Eel Mansions

"From a graphic standpoint, Derek Van Gieson lays on the ink with a jackhammer; thematically, he's dredging some infernal pits of the collective psyche for images, characters, and surreal situations that add up to a nightmarish skull-fuck of a book. [...] It's the sort of David Lynch-inspired phantasmagoria that Daniel Clowes flogged to great effect in Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron--but Van Gieson slathers on a retro-hip, record-store-shopping aesthetic that owes just as much to Clowes' earlier, lesser masterpiece, Lloyd Llewellyn. That said, the contorted flow and retina-clouding grotesquerie of Eel Mansions are all Van Gieson's own."--The Onion AV Club "Van Gieson manages to blend a lifetime's worth of influences into one heady brew."--Rob Clough, High-Low Comics "Van Gieson thinks like cinema. Big. Epic. [...] For the reader, the question is simple: do you wanna ride along? VROOM!"--The Comics Bulletin "If all of this sounds too wacky to be understood, you're only half right. This comic isn't meant to be linear, nor does it inspire to cohesion. In fact, part of the success of Eel Mansions is in its fragmentation. It's as if Van Gieson is asking us to let go of narrative sense-making, to temporarily suspend those cognitive devices that puts things together, and just enjoy the ride." --The Comics Alternative