Pigs in Zen...

THE AFTER-LIFE STORY OF PORK KNUCKLES MALONE (2013 Bizarro Pulp Press / 93 pp / eBook & tp)

Daryl is a young man with a very special pet pig. He lives on a Wisconsin farm with his father Albert, and all's well until Albert decides his son is too close with a mere swine: he murders the poor pig with a chainsaw, breaking his son's heart in the process.

But now the pig (nick-named Pork Knuckles) is back, albeit in the form of a glazed ham. Daryl decides he can't take his dad's abuse anymore, so he places Pork Knuckles in his back pack and hits the road on his bicycle. It doesn't take long for things to go completely off-the-wall from there in MP Johnson's hysterical, demented road-trip tale that takes a look at the strength of friendship through a bizarro lense.

Daryl and his pet pig (ham) are soon confronted by a strange trucker, steroid-enhanced drag queens, are taken in by his aunt and uncle who are very twisted old school punks, and one chapter (told from the point of view of a fly named Zzz) had me laughing out loud. There are surprises on nearly every page, and the pace is completely frantic.

But what makes PORK KNUCKLES MALONE so different (besides it's obvious weirdness) is what becomes of the main characters: Daryl goes through a most unusual metamorphosis while his father and Pork Knuckles become something way out there... culminating in a several-chapter conclusion that combines a wacky look at creationism and a punk rock show to end all punk rock shows.

Having read most of Johnson's catalog, I can say this is easily his finest and most entertaining work to date.