Kickstarting Comics – ‘Infinite Wheatpaste Volume 1: Catalytic Conversions’ — A Universe-Spanning Sci-fi Adventure by L. Pidge

by Richard Bruton

Another great Kickstarter to get behind, as Avery Hill Publishing bring us their latest campaign – it’s L. Pidge’s Infinite Wheatpaste Volume 1 – Catalytic Conversions:

Here’s how they describe it –

‘The home of a universe-spanning sci-fi adventure,’ and one containing ‘relationships, androids, car repair, time travel, gods,’ and ‘these inteconnected stories set on the edges of human experience share the moments of the little bits of life that feel less than real.’

And that’s absolutely right. It’s a wonderful comic, full of invention and great characters with a light, fluidy art style that’s packed with colour and attitude.

L. Pidge is an Illinois comics maker who’s been creating Infinite Wheatpaste since 2016, publishing it from 2017 as a webcomic, and it’s damn good to see it get a print version from Avery Hill – as long as you back the Kickstarter that is.

It’s 280 pages of rather excellent comics, collecting Pidge’s Ignatz-nominated self-published comics series into a very attractive-looking paperback – I don’t know about you, but there’s always something very oooohhh about french flaps on a softcover for me.

For more idea of what’s going on here – although it really is one of those books that needs to be read to be believed – here’s how the plot’s described –

‘Abby and Lilah are a couple drifting apart. Jeff is a flaming star. Soe is a perpetually late college student and the goddess next door. Casimir is a man with a past, and Abe is his future, maybe everyone’s future. Otis is a grief-stricken robot on a road to enlightenment. Groob is fun-loving and the salt of the earth. Some are slowly making their way to each other, but some are breaking apart.’

But man, it’s so much more than that, this is world-building on a huge scale, dealing with both the epic and the personal in equal measure, all of it handled quite magnificently by Pidge.

Just take a look at the character sheet opening this one to give you just a glimpse of what to expect…

Yep, regular folks with all their regular problems rubbing shoulders with a genetic experiment, a widower android, a sorceress, and a semi-demi-god in recovery. That’s just the start of the joys to expect here in Infinite Wheatpaste, running from the domestic to the epic, Pidge filling the pages with colours and lovely organic shapes and all manner of richly diverse people.

Oh, there’s so much more to explain, to explore, to enjoy – but that’s for some place other than a look at the Kickstarter.

In lieu of going any deeper into it, I’ll simply say that it gets bigger and better, we get to know the extended cast in and out, all the personal and the epic brought together so skilfully by Pidge.

Yep, Infinite Wheatpaste is 280+ pages of great, great comics that take us into some far-out places of wonder. You’re going to love it as much as I did.

Bonus items include four postcards by Pidge featuring locations from the book, an IWP poster, tote bag, and stickers. Add-ons include plenty of quite marvellous Avery Hill books, including Owen D. Pomery’s The Hard Switch, Claire Sully’s Outer Wilderness, A City Inside by Tillie Walden, and Goatherded by Charlo Frade.

INFINITE WHEATPASTE VOLUME 1: CATALYTIC CONVERSIONS – by L. Pidge is on Kickstarter right now. The campaign ends on April 11 2024 at 9:00 PM BST. Go and pledge RIGHT NOW!