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A review by m_ess
Peplum by Blutch
3.0
Crafted as a sweeping, aggressive, formally rigorous adaption-cum-sequel to Satyricon that flirts with themes of love, madness, violence, obsession, and identity Peplum is an objet d'art. Blutch, seemingly more interested in provocation than emotional connection, treats his plot turns like chess pieces: carved from his source material, positioned for maximum impact, then forgotten once taken off the board.
Case in point: the extended anti-climatic limp boner sequence that makes up the bulk of the final act, a humiliating one-note joke Blutch builds on for page after page of abstracted, ecstatic melodrama to squirm inducing cringe-comedic effect, and then ends with a few moments of abrupt violence.
Or consider the final page
a non-sequitur "happy ending" that comes out nowhere to close the book on an audience trolling dead baby knee-slapper and shocked silence. This is a book that substitutes any sense of purpose beyond the aesthetic with a sense of humor so dark jokes loop from funny to offensive to fascinating in their grotesqueness.
Case in point: the extended anti-climatic limp boner sequence that makes up the bulk of the final act, a humiliating one-note joke Blutch builds on for page after page of abstracted, ecstatic melodrama to squirm inducing cringe-comedic effect, and then ends with a few moments of abrupt violence.
Or consider the final page
a non-sequitur "happy ending" that comes out nowhere to close the book on an audience trolling dead baby knee-slapper and shocked silence. This is a book that substitutes any sense of purpose beyond the aesthetic with a sense of humor so dark jokes loop from funny to offensive to fascinating in their grotesqueness.