file under: duuude

One of the benefits of curating PARTY CRASHERS has been that I’m now more or less back in communication with my twenty-something stoner-y comics-loving former self. I completely lost track of that guy for awhile there.

As a result of that, Jesse Moynihan’s brilliant webcomic FORMING has been mandatory reading for me every week for many months now.

What the heck is FORMING? Even after I explain it, you likely will still be asking that question: It has something to do with a supernatural/alien being named Mithras coming to Earth in the year 10,000 B.C…and the cloned hermaphrodites running OPERATION: HEAVENLY SWORD…and The Third Age (aka “The Age of Total Bullshit”)…and Noah, Lucifer, Lapetus, Nommo, Zeus, and…well, look, just start reading it, okay?

Two things grab me about this webcomic: First, I’m pretty sure Moynihan is invested in the spiritual content of his story, and that it reflects his genuine belief in what he terms a “super reality.” Moynihan “just believes in everything”—and for me, a guy who believes in next to nothing, that’s kind of fascinating.

Second, however seriously Moynihan takes the narrative he’s advancing, his gods, demi-gods, and possessed severed dog’s heads all use contemporary-sounding sarcasm and curse words. As Moynihan explains it:

The reason I use modern vernacular is because I’m trying to put myself in these people’s shoes. I’m trying to illicit responses from them that seem real to me, so I have to make them talk like me. It’s a jump in logic that I hope readers don’t mind. My only other option is to have them talk like it’s an episode of Legend of the Seeker. And I wouldn’t be able to write that shit.

The first collected volume of FORMING should be available in print soon by NOBROW books and distributed in this country by Adhouse—the same fine folks who brought you AFRODISIAC and DRIVEN BY LEMONS, the creators of which appeared in--you guessed it--PARTY CRASHERS.

In the meantime, you can read the whole thing starting with episode #1 on the FORMING website.