Leave it to the twisted mind of five-time Emmy award-winning writer Rob Kutner to come up with a comic story about nano-aliens living inside the brains of politicians.
In "Shrinkage" -- published by Farrago Comics -- we see the kind of surreal sci-fi battle that makes us wonder if this explains a few bizarre actions of our latest crop of faux-pas-prone politicians. We're looking at you, Donald Trump!
"The comic is about extremely tiny aliens who feast on radiation and have invaded the president of the United States' brain in order to hijack him into nuking the planet for their dinner," Kutner, a writer on shows including "The Daily Show" and "Conan," said in an interview. "So we shrink down a brilliant dysfunctional neuroscientist and Cold War general and send them in there to fight back."
The human brain has to be one of the more unusual backdrops for a sci-fi comic, but it had particular appeal for Kutner.
"I am absolutely gobsmacked by the mysteries of the human brain," Kutner said. "And since we know so little about it, I figured it was the least accountable place for me to set a story."
Kutner, who funded the comic using Kickstarter, found himself obsessed by the latest brain-related news from Psychology Today and Scientific American Mind.
"I find the brain and brain research so tantalizing, because, while we know increasingly much about it, we also still know laughably little," Kutner wrote in an essay for Kickstarter about his inspiration for the comic. "It's a Wild West full of inexplicable yet critical happenings, and buried intangibly within is the very mystery of who we are. In other words, a hell of a place to set a story."
Luckily for us, artist John Lucas -- best known for his work on "X-Men" and "Deadpool" -- makes the unusual story come to life.
"John's style jumped up and grabbed me by the throat," Kutner said. "His art walks that same fine line of crazy-real and satirical I do."
"Shrinkage" is the first original comic on Farrago, a free comic-book-reading app. All eight issues of "Shrinkage" will be free on Farrago, which is available for Apple's iPhone and iPad as well as devices running Google's Android software.
Issue No. 1 of "Shrinkage" is now available on Farrago Comics. A signed print version of the first issue is also currently available at the Farrago booth (#2003) at San Diego Comic-Con International. Be sure to keep up with our coverage of Comic-Con 2015, the annual entertainment geekfest that kicks off Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center.
Here are pages 1, 2, 6, and 7 from the first issue of the comic "Shrinkage." They're not consecutive but they add up to give some of the gist of the story.
