All of our comics this week have been struck by some kind of diabolic decontextualization ray, leaving them to fend for themselves in the bleak tundra of WTF. From local artist Chris Wisnia come inside-jokes so confusing you won't be able to find your head to scratch it; from Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale come a Superman so divorced from modern superhero style we found ourselves enjoying it in spite of our deep-seated loathing of underwear perverts; and from Steve MacIsaac comes a relatively contextual story about a man lost in a country and relationship he just can't understand. And as always, the information you need to make sense of the world is available at Isotope Comics in Hayes Valley, who are kind enough to point us in directions that sometimes make very little sense indeed. Just how we like it.

Comics aficionados (or "jerks" as they're more commonly known) will understand that Chris Wisnia's is a half-tribute/half-spoofing of the cheap (but beloved) old-timey Jack Kirby adventure style. The rest of us, though, are just along for the bumpy confusing ride. Each panel is laden with overwrought expressions, confusing logic, and more italics, exclamation points, and quotation marks than the text really deserves -- it's sort of like an action-adventure version of Mary Worth. Example dialogue: "Sir! Back here! Clunksky found a 'secret door'! I think we've struck ... 'PAYING DIRT!'" A villain obsessed with the kazoo, some pulpy dialogue about monsters, and an "outer space rocketmobile" that gets "high-jacked" by robots doesn't ever make any sense; but fans of the frenetic genre, whatever that genre is, my find themselves experiencing "chuckling."

Doris Danger in Outer Space