Mumbeaux Gumbo Comix Digest #1
Caesar Meadows
Reviewed by Darren Hick

Caesar Meadows (just a terrific name) has obviously invested a lot of personal time, effort and commitment in the comics medium. Out of Jigsaw Junction -- a cozy little building that serves both as his personal art studio and as a casual community comics resource library -- Meadows has produced this lively little mini-comic, every page of which displays his obvious passion for the art form.

Although adopting a somewhat simplistic style for most of Mumbeaux Gumbo, Meadow's collection of little tales varies between stories easily suitable to the underground (or, at least, neo-underground) and ponderous pantomimes that, almost exactly, capture the feel of the '70s to '80s-era Mad Magazine. It's a strange (and, so far as I can tell, unique) combination, yet Meadows manages to comfortably meld the two extremes in a single, flowing work.

His story of Munt and Wex would easily sit on a shelf alongside the works of Gilbert Shelton, Pete Bagge and other such post-undergrounders. The drawing itself, as I say, is simplistic and sophomoric (There's one character who possesses a bizarre visual similarity to Cathy Guisewite's neurotic creation.), but somehow it suits the stories, fortifying instead of impeding the narratives.

His Mad-style work, wordless and fantastic (literally), manages to work on many levels. Clearly, Meadows has strong opinons on a vast array of topics (from society to art to hunting), and these serve as sometimes-pleasant, sometimes-unnerving moralistic backdrops to his stories. Again, like those Mad strips of my childhood, there's always something lurking beneath the pleasant exterior. Any number of cartoonists have attempted this strategy. What marks Meadows as unique is that he's able to pull it off -- and with minimal restriction to complicated narrative. Remember those little drawings you made for your buddies in high school? Imagine if they were really good.

Meadows' drafting will likely improve through sheer practice. That's the way these things go. But, with any luck, in his future endeavors, he will maintain the same feel to his work. He might consider, though, dropping the ultra-slick cover from his next book, as that undoubtedly contributed to the $2.95 price tag (pretty hefty for a mini). With as much of a natural feel as Meadows seems to have for the medium, and as much of an obvious dedication as he has to the art form (as evidenced by such an honorable endeavor as Jigsaw Junction), the more people that can pick up his work the better.

Get your copy of Mumbeaux Gumbo Comix Digest for $4.00 ($2.95 + 1.05 postage) from Caesar Meadows, himself, at 108 West 6th St., Reserve, LA, 70084, or drop him an e-mail at jigsawjct@yahoo.com.