Graphic Novel Review: Macanudo: Welcome To Elsewhere by Liniers

Posted on March 16, 2023 at 6:32 am by Gene Ambaum

Macanudo: Welcome To Elsewhere by Liniers. Fantagraphics, 2022. 9781683965565. Introduction by Matt Groening.

Groening compares Liniers’s comics to Mutts, Peanuts, and Calvin and Hobbes, calling them “funny and fanciful and whimsical and philosophical in the best sense.” Macanudo feels timeless and hand-crafted and makes me feel like I should be reading more comic strips. Its repeating characters include a beaked man in black, two penguins, a friendly monster named Olga, long-hatted elves, a girl and her cat, and others. Anything can happen in these comic strips — Cthulhu, dragons, superheroes, Dorothy, and even volcanologists make appearances. So does John Venn. Plus there are a fair number of comics about books and reading, too.

This isn’t the only collection of Macanudo comics available in English but it is my favorite.