Chocolate Cheeks

Hilarious, frightening, mysterious, adorable and utterly bleak, Chocolate Cheeks has arrived to disgust and delight comic-book readers of all ages. “Sweet” Chubby Cheeks and the Pullapart Boy (a twenty-first century Frankenstein’s monster for kids) are driving each other crazy. Forced together by their dating parents, these two bitter enemies have alienated—or otherwise disposed of—most of their social circle, leaving them with plenty of quality-time for each other. They go camping, start a business, form a band, join a team, try to make some new friends and engage in a "holy war." Things go from worse to worst, though, when the two boys find a cat—or is it a bird?—one hot, summer day.

Steven Weissman, modern master of light tragedy, is at his most horrible with Chocolate Cheeks, the next great “Yikes” book from Fantagraphics. Juxtaposing gag-driven, newspaper-fashioned strips with a sprawling, Western comic aesthetic, the book is just gross enough to delight the children.

Anything can happen on a hot, summer day…

Publishers Weekly

Classic kid comics are evoked with a weird, horror-inspired twist in the latest Yikes! collection by Weissman. The cast is inspired by well-known horror figures—Pullapart Boy is Frankenstein, Chubby Cheeks is a Jekyll/Hyde character and so on. There's also Lumpy Noodle, who has a brain tumor for a head, and Crustache, whose attribute you can probably guess. Some of the strips are gross-outs in the Johnny Ryan mode; a longer story line involves Chubby's desire to “vanquish his enemies” and X-Ray's search for a nemesis. The second half of the book is concerned with a longer narrative in which the discovery of a dead kitten leads to many complications for all. Weissman has a knack for combining the cute with the eerie and the unsettling, and the art—presented in both b&w and color—is outstanding. However a general lack of more than surface characterization—all the kids speak interchangeably—holds this back from being more than an amusing diversion despite the great appeal of the art. (Jan.)

Steven Weissman lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and son. His books include Mean, Chewing Gum in Church, Don't Call Me Stupid, White Flower Day, Kid Firechief, Champs, and Chocolate Cheeks.