Posted in: Comics | Tagged: amino acid boy, amino acid boy and the chaos order, diego lazzarin, HRL

Aminoacid Boy And The Chaos Order Review: Among The Most Surreal Comics In Existence

Published Mon, 14 Aug 2017 18:30:35 -0500

It is very difficult to find the best way to talk about Aminoacid Boy and the Chaos Order. It is unlike anything I've ever read, and I have been around the block a couple of times with comic books and the different storytelling styles therein.

This is the kind of comic that is difficult to find unless you know exactly what you are looking for. You aren't just going to stumble across it accidentally. I didn't find it on my own; the comic's creator, Diego Lazzarin, sent it to me to spotlight for everyone.

I'm glad that he did. I would never have stumbled across anything like it otherwise.

The story opens with a scene presented without context where a dysfunctional family as visited by a fly-man wearing the dead skin of another and killing the mother and the family dog. He is there for a man called Amino.

The story is very loose here, as you could likely tell from that opening. There is an alien creature called Amino sent to Earth to investigate it for a collective intelligence that rules his own planet. They communicate through the internet, and the assumption is that every planet has the internet. However, he arrives on 19th Century Earth, and the internet hasn't even been conceived yet. So he has to wait around until the internet is invented.

During this time, he assimilates the DNA of people, a jaguar, a spider, a bird, a bat, and Charles Darwin. Not kidding there. He also stumbles across Moby Dick in progress.

Amino hibernates for about 150 years to awaken, be taken off the island by miners, and promptly become a part of a metal (I think) band. He meets a girl, whom he falls in love with. He finally gets in contact with his overlord, and he removes the biomodem in his head that allows him to communicate with the collective through the internet. I wasn't expecting to use the word "biomodem" again so soon after spotlighting the first few adventures of the Thunderbolts, by the way.

After a drug and sex-fueled haze, Amino becomes bored and takes his love back to the island, only to figure out the nightmares he had whilst hibernating had left his mind and become a Medieval depiction of Hell on the island.

Then an apocalypse happens, I think. He starts a family with his lover, and then the story ends up leading back into the opening scene.

I can't run through the entire plot to show you that this really is unlike any comic you've seen before — I wouldn't be able to do the plot, dialogue, or how it all plays out any form of justice. It really has to be seen for itself.

Now that we've established that the comic is endlessly unique and fascinating, is it any good?

Yes, yes it is.

There's something so very charming about Amino. He's eternally innocent and kind, even when he's been around for over a hundred years and experiencing a midlife crisis. His dialogue and cadence is so interesting. The comic resembles a lot of "fall-from-grace" stories, wherein characters with immortality, divinity, or extraordinary abilities give up those things to become human. However, the manner in which this one plays out sets it apart from almost any story with that structure.

The overall comic has an innocent feel to it, which is really hard to accomplish in a comic with this much nudity, gore, and hellish imagery.

This is in part accomplished with Amino's aforementioned innocence. It's also brought about by how surreal the story and art are.

I've yet to talk about the art because, well, it must be seen itself, as you have with the various screenshots I've spread through this review. It's quite surreal in itself. Amino is kind of awful-looking, but that kind of adds to his charm. He doesn't know he looks bizarre, and no one else really tells him unless he is currently melded with animal DNA.

Everything looks shaded and melting. Nothing looks normal. You feel like you've been transported to this world where internet-connected hiveminds, shape-changing aliens, and acceptance of abnormality is allowed to just happen. The bizarre nightmares and hellscapes are eternally memorable and will never leave your mind.

The innocent tone is also quite interesting, seeing as Amino does effectively end the world. His nightmares seem to run rampant and kill everyone. However, the comic never wants you to feel bad for it happening.

The tone and presentation really feels like the character of Amino constructed the story. It feels like a kindly alien is trying to get us to understand what all happened here. It doesn't connect with emotions and thought in the way we understand it, but it still manages to establish a form of emotional connection with the reader.

I have to recommend this comic. Despite the gore, nudity, and apocalyptic and gruesome imagery, there really is something so happy about the way everything plays out. It really is unlike anything you have ever read before, and it's so very charming. Diego Lazzarin is a very unique and talented independent comic creator whose work should be shared by all in sundry.

It won't click for everyone; it barely clicked for me. It's storytelling is vague, disconnected, and very much runs on a train of thought. However, it's something that should be experienced once, even if it's not perfect. However, it's kind of perfect through its imperfections. Check it out.

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