and given that this issue ends with page 704 of this story, that's a lot of weight!

I think I first encountered Plastic Farm about a decade ago when Rafer had just begun the story. I recall it being dark, bizarre, and full of strange plots. Now, these many years later, I'm happy to find that the weirdness continues!

Get your copy at plasticfarm.com/