"Social Garrote Rather Than Social Safety Net," in Arsenic Lullaby #1, by Douglas Paszkiewicz
I bought Arsenic Lullaby - The Devil's Decade at Cape-Con back in 2014. A collection of all the issues of the series, under its various titles that came out between 1998 and 2005. The book varies between a few different threads and recurring characters. The baby assassin above is one, although he eventually winds up in a different branch of government service. There's another thread about Baron von Donut, the spokesman for a German pastry company. And there's Voodoo Joe, the guy cursed to wear a voodoo mask, who has to then curse others to keep his curse from getting any worse. I'm not sure how it will get worse, and he doesn't either (too busy screaming while the guy who cursed him explains), but he'd rather not find out. Plus other, sporadic stories or just random one-offs.
The different threads don't ever come together, because that's not what Paszkiewicz is after. It's more humor with a cruel edge. Joe can create zombies to control, but finds full-grown adults take up too much space. So he reanimates aborted babies out of a dumpster. Or the kid who has decided that the kids from damaged homes are considered cool, so he asks Joe to act as his abusive father for a while. Stuff like that. Sometimes I laugh really hard, and other times I question what the hell is wrong with me the times that I laugh. Depends on my mood.
Paszkiewicz draws everyone with a kind of slump-shouldered look. Everyone is a little beaten down, a little worn, and it makes them mean. Even the kids. His style is heavier on inks in the stories about Voodoo Joe than when he writes about Baron von Donut or aliens. Fewer shadows, lighter linework on the figures.
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